A long walk home.

An event that happened to me years ago, that I tried to bury in my memory and forget about.

A long walk home.

This has been a painful memory for me, for many years even as I tried to bury it and forget all about it.

Many years ago, when I was in my twenties, I worked for small home repair contractors on and off, while trying to figure out what type of work that I would do in my life.

In the event of my car not running, which happens often with older used vehicles, the contractor that I worked for during this particular event, would pick me up in the morning and drop me off at my house at the end of the work day.

At this time in my life, I lived in a low rent tenement apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island. One particular Friday as was not abnormal, I asked to be dropped off either to a bank or a market where I could cash my paycheck and perhaps buy a couple of cans of beans and a package of hotdogs.

I stood in line and cashed my paycheck and headed out for the walk home which was a couple of miles away. I was totally unaware of anyone watching me or attempting to follow me. I knew a few shortcuts, having lived in the area for several years. My take home pay after taxes for a forty-hour week was somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred and forty-five dollars.

Along my walk, I went down a side street that was somewhat more remote and old factory buildings were on my right and the area was filled with older textile facilities. My intent was to come out to the other side in a closer proximity to my apartment building.

I suddenly heard some footsteps behind me. I then heard some words that I did not understand and then heard the words, “Amigo, you have a cigarette?” My reply was a quick, “I don’t smoke, but I knew somehow, that it was a ploy by them to get closer to me. Now there were two men, right behind me now within ten feet. They were about my age and one was about my height, the other shorter and both were of more slender, wiry build than myself. Suddenly, the one that was about my height walked fast around my left and stood in front of me and he had what I think was a piece of conduit pipe in his hand. Things are fuzzy what happened next but, one said something about they needed money for something and I felt the smaller of the two grab me from around my neck from the back of me and the other came forward and struck me in the front around the shoulders and neck a few times with the conduit pipe. The strikes from the pipe didn’t hurt as much as one would think, but as I was trying to fight them off, I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I didn’t see it, but somehow a knife was plunged into my chest. Suddenly I felt one let go of me and the other, I had grabbed hold of his hair which was long and gave me the ability to get a good hold of and I attempted to slam his head into the side of a brick building. I heard something else happening and I looked to my right and saw another man which I vaguely recognized. He had the shorter one by the throat with one hand and was punching him in the face with his other hand and it seemed like his fist was as large as that attacker’s face. 

The fight was even now, but they both then managed to break free and run. I had blood coming from my shirt and quickly decided to get to an emergency room asap. I thanked the man who helped me. I had seen him for a couple of years every now and then on construction sites, in the area, when I was working and I knew him to be from the Polish section of Central Falls.

I walked as fast as I could while, trying to bunch up my shirt around the wound in my chest to stop the bleeding. I made it to Notre Dam hospital which was a good mile away. I was taken in right away to see a doctor. The knife blade entered my chest to approximately a one-inch depth but didn’t hit my heart or any major artery. A Police woman came in and asked me questions about what happened and I told her to the best of my ability, as I was mentally, stressed out to a great degree with adrenalin still pumping.

About two hours later I was released and I called a cab to take me home. My biggest hope was that my name wouldn’t be in the newspaper with fear that, these two, or friends of theirs would look up my last name in the phone book and go to my parents’ house. I recovered quickly and tried to think of ideas, how I could move away from that city.

I never again walked alone at night.

 

Rev. Edward C McClelland.  01/30/2023