I’ve had a gun pointed at me once. You’d think that for such a momentous occasion I’d remember more details than I do, but I only remember a few basics. I was either 16 or 17, and it was in the afternoon, around 12-2pm I’d say, during the week on a school day. I was ditching school (something I did way too much back then) and was waiting at a bus stop a few blocks from my home, as I was going to go to the mall. Suddenly I heard someone shout:

“FUCK YOU MAN!”

And I looked and there was a car driving past me, in the opposite direction, with 3 Black guys in it, two in the front, and one in the back. And the one in the back was pointing what looked like a single-barrel shotgun right at me.

But the car just kept going and that was it. I barely had time to react or even move before they were gone. And I remember standing there thinking what the frak just happened?

Obviously, I wasn’t shot, so I thought maybe they thought I was someone else when they first saw me standing there, but when they actually got in front of me, the guy saw that I wasn’t whomever he thought I was, and that’s why he didn’t shoot. Or maybe they never intended to shoot, and just wanted to see me jump or run or something, like a prank? Or maybe he was trying to shoot but the gun jammed? I dunno. But that was weird.