I had all kinds of surprises waiting for me when I got home.
The first surprise was I had to walk five blocks in my tiny little high-heeled shoes. Fancy clean neighborhoods like I lived in didn't have much use for bus services. That meant the runs were only done on the main through streets. My feet were killing me by the time I had walked two blocks. I wanted to just take my shoes off and go in my stocking feet but that would have meant ruining my pantyhose. I didn't want to do that. I had very few pair of hose that would be suitable for wearing with my CB dress.
The second surprise was somewhat more painful. I was within a block of home when Johnny King pulled up along side of me and offered me a ride. I played it casual and told him I was taking a little walk.
"In that outfit?" he wanted to know.
I looked at myself. I was covered up some from last night thanks to Sid's shirt but I still looked out of place in my tiny high-healed shoes and I was showing a lot of leg. If I had been wearing shorts or something it would have looked alright. As it was it didn't look too cool.
I decided to let him talk me into giving me a ride. Once I was in his car he asked all kinds of embarrassing questions. Why hadn't I been in school lately? Was I suspended? Was it true that I had been arrested? He had gotten that last tid bit from the paper. I couldn't explain everything to him. I told him to just not ask. He agreed to not talk about it.
He had wanted to see me and take me to his uncle's. They were having a backyard barbecue and Johnny thought it would be a good time to see me again. I told him that I wasn't free that night and thanked him. It made me nervous to be talking to a regular boy all of a sudden. I had known Johnny all of my life. Because of some bureaucratic hype we suddenly couldn't go out together. Soon we would be enemies.
We were coming up the block to my parents house when I saw it. There was a police car in our driveway. My stomach turned a flip. "Keep driving!" I told Johnny.
"What? Can't you see that the police are at your house? Something must have happened!" he explained as he pulled to a stop in front of the house. I was trying to get him to get us out of there when he had already jumped out of his car, came around to my side and was holding my door open urging me to hurry up. I exited the car in a daze. What could I do? I didn't want to go in there. I didn't want anything to do with the police.
I felt a quick flash of guilt. Maybe something had happened to the folks or Shela. I had been so centered on myself. Maybe something was wrong. Johnny and I ran into the house. Everyone was in the front room.
"Mom, what's the matter?"
"Sue Ann Tegor?" a big cop asked as he positioned himself directly between my mom and myself. Another cop moved to stand behind me.
I swallowed. It looked like they were after me after all. I couldn't lie and claim to be someone else. I had called mom 'mom' and there was Johnny behind me. I wondered briefly if I could ask the police to do this outside away from everyone else. I was sure they were going to arrest me. If only I could have run. "Y...y..yes?"
"I have a warrant for your arrest. Please place your hands behind you."
I did as quickly as I could. I didn't want them getting rough. I hoped they wouldn't claim I had resisted again. The steel was locked around my wrists--again. I heard Johnny protest. He was pushed to one side and ordered to be quiet.
"Do you have any weapons on you?"
"No officer."
My purse was taken. The strap was between my arms. The cop behind me gave it a hard yank and broke the strap on the chain between my wrists. It hurt like crazy and I cried out in surprise and pain. This was interpreted by the cop in front of me as resistance. He grabbed me my by my hair and dragged me to the floor. Mom screamed. Johnny jumped forward and was pushed back into a chair.
"You can make this hard or you can come easy." the cop pulling my hair told me.
"I...I..I don't want any trouble." I told him. My heart was pounding.
"Get up!"
"Yes officer." I was pulled to my feet by my hair. The cop behind me grabbed me by the chain between my wrists and pulled my arms way up behind me. My hair was released. "Ow! Owww! Don't hurt me, I'm not doing anything!"
Sid's shirt was pulled open and pushed back behind me pinning my arms further to my rear. I was exposed. Everyone could see how I was dressed.
"Look what we have here! I think she's been prostituting herself. She got any drugs there?" the cop in front of me was asking a third cop, a woman. She was going thorough my purse.
"Nope."
The cop in front of me looked disappointed. "Who's the boy? Speak up son! Who are you?"
"Johnny Douglas, sir." Johnny answered almost reverently.
"What are you doing with her? Did she try to get you to use or buy drugs?"
"N...n..no! Is That what this is all about?"
"Your girlfriend is believed to be dealing drugs. Do you know anything about it?"
"No, sir."
"Relax son. We aren't here to arrest you. We caught Sue here trying to make a drug buy yesterday. She managed to get away from us but she left her ID behind her. Pretty stupid, huh?"
"I..I guess." Johnny admitted.
"I didn't do anything!" I told the cop. The cop behind me brought my hands up further behind me. I gritted my teeth in pain and frustration. "Let go of me!"
"You tried to escape. Go ahead, you're just digging the hole you're in even deeper."
How could I do that? They already had made up their minds about me. Why did they want to persecute me? Other than the fact that I was a CB. I mean that was it. Why push it? I couldn't help being what I was.
The female cop had finished with my purse. She came up beside me and began patting me down in front of Johnny and my mother while the other cop behind me kept trying to see how high he could raise my hands up behind me.
"Look!" the big cop said to me. "I'm going to give you one last chance to clear yourself. Tell us who your girlfriend is. The one selling drugs to you and we'll go get her and set you free. We don't want you. We'd rather have the big players."
"I haven't done anything." I told him from between clinched teeth. "Why don't you leave me alone? I don't have any drugs."
"Where were you last night?"
"I went to the Gas City bar!"
"What'd you do there?"
"I got drunk!"
"You aren't eighteen yet are you?"
"No!"
"You just admitted in front of witnesses that you broke the law. Who'd you talk to?"
"I've got nothing to say."
"Why? What other laws did you break last night?"
"None!"
"You said that before and I got you to admit you broke the law once. How many other things did you do?"
"I respectfully refuse to answer any more questions until I have a legal advisor present. I think that's the correct way to put it!" I told the big bully.
"Honey, cooperate with them..." I heard mom plead with me.
I ignored her. I was in enough hot water already. It was time to keep my mouth shut.
"You would be wise to do as your mother is telling you to do. We don't want you. We just want to get the drugs off the street. Do you want us to take you downtown?"
I didn't answer.
"Is that it? You are forcing me to lock you up."
I waited for the inevitable.
"Put this soulless wonder in the car!" the big cop ordered. The cop behind me began pulling me backwards out of the room. I could see Johnny. His eyes were about to pop out of his head. He was probably more scared than he had ever been in his life. I was alright. I was getting used to the police rousting me. I was more mad than anything. If I could have gotten my hands free I think I would have used then to try to beat in the big cop's face.
Outside I was allowed to walk forward after the female cop came out to help the cop who was holding my hands up. She grabbed me by my hair and the two of them pushed and shoved me until they had dumped me in their car. The seat belt was fastened around me and the door closed and locked. I sat in the vehicle and tried to sort out my emotions. Outside the door the female cop stood guard over me. I saw some of the neighbors standing on the lawn next to our house trying to find out what was going on. I saw Mrs. Murphy. She recognized me. I remembered her daughter. I had harassed her. What was her name? I couldn't remember. I hoped she couldn't remember mine.
I was out in the car for about a half an hour before I saw Johnny get in his car and leave. He stared at me like I had grown a second head or something. Couldn't he see that I hadn't changed? He knew I was a CB. it was over. Soon everyone would know that Ed and Martha Tegor's daughter, Sue, is a CB. It was starting.
I wondered if the police had let it slip what I was. They knew I was a CB. There was no doubt. That was why they came back for me. I wished they would hurry up and get me booked so I could get bailed out. My wrists were starting to hurt. I wanted to stretch out my arms, they were cramping up. I kept sitting there. I figured that they had called dad and were waiting for him to get there. Maybe there was some way they could release me into his custody and I wouldn't have to go downtown. I remembered the strip search. I didn't want to have to endure that again.
***
I had wanted to learn what it was to be a CB. The police were teaching me. Before I was taken downtown there was a short stop where I was pulled from the police car and roughed up. I don't know what they were trying to prove by slapping me around. They told me they'd stop hitting me if I'd tell them who my supplier was. It was really sickening. The idea of taking someone and trying to beat a confession out of them was repugnant. They thought they were doing what was right. What kind of a world did they live in?
They pushed me again into the back of their car when they were done. I was mad. I was determined to get back at them. The idea of grown men hitting me, a seventeen-year-old girl, while my hands were tied behind my back was more than I could deal with!
Downtown I went through the same exact booking process that I had the first time except dad didn't come to bail me out. On the second day of my incarceration I had been moved to a separate cell with only one other girl.
It was several days before I saw dad. Mom was with him. We were put in room with a glass partition separating us. I was in prison garb, a plain gray dress with no belt and the word "PRISONER" and the letters "NS" stenciled on the front and back. It was no secret any longer what I was.
I was being held for drug trafficking and resisting arrest, of course. Bail was 10,000 credits. Dad was having trouble raising that kind of money. He would have to put up the house. Mom didn't want him to do that. I didn't blame her. Quicker than I could get out of one jam I was getting into another. What was the use? I didn't understand what was going on.
I had been offered a plea bargain. If I would plead guilty to possession of a controlled substance and accept an adult sentence of two years in a labor camp or pay out for 12,000 credits they would drop all other charges.
It was a quiet meeting between the folks and me. We had changed. Dad was being pressured in places that he couldn't do anything about. The church was making noises about taking Shela and putting her in 'a more suitable environment'. Mom looked bad. I think she really thought I had done all the things the police had said I had done including resisting arrest. I didn't press it.
I was at a loss. What could I expect from the folks? I was almost glad I had been arrested again. My problems had all been solved. I would get out of the house and the family could continue their life without me. I had been exposed as a CB so I didn't have to worry about telling everyone myself any more.
Shela didn't want to see me. I wasn't surprised. I think mom was willing to give me up, no, make that wanting to give me up. Dad had lost his job due to some unforseen changes at work that only affected him.
I had done that to them. I wished there was some way I could make things right. It wasn't fair that they had been so good to me all of my life and I had brought all of that down on them.
***
Two days before my trial dad managed to come up with the bail. I had already resigned myself to never seeing them again. I was given a clean change of clothes that dad had brought for me with him then I was taken to city hall by an underground connecting tunnel. I know it hurt dad for him to think of what all they had done to me in the weeks it took to get up the money to have me set free.
He hugged me when I finally got out to where they had made him wait. It was a gentle hug. We didn't cry. We were both too bitter. Mom didn't come. She and Shela wouldn't be there when I came home. I didn't know why dad had bothered to get me out. It was hopeless.
When we got home I could see where the house had not been cleaned and the yard was a mess. Dad said mom had taken Shela and gone to live with her mother until things died down some. My old friends were coming by at night and driving their cars through the yard, leaving dead animals on the lawn, burning our bushes, throwing out trash, and what ever else they could think of.
I wanted to go back to jail. I was hurting the people I cared the most about.
I fixed dinner for dad and myself and spent the night working like a crazy person straightening the house. Around midnight we were visited by several boys in the front yard throwing stones and breaking out windows. They were saying all sorts of bad things about me and how I was a CB who had pretended to be real. Dad switched on the lights outside and went out with his rifle to get them to leave. I was able to get a good look at their faces. I didn't know any of them. Why would complete strangers come by in the middle of the night to break our windows? It didn't make sense.
The next morning I helped dad repair the broken windows. After I had fixed a nice lunch that neither of us ate much of, I spent the afternoon working in the yard. I knew I was just tempting our vandals to do more damage but I didn't feel like being afraid to try to make our house look good. That would be giving up.
I was bagging up a dead cat I had found in one of the shrubs when a white car pulled into the driveway. Dad started running to put himself between the unwelcome car and me. I just stood there waiting for what ever was to come next.
It was Johnny Douglas. He got out of the car. Dad was headed towards him. I saw Johnny raise his hands in a show of submission. "I wanted to see Sue, is it alright?" He told dad.
Dad stopped short unsure how to react.
I walked up to where Johnny stood. "You don't want to harass us?" I asked. I don't know what I expected.
"No, of course not. I came when I heard you were out. I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry about what's been happening."
"Thank you. Dad's been having a hard time. It's good to see someone that isn't upset with us. You can see where everybody's been messing with our yard. Why is it that you're not mad at us too?"
"I don't see anything wrong with being a CB. I never noticed anything different about you before. I think we are all the same, Sue. You are just as good as me."
"That's very big of you."
"I didn't mean it like that, Sue. Look I just came by to say I think you're ok and I still want to be your friend."
I looked at him. Would I have done the same if the shoe was on the other foot? I didn't think so. I had been a pretty big CB hater before I knew that I was one. I wouldn't drive across their lawn but I would have avoided them almost to the point of crossing the street to get by them.
"You're pretty cool yourself, Johnny."
"No problem. I just thought it was something that might need saying. Well I've got to go, I've got homework up the butt. If you get time call me, ok?"
Dad had been standing by with a rake clutched in his hand like a weapon of some kind. He finally relaxed and left to resume what he had been doing.
"Thanks, but I'd better not. It would just lead to more trouble. I like you and all and that's why I'd better leave you alone."
He started to get back into his car.
"Hey! Let me ask you something if I can, Johnny."
"Sure Sue, what is it?"
"We had three guys come out here last night to harass us. I'd never seen them before. Are kids coming from other schools to give us a hard time or what?"
"I don't know. What'd they look like?"
"Well, it's hard to say. They were all wearing jeans and jackets. One was real tall and had blond hair. One was a little fat and had a face full of pimples and the only thing I can remember about the other one was he had dark or black hair. Ring any bells for you?"
"No, not really. Did you report them to the police?"
"We don't talk to the police. They would rather arrest me than look at me, I think."
"They sure were rough on you that day they got you. I wish I could have done something."
"There was nothing you could do, Johnny."
"When I got home I remembered how you had wanted me to go on by when we saw their car in front of your house. I've wished a million times that I had done just that. If it hadn't been for me they might not have got you."
"Oh, don't feel that way. Sounds like you've been laying a guilt trip on yourself. Who knows what may have happened if I had tried to run. They might have ended up shooting me. No, I didn't like what happened, but you did right. Ok?"
"Ok, thanks. I feel a lot better knowing you don't hate my guts or something, Sue."
I laughed. "I feel good that you don't hate me too."
Johnny laughed back. "I'll see ya' later. Call me if I can do anything, ok?"
"Ok, thanks Johnny."
He waived and left. I felt much better. Not everyone hated me. At that point I needed to know that. I knew even dad was upset with me.
The whole book in zipfile format.
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