The Thug Whisperer
by J. A. Faulkerson

When 40-year-old Mason Reynolds boarded the Metro train after work for the routine ride back to Compton, he did so not expecting trouble. However, trouble finds him, in the form of Ty, a gun-toting, teenaged thug, and his posse of knuckleheads. But Mason isn’t fazed by the boys’ appearance or demeanor. He grew up in Compton. He knew you had to maintain a certain swagger to be respected, to survive on its mean streets. But he is forced to push caution to the wind when Ty pulls his gun from his hoodie and threatens to use it on one of the other passengers. How will the wheelchair-bound Mason diffuse the situation when the only weapon available to him is the forcefulness of his spoken words?