I looked up to see a massive black man who I'd noticed hanging out, peacefully, at the bar earlier. There was no peace to be had now. This guy was pissed. Full-on enraged. So I walked over like nothing was up and said "Hey man, what happened?"
"Mother fucker call me NIGGER!!" he roared. He was all kinds of tense. Fists balled up, shoulders high, arms rigid. You'd think he was carrying two really heavy suitcases. Possibly with bodies in them.
"Who?" I asked.
"That fucking mother fucker over there. I'm gonna fucking kill that fucking bitch"
Just to put this in perspective, my enraged customer was around 300+ lbs. The guy he pointed to was maybe 160. If he had a pocket full of change. Change he'd gotten after a big meal at Denny's. And he was oblivious to the serious amount of harm this guy was willing to do to him. He wasn't even paying attention at this point. Probably didn't even remember saying it.
"Man, that's bullshit" I said to the massive amount of angry human in front of me. It's important to stay calm in these situations I've learned. If I get excited, I'm just added more energy to a volatile situation. Talk like you're having a conversation, not stopping a fight. But don't be condescending. It's a fine line sometimes.
"He called me nigger, you can't fucking call me nigger, I'll kill you!" he screamed.
"Dude, I get that, and I appologize. I know your mad and I don't blame you. What's your name?"
He started to regain his composure but was still angry. He kind of looked away. I stuck out my hand.
"Look man, my name's Luke, I'm the head bouncer here, and I'm fucking sorry about this, its bullshit"
Finally the tension broke and he took my outstretched hand (Thank God) "Conolly" he said and gave me one of those hand shake hug combos that everyone does these days.
"Nice to meet you. Look man, I understand you're upset, and you have every right. That's bull shit. But if you go kick that shit out of that guy, it'll be a murder, you'll tear that little guy to peices."
Conolly burst out laughing and I got another hug. "Yeah, I used to bounce too man, at places scarier than this!" he said.
"I fucking knew it!" I said, poking him in the chest. I saw you standing around the bar. Can't turn it off can you?
He laughed and joked with me for a bit. His friends looked relieve that he wasn't going to murder someone tonight. I apologised again and told him that that kind of shit wasn't what our bar was about.
"Tell you what, tomorrow night first beers on me ok?" I said punching him playfully in the shoulder.
"Alright, alright" he said.
"So no murders tonight?" I said hopefully.
"No it's all good" he said.
"Alright man, I'll see you tomorrow" I said, relieved. "Get home safe" We shook hands and I went back inside.
About ten minutes later we saw him pounding on racist, and stupid, drunk he'd pointed out earlier. He managed to make this happen up the road from the bar though, which is all I really wanted anyway. I can't let someone get beat up in the bar, or on our sidewalk...but I'm not in charge of the entire little town. The last I saw our little Klansman he was running from Conolly like a scared rabbit.
I really hope Conolly comes back, I wanna buy him that beer.
Hey, while you're here, click my survey to see what you're doing for St. Paddy's day! Its over there on the right somewhere!
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