Old Bill from Frank’s Lounge had been a numbers man for decades. We drank in the afternoons into the evening. Always dressed suit jacket and tie.
“You know what’s bad about getting old. People don’t think you’re dangerous.” He opened his jacket. In the left side of his chest rested a .38. “This changes their mind.”
That winter he fell in love with a younger woman at an Easter New York bar. Her boyfriend was younger. Old Bill came into Frank’s beat up. Rose Li the Mex-Chinese asked what had happened.
“I found out I wasn’t as tough in East New York as I am in Fort Greene.”
I respect that realization now more than ever, now I’m seventy-two, but I’ve never carry a gun or weapon.
Like Malcolm X I’m all peace and love.
You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” Malcolm X.