Baby Blues

“No tin can’ll hold a guy like me!” I told Tommy.

You gotta unnerstand, I don’t think a myself as a tough guy. Well, I does and I don’ts. I mean, nobody in their right mind goes round callin ‘emselves tough. It’s others that do the callin on that score.

All I knows is, I got mad and I accidental like dislodged some guy's eyeball out of his eye-socket with my knife.

Well, it wasn't accidental exactly, I was in a bad mood.

I had him by his fancy silk tie and pushed up gainst the brick-wall down Carson Street near Wells. Both his eyes were bout poppin out his head anyway, i just kinda helped one along.

You ask Tommy Peppers. Tommy saw the whole thing. Tommy’ll tell ya. The guy with his little red sports car and a flat tire, and him callin the tow-truck. Guy can’t fix his own flat tire? Where I come from we fix that kind’ a thing ourselves. The guy walkin all peacocky, talking on his cell phone, yellin about waiten forty-five minutes!

Anyway, the eye kinda bounced along the sidewalk and I caught it ‘fore it got to the gutter.

What’d I do?

I popped it in my mouth and chewed it up good.

Tommy pulled me down the street.

He says, “You wanna go back to prison?”

I say, “No tin can’ll hold a guy like me!”

He says, “Here, eat a Snickers! You always get mean when yo’ hungry!”

Gotta admit, Snickers taste a hell lot better than that fella's little blue eyeball, and that’s the god’s truth!


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