Back in
March I was sitting on the
stoop in front of my building in
Brooklyn, minding my own business,
tickling some strings. The building next door had been recently renovated and the real estate agents were having an open house. The asking price was over $500,000. People were coming and going all day.
A middle aged, vaguely Hispanic appearing woman walked out of the house and over to me, and said "Excuse me, what kind of people live in this neighborhood."
Me: Uhh, they're ok.
Her: No, what kind of people
Me: oh. Russians, Pakistanis...
Her: Any Ayrabs?
Me: Um, yes.
Her: Any Blacks?
Me: yes
At which point she just whipped out a cell phone, and started yelling into it:
"Yeah, that house you wanted, the neighborhood is full of NIGGERS! NIGGERS! Yeah fuck that! I'm telling you, fucking niggers! etc..."
People were stopping in their tracks and leaning out of windows to see what was going on, all of them seeing this woman going ape shit screaming racial slurs on my porch. I was terrified.
But that was nothing compared to what happened next. The woman walked toward her car, which was parked right across the street, and was joined by a sad looking teenage girl. And then, emerging from the house, was an old woman.... WITHOUT A FACE!
There were two eyes and some hair, but where her nose and mouth and cheeks ought to be was just a giant, red mass of scar tissue. I have never seen anything like it, not in war movies, the Meuter museum, not anywhere.
She moved very slowly and worked her way into the passenger seat of the car. I was still dry heaving when I saw through the car window a lit cigarette in her hand.
I have no idea what was going on.