All's Quiet on the Western Front

As mentioned, all's quiet on the western front. The southern front is a different story.

Now back to last Friday night.

About 10:15 in the evening, as the crowd next door grew larger in size and were of a more altered state, I was monitoring the situation by standing in Beth's room and listening. At this point I heard the renter of the house appear on the deck and say, "Hey, let me tell you what just happened downstairs. That one girl (apparently the guests names are unknown) just slapped that black guy and he shoved her onto my coffeetable and broke it."

At this point, not wanting another girl to leave unconscious, I called 911. This was call number two of the evening form me. I was giving the guy the info, along with a tirade on how my daughter (and all of us in the neighborhood) had to listen to this horrible talk late into the night at least three nights a week. I also mentioned that I thought there was underage drinking and prostitutes (there goes my G rating!). As I was speaking, Mr. D came in to report he had heard the renter say, "She's bleeding all over the place." I relayed the info to Mr. 911 and he immediately said, "We're on the way."

Now, don't get me started on Bloomington 911, but apparently it takes blood to get them moving. They didn't seem too troubled about "Unconscious Girl" since it took 2 calls and 20 minutes to get them to come. Back to Friday at 10:30.

We went back to the window to watch and listen. About 5 minutes passed and we heard a voice yell out to those in the pool area, "The cops are here. Get inside now." There was a scramble, the lights in the pool went out and the flood light on the deck went out. The sliding glass door was closed and the curtains pulled tight.

It was dark and silent....for about 3 minutes.

Then, suddenly, from the back gate (the one the girl escaped from earlier when the police first visited) the yard lit up and the police came rushing in to the deck. There was a girl sitting on the deck and a guy standing there. The policeman said to the girl, "Are you okay, you look like you are crying?" Immediately, the guy started answering for her and said something like, "She's okay, she just..." at which point the policeman said, "Shut up and let her answer my question."

We couldn't hear her reply, but the next order on the agenda was heading in the house to do ID checks. There was a lot of yelling at the police (how stupid is that). We noticed our neighbor Mike standing in his driveway watching the spectacle, so we headed over there (they have a more complete view). There were at least 4 regular patrol cars and two unmarked cars (we couldn't see around the corner so maybe there were more police cars). About 20 minutes after the police arrived, an ambulance showed up, drove slowly by and left.

One arrest was made (I'm guessing underage drinking, but don't know for sure) and the renter was holding a piece of paper (we're guessing a disorderly house citation). The girls could hear him say, "We've learned our lesson, officer. We were just trying to have some fun." To which the policeman said, "That's not fun."

It was really quiet after that. In fact, it was so quiet it was hard to sleep! In fact, it was pretty quiet till Tuesday evening. But, you will have to wait till later to hear that story.

In the meantime, I have to figure out how to download my photos of the 4th. It was another magical evening watching fireworks from the beach at Excelsior, wearing glow necklaces and bracelets, and enjoying a perfect night.