I think this is the most American thing I’ve ever experienced. I didn’t even realize what was happening in the moment. I just saw everyone else duck for cover and followed without thinking. My friend thought it was for a surprise party. We waited there, huddled under tables for minutes that felt like hours, not knowing what was happening just beyond chairs in front of us. Luckily it was a fight at the bar, not a mass shooting, so no shots were fired.
The aftermath was so surreal. Once we finally get out from under our table most of the people had already fled, including the guy with the gun. A family member of the gunman comes up and publicly apologizes to everyone. My friends and I just sit back down and start laughing, cracking jokes about what had happened, it was such a comical experience. Everyone else must have thought we were insane.
The staff gave us our food for free, but we must have tipped like $40 because we overheard a waiter complain about not getting paid for the day. We take our food to go and have to weave around a dozen cop cars to make it back onto a highway where people were none the wiser about what had just happened.
In a very twisted and macabre way, I feel as if what happened wasn’t real or legitimate precisely because no one died. Perhaps an incredibly harrowing experience for others has simply become a funny story for me to tell, because there are so many greater instances of violence that have already become completely normalized.
this is how it always feels for me to eat at a chilis. I have IBS.