So, I'm awoken at 1:30 a.m. by sirens. It took me several minutes to realize they hadn't moved away. I poked Don, trying to rouse him from deep sleep, then pulled off my breathing mask and headed down the hallway. I could see the flashing lights reflecting off the walls near the children's rooms.
The boys had gone to bed without closing their door, so I scooted into their bedroom and peeked out the window. There, in our second driveway (which is on the side of the house with both Deanna's room and the boy's room) was a police cruiser with lights flashing and sirens blaring. In the middle of the street, just up a little ways, another cruiser was stretched across both lanes blocking any access by vehicles. There were policemen standing in the street and a lot of yelling. I considered walking up to find out what was happening, then it occurred to me that there could be a "bad person" (as the children call them) running around and figured it was best I stay locked safely inside, away from any stray bullets.
Deanna appeared at my elbow.
"What's going on, Mama"" she asked. "The lights are flashing in my room."
Before I could respond, Dane sat bolt upright in bed.
"Yeah, Mom," he added. "The sirens woke ME. What's happening out there?"
I explained what I could see, which wasn't much except policemen milling around and yelling. After a few minutes, one of them approached the cruiser in our driveway and turned off the siren. It looked like he was going to leave when he pulled out his flashlight and headed down our driveway into the backyard. I ran into Deanna's room to watch out her back window, which looks into the backyard.
A few minutes later, he walked back past the window, heading back into the driveway. I went back to bed, where Don finally stirred and asked what was happening. I told him what I had seen, put my mask back on, and settled down to sleep.
Then Donovan began growling. It's very unsettling to be lying in bed with a dog on top of your legs growling at the door that leads from your bedroom onto your deck and into the yard. I heard what sounded like a barrel (Don has several rain barrels next to his shed, which just happen to be outside Deanna's back window) being knocked to the ground. I immediately began to worry about Deanna and considered crawling into bed with her to make sure she was safe. But I was pretty sure she was sound asleep and didn't want to wake her. I laid in bed and prayed.
Around 7:30, Don called from work. He told me that he had called the Sheriff's Department, that they said they had just changed shifts, and didn't know anything, to my astonishment. Don suggested I call a few of the neighbors, which I did.
The most I've been able to piece together is that the police were chasing a car down our road. We don't know why, just that there was some type of chase. Just past our house, where a side road turns off from our road, the car stopped, and the driver took off running, with the police in pursuit, behind OUR HOUSE! There was a woman still in the vehicle, so one police cruiser kept tabs on it and her. No one seemed to know if they had caught the driver or why he was running.
When I told Deanna what I had found out, she said that the police remained in our driveway with lights flashing for about 2 hours. She said, at one point, they were right outside her bedroom window. She thinks they may have knocked on her window with a flashlight and heard them yell, "Are you in there?"
She was scared out of her wits. I told her about the barrel sound and she said it was probably the door of the cruiser being shut, that the officers were very noisy. I told her she should've come and told me. Either I would have slept with her or put her in our bed.
Of course, it's easy to give advice now, after the fact. Truth is, I was scared, too. I didn't know what was happening, but it seemed to be happening right around my children's bedrooms.
To lighten Deanna's mood a little this morning, I told her that if that even happens again, she should immediately open her blind, stick her little face against the window, and yell out to the policeman,
"Yes, I'm in here. But I'm only 12 and have school tomorrow. Could you catch the crooks a little quieter, please! Oh, and, by the way, we're all out of coffee. You'll have to get that from Krispy Kreme."
She laughed as she chided me. I just hope she's not going to be scared again tonight. Humor can only make things better for so long.
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