Purple Aki squeezed my muscle.

When I was 17 I worked in the Merseyside Youth Association in Liverpool. I was doing graphic design. I worked with a Nigerian guy called Vincent Razaq. He was well over 6 feet tall probably about 6 foot 6. He had a massive Afro and wore steel framed glasses
I left the MYA in 1980 and I never saw him again.

In about 1982 or 83 I was in WH Smith’s reading a magazine. It was a thing back then, before the internet, to read magazines for free. There would literally be a hundred people or so crammed together reading whilst pretending to be choosing a magazine to buy. (Yes I said ‘whilst’ just get over it.). Anyway, as I was standing there I realised that the guy next to me was a giant (a giant to me is anyone over 6 feet. I’m five foot 2.) He grabbed hold of my left bicep and said “Alright mate”. For a second I thought it was my old mate Vincent. I looked up and he wasn’t wearing glasses and had shaved his Afro off. And he had put on a lot of weight.

Was it him? Then he said “Don’t you go to our gym?” I realised it wasn’t Vincent. He still had hold of my arm.

I thought “this is weird!?!” I said something like “Erm… Sorry mate, you’ve got the wrong guy.“ He let go of my arm and I walked away to the back of the shop. There was a staircase down to the basement where you could buy records. I made it downstairs and ran to the front of the store and then up the front staircase and out onto Church Street. The guy wasn’t about and I made my way to the bus stop and home.

Later that night was telling my mate what happened and how this massive guy who I mistook for Vincent had weirdly squeezed my arm. He just looked at me and said “Purple Aki!” I didn’t have a clue what he was on about. Then he told me how Purple Aki was some sort of pervert who would force young lads to do all sorts of weird shit. I thought it was all a big joke.

Then a few years later the rumour, that he had terrified someone into running into the street and getting hit by a car, was going round. I realised I had almost been a victim of Purple Aki. Or maybe it was just some random guy from the gym who had made a genuine mistake.