The Old Man with the Shotgun
The year is 1982 and it is a spring day in Reykjavik, Iceland. In front of my house there is a one story retail store building, that used to have a small supermarket, and a fish merchant. They had closed their stores because a small mall center nearby had taken all of their customers. So at this time, the retail building is empty. Attached to this building is another building with residential apartments on three floors. The top floor has a balcony overlooking the roof of the abandoned retail store building next to it. Now and again some kids would climb on top of the roof and hang around up there. On this day I decided to go up on the roof and walk around on top of it. There was not much else to do and I was bored that day. Soon after having stepped on the roof I heard someone yelling something, but what was being said, was unclear. Eventually an old man appeared on the balcony of the three story building, that overlooked the roof that I was walking on. I said to him “What?”. I finally to tell that he was saying that no was allowed on the roof and that it was dangerous. He was right of course. But I was 10 years old, and I didn´t care. Icelanders do not follow rules like the Germans and the English do, unless we choose to. That day day I choose not to follow any rules. The old man soon realized that I was not going to obey his command and increased his screaming for a while but then he stopped, because I was not going anywhere. He resurfaced after a while holding an old double barrel shotgun and pointed it a me, saying that he was gonna shoot me if I didn´t get off the roof. Well this brave new act of his, convinced me to get off the roof and forego the option of being shot. He won and I lost. Someone however, had seen this old man pointing his shotgun at a 10 year old boy and he got a civil visit from the police into his home, with some explaining to do. I still don’t fell bad about it. Well, maybe a little.
