May '95, Sunnyvale, CA
(this is part of chapter 'S. Murphy Blues' of The Peninsula Campaign Story)
This 'street tracking' thing wanted me dead. And it wasn't joking. And try it did. And warnings of imminent death just started happening ...
AGAIN AND AGAIN!
The outdoor pay phone across the street from the S. Murphy Blvd motel where I was staying - I'm warned twice while I was using it that I had better run for cover -
1st time - a black woman jogger suddenly brushes slowly by … coming within just inches of me, and all of it on purpose, and just as she passes she ‘slams’ her right fist right into her left palm. Twice! And hard!
Must be some local custom or something, I remember thinking. But no it wasn't …
IT WAS A WARNING !
2nd time - And then soon after, while I'm still talking on the phone, a young Asian American couple pulls up in a car … and they pull in fast! Two more ASSISTANTS, and park right in front of me. And the male driver ‘hurriedly’ gets out of their car and anxiously approaches me as I'm talking …
“You must go now !” he admonishes, “you must let me use the phone instead !”
(“or you're dead!” he was implying - “or you'll quickly become fodder for the 'street' “)
And they were serious. About me 'needing' to go! And they then went pale when I obstinately shrugged them off. Which was really dumb on my part. Because they were very serious! And I couldn't afford to be making any more dumb mistakes!
IT WAS ANOTHER WARNING !
This 'street tracking' thing … it's looking for any opening now. It’s fully activated.
And then -
Happy Hour next day - S. Murphy Blvd's 'Murphy's Pub', Sunnyvale, CA.
I'm at the bar and a woman suddenly approaches - another 'assistant' - because she had to now intervene - has appeared as an African American twenty something 'babe'. And she gets right to it …
“We have to start making out RIGHT HERE at the bar RIGHT NOW ! “
(or you're dead - she was implying - or the 100,000,000 drug cartel informants from the Sonoran desert who are living in CA right now - basiically every other person in the state - will know that you did not do what you were 'told')
This actually WAS her opening statement. And she wasn't kidding! But why? Who's watching? And why would they care? And what would have happened if I had declined? And by who?
And why can't they get their own?
And why has this 'divine assistant' been forced to appeared as a minority female?
IT'S A CLUE !
And then we're off to the Chinese restaurant next door. At her request. But why? All part of the plan to deflect something?
DEFLECT WHAT?
And she's ostensibly pissed at the entire wait staff. At all of them. She's rude and disdainful. And not shy about it either. And VERY pissed. All part of the message? Now I'm slightly more confused. What was the message that she was sending?
WERE CHINESE RESTAURANTS THE BAD GUYS?