RED SOX: You gotta believe, again!

Ash was startled from a sound sleep by several loud booms. She jumped from her bed scrubbing at her eyes. She was desperately trying to clear her fogged vision in order to search for the source of the problem in her darkened room. A flash of light followed by a pop lit up the space through the window above her bed. High pitched screaming began as the room dimmed to darkness once again.

“Mrs. Ng,” Ash called.

She recognized her landlady’s angry voice instantly. Ash raced from her room above the garage and down the narrow stairs. Clad in a tank top tee shirt and pajama pants and barefoot, Ash was mindless of her half dressed state. Her only focus was to help to her friend.

Ash skidded to an abrupt stop when she reached the bottom of the stairs. The parking lot of the Shangri La Boarding House was clamoring with activity. It was very dark. All the outside lights had been shattered. Several shadowy figures were racing around ripping up shrubs and setting off fireworks. One hooded shadow was spray painting something on the garage doors. Ash scanned the scene several times before finding Mrs. Ng. The old woman was chasing some hooded figure with her broom while screaming in Vietnamese. Ash decided Mrs. Ng was doing okay on her own. So, she took on the guy wrecking the garage door.

“Hey creep, what’d you think you’re doing? I just painted that door!” Ash shouted at the shadow.

The shadow hadn’t seen her and when she spoke it spooked him. He took off in a mad dash for the main road. Ash ran after him. Her feet were slapping a steady rhythm against the summer heated asphalt. Her focus kept her mindless on the pain.

“Go ahead and blow the element of surprise, why don’t you?” Ash hissed to herself. “Never tip your hand. Now you gotta run instead of just tackling him. Dumb, dumb, dumb.”

“No, Lindsey, no! Come back. No chase! No get hurt!” Mrs. Ng called in the fading distance.

It was too late for Ash to stop herself. She was gaining on this guy. She was going to catch him. She really wanted to catch him.

“Then we’ll see who gets the last laugh when it comes to re-painting the garage doors,” Ash grinned at the thought.

The guy’s wheezing drew her attention. It was a deep asthmatic wheeze. Very distinctive. She had heard it before.

“Du Man?” She hissed.

The guy looked over his shoulder. She could see his face clearly under the street light.

“Jeffrey Dumont? What the fuck?” She whispered between panted breaths.

Jeffrey was in high school with her. He still had a year to go. For all practical purposes, he was the school goof ball. Everybody had a go at poor Jeff. Even the underclassmen took their swipes at him. Everybody but those cult-ish conservative Christian kids, who didn’t talk to anybody, and Ash. She had never spoken a word to him.

“Oh shit, you saw me,” he gagged as he struggled to breath against his resistantly sick lungs.

Without warning, Jeffrey half turned and hurled the spray paint can at Ash. She didn’t duck in time. It connected solidly with her nose. Ash went down on her ass. Blood erupted and then streamed from the rip across her nose.

“You fucking little twerp, I’m gonna kill you with my bare hands!” Ash screamed in a blind rage.

Ragged breathing aside, Jeffrey wasted no time in running away. Ash scrambled to get to her feet to go after him. Her head was ringing in pain so badly that she did not hear the police siren closing in behind her. The squad car cut sharply in front of Ash. Her fury stroked momentum was too great to reign in at the last minute. Ash hit the front panel of the car and hurtled into the air. Up and down hard on her back and tumbling over the vehicle’s hood, she slid to a graceless landing on the steaming black top on the other side of the rolling road block.

“Son of a…,” Ash cursed out loud as her bare skin burned across the hot asphalt.

“Hold it right there. Keep your hands were I can see ’em,” the authoritative voice commanded. “Get on you belly.”

“You’re letting the guy get away! I’m Mrs. Ng’s tenant. I was chasing…,” Ash tried to explain.

“SHUT UP AND GET ON YOUR BELLY NOW!”

There would be no arguing or explanation. Ash knew she needed to follow the cop’s directions or she would pay for it physically. She pushed her pain and fear aside and rolled onto her stomach. The cop kicked her legs further apart than she cared for but she remained silent.

“Put you left hand behind your back!”

Ash took a deep breath as she did what was instructed. The cop’s full weight landed hard on her opposite hip. His knee was pinning her down. Cold metal handcuffs snapped around her bony wrist and Ash fought hard to hold off a very bad memory.

“Just let it happen,” she told herself. “Just let him do his job. It’ll get straightened out. Just don’t fight him.”

The cop grabbed her right wrist and yanked it behind her back. The second cuff was locked around her wrist. Ash pressed her forehead into the asphalt trying to subdue her mental agony. The pressure on her hip disappeared when the cop stood up. He dragged her backward bound wrists up and out to get her on her feet. After a heartbeat of a moment on the tips of her toes, Ash could feel her body sag in exhaustion. Unfortunately, the cop’s patience with her was at it’s limit. He slammed her body into the hood of his squad car. The hot metal burned against her tender skin.

“Do you have anything sharp that might prick me?” He asked as his hands began a loose search of her nearly naked body.

“No,” Ash replied with a sneer.

“Don’t get fresh with me punk,” his shout was cut short by a crackling of his radio.

“Eric, you there? We need you back here pronto.”

“Roger that. I’ve got suspect in custody. Will roll by your location for ID,” his voice was clipped.

Ash wondered if he was a bit disappointed to have his search ended so quickly. The cop grabbed Ash by the handcuffs and the short hairs at the base of her neck. He pulled and pushed her to the rear door of the squad car. Ash was more than a little embarrassed the hear herself whimpering in the painful grip. The cop shoved her in but did not buckle her seatbelt. Once he was in the front seat, he revved the engine.

“Ever have a slap jack?” He taunted as he reversed directions and then slammed on the brakes.

Ash, initial was tossed backward by the acceleration but at the braking stop she hurtled forward into the grill. The cop chuckled. He repeated the process two more times before returning to Mrs. Ng’s parking lot. When the cop exited the car, Ash let out a cry. Her whole body was aching from the rough treatment. But, being trapped in the backseat of a police car was worse than any physical abuse inflicted. When her mother gave her to the state, Ash was taken away just like this; crying and cuffed and caged in a cruiser.

The door to the cruiser abruptly opened. “GET OUT!”

Ash was hauled bodily out of the seat by the cop. Her sore feet scrambled to steady themselves on the pavement. Without warning, tiny little arms wrapped around her neck and pulled her head down on an equally small shoulder.

“I so worry. You no run off again. We always fix house up fine but can’t fix you up,” Mrs. Ng was rattling off in English and Vietnamese. “You no be brave again. I no lost you. I can’t lost you.”

“So, this the perp?” The smug cop jerked Ash’s handcuffs tugging her into a full stand on the tips of her toes again.

Mrs. Ng began to scream at the cop when Ash was tugged from her embrace, “No prep. She my good girl. Lindsey my tenant. She helpin’ me. You take chain off. NOW! Officer Pretty tell him. NOW! Lindsey, not bad girl. Why you harass her?”

“Officer Pretty?” Ash let the name roll around in her head before she silently made the connections. “OH SHIT! FUCK ME! This keeps getting better and better.”

“Eric, release this woman. She’s Mrs. Ng’s tenant. She’s our witness. Not our suspect. Now, take the cuffs off.” Officer Pretty directed. “Sorry Ms. Ash. Although, I’m sure you understand Officer Dumont’s mistake.”

Ash started talking before Officer Pretty stopped, “There were four or five guys. The one I chased spray painted the garage. His name is Jeffrey Dumont. I recognized him from school. He…”

“That is not possible!” The cop taking off her handcuffs growled a warning.

“I know the guy from school. I saw his face. He hit me with the paint can,” Ash half turned and finally saw the cop’s name tag. “Eric Dumont. Oh, shoot me now. I can’t catch a friggin’ break here,” Ash cursed to herself.

“Eric, call your parents and see if Jeff has been home all night,” Officer Pretty instructed. “Ms. Ash, I think we need to get you an ambulance. It looks like you got hit by a truck.”

Ash didn’t find Officer Pretty’s assessment the least bit funny. “No, I’m okay. Aren’t you going to go get Jeff?”

“Eric is calling now about Jeff’s whereabouts this evening. There’s no need to go racing around town.”

“I know it was Jeff Dumont…,” Ash was interrupted by Eric.

“He’s been home all night. Went to bed about twenty minutes ago. So, you were wrong,” Eric the cop said.

“I’m not wrong…” Officer Pretty stopped Ash with a firm hand on her shoulder.

“You are wrong, Ms. Ash. So, don’t argue with us.” Officer Pretty’s voice took a warning tone.

Ash tried to pull away from his grip but he held on to her. His eyes narrowed. Officer Pretty was very intimidating Ash decided.

“Do we understand each other, Ms. Ash? You saw somebody who looked like Jeff Dumont but we all know now it could not have been him. Got me?”

“Yes,” Ash agreed when Mrs. Ng. nodded her encouragement to go along with the story.

Officer Pretty smiled but it wasn’t a happy smile. “Good. Eric fill out the reports with Mrs. Ng for her insurance company and reassure her this will never happen again. Right Eric? This kind of stunt doesn’t happen to her again.”

“Yes, sir,” Eric replied. “Mrs. Ng, would you step over to the car with me to finish up the paperwork.”

“Alright then Ms. Ash, let’s get you to the hospital,” Officer Pretty released his hold on Ash.

“No.” Ash said.

She walked away from Officer Pretty and to the garage. She paused only a moment to read the hateful word sprayed across the doors. ‘GOOK’ Ash pulled the garage door open and went right to the paint cans stacked neatly along the side wall.

“Hey kid, what do you think you are you doing?” Officer Pretty followed her in. “It’s the middle of the night and you are all banged up. Come on, if you won’t go to the hospital then at least go back to bed. This will still be here in the morning.”

“Not if I can help it,” Ash muttered. “I’m not leaving that word on the door for Mrs. Ng to wake up to. She deserves better. I can at least paint over it tonight. Tomorrow, after work, I’ll be able to do it proper.”

Ash, lugged her paint and paint brush passed Officer Pretty. The cop turned and followed her out. He tried to help her close the door but she stopped him.

“I can do it myself,” Ash snarled.

“Look kid, I know you’re not stupid. Use your head. Sometimes in life you have to go along to get along. Mrs. Ng understands she can’t make a big deal out of a prank,” Officer Pretty leaned in close to Ash so nobody else could hear his explanation. “You need to learn you place and stop putting up such a fuss all the time.”

Ash just glared at the cop. She couldn’t believe her was married to Mrs. Pretty. It seemed as nice as she was, her husband was as much the bully.

“Kid, you got a lot to learn. You’d better be careful who you cross because you won’t like it if I’m the one that’s got to teach you the do’s and don’t’s of Blandford,” Officer Pretty straightened up and tugged up his gun belt. “Are you clear on that?”

“Crystal,” Ash replied with a sad shake of her head.

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