Light Ray Blues, part 2

What I didn’t count on was falling asleep. I didn’t wake up until I was six or seven stops past mine. When I did, I got off and started to walk. There wouldn’t be another car around for hours until the morning rush hour service started.

The night was clear. No rain. Not too cold. At least it was a good night for walking home. I had to find a phone along the way to call Jess. I was gonna be late. Again.

Then I heard a sharp bang. I stopped and looked up and down the street, but I didn’t see anything. I kept walking.

But not for long. Another bang. It sounded close. I froze. And then ran. Ran into an alley between two buildings and pressed tight against a wall. I didn’t know what was happening. It might have been shots. I wasn’t taking any chances. The brick wall seemed like protection.

I have no idea how long I hugged that wall. It probably wasn’t more than a few minutes, but it seemed much longer. I didn’t hear anything for quite awhile. No bangs. No shots. No nothing. I cautiously peaked around the wall. Still nothing. I thought the noises came from the opposite direction I was going, so I headed on my way, but faster this time.

“Stop!” The voice behind me sounded like Darth Vader was commanding me from the bridge of a star destroyer. I stopped.

“Put your hands up where I can see them.” I did.

“Now turn around slowly and face me.” I did. Very slowly.

It wasn’t Darth, it was a cop. He wasn’t pointing a gun at me. With a voice like that I guess he didn’t need to.

“What are you doing here?” 

The Darth voice was pushing all my obey authority buttons. “I fell asleep on the number 90 car and missed the Darlington stop. I didn’t wake up until I got here. I started to walk home and heard some bangs. They might have been shots. I hid over there for awhile.”

“Can’t you take a cab?”

I felt my face start to flush. “I’ve only got streetcar tokens and some change on me.”

The cop stared at me for a bit. Darth Vader started to shift to Barry White. “I’ll get a constable to drive you. They were shots. We haven’t found who fired them.” Barry cracked a smile, “You can put your hands down.”

I thought pulling up in my driveway in a police car might help straighten things with Jess. A sympathy ploy maybe. It might have worked if I had actually gotten home.

Part 3 can be found here.