Some years back, I was walking down my block in the Jersey City Heights when I spotted a notorious local career criminal. I at first couldn’t believe my eyes for the last I’d heard was the he had been sent to prison for ten years. Finally approaching, yes indeed it was him. He’d just gotten out. I hope that the years had flown by as quickly for him as they had for me. While talking with him, I began to unlock the steel roll-down gate on my garage.
“What’s with the heavy metal? Do you store something valuable in there?”
“Nah, it’s just that the crew across the street were real hard core like and were breakin’ into everythin’ up and down the block just to steal anything. They was real bad; worse than you, even.”
As a flat statement, without a trace of irony, “That’s hard to believe.”
“Yeah, but it’s true. One broke the father’s arm and the other broke the mother’s jaw.”
“Jeez! It must be the computer games!”
