Play Stupid Games… Get Your A** Kicked, Part 2

I’m sitting on a bench in a train station wearing wireless earbuds and watching a video on my phone. Suddenly, from nowhere, I feel someone jab me in my ribs, HARD! I look up to see some older gentleman in his late sixties or early seventies glaring at me.

Now, I don’t know about the average person, but poking me in the ribs is my equivalent of stomping on a pit bull’s tail; it makes me extremely angry, and your only justifiable excuse for it had better be a life and death reason.

I rip my earbuds out.

Me: “What the h*** is your problem?”

Man: “I asked you a question! Show some respect for your elders, you disrespectful punk!”

I’ll confess, I don’t handle it in a mature manner. I get up and scream a string of profanities into his face while bystanders step in to neutralize the situation before something nasty ends up happening. A couple of guys escort me away elsewhere to calm me down while giving me an “It’s not worth it” and “You’re better than that” lecture.

I would like to say that is an isolated incident. It isn’t. Weeks later, I am on a train when I observe the same man getting on and walking over to a kid who looks to be somewhere between twelve and fourteen. He roughly taps his walking stick against the kid’s shin while jerking his thumb upward.

Man: “Beat it, junior! You can stand. It won’t kill you!”

The kid did begrudgingly relinquish his seat, but mind you, it was in a general seating area and NOT in a designated space for passengers with disabilities.

Then, a few months later, the predictable ended up happening: I was on a train and the same man boarded. Suddenly, almost from nowhere, a guy bolted into the train after him with pure murder etched on his face. As the older man was walking to take a seat, completely oblivious, the guy nailed him from behind with a flying dropkick, sending him sailing several feet across the floor, and then bolted back out of the train right as the doors began to close.

Obviously, fellow passengers rushed to his aid, but there is no way anyone can convince me that that attack was unprovoked, or that it was an isolated event for him.

Related:
Play Stupid Games, Win Zero Prizes
Play Stupid Games… Get Your A** Kicked
Play Stupid Games, Others Win Terrible Prizes