Ti loved it when we would be walking downtown to get something to eat with other gamblers and we would come across a sidewalk vendor with a fruit stand. Ti would bet he could throw an orange on top of a three-story building, somewhat of a gamble, so to take some of the gamble out of the bet Ti would have the gamblers stand a short distance away from the fruit cart. When Ti went over to the fruit cart, he would stand in front of the oranges and you could see him pick up a few and feel them, trying to pick just the right orange. That’s when I would try to get their attention by flashing my money and asking who would like to bet what. Now, when I saw Ti standing sideways to the fruit cart, I knew he was ready, so I would take off one of my alligator shoes, put it on the sidewalk, and put all the bet money under it to keep it from blowing away. Then I’d tell Ti that all the bets were down. Still standing in front of the oranges, Ti would take a few steps away from the cart like he was getting a …show more content…
He just started walking back to where we were and the closer he got to us, the more he laughed. When he got in front of the man who had insisted on seeing the watermelon, Ti pulled his hands together and, as he said he would do, he held a baby watermelon about the size of a baseball with both hands right in front of the man’s face. He had palmed the watermelon in one hand as he walked up on us. The very second the man’s eyes saw it, Ti threw the baby watermelon on top of the two-story building. While the watermelon was still in the air and everyone was looking up watching it, Ti looked down and got the money, so by the time we looked back down, only my shoe remained on the sidewalk. The money was gone into Ti’s pocket. Those gamblers were hot and wild, to say the least, and they started yelling that Ti had moved on