Please Don’t Rattle the Cage (Journal Entry) By Joe S. Thomas

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It’s Friday night… I’m depressed and lonely… Against my better judgment, who happens to be screaming at the top of his lungs for me to stay put and not to go out among the people, I ignore him and head out to the smoothie place to put something on my stomach… I can’t help but think I should be in a decent hotel room tonight with friends who are gearing up to play a bad ass show tomorrow to celebrate 40 years of their music… My depression brings me lower… While in this deep reverie a car comes hauling ass behind me and gets on my bumper… I look at my speedometer to make sure I’m going the speed limit… I am… I’m actually going 20 mph over… This pisses me off so I let off the accelerator as I do when people ride my ass and piss me off for no good reason… As the car goes to pass me I look over with the most evil I will eat your fucking face for dinner, you asshole look on my face and see a teenager who looks over and smirks… Everything in me says jerk the wheel and end this fucker’s life but good sense prevails and I simply flip him off… I’m not sure what’s up with the kids around my area these days, but if they aren’t sporting racist stickers on the cars their parents have bought them, (no doubt Trump supporters), they have these white boy permed looking afro hair cuts… This kid is one of the latter… I calm myself down because this kid doesn’t dare make a move to do something that will make me follow him and show him what’s up… I move along and he is lost in traffic… I forget about it… As I get to the smoothie place I walk in alone… The girl behind the counter welcomes me… I look around as is my custom when I walk into a building only to see more of the same type of teenagers smirking at me as if I have a booger swinging from my nose and my dick hanging out of my shorts… Apparently I must look hilarious to these kids with my tattoos and punk rock shirt… It’s obvious one had just said something smart ass right before I walked in because everyone’s faces are red and they avert their eyes as I stare back at them… While waiting for my order I overhear their loud conversation… The two teenage boys are attempting to impress the two teenage girls by acting like morons and as I said being entirely too loud… They have no clue of the psychopath that can sometimes come out to play even when I do my best to keep him caged… And I assure you, he was rattling the bars of his cage… I hear one of the girls tell one of the guys to shut up… I glance over and the girl is looking at me again, but when I look at her she looks at the ground, red faced yet again… None of the rest even look up… My drink can’t come quick enough… I’ve already decided that I will never go out on a Friday night ever again… There’s just no reason for me to… Apparently I’m the old, uncool adult these days who apparently looks funny… I try to look back to my teenage years and attempt to remember if I acted half as stupid as these fucks are acting… Though I did some pretty dumb shit as a kid, I didn’t try to make others feel out of place or use them as the butt of a joke… I get my drink, walk out to my truck and as I’m pulling by the window one of the boys makes a smart ass face in my direction… I can no longer keep the beast caged… I slam on the brakes of my truck and hop out before they know what’s going on… As they finally see me with a psychotic look on my face inches from the door they all jump up and run into the back of the store where customers aren’t allowed… Apparently they are friends with the girl working there who was kind and who I had no beef with… I ask her where her little buddies went… She apologizes and tells me she told them to leave when they went into the kitchen… Again, she apologized profusely… I soothed the beast once more, told her not to sweat it and left… It’s just not worth me going out and risking killing a smart ass teen just to put something on my stomach… On the drive home I think to myself what kind of adults these little fucks are likely to become… It wasn’t a pretty picture and if there’s any justice in the world they will all die in a fiery car crash on the way home tonight… I’m tired of these over privileged, weak, assholes letting their lot in life make them feel they’re entitled to act the way they do… By the time I arrived home I was ashamed of myself… This is not and never has been my world… These type of situations have happened all through my life… You think I would learn to just turn the other cheek and allow them to hopefully come to the conclusion on their own that you simply do not treat people like this… The sad thing is, most of them never receive the message and I fear one day I’m going to teach the hard lesson… I’m an adult, I don’t know if they were 18, but they looked it… It doesn’t matter, I should ignore such behavior, but a lifetime of being bullied and thought of as less than will do funny things to even a 46 year old man… I’m back home now dwelling on the incident and I’m not very proud of myself… I just wish the world could change for the better, including my behavior… It is what it is and I suppose I may have been in the wrong, but sometimes lessons must be learned in ways you don’t want to teach… Thankfully I made it back without further incident and I hope those cute little girls see those fuckers for the smart ass cowards they truly are… I’m sure they’ll grow up to run daddy’s business when they’re my age… Well, more power to them… This is the way the world seems to turn… Like it or not… Have a great weekend friends…