Big Boy and Flav

This weekend, my girlfriend and I went to Blockbuster Video. A group of young males, probably no older than 13-years-old, were in the parking lot walking way too slowly, considering the fact that a car was headed toward them. One in-particular, whom I refer to as "Flav" simply because he reminds me of the rapper, was particularly slow. It was like he was daring me to hit his young ass. My people are good for that shit.

As I parked, they hung around as if in anticipation of something. Considering the nigh-evil eye Flav gave me for daring to drive in his general direction, I wondered if the little bastards were gonna pull a "Hostel" and come after us in some way.

Sure enough, when we got out of the car, two of them, Flav and a chunky kid, walked toward me. Once "Big Boy" started talking, Flav broke off and headed toward my girlfriend. They were doing the "We're in this program that's trying to collect money for us to visit _______," spiel. Before they could finish, I raised my hand and told them both that they could talk to us, but they need to keep their distance. (You don't walk up on some strangers at that pace and in that manner - esPECially without stopping a reasonable distance from them.)


Big Boy finished the spiel and I asked for something to substantiate their story. He started talking about how he left his "thing," (which I'm inclined to believe was some sort of literature, as opposed to his "bits n pieces") at his aunt's house because they didn't ... blah blah blah blah blah.

I told him they were out of luck, today, but if they get some proof or something together, I might hit'em up, next time. Considering how shifty Big Boy looked when he was telling his story, I doubt its veracity. It could've been that he was just a young boy who hadn't learned to maintain eye contact or whatever, but I doubt it.

We walked away to find a couple of Blockbuster staff members were waiting for us. I'd been there many times so I jokingly said to them, "Naw, man. I ain't narcin' on the lil kids, man. Naw. NAW!" They smiled and apologized for the inconvenience. I figured they were going for a compromise between running the kids off and letting them do their thing unsupervised. I could live with that.

The Blockbuster associate said they technically hadn't heard the kids say anything, so they couldn't run'em off. By the time we left, the kids had stopped a car or something to "beg" and that was good enough for the Blockbuster folks to send them on their way. I could live with that, too.

I don't want to assume the worst of these kids and I really don't want to do so because of some mistrust of my own people (the kids were Black), but I really hope they're not out there honing their scamming skills.