The night I met Superman (true story)

The Summer of 1987 I was working in a small graphic designer's office at Rockefeller Plaza. My boss was a coke addict and I hated my job because his behavior was insane, due to the coke. At the time he had a designer's assistant named Laura. Me and Laura got along swell. One Summer day it was Laura's roommate's birthday and she invited me over to surprise the roommate. Also at the time, Laura had recently met Christopher Reeves at some bar and it apparently turned into a dating situation.

Fast forward to the evening at Laura's basement level apartment on the Upper West Side. The hosts were busy readying for the surprise party and realized they were out of toilet tissue. The good friend I am, I volunteered to run to the corner store for the household staples.

On my way out the front of the building I barely noticed a guy leaning against a car directly in front of the building. Fast forward; returning from the store, groceries and toilet paper in hand, I entered the building. The man leaning against the car yells upwards to some unseen person and says, I'll be right up. He enters the building right on my heels. I don't feel comfortable. In fact I hate when people follow me through a door to gain entry. Bad, very very bad.

I'm waiting for the elevator to take me down to the basement level but I say nothing to the man. As the elevator door opens, I enter, he enters right behind me and then all conflama ensues. He has his hand in his jacket pocket and says he has a gun. Asks me for my money, of which I had none. Well OK I think I has $5 but really didn't want to give it up. Hey I'm a cheap Jew. The only thing I had at my disposal was a bag full of groceries and one big heavy brass keychain. I was building up my anger through the intense fear. I wanted to smash the heavy brass keychain down on his head but I was scared shit that he really had a gun. My life was literally flashing before me. But I somehow felt at peace, realizing that this could really be it. I'm going to die.

It seemed like an eternity that we stood there in the elevator. He was in the door so it went nowhere. I guess he was getting impatient, or muggers don't like hanging around. He threatened me again and asked for money, I said I had none. And he got irritated at me and ripped my precious snake link sterling silver chain I bought in Tijuana recently. Then I got mad. My anger had boiled. I screamed at him and he got really scared. Holy shit, I thought, he's scared now. I could see where this was going. I just needed to make some noise. He got really scared and gestured at his hand-in-pocket gun again and made me move back into the elevator and said he was leaving and not to come out of the elevator. He left. OMG! He left! I was free. I was alive. My finger darted to the elevator button to hit the close door button but some majorly fucked up short circuit in my arm and fingers hit the door-open button. OMG, NO! Wrong button. What kind of fucked up Universe do we live in was all I could think. The bastard saw the door open again and came back at me. I screamed really loud. No, not like a girl, more like a yell than a scream. He ran this time, away. Phew. Correct button this time. Elevator going down.

I was so shaken and scared that I started to cry. Yes I cried. Exiting into the dark basement area of Laura's building really gave me the creeps after that incident. I banged on her door furiously and yelling to open up. Laura opened the door, expectedly curious what was going on. I was really upset and explained everything as I continued to cry. She felt horrible, they all did. I was offered and took a drink gratefully. I need to relax for a while after that emotional ordeal in that tiny elevator. But I also wanted to get out of there and go home. I stuck around for one reason only really and that was because Laura had a date with Christopher Reeves. Oh course I saved that for towards the end of my story...

So I stuck around and about 20 minutes later, low and behold Christopher Reeves came knocking at Laura's door to pick her up for their date. She introduced me and of course told him the story of what had just happened to me. I felt so embarrassed but laughing at the same time. I mean, crap, I was mugged and then here was Superman standing right before me. He was very nice, handsome although his hair was salt & peppery, not black like in the movie. Ah, he dyes the hair, duh. He shook my hand, apologized for my traumatic experience and they were on their way on a Superdate.

The end