Close calls

So here goes the stroll down memory lanes from this side of history ... my my the years went by humming ... too, too fast.
Anyway, my boy "Jun" has set the table about the goings on at our block, I'll do my best to fill you in a bit more. BTW, we had the BEST --- BEST --- childhood, even though we were a little on the wild side. Ringoleevio, stick-ball, eggs filled with mustard, The big guys vs the little guys, the stoop, the rat hole, "Jew" park, Highbridge pool, The port authority, Palisades Mister Softee... I could go on and on. This brief lines will be about close calls. Times when I felt I was came way too close to death... and escaped by God's good grace upon me because frankly, I was just plain dumb to know how close to that edge I really came. Castaldy, a guy who I must've ticked off - I was doing that to folks at times. This guy was really ticked off however. He waited for me with a rifle pointed at the entrance of the "club" ( the Caribbean Kings basement hangout Jun mentioned). The same entrance that our boy Mario (a nice decent young man from El Salvador) had his stomach eviscerated by a guy in the Savage Skulls - dead at 17. No close call for him. Well, that day the finger of God nudged me to out the back way. Shot never fired. Another time was when I was rounded up by about 15 to 20 guys -and girls from Harlem. They came up to PS 143 because I had corralled a guy sometime earlier at the point of a gun. They didnt like that so they came up to the Heights to settle it with me. Robin (my classmate at 143 and the main antagonist of the group) wanted to know why I pointed a gun at that black guy a few days - or weeks, who knows- earlier. I saw in all their eyes that they werent coming over to hold an open forum, an amicable give and take. No these guys came Uptown to kill. No exaggeration. Anyway, as they looked back at eachother and at their surroundings to see what was up, they "reached" for God knows what they were pulling out of their pockets. They began to close the circle around me and raise their voices. I screamed back defiantly. not too obliviou,s but really kind of stupidly. I didnt realize how close I was to that edge... once again. The people behind me kept yelling that I shouldnt look down. They were on my side but were safely protected behing a shoolhouse fence. I glanced back quickly and turned my eyes back to the front - to the danger, to my executioners. it was then that I spotted a tall thin guy in their bunch. He was my ticket out. My salvation. Some days or weeks earlier in a subway we were out patrolling for "scalps" The guys I was with - some members of the Galaxys - fearless guys approached hin and were gonna do to him what these guys were gonna do to me. I used to hang out a bit with him at 143 and so I literally saved him from a severe whoopin, stabbin, something grave. I yelled to them that I had saved him once and he in turn, not too reluctantly I might add, staved them off as I had done for him once. Whew, that was close. more to come.