is this a dark purple jester story?

 yesterday i was on via dei reti by my house waiting for the bus to take me to the colosseum so i could see the barbara uccelli show at l'ingresso pericoloso. the tram passes by on the street so the sidewalks have barriers, with openings every now and then to keep people from spilling onto the street. there was an african on the other side of the street, he was really drunk, just standing there laughing, shouting, talking. but you could tell he was suffering, pushing out his misery through the air of words. he was shouting that he was educated, he had studied, and he still couldn't find work and shouted all these things against the berlusconi government. and then he crossed the street towards us, stumbling and laughing, talking to us who were waiting for the bus. but he was in the middle of the street, couldn't get onto the sidewalk because of the barriers. so he was just walking into the oncoming traffic. and suddenly the tram started to come. and he was walking, stumbling, laughing at the cars as he walked in front of them.
the tram was coming and he stepped onto the tracks, turned his back on the tram and raised up his arms, laughing and waiting to get hit. the crowd started to moan, a long hard moan, he was going to die. i turned my back, i was right in front of it, i plugged my ears, i didn't want to see it, didn't want to hear it. and the tram blared the horn and managed to stop within inches of the man.


the man wouldn't move. traffic was stopped. the conductor beeped the horn but the man just sat down in the street in front of the tram. a man on a motorscooter stopped and told him to move, not in an unkind way, he said 'listen, you need to move. you're blocking traffic.' but the guy wouldn't go.

he shouted, 'i don't have my mother anymore. i have no one in this world.'

an ambulance came from the other side, the siren blaring, we thought he was going to stop for the man but it just raced by. the conductor got down and went to the man, he said, 'come on, let me help you up.' and the guy raised his arm and the conductor took it, trying to steer him onto the sidewalk, his arm around the man. but the man lingered.

'give me a hug,' he said.

the conductor hugged him. the african followed him back to the tram. the conductor got on and then came back out and gave him some money and told the man to be careful. the man walked off into the oncoming traffic, we moaned again. but he managed to get onto the sidewalk and walked off singing and laughing.