Hard Of Hearing

Tonight my old best friend Doug came into town. He lives in Olathe Kansas and hasn’t been down here in quite a long time. I managed to see him during my trip to Kansas City with Justin a few months back. His brother came and so did mine (David was Doug’s older brothers’ best friend) and we had a great time. The Usual Suspects were playing at the 71st St. Depot so we listened to them, caught up on current events, and remembered the good old times. After the night at the bar was over Justin and I decided to venture to IHOP at 71st and Garnett for some coffee and food.

The place was packed. Justin and I were invited to sit with a group of younger individuals at their large table because they had extra seats. We seated ourselves and began introductions. From the beginning we could tell the two males to our right, at the end of the table, would be trouble. They seemed determined to smart mouth us. Justin and I decided he would play a slightly hearing impaired individual, and I would play his brother who looks after him, translates, etc. I let everyone know as they were introduced that he reads lips and was slightly hard of hearing. Most took to it easily and Justin would turn to me and have me repeat things randomly to keep the act up. Justin was asking some individuals names again so he would be sure of their names and he asked one of the two guys at the end of the table their name. Here’s a quick rundown of the dialoge.

Justin: “What’s your name…. Richard ‘whateverlastname’ ?”
Thug: “No man, if you want to talk shit blah blah blah”
Justin: “Huh? Richard who?”
Thug: “mother f*cker, blah blah”
Me: *standing up* “Boy, if you want to go toe-to-toe with me, you can, but i’ll break you the f*ck in half”
Thug: *standing up* “you’re gonna break me in half?”

At this point everyone in that side of the restaurant froze in amazement/horror/glee, some different words were exchanged, and I commenced to rip this kid apart.

Me: “if you have something to say to my friend here, you can say it to me. He’s hard of hearing so what you want to say to him, you say to me and we’ll settle things”
Thug: “what you gonna do?” *sitting down*
Me: “Exactly what I thought”

*many details left out due to not remembering*

The meal started back up again and everything was calm… To an extent.

After the thug and his friend left Justin went outside to smoke so I stood inside and kept an eye out. I saw the thug standing in front of Justin and he left the restaurant. I could tell he was smarting off again and I prepared to kick the fire door open and release justice upon these kids. Justin was able to make the idiot apologise for his actions and walk away. Justin can probably fill in the outside conversation better than I can.

Given, Justin and I WERE pushing it just a little… the guy really upset me because as far as he knew, Justin was hearing impaired and he chose to attack him for it. Now, growing up with a mentally handicapped brother, I have an extremely short temper when it comes to that sort of thing. It definitely was an interesting night… It was the first time I have lost my temper in quite a long time. Not bragging… just thought I would share, I think Justin will too.

Goodnight.