Hostile Takeover

Originally written October 31, 2006

On this all hallows eve, amateur’s night, where the good and the bad, tens of thousands of them strong, descend upon the three blocks of Lan Kwai Fong for a night of revelry and debauchery.

Returning from the admiralty tonight, the crowd of natives, tourists, triads and ex-pats alike, costumed and full of what makes nights like this endless, we flowed through the streets to the inevitable scene. The streets would be filled, the world would be right and I am the king. The night began filled with possibility as I walked with my friends towards the pulse of the city. That is, until I found them.

Two little guys dressed in American military uniforms, one wearing a terrorist mask, the other a mask of a monster. They were the most popular people on the street, with dozens of people lined up to take pictures with them. Every time a picture taken, the crowd cheered.

I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of them.

My friends urged me to keep walking, to look away from them. They told me not to get involved; they tried to hold me back. I heard none of it. I had found the red and the black once again.

Pushing through the crowd to the scene of the crime, my next move, in some circles, would have been considered reckless. With my left, I grabbed the terrorist mask off the first little one, along with some nose and mouth, all the while my right was wrapped around the neck of the monster. Imagine this scene, surrounded by a hundred people, and in the center, the largest man on the street, the only white person in the area, attacking two little Asians. No one moved. I screamed into their hostile little faces, I wanted them to know fear, I wanted them to know they had no control.

I told my friends to go ahead without me, and have now come back to the apartment to reload. I know I risked everything to make a ridiculous point. I know that nothing good could have possibly come from that moment. I am the foreigner, the outsider in this culture and a minority opinion wherever I go. But tonight I have a score to settle, I have to go back out there, I know they are still out taking pictures, mocking me and everything that I am; tonight I have a purpose. The hunt is on.

Tonight I am the American Psycho. Wait till they get a load of me.