Tone Parsons

If you’ve read this blog during the past few months, you know I’ve been doing the mass transit gig. It’s been working out for me pretty well, my wife drops me off downtown in the morning, and I’m able to get home fairly quickly in the evenings.

The bus stop I use in the morning (Riverside and Brown) has a fairly rough crowd. It’s a group of guys who obviously do manual labor, and they’re pretty street smart. I knew they were rough… but I didn’t realize how much so until this morning.

Typically, I just stand there, minding my own business. Today, I said “good morning” to one of them when he walked up. This started a conversation that took me down the last road I ever expected it to. Apparently, he and the rest of the “rough crowd” that uses this bus stop all live in the same apartment building, which is just around the corner. It’s some sort of “halfway house” for the state. He complained that he needed to get permission to go to Wal*Mart just to buy toiletries.

I asked why he had to get permission. He replied that he just got out of prison and was on work release. The crime: murder.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!

I’ve been hanging out with a convicted murderer (and several people convicted of unknown felonies) for the past 3 months?!?

Apparently, he killed someone in Seattle. He didn’t really go into the details and I didn’t ask him to fill in the blanks. WFT kind of reply do you give to a statement like that?

Thankfully, my bus rolled up at that point and the conversation ended there. I have no idea what the other people did… and I’m not asking. I am, however, going to try catching my bus from another stop.