CHANGE OF LIFE - Chapter 16

 

Tuesday night the freshly painted house welcomed Willard home. He was happy to be back to work on Wednesday. The trip made him appreciate his home and the small town where he lived. He was grateful for the break from work and routine, but now he was eager to get back to it.

At roll call the lieutenant again warned them about the smugglers. Ginger had been riding with another patrolman while Willard was gone. At roll call the lieutenant told her that she would be riding with Sergeant O’Reilly. It was plain to see that she was not happy about that;. The first couple hours they rode around the town, then went out into the residential areas. She asked a few polite questions about his vacation and complimented him on the new paint job on his house. Willard asked who she rode with while he was gone.

At 11:10 AM they had a call about a disturbance at the Acropolis Café. When they arrived, they saw a man with disheveled long hair and dirty clothes standing in the middle of the café ranting and raving that food was a right not a privilege.

“I should be fed whatever I order whether I have money to pay for it or not. That is why we elect presidents and governors and judges so they can protect the rights of the downtrodden. If you don’t serve me like you are supposed to do, the President will send tanks and fighter planes to destroy this building. Judgment is coming for everyone with a fat belly.”

Demetrius was ringing his hands.

“I told him that I would fix him a nice sandwich – he could have it for free – if he would just go away.”

“You cannot bribe me out of my rights. I shall be served at a table with a waiter at my beck and call. It is my right as an American citizen.”

“You are under arrest for disturbing the peace. These are your Miranda rights……”

He cuffed his hands behind his back and led him out to the squad car.

“Ginger call the dispatcher. Tell him that we have a “mental client”. Ask if we should bring him to the jail or take him to Emergency. They will probably want a doctor to see him first.”

They took him to the Emergency Room. The doctor wanted him taken out of his handcuffs. When Willard did so, the man went berserk. He grabbed anything loose in the examining room and was throwing them at the doctor, the nurse, the policeman, and the policewoman. Willard grabbed hold of him and held his arms back. Then the man tried kicking.

“Doctor, either sedate this man or restrain him. Otherwise he is going to hurt one or more of us.”

The doctor said, “Why did you bring him here?  We are not a mental hospital. We don’t have a locked ward or a psychiatrist on staff.”

“I brought him here because I was told to do so. I brought him here because he has a right to be seen by a doctor. There could be some medical reason for his bizarre behavior. I brought him here because you can order him to be taken to a mental hospital for psychiatric observation.”

“Very well. You can put the handcuffs on him. You will have to stay here with him while we run some tests.”

After several hours, the doctor signed an order to take him to the regional  hospital (which has a psychiatric ward, a psychologist on staff, and a psychiatrist on call). A nurse fed him before they sedated him.

By then it was near the end of shift. The regional hospital was more than an hour’s drive.

In the patrol car Willard said to Ginger,

“I can manage him alone if you want to go home at the end of shift.”

“That’s kind of you. My son’s counting on me to take him to Scout meeting.”  

“Call the dispatcher and see if that’s all right with him.”

The dispatcher answered, “The lieutenant says that you can let your partner out at the station and then transport the mental health client to the regional hospital solo.”

 Willard drove the man to the regional hospital, waited until they accepted him and signed off for him. Then he drove back to Prattsville. By then it was between 7:30 and 8:00 PM.

 Willard had not done any grocery shopping so he drove through McDonald’s and got a meal for his supper.

    When he arrived at home, he noticed that the grass had really grown high in his absence.  He went into the house, changed into his work clothes and was soon mowing his lawn, even though it was now dusk. As he was mowing, Mr. Sedlof from down the street stopped on the sidewalk and called to him,

“Mr. O’Reilly!”

Willard turned off the mower and came out to where Mr. Sedlof was standing.

“Mr. Sedlof, how’re you doing?   It’s been a long time since we talked.“

“Well, I don’t usually see you, except when you are going to work or when you are on the job. The reason I stopped is that I saw you fixing the gutters, caulking the frames of the windows and doors, and then painting. I belong to Habitat for Humanity. We build houses for people who can’t afford decent housing.

“They have a unique program. The houses we build are inexpensive because they are basic housing, built with volunteer labor, and some of the supplies are donated. The people who buy these houses make their down payment through sweat equity. They have to work so many hours helping build houses for other people. The amount of time they work is converted into its value as a laborer. That is credited to their account toward a down payment. When they get a house they have a mortgage for balance.”

“That sounds like a great program.”

“Here is where you can come in. We have a chapter in El Dorado. We meet on a Thursday evening once a month. Then we volunteer to work on building a house, usually on Saturday.  If you want to go, our next meeting is tomorrow night. I’ll be glad to pick you up and take you there if you would like to go and see if it is something you’d like to get involved with.”

“Sounds good. I’d like to go with you, with this caveat. I’ll go if nothing comes up at work.”

“Oh sure. I understand. I’ll pick you up at 6:30 PM. The meeting starts at 7:30 PM.

The next day, work went routinely. Ginger was gradually becoming friendly to him, and also beginning to respect him. There weren’t any incident calls. That night he went to the Habitat for Humanity chapter meeting with Mr. Sedlof. It was in many ways like a civic club.

He was gradually able to figure what the various committees did. One was responsible for raising funds and also the donation of building materials, another one ran a store where recycled building materials were sold , still another committee was responsible for scheduling workers. Before he left, he had volunteered his next Saturday off to help paint a house that was nearing completion.

The next day, he and Ginger were patrolling in a residential neighborhood. He saw a front door open and heard the voices of boys yelling and laughing.  He stopped the car.

“Ginger, The people who live there don’t have any children. I’m going around to the back. I want you to go up to the front door, bang real hard, and say, “THIS IS PRATTSVILLE POLICE. COME OUT RIGHT NOW!  I think that they will run out the back.”

Officer O’Reilly was right. The boys, in their early teens, came running out the back door. As they did so, he managed to grab each one by the arm.  He called for Ginger.

“I want you to cuff these young men, one at a time. Then we are going to take them to jail.”

“Oh, please, Officer, please don’t take us to jail.”

The other one said, “Please, please.”

“Where are your parents?”

“I don’t have a father. My mother is at work. If you call her at work, she could lose her job.”

“The same with me. I don’t have any father. Our moms work at the same place. Their boss is mean. He’ll fire you for the least little thing.”

He took them both to the squad car. After they were inside the car, he sent Ginger inside the house to assess the damage and to lock up the house when she left.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               .  They went back to the station. He asked the jailer if he had an empty cell, because he didn’t want juveniles mixed with adult offenders. He handed them over to the jailer who uncuffed them and put them in a cell away from the adult offenders.

“Ginger, how much damage did those boys do?”

“I don’t think they had a chance to get started. They probably were intent on mischievous vandalism. As it is, they threw some pillows on the floor, upset a magazine rack, and overturned a flower pot.”

“I’m going to talk to their mothers, bring them down to the jail, and then take them over to that house and make them apologize to the people. You go ahead home. I’m going to see this through to the end.”

Willard drove back to the house that had been vandalized. He went to the door and knocked.

“Ma’am, I am Sergeant O’Reilly of the Prattsville Police Department. Earlier today I apprehended two boys who had been inside your house bent on mischief. I have them in a jail cell now. If it is all right with you, I want to bring the boys and their mothers here and have them apologize to you. In order to do it that way I need you to sign a “Refusal to Prosecute”. By the way, what is your name?”

As she signed the form she said, “I am Elizabeth Treadwell. About noon my husband Homer thought that he was having a heart attack. That is why we rushed out of here and I must have left the door unlocked.”

“Mrs. Treadwell, may I have your permission to bring the boys and their mothers here tonight to apologize?”

“If you think that is the best thing to do and if you will promise me that there won’t be any dramatics. My nerves are shot.” 

“I thank you for your cooperation. I’ll be back with them in an hour or so.”

He drove over to the street where the two boys lived. He parked and waited. Soon a beat up old Chevy pulled in and parked at a house. Two women got out.

“Are you Mrs. Mulcahey and Ms. Simpson?  I am Sergeant O’Reilly.”

“Yes, we are. Is there trouble?  Were our boys hurt?”

“Your boys are both in jail right now. They went into the house of an elderly couple and were beginning to vandalize it when my partner and I caught them in the act. The first thing I want to know is why you have left your boys alone all day, bored, ready for whatever comes along.?”

“We don’t have money for babysitters or summer camps or anything else. We just have to trust them.”

“Ladies, if you told that to a judge he would call it child neglect. I want you to enroll them in the program at the YMCA which runs all summer and is designed for families where the adults have to work and there is no one at home to watch the children. If you can’t afford it, they know ways to get someone else to pay.

“Right now, I am going to take you to see your boys in jail. I am going to release them to your care. The next time, it won’t be that easy. From jail I am going to take the four of you to Mrs. Treadwell’s house to apologize to her. You mothers need to apologize to her also. While your boys were in her house intending to vandalize it, she was with her husband at the hospital. After this I am going to be checking with you about those boys. They are at an age when they could turn in either direction.“

When the boys saw their mothers, their faces turned white as a sheet.

“Boys, you are going back to that house with your mothers and you are all going to apologize to Mrs. Treadwell. She had rushed her husband to the hospital several hours before you walked into their home uninvited.”

The apology went well. He drove the two young men and their mothers home.