I think this is the most American thing I’ve ever experienced. I didn’t even realize what was happening in the moment. I just saw everyone else duck for cover and followed without thinking. My friend thought it was for a surprise party. We waited there, huddled under tables for minutes that felt like hours, not knowing what was happening just beyond chairs in front of us. Luckily it was a fight at the bar, not a mass shooting, so no shots were fired.
The aftermath was so surreal. Once we finally get out from under our table most of the people had already fled, including the guy with the gun. A family member of the gunman comes up and publicly apologizes to everyone. My friends and I just sit back down and start laughing, cracking jokes about what had happened, it was such a comical experience. Everyone else must have thought we were insane.
The staff gave us our food for free, but we must have tipped like $40 because we overheard a waiter complain about not getting paid for the day. We take our food to go and have to weave around a dozen cop cars to make it back onto a highway where people were none the wiser about what had just happened.
In a very twisted and macabre way, I feel as if what happened wasn’t real or legitimate precisely because no one died. Perhaps an incredibly harrowing experience for others has simply become a funny story for me to tell, because there are so many greater instances of violence that have already become completely normalized.
I know what you mean, I think. years ago, I was sitting on a curb in a parking lot, waiting for some auto maintenance to happen, and watched a posturing confrontation between strangers erupt into a knife fight in a matter of minutes. all this taking place within 15' of me, just sitting there having a chat with my mom on my phone.
the shouting was so loud my mom asked me what was going on and I just told her it was a TV because I didn't want her to worry.
despite several attempts nobody managed to stick anybody else before the cops showed up and put a bunch of crying rubes into cuffs. the whole time they were trying to awkwardly grab and wildly slash at each other, I was just sitting there watching, all I could think was how stupid these people were. it felt surreal.
I'm surprised the cops didn't turn them into swiss cheese.
it was kind of a rural setting and everybody in the equation was white, which i am sure contributed. also, i shit you not, when the two units pulled into the lot with lights on, it was like somebody let all the air out of the room. the posturing was gone, everybody emptied their hands, and i swear to christ like everybody was full blown crying. real grade school hours vibe to the whole thing.
when i told the story to friends later that day, i referred to a bit at the end as "the punchline": the cops were gently loading one of the shirtless antagonists into the back of the patrol car, his face red and bubbling with tears, the cop loading him in said like a disappointed dad voice, "every few weeks with you, it's the same thing...."