bad moon?

I saw two fights today. The first was at the local dunkin donuts where A and I had walked on my new "I'm going to get out and walk and exercise god damn it" kick. We chose to sit inside rather than at the nice shadey parking lot gazebo outside on account of there being two or three skeezy looking guys hanging out in the gazebo. We briefly discussed them, why we both got a skeeze vibe off them, and then had moved on to talking about covert sexism and social network group dynamics when my (sometimes considered paranoid) tendency to constantly monitor my environment paid off. Except I had to pee and it was a bit of a walk home, so I couldn't leave when I noticed the discussion at the counter taking on an ugly tone.

"Oh what, we can't come to the dunkin donuts now?" a small dark haired woman was saying. She had come in with a bulky man in a black T-shirt. Just after they came in, one of the skeezy fellows came into the shop. I didn't turn around fully because that is just such a bad idea in the context of Skeeze and confrontation but presumably the slight woman was addressing Skeezy as he was the only person up there other than the guy she had come in with.

"Hey sweety" I said to A "it's time to go. I have to piss, but when I get back, we're outta here, ok?" I took the fastest leak ever in the women's room, but still not fast enough. I heard the ruckus through the closed door and down the hall. When I came out, Skeezy was inside still yelling and the other two were in the parking lot - yelling. There was iced coffee all over the window. On our way out, A and I stepped over a pair of wrap around sunglasses spattered with more coffee and ice, lying next to an empty large plastic cup.

The other fight was at the gas station-convenience store a little while later. I filled up then went in to buy some snacky stuff to go with dinner. As I came in, I didn't get any creepy fucked up person vibe like I had gotten at the dunkin donuts, but I did notice some tension at the lottery counter near the register. Something about dropped money and a guy having picked it up but then coming back to return it. "I did ask" the guy was saying to one of the clerks, "I didn't ask him in particular but in general I said 'did anyone drop some money'. He didn't say anything, no one did. But I'm coming back now..."

I didn't linger. It didn't seem bad, but I could tell the woman behind the lottery counter was testy, and the man making her testy was being quite persistent.

As I got in line, it became more heated and they both began raising their voices. Another clerk who had been working at the register walked over to the lottery counter clerk and said "Look, just go call him and tell him to come back. I don't want a confrontation. We have customers." The one involved in the already well underway confrontation said "I'm not walking around the corner and leaving you alone here with HIM".

Surprisingly, that is not when it got bad. When it got bad was when the guy, for like the fourth time that I could hear, said "Well how was I supposed to know he was your cousin?" and then, this time, added "He was black" (for the record, the guy was black and the clerk was white). "Ok that's it! I'm calling the cops" the clerk said and suddenly a cell phone materialized in her hand (what was all that shit about walking around the corner to call her cousin?).

The woman at the register asked me "Do you want a bag?"
And the guy turned to me and the other customer waiting in line and asked"Would you walk all the way back someplace to return money someone dropped?"

I said "Yes. But I'm a huge sucker." Then, because he was still talking in my general direction, and the women were still tied up with calling the police (the one calling and the other looking just totally freaked out by how fast this got fucked up), and because I've been the one ranting in a store and no one has ever threatened to call the cops on me (or been afraid to leave the other clerk alone with me) I added "I understand...I do. But is all this really worth it?"