Experience: Part I

around 2:30 in the AM one morning in the middle of the midwest upon leaving his office after studying for exams up until the last moment he decided to take an alternate route when walking back to his apartment--- a shorter street would bring him back quicker than going the long way. it begins with what most will perceive as “innocent” inquiry & on the night in question while making his way on the opposite side of the street, a young man in his early twenties called out to him. turning his head towards the left he noticed 5 white boys--- it is important to point out that they were in fact white as african-american males are blamed at the outset by this country whenever violence is mentioned in a news story & the race/ethnicity of said attacker(s) is not stated from the very beginning. there were two sitting in the back of a green pickup truck which had no cap, one was still in the cab at the wheel & two had made their way onto the street, approaching the man on his way home who still was standing on the opposite side of the street. one of the two on the street had asked the man walking a question, but they’d done so with not much amplification, so as to force anyone who would have been curious to ask again--- so, the man walking asked & in doing so, he paused from walking and faced the two walking casually towards him. “hey, do you know where Melanie St. is?” said one of the 5 & the man replied that he didn’t know, that he wasn’t from around there (as he was a student, only living in this part of the country to further his education)--- the whole while noticing that the two who had been in the back of the pickup truck now were slowly making their way around behind him, with only one guy still at the wheel of the truck, the man who had been walking home, undisturbed, now had four circling him. the next comment or question offered by the man who asked where Melanie St. is was never fully heard by the man who had been walking because at the moment it was uttered an uppercut to the chin came simultaneously, and down the man went to the ground as the 4 swarmed him & began to punch him & kick him relentlessly.