Midnight Adventures

Imagine you're taking your dog on its midnight potty walk (yes, Mom, I walk my dog at midnight before I go to bed). Imagine walking down to the main street of your neighborhood and planning to turn right until timed sprinklers burst to life and drench the sidewalk, sending you to the left instead.

You plan on taking a somewhat lengthy walk. You have things on your mind, which is why your dog notices the procession of uniformly dressed men walking in train formation in the shadows before you do--all walking at the same speed, wearing the same tan pants and dark shirts. Your dog charges them while you're still a full block away, growling to let you know, "Hey, there's, like, twenty men up ahead walking in the shadows." They all turn up a residential street with eerie uniformity, except one, who hangs back on the main street.

There are no street lights in this area, so all you see are backlit shadows and shades of light and dark. While all the other men disappear up a street like a human centipede, you feel the one who stays behind on the main street giving you a death "STAY AWAY!" glare even as his focus stays largely focused in the direction his comrades went.

By this time, you're pretty sure it's the police. Either that, or gang warfare waged by the Khaki Pant Crew. Any inner debate is resolved by the crash of glass and something else shattering--possibly a front door?--and a man's voice over a megaphone repeating: "Police: Executing a search warrant. Get on the ground!" over and over.

About 10 seconds later, the man covering the street is called into the action. You can't see what he's doing. Maybe he has a gun drawn, maybe he doesn't, but he has headed someone off and is screaming for them to get on the ground, too.

Then everything goes silent. In the street, a lone police car in a line of several turns on its flashing lights and the night grows still.

The end? For some, maybe. For me, it's imagination fodder, but someone else had no less than a dozen cops bust through their door tonight. And the chances of them spending time in the jail I just toured last Saturday? Pretty high.

Life is fascinating, no?