This is half a pitting and half a question…better put it here to be on the safe side.
FWIW, I live in an area of town that’s kind of dubious.
So I’m walking home to my apartment between classes, surprised at how an expected bad day has turned out to be a really good one instead. I decide to take a slightly different (and slightly quicker) route through my neighborhood by cutting next to the grocery store and then across the cul-de-sac behind it…
In retrospect, this may have been a mistake.
As I come to the cul-de-sac I see a bunch of kids on bikes gathered around each other behind the store. A little odd, but I think nothing of it and keep walking. Then I feel something hit me on the arm. I look at the ground—seems to be something slightly hard and round in a white plastic bag? Oh well, I don’t spend too long thinking about it; I just shoot a nasty/inquisitive look in the kids’ direction and keep going.
I come to a pass-through between the cul-de-sac and my street, and I feel something hit my arm again. And I make my second mistake: as I keep walking, I flip them the bird.
I assume that that’s it—I’ve got my headphones in my ears and don’t realize they’re following me until I’m hit again. I look at the yellow and white mess on the sidewalk, and only then do I realize what’s going on.
I am being egged.
So I turn around and tell them to back off. They say I shouldn’t have said “fuck you”. Fair enough, I admit, and I’m sorry, but it’s time to stop.
And then, thinking the conversation is over, I turn and go on my way. Only to be hit once more.
At this point, unable to think what else to do and not wanting to walk all the way home with them pelting me, I turn around and jaw at them until one of the older kids promises they won’t do it anymore and they all ride away.
All this was a couple days ago.
Please don’t laugh: I don’t think I’ve ever felt quite so vulnerable as I did then. True, eggs aren’t going to hurt more than your coat and your pride, but…it wasn’t really the eggs that got to me.
Firstly, although I was probably selected because I was the first person along, I can’t get the thought out of my head that as the first white person along I somehow made the ideal candidate. I hate hearing myself think this way. But I also hate the lingering suspicion that there may be a grain of truth in it. What’s a person to do?
Secondly, while I managed to hold my own and not break down, I was extremely intimidated. Faced with a large group of adolescents who on this particular day were obviously up to no good, I couldn’t help think of what might happen if I pushed the conversation the wrong way. Largely paranoia on my part, but it served as a wake-up call of sorts about my extreme vulnerability as a loner in this part of town. Unsettling.
So that’s the story and my reaction. Now for the pitting: You fucking assholes! What did I do to you to make you decide to throw eggs at me? Why were you planning to do it to anyone at all, for fuck’s sake? Do you find it amusing to ruin people’s clothes (thanks very much for destroying my coat, by the way), their cars, their whatever? To terrorize them? Go to the park. Go read a book. Go watch some TV. Go bake a cake—lord knows you have enough eggs. Don’t ruin my day just because you can’t come up with anything constructive to do.
I realize that this post may come off as a little insensitive. I tried, but I am seriously pissed off still. I don’t understand this kind of behavior. I mean, I get the prankiness of egging stuff in the dark when no one’s around and you don’t have to think about the individuals you’re inconveniencing (though I certainly don’t condone it), but throwing eggs at people, in broad daylight? What the hell?
sigh
And now for the question: How would you have handled the situation? I mean, okay, clearly giving them the finger was not the thing to do, but other than that? Was there any better way to get out of it than the one I pursued?
And, of course: does anybody have any idea what motivates this crap?
