Meet Antonio

I did not know what I was getting myself into during my bus ride this morning. I met this kid, roughly 16-17 years of age, that grew up in New York City before moving to Peoria, Il, then moving again to Euclid. The kid told me his life story on our 20 minute ride to downtown Cleveland, but regretably, I never got his name. He'll be working downtown throughout the summer so I'll have to get it on a future trip. I'll refer to him as Antonio for the time being.

I walk down the aisle and take a seat next to a small kid (Antonio), thinking it would be your average ride. He turns to me and asks, "Do you know where St. Clair Ave is?" I answer his question as best I can. He then says, "I just moved from Illinois so I don't know the area at all."

"Where at in Illinois are you from?" I inquire.

"Peoria."

"No way! My college roommate is from there!"

"What's his name?"

"Jordan Barth."

"I might have a cousin that knows him."

"Oh."

We then get to talking, and I find out how much of a delinquent this kid truly is. Don't get me wrong, I like the kid, but he is definitely trouble. He talked about his time in juvy, and how Cleveland juveniles are such wusses compared to the ones in New York. You can yell and taunt the kids in the Cleveland detention centers and they won't budge, but if you do it to a kid in NYC, they'll fight back. Good to know.

Apparently there was a girl in Cleveland that shaved her head so she could get in the boys detention center to avoid the girls one, because the girls are much, much worse. Girls, if you ever find yourself in juvy, make sure to shave your head to avoid trouble. It works.

Antonio loves the subway in New York. He gave me tips on how to avoid paying fares. All you have to do is wait until the train begins to move, climb to the roof, and hang on for dear life. Antonio has never payed for a fare in his life. Badass. He's able to do this kind of stuff because he's not afraid of heights. Living in NYC has made him fearless.

He learned how to drive at a young age. His biological father taught him to flip the bird to other New York drivers. His adopted father was not too happy when he saw Antonio flipping drivers off!

Antonio loves karate, but tends to get kicked out of martial arts schools. His teachers are a bunch of clowns that just don't understand how good he is. He kicked the ass of every black belt in one of his schools, but they refused to move him up in rank. He loved to spar against the girls at his karate school, because they were all fat and easy to dance around.

The best part came towards the end of the bus ride. Right before Antonio's stop, he pulled out his plastic gun that he uses to shoot poison tipped darts at people. It was a gun that shot foam darts, and he would put a poison tipped needle on the end of it. That freaked me out a little bit. I was kind of glad he was getting off the bus at that point.

I learned these and other life lessons today. Hopefully I will have more to share in the future.