My dad's friend, the cop

My father always warned us about this. I grew up to his stories, his far-fetched unrealistic stories. I used to believe every word he said, when I was a teenager, but his stories were always so extreme, so as I grew up, I figured he was just trying to scare me and my brothers into behaving. He always feared for us, he lived his life scared that we would end up like the people he knew.

He was a police officer. He spent his days around felons and victims. Safe to say he got his fair share of bad news. Every family dinner we had, every road trip we took, they were all governed by his unrealistic stories of what would happen if we got mixed up with the wrong people.

When I was little, I believed him. He scared me into behaving. But ever since I turned 14, I realized that 90% of what he said were just exaggerated stories to make us fall in line, and those stories won’t work on me anymore. I’ve been arrested a few of times, and just to prove that everything he told us was a lie, nothing ever happened to me. I’m still loved at school, I’ve never even spent a night in jail, and all my friends think I’m cool – as opposed to his famous story ending “and when he got out, no one would talk to him anymore”.

So here I was again, back in the same cell that my father’s friend always put me in, waiting for my father to come and take me home. Yesterday was a wild night. It was Tommy’s 19th birthday, so we all went out to party. I was the designated driver, and I may have had a couple of drinks, so we got stopped over on our way back at about 7am – yeah it was a wild one. The funny thing is that I know what will happen. My father will get here at around 9am, he will talk to the cop that arrested me, then to his friend, the one who put me here. They will erase my name from the system, and he’ll give me a ride home. He’ll yell at me on our way back, then calm down before explaining that he was only yelling because he cared. And there it was, happening now. Dad just got here, talked to the guy that arrested me, and now talking to his friend. Only matter of seconds before I’m out of this cell.

Dad approaches me, will the screaming match start here or in the car this time? Only one way to find out.

“Fred,” dad says, in a low tone, seems like the screaming will happen later, “How could you do this. You put your life and your friends’ lives at risk”, ok so the calm I care about you phase is coming out first, nice twist, “You know how much I care about you, and you know that I am only doing this to protect you, right?” “Yeah dad, I know, but I was completely aware when driving, no one’s life was at risk you know…” “Aware? The alcohol levels in your blood were as high as an alcoholic after a bender, you’re lucky you didn’t pass out while driving. But honey,” he switched back to the low tone, “I’m not here to argue, I just wanted you to understand why I had to do this” he says as he turned and walked away.

What’s happening? Is he leaving me here? Is that his way of punishing me? I can handle a day in this cell. But I’m sure he can’t. And I was right, I can see Bob walking my way, this is the part where he lets me out of this fucking cage.

“Come with me” says Bob. I guess we’re going to get my stuff. But instead, we walk to a place I haven’t been before. “Where are we going?” “You’ll see”.

I turn to look at dad but his back is turned “Dad? Where is he taking me? Dad! Daddy!!”

But he never turned, and we arrive to a long hall filled with doors. Bob gets me to the end of the hall before he instructs me to enter the last room. I resist but he gives me a look that I know, get in or get hurt.

I enter, it’s a small interrogation room no different that the ones I’ve seen on TV, with a big mirror which I can only assume has people looking at us from the other side.

“Sit”

And I obey. Bob sits on the chair facing me, and handcuffs me to the table. I try to resist but it’s futile, I’m almost half his size, it’s as if he was handcuffing his 9 year old.

“You know, Fred, your dad hates to do this, but he thinks this is the only way you will learn”

“Do what? Scare me? I’m not easily scared Bob”

“Listen carefully before you give another snarky answer kid”

“Or what?”

“Your dad wanted me to deal with you as I would with any other person we might have arrested, so shut up and comply, and you’ll be out of here soon enough, but continue this nonesense, and you’ll see how we handle disobedience in this precinct”

“Bob, let me tell you how this will go” I say, leaning forward on the table, clutching my hands together, “ you’ll start by scaring me, telling me what happens to people that do this kind of stuff, then threaten me that you’ll add a DUI to my record. In a couple of hours, my dad will have you release me. I’ll go home, cry a bit, and my daddy will erase anything you might have added to my record. So you can play bad cop all you want, but I know that I have a good cop at home ready to do as I say”

I see the anger rising in Bob’s eyes and I know I got him. I can read him like a paper. He lost, and he knows it, and now he’s just trying to find another threat he can throw at me.

“Kid,” he says as his face expression lighten “you think you know everything, don’t you? Well I got news for you, what happens in these rooms, and what we say happens in these rooms are two completely different things, so since you think you know everything, let me shed some lights on a few things you don’t know”. Bob stands up and exits the room.

I couldn’t understand his body language anymore, he was angry, just not frustrated as I thought he would be. I wait anxiously for his return, tyring to understand what he meant by what he said.