THE JOKE WAS A WARNING 

 ~ Short Story by Franklin Campusano ~

    Life can be pretty interesting at times. Especially because of its unpredictable nature. Every once in a while, you may or may not find yourself in situations that can really leave you wondering: "was that on purpose?" 

    

    A situation as such presented itself to me on the other day, a few weeks ago. At around 10:30pm and I had just arrived at my train station. I work as a contractor for a company you may all know as a package deliverer, and that particular day was a heavy day for me. I finished my route very late and because of that, on that night in particular, my body was hurting all over the place for all the physical work done earlier. 

    Normally, I would walk all the way from the train station all the way to my house which is around ten or eleven blocks away. But because of the fact that I had such a heavy day at work that day, I opted to take the bus instead. "It wouldn't hurt," I said to myself since my MetroCard is usually unlimited. 

    Therefore I walked right over to the bus stop by the train station. Once arrived at the bus stop, I walked over to the pole at the side of the bus stop to check what was the stop number. If you send the number of the bus stop to a text line owned by the MTA, you can then figure out how long it would take for the bus to stop at your stop. Once I sent in the bus stop number, I got the response, the bus was 15 minutes away. 

Along with me, there were four more individuals waiting for the bus in the bus station with me. They were all of Hispanic descent and different ages of course. On the side of the bus stop, there was a middle-aged man. He was wearing a gray sweater and some jeans along with a red baseball cap and he was leaning on the side of the bus stop. On the bench the other three individuals were seating. Two women one of old age and another one that seemed to be on her mid-twenties. She had long black hair and an orange sweater. The older lady had a blue dress. And the male had a red sweater and jeans.  

As if I knew what was on their mind, I uttered the words: "15 minutes."  The three individuals that were seating on the bench did not respond but the middle-aged man that was leaning on the side of the bus stop then repeated the same words that I uttered but in surprise, frustration and shock. 

"15 minutes?!"  

"Yes sir..." I responded as I turned my head to look at him. "15 minutes before the bus arrives." 

    The middle-aged man seemed very frustrated upon hearing what I said. He seemed a little more frustrated than I would normally expect given the situation. This took place on a Friday night, the buses and trains were probably slower than normal, I thought to myself. But in the end, waiting for 15 minutes for the bus to arrive did not seemed like that big of a deal to me at the time. To me, this was just a minor inconvenience. 

    Speaking of inconveniences, earlier that day I faced another problem. While I was working on my delivery route, I suddenly got a notification from my bank. Apparently, my bank detected and stopped a fraudulent transaction involving my one and only Debit card. The bank asked me to confirm if that transaction was being performed by me and I of course said "no."  Because of this my bank closed my Debit card and set up for a replacement card to be sent to me within a few weeks. 

    This was of course a source of frustration to me because that was the card, I used for all my transactions, because of this, now I was going to have to figure out how I was going to buy things while my replacement card came. I had Credit cards, but I don't want to talk about that right now. 

    Since I had some time to kill, I decided to test if the card could still be used to buy things. I reasoned that since the card got closed that day, I could still use the card for a brief period. When I walked into the bodega that was behind the bus stop, I explained my situation to the store clerk. He was indifferent of course. Then I went to where the freezer was and grabbed a box of Coconut water, then I took it to the front counter and tried to use my Debit card to purchase the beverage.  When I tried to pay using my Debit card an error message popped up in the machine, confirming that my Debit card had indeed been closed. 

    I apologized to the store clerk who didn't really seem to mind, I then grabbed the beverage and put it back in the freezer, then I walked out the bodega back to the bus stop in front of it. 

    In the bus stop the same people where still waiting quietly, I walked by the middle-aged man that was no longer leaning on the side of the bus stop. He seemed more frustrated and tense than a few minutes ago. His arms were crossed, and he was looking to his side all the time. When I passed by him, he whispered to me: "how many minutes left?" In response I sent the stop number to the MTA text number, and I got the response back from them: "10 minutes left before the bus arrives at our bus stop." The middle-aged man let out a deep heavy breath out of frustration and annoyance. 

"Listen man" I said to the middle-aged man. "I feel you; I normally tend to walk home but today was not a good day." 

    I genuinely felt bad for the man, he probably had somewhere urgent to go so I tried to sympathize with him a little. 

"No is just that I, I have problems." Said the middle-aged man in response to me. 

"Problems?" 

    I mean, everyone has them but I guess the severity of such problems can differ from person to person. Despite this, my morbid curiosity kicked in upon hearing the response of the middle-aged man. 

"What kind of problems are you referring to?" I asked the middle-aged man discretely. "Is it problems problems or problems with other people?" 

    The middle-aged man leaned toward me and whispered in my ear: "Problems that can lead to my death."  

"Ah, I see." I responded to the middle-aged man in a very calm and relaxed way. 

    I then told the middle-aged man: "I guess you won't mind if I step aside a little." 

    The middle-aged man smiled and told me that it was okay for me to do what I just said. So I stepped aside away from him as the middle-aged man was standing on the side of the bus stop with his arms still crossed. 

"If I was you, I would call a taxi." I said to the middle-aged man as a suggestion.

The middle-aged man laughed out loud briefly. 

"No there's no need for that." He responded.  

    At hearing this from the middle-aged man, my eyebrow rose a little. 

"And why is that?" I then asked with morbid curiosity. 

"Because I am with God and God is with me, he will always protect me." The middle-aged man responded to me. 

    At hearing this, I smiled a little and closed my eyes. His faith in God was endearing to me, since I'm a fellow believer as well. 

"Don't put him to the test." I responded to the middle-aged man. 

    At hearing this, the middle-aged man let out a nervous laugh as he leaned forward a little. What I said to him caught him off guard and with good reason. Even though I said those words in a joking manner, I was being very serious, and the middle-aged man seemed to understand. The middle-aged man didn't respond back, he simply stood with his arms crossed and looking to his sides. 

    After a few minutes, the bus was visible from afar. I sensed a feeling of relief when I saw the bus. Finally, I can get to move on with my night and I would get to rest soon. 

    Suddenly as the bus approached the stop a black car drove by and briefly stopped in front of the bus stop. Shots were heard. In response, I quickly threw myself to the pavement and covered the back of my head with my hands and shut my eyes tightly. 

    Sooner than later, the car was gone. It all happened so quickly that we barely had time to react to what was happening. 

    I got up to see the two women screaming and crying, it seemed that the man that was wearing the red sweater got wounded. None of the women were injured in the interchange but the same cannot be said about the middle-aged man. The middle-aged man was laying on the pavement on his back with his arms spread. He was all bloodied up and was not moving. He was dead. 

    A large crowd of people gathered in the scene. Thankfully I was not impacted by any of the bullets since I was positioned far away from the middle-aged man unlike the man with the red sweater who was seating very close to him. 

    Upon confirming that I wasn't hurt I quickly mixed in with the crowd and left the crime scene by means of another way. It turns out that I had to walk home after all. The reason I did this was to not have to serve as a witness in court and because I didn't want to testify either. 

    Thankfully no one came looking for me. Later I found out by means of a news report that came not long after that the middle-aged man was declared dead on the scene. I'm keeping the names to myself in order to remain anonymous and that includes my name as well. The man with the red sweater was soon discharged from the hospital since his wounds were minor. The two ladies were okay as well, just a little spooked by what happened that day. 

    As I mentioned earlier, life can be very unpredictable at times, throwing us into situations such as this. That day, I would have never thought that I was going to face such a near death experience. That day was also that middle-aged man's last on this earth, to think that earlier that day, that man had to wake up from bed and go about his business to just end up like that is quiet chilling. 

    

    And to think that that brief exchange of words we had was his last sends shivers to my spine. To think that if I would have remained in close proximity to that man, I would have also been shot has kept me up at night in a few occasions. I do my best not to think about it. 

    Months later I still pass by the bus stop, although I'm more adamant about walking home now. But this brief experience has taught me to beware of those you have on your side. Since you don't know what kind of problems they may have. It could turn out that you might end up having a share on their calamity, if you happen to be in close proximity to them. 

~ END ~