CHANGE OF LIFE - Chapter 20

On Thursday Willard and Ginger were on patrol on Main Street. It had been a dull week so far. Willard had stopped at the donut shop intending to get some coffee to shake the drowsiness that he was feeling. Suddenly, a newer model Cadillac came screeching around a corner onto Main Street. The driver had difficulty recovering from the turn. Then he was weaving back and forth. As the car passed them they saw that the driver, a well dressed older man, had a look of stupor on his face. Before Willard could pull away from the curb, the Cadillac swerved and hit a parking meter before jumping the curb and hitting a concrete wall.

Ginger said, “Just what we need a drunken driver in midafternoon.”

Willard ran over to the car and rapped on the window with his stick.

“ Open the window or the door.”

The man gave him a crazy look but opened the window. Willard smelled a fruity odor. He saw that the man’s complexion was ashen and he felt clammy to the touch.

“Ginger, go get me orange juice, chocolate milk, jelly – something with sugar . This man has low blood sugar.”

“How can you tell?  You aren’t a doctor, a nurse, or EMT.

“Just do what I told you and move it!!”

She ran across the street into a restaurant and came back with some orange juice. Willard held the foam cup of orange juice to the man and he drank it all down. In a few minutes the man said,

“I have been hurrying around all day. I knew that I needed to stop and get some lunch, but then they told me to go out and look at something on a house that was foreclosed. As I was driving I became dizzy, then there was a bright light in the center of my vision. I couldn’t see where I was going.”

The man was a Vice-President of one of the local banks. When it was all over Ginger asked, “How did you know that he wasn’t drunk, but was sick?  You saved his life.”

“I’ve been around a lot of drunks. He didn’t look drunk, he looked sick.”

After he had finished writing up the incident, Lieutenant Hageman said,

“Sergeant O’Reilly, Captain Castor would like to see you in his office.”

“O boy, what have I done now?”

In his office, Captain Castor said,

“Stand at ease, Sergeant. I have heard from different sources what you have been doing with those two boys, Trey Mulcahey and Lance Simpson. Locking them up in a jail cell without booking them and then taking their mothers back to lock up to see them there was unorthodox to say the least. Nor was it by the book. I understand that you made the boys AND THEIR MOTHERS apologize to the woman whose house was vandalized. That was hardly by the book.

“Then I heard that you were seen at Lake Husted with the mothers and their boys at the fireworks display. Finally, an anonymous caller said that you paid $360 with your personal check for the boys to join a program at the YMCA. The caller said that you might be a child molester trying to get close to these two boys.”

Willard’s face turned red. He made a fist with his hands. He started to say something and the Captain cut him short.

“No one in this department thinks you are a child molester. You are a big hearted Irish cop who is trying to stop trouble in the lives of two boys, nip it in the bud, and try to turn them in another direction.

“What I want you to do is an additional duty. It might run into some of your off duty time and I can’t pay you overtime or comp time if it does. What I want you to do is find out how many other girls and boys in our small city are in the same situation: children with single moms, children with no account moms or dads or both, children who are raising themselves and are on the verge of trouble.

“I am appointing you to head up an Early Intervention Task Force. I am going to send a letter to the Juvenile Court judge, the Child Protection office, and to the DHS office that gives aid and assistance to mothers and children. I am going to ask them to give you any assistance that you require. I want you to identify children like Trey and Lance who are just on the verge of being a problem. Then I want you to recruit other police officers and other responsible adults to do the same sort of thing for other children that you are doing for Trey and Lance. Go to the Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization in one of the cities and ask them to tell you what the pitfalls are in a program like this. Will you do it?”

“I’ll have to think about how to do this, but yes, I’ll give it my best shot.”

“Thank you, Sergeant. You are dismissed.” 

 He told Ginger what the Captain had said.

Ginger said, “That is wonderful. You will do a great job. You really are a soft hearted man under your gruff exterior.”

He also told his lieutenant so he would know that he would be working on this at times while they were on patrol.

On Friday evening Willard picked up his laundry from Comet Laundry and Dry Cleaners. It was over $25. “I really have to learn to use the washer and dryer in my home. This is getting expensive.”

He didn’t feel like fixing supper so he turned onto Myrtle Street and parked at Mollie’s Restaurant. Most of the week it closed after the noon meal but on Thursday and Friday nights it served supper. As he entered the dining room, he saw Rev. Garvey from the Methodist Church sitting by himself.

“Pastor, are you eating alone, if so do you mind if I join you?”

“Yes, I’m alone. My wife and children have gone to spend a week at her mother’s since the kids are not in school. Please join me.”

The waitress came to take Willard’s order. After he ordered she said,

“Pastor, your order is just about ready.”

Willard said, “I’m glad that I met you here. There are two things I have been wanting to talk to you about – one professional, the other is personal.”

“Why don’t you start with the professional question. They are always easier to talk about.”

“I have just been appointed the head of the police department Early Intervention Task Force. We want to identify children who are not getting support and supervision at home. We would intervene by pairing them up with a responsible adult who can give them encouragement and direction. This would be before they become lawbreakers and have to be dealt with by the courts and put into detention centers. As the Task Force gets under way I am going to need responsible, caring adults. You can tell me which members of your church fit into that category.

“My personal question is this – While I was on vacation recently, I wandered into a Methodist Church on Sunday and attended Morning Worship. The minister, actually he was a lay preacher, said things that touched me very deeply. I am almost fifty years old. I have lived in this town twenty-five years and haven’t attended church. Since I have returned from vacation, I have attended church every Sunday. Your sermons answer questions that I have.

“My fundamental question is how can I know God?  I hear the expression ‘Have faith in God’. Pastor, I don’t know God, I don’t know anything about God. I sure don’t know what faith is, so I’m sure that I don’t have any of it. Is there a book that I can read, a series of talks on DVD?  How can I know God?  How can I love God?”

“Willard, the best book to read is the Bible. Go to a book store and buy a modern language Bible such as New King James Version, or English Standard Version. Most Bibles that people have in their house are the King James Version. That is written in Shakespearean language which is hard to understand. Either of those versions which I will write on this napkin are in the language that we use today. When you get a Bible, start with the New Testament. Read through the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – then go back and read through them again. Keep a notebook beside you and write down questions that come to you. Then come back to me.”

“Thank you, Pastor.”

Willard really enjoyed his meal. He felt good about his talk with the Reverend Garvey.

He drove home listening to music on the radio. He took the bundle of laundry upstairs and was untying it when the phone rang. He ran downstairs and answered it,

“Dolores?”