Monday, October 08, 2007

Freaky rooftop moment

-- last week, I was sitting on my fire escape, having a cigarette when I heard "excuse me". Odd, as I live on the 7th floor and no genies were floating nearby. A college age kid, it turned out, was on the roof of the building next to me and was asking me for a cigarette. The problem was, there's about an 8 ft gap between their roof and my fire escape so ... he wanted me to toss him the cigarette which, I started to do until I realized that I really needed to be ultra-accurate with my throw, lest this moron go plunging over the side & fall. I showed some hesitation (this is freakin' stuuupid, what the F??) to which he displayed his conviction by... crawling up on the roof ledge and ... dangling his feet over the edge of the roof, arms extended in a "ok, I'm ready to catch the cigarette you're going to throw". All I could say was "woahhh DUDE!!" still flabbergasted that this was some sort of challenge or bravery contest he was determined to show me and his friends he could win. Not only did I have to toss a cigarette (not exactly the most aerodynamic of tossables) across an eight foot gap, I had to get it between two direcTV cables coming off my roof to my apartment. As I lined up for the shot, all I could think was "if you fall and die, I am going to be sooo pissed" and "what kind of f#%ing moron dangles his damn legs over a ... ahhh F it, here goes" and yes, before I could think any more about it .. I tossed it.
-- It honestly could not have been a more perfect shot. Except that.. it hit him in the chest and bounced on his thigh and then... he nabbed it before it rolled off the edge of the roof. Knowing that my heart was about to explode from almost helping this dipsh!t end his life, I barely even heard him say "thanks man" (like it was nothing, like I'd just pointed someone on the street to the subway) and then roll back off the edge of his roof to rejoin his friends, smoke in hand.
-- No way in hell was I going to ask him if he needed a light.

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