How did you talk your way out of getting killed?

I'm 19. First time in Europe, started in Italy visiting relatives, and on the first night I went

out for a walk. A group of guys looking like trouble pushed me around and then showed me their

switchblades, demanding money, which I seemed to obviously have since I stood out as a foreigner

by my clothes. Except all I had on me was

20 euros and a Johnny, because I was so naive from hearing how easy it was to get tail

in Europe, I was expecting local girls to just see me and approach me to get busy. And I explained

as such to these guys in my broken 1960s Italian gleaned from my parents. They laughed their butts off

and wished me luck. Cousin with mental health issues threw a table at me, but missed. He grabbed

the leg and put me to the ground and shouted, I'm going to freaking kill you, smash your skull.

And I responded with, if you're going to do that, let's not do it in front

of our family. It worked. I was babysitting from my cousins, aged five and three. I was 14 at the time.

The five-year-old found his dad's gat and was waving it around like a toy. He was pointing it

at things and pretending to blast them, not putting his finger on the trigger,

thankfully.

At one point, he pointed it at me and pretended to be a bank robber.

I told him if he handed me the piece, he'd get the package of Oreos on the counter, and we could all have some.

It actually worked, and I stuck the weapon on a high shelf until my aunt and uncle came home.

As it turned out, it was loaded.

My aunt made my uncle buy a safe and put all the weapons in the garage after that.

In short, for the love of God, don't leave your pieces where your young children can find them.

No matter how much you tell them it's not a toy, they'll still treat it like a toy.

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