Untitled 2

• May 2, 2001
• James Skemp
• prose

"You can do a lot with the gardener."

She was getting a lot more sociable. At first, she was real quiet, but he saw her eyes looking up at him. Now that he was leaving, she probably saw her chance getting slimmer by the moment. As soon as he left, any chance was gone.

She was real... bubbly now. Almost bouncing up and down. She continued to talk, words that made no sense, at least don't now. He smiled, trying to get away. He wondered how old you had to be to work here.

The purchases didn't matter much. He had three things in the gab, but nothing that he bought. Maybe he did... who knows, he sure didn't.

He was past the counter now, and exiting the store. A light snow had fallen, and there were still a few flakes coming down.

He didn't see it coming, but he should have. Up pulled his car, stopping right next to him.

"Who..."

"Get in!" What in the world was his sister doing driving his car? First of all, she doesn't have a key. Second of all, it's a manual, and she can't drive 'em. She was going to get a talking to.

"Why are you driving my car?" he asked, his tone inferring violence would soon be coming. "I wanted to try driving it." He really wanted her to pull over, to let him drive. Was he acting irrational? Maybe. After all, it was his car, and he really didn't want anyone else to fool with it.

He could see that they were already on their way down a country road. He remembered faintly a highway, but he could have been mistaken. To the right, he saw a car pulled off to the side of the road. Whether the police officer had gotten out of his car yet was a question he couldn't answer, but the cop's lights were off.

"Slow down or you'll get a ticket." he said to his sister. "I doubt it" she replied back. Obviously she wanted them to try. Maybe she believed in the saying that if you saw one cop, you wouldn't see another one for a while.

Unfortunately, luck was not with them. Lights flashed in on them, and at the intersection ahead, a red car, with lights on top began to pull out.

"Let me handle this" he told her. She hadn't done enough already, so she replied "I've got it". Great.

The officer was at the window now, and his sister was acting drunk. Just great. "What are you doing!?! Stop it!" She was going to get them in trouble.. Just great.

"Step out of the car." There was no saying no to that authority. He tried to explain, but in seconds they were thrown into the back of a cop van. Thrown might not be the best word. Escorted into the van. He was yelling at her, her calm to him.

After he awoke, he thought about it all. Bad cops. Crooked cops actually. He newly remembered they had told them that they better have a direct deposit ready. They hadn't searched them, or given them their rights. Yup, crooked cops.

[Afterword (pre-11/21/2003?)]

I had this dream, more or less, the night before (or the morning of). It was a lot better than what I've just written, but it proves some things. That day, I heard someone, a male, say "License and registration please" and "Going a little fast weren't we" outside my dorm room. After a minute, I realized that they weren't in the hallway, but it was from the television across the hall. That same day, I was thinking how I should teach my sister to drive my car, a stick shift, sometime over the summer. The only thing that really gets me, is the checkout girl. I've never seen her before, at least as for as I remember. It's also a fairly well developed dream. It makes sense (or at least did after I had it, which usually doesn't occur). Makes me wonder about dreams.