And now for context.
My across-the-street neighbor organized a community event for our subdivision for this weekend. Specifically it was a beautification project, an attempt to redress some of the urban blight that seems to attract crack houses and such. One of the projects was to mow the horribly overgrown lawn of a long-abandoned house on the intersection leading into the development, as it’s one of the first things a visitor to the area sees. Because this house has the largest yard by far of any in the neighborhood, and because it’s been abandoned so long, this was a job that was going to require several men.
Bum that I am, this is an activity I’d ordinarily avoid. But because this lawn is so flagrantly an eyesore–and probably a health hazard too–I decided to pitch in on that project if for nothing else. So I joined the half-dozen or so men who were clearing away junk in that yard preparatory to attacking it with mowers. I didn’t really know any of the men working in this yard except as people I wave to when driving out or walking to the bus stop.
Anyway…we were working on the lawn earlier. The work went faster than anticipated, happily, because there were more volunteers than the organizer expected, so by 2 o’clock the lawn was clear. The seven of us were sitting around sipping cold drinks when a cute girl walked by. Men being men, we naturally took a moment to appreciate the cute of her jib.
“Cute,” I said.
“Very cute,” somebody else said.
“Very, very cute,” other people in the group intone.
“She’s way past cute,” a fellow I’ll call Bill said. “I’d rape her all night long.”
There was a sudden, shocked silence.
“What?” I said eloquently.
“T’ain’t funny, man,” somebody else remarked. “Don’t be making jokes like that.”
“I ain’t making no joke,” Bill said with a grin. “Ain’t but three kinds of women in the world anyway. The kind you marry, the kind you ignore, and the kind you rape.”
More shocked silence. Bill continued to grin.
“Don’t be saying stuff like that,” somebody told Bill at last.
“Don’t you be telling me how to talk,” Bill said. “You guys all know it’s true, you just don’t admit it. If a woman’s good-looking and she don’t belong to nobody, she’s fair game. Only reason not to rape her is if you know you’ll get caught. If you thought you could get away with it, any one of you would rape that bitch. You all know I’m right…”
Bill offered to tell us how to best go about raping a woman like the girl in question. But as you might imagine none of us wanted to be in his presence any longer.
First chance I get I’ll be taking a picture of Bill so as to warn my sisters and nieces not to be in his company alone.
