Three weeks ago Saturday, I went to meet a friend at the bar. It was early afternoon. When I got there he was shooting pool with some guy.We talked about our plans for the day. We were going to Bastille Days, a local music and art fair in Milwaukee. The guy, Charlie, says "I live right near there, come by my place, we'll have a couple and go over."
I didn't know him, but he seemed like he was alright. He was getting along with my buddy. So? What the hell?
We got to the guys apartment, and he didn't have anything to drink. We went over to the liquor store, I bought beer for my friend and me, and we ended up paying for some vodka for Charlie.
We had a couple, him mixing it with a sports drink, yum. We started to feel a little apprehensive as he became ....odder. He showed us his nunchatka, said he was in training for a kickboxing match.
My friend and I started exchanging 'Time to go' glances, and we were getting ready to make our way.
I never saw the first blow, which knocked me out cold. Later, my friend, a very simple, gentle soul, told me the guy kept kicking me and kicking me. He was paralyzed with shock, i guess. I came to long enough to see what i believed to be three guys kicking me. This was a mercifully brief foray into consciousness. I passed out very quickly, and remember nothing until being loaded into the ambulance.
My friend grabbed me when Charlie stopped long enough to go on a largely incoherent rant. Charlie, seemingly came to some semblence of his senses, long enough to realize his potential predicament. He threatened my friend, telling him he could not transport me the four floors to the ground on the elevator. Theoretically it was because of the copious amounts of flowing blood. But my friend got me down the stairs and the ambulance came soon after, several people having called 911 as soon as I was visible on the street.
In the emergency room, I was treated for cuts, concussion and four broken ribs. Immediately afterwards, the police came to interview me. Having missed most of the excitement, as well as being concussed and drugged, I was unable to provide any information. They had arrested him, and taken my friend's statement.
After three days in ICU, they released me, and him as well, coincidentally. He told them it was self-defense and that I destroyed his television. I must have fallen on it, or maybe it on me. My friends statement and his did not match, and I was sadly, useless as a witness myself.
They did not charge him.
