Distracted in Early Morning Before Midterms

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Date Occurred: February 3, 1993

Date Written: February 3, 1993

Written by: Joel T. Kant

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My sleep was disturbed last night at about four in the morning. Somebody was pounding on the door of somebody else's apartment just down the hall. That person kept banging on the door and yelling, "Come on out here. I'll whip your ___, you punk ____er."

The reply came back, "My uncle's a cop."

In my half-awake state, I just waited for them to shut up. The yelling continued. The banging continued. I finally woke up enough to realize that the guy in the hall was threatening the people in the room. By this time, I figured I should call the cops. However, the phone seemed so far away and the bed was so warm. Well, all right, it wasn't alturistic of me. I'm not at my best when woken at four am, and I was barely half-awake. Certainly, I am pretty stupid when in this condition, which will become apparent later.

I heard the sound of running feet.

Soon after this, a voice said, "This is the police, open up."

Apparently, somebody more alert than I had called the cops.

"Show me your badge."

"My badge is on my jacket. Look though your peephole."

I thought, "Fine, let the police deal with it." I drifted back towards sleep as I heard a voice in the room say, "I'm going to shoot that (some swear word)."

I thought, "What an idiot. That is not a clever thing to say to a cop."

The cop replied, "You aren't going to shoot anyone."

Rather than being concerned about the excitement, I just wanted to get back to sleep since I had an important midterm in a few hours. Finally, I heard the cop leave.

Here is where I proved to be a Class-One IDIOT! Rather than peacefully going back to sleep, what did I do? I got out of bed, put on some pants, and opened the door.

Two guys stood in the hallway. One guy was tall and clean-shaven. The other had a beard and mustache, along with a no-sleeve tee shirt which showed off the tattoo on his bicep.

I said something inane like, "Is it going to be quiet now?"

As I wrote above, I'm not very sharp at four am.

"Yeah," said Mr. Tattoo, "You got any cigarettes?"

"No. What's going on?"

Mr. Tattoo spoke again, "We were out playing pool at a bar. We won five hundred dollars. This guy wants his money back. We want some cigarettes, but we don't want to leave until the cops catch the guy. You got any cigarettes?"

I repeated my earlier answer, "No. Good night."

I shut my door, locked the deadbolt, put on the chain, took off my pants, and climbed back into bed. I practically succeeded in getting back to sleep although I have a jumbled memory of running feet, and later, of a woman's voice.

I reawoke to the cop's voice and a knocking, but the knocking was not at my door.

The cop said, "Come out here...No, I'm not coming in there. I've seen your shotgun. You come out here!"

I think it was the word shotgun that snapped me back to consciousness.

The cop's voice continued, "We caught (blank). Do you want to press charges?"

Mr. Tattoo's voice replied, "Yes...uh...no. See, we've been drinking. We just want him to stay away. If he stays away, I won't press charges."

Amazingly, I fell back asleep.

Later this afternoon, not sure how much of the incident was real and how much was dreamed, I talked with Alan across the hall. He said that he had called the cops. He also said he found out later that Amy had also called the cops at about the same time. According to Alan, when the pounding on the door was still taking place, there was talk about knives and guns! I had never heard any of that! It shows what an idiot I was for opening my door immediately after the cop left!

Other than that, Alan's memory had pretty much the same story as I did, although Alan hadn't heard the cop come back and say he had caught the guy. Alan also said that after the cop left the first time, Alan looked out his peephole and saw a tall, bushy-haired, white guy run past wearing only underwear.

This fits with the running I heard. Alan also talked about a woman being involved, but he didn't know how. Alan explained that all he had wanted to do was sleep since he had a midterm today.

That complaint of Alan's is exactly how I had felt.

I think it would have been more comforting if Alan hadn't confirmed what I remembered.

THE END

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