Fence Follies - session 3

 We begin again… 

Wednesday 30^th July 1984, 

Sarge sat on the porch listening to his police band scanner, not technically illegal he told himself and God knows how these local cops need help. Besides, there was little else to do, sleep still bought the chance of ‘the dreams’, hot oppressive jungle, fading light, Charlie appearing out the ground, explosions, screams oh the screams and looking down to see his arm hanging by a few sinews. No, sleep was out the question until he passed out at night, normally with the aid of Mr. Daniels. No he wasn’t doing anything illegal, helping the police was the way to fill the void, to get that adrenalin rush of action, no one really understood…

16:10     All units we have a 10-50 PI at Meadow’s Academy, 10-52 

16:15    K-11 10-23

16:30  All units we have a possible 10-10  Meadow’s Academy 

16:30 P-1 10-60. 10-23 eta 3 minutes. 

16:40.  P-1 10-23 possible 10-32 

16:45 All units - possible perp, white male, 5’11” possibly out of towner wearing stolen varsity jacket, 3 other possible accomplices.

16:48.  P-1 10-80 10-78 corner of Baker and 1st

16:49 10-4 P1 P2 10-76

Various interactions about the hunt/chase of suspects – chase result is negative

18:50 10:68 bring in victim from the Academy for statement 10:63

NB – see appendix 1 for code meanings

Sarge sat back and sighed, what with that Easton kid and the drugs and now people breaking into the Meadows it wasn’t a safe place to let Jodie roam about anymore. Maybe he should teach Jake how to use a gun.  A slam from the front door pulled him away from his thoughts, well at least the kids seem to be safe, probably best not to worry Jodie about what seems to be going on. Sarge was glad that Jake seemed to be spending more time with Jodie and looking out for her more, he seems like a good kid, maybe he should cut him some slack.

Earlier that afternoon, outskirt of Hangman’s Thicket, Garuda Lake old town

Jake hoped his jacket wouldn’t get ripped; it was a risk but there was no way he was going to let his step-sis climb the fence without covering what looked like the razor-sharp top. This Academy crap had him wound up, ffs he’d already worried about the fence being booby trapped, lasers cutting them down (was that even possible yet? Sure, lasers were around, those new CD things used them, but powerful enough to kill… but he was glad they had tested for them anyway) and land mines for Christ’s sake. He strained slightly as he boosted each of the ‘gang’ over the fence (he would die, literally shrivel up and die if anyone knew he thought of them as ‘the gang’, he paused to think that Ellis would probably stop him and point out he meant metaphorically not literally – GOD these nerds annoyed him sometimes).

Rose snuck from bush to bush until she was at the edge of the remaining thicket and looked out onto the sports field where a large group of Academy students were embarking on athletics practise, she glanced round to see Ellis hiding behind a shrub to her left and saw little Jodie bush bashing through the bushes to her right. Bless her, she probably thought she was being quiet. Rose just hoped she wasn’t making too much noise but took solace in the fact the students on the field were a good 50m away. A leaf floated down and brushed her arm making her lift her gaze into the tree branches above her. Jake was balanced on one of the larger tree branch junctions gazing intently at the students on the field. 

Ellis wasn’t really sure what he was expecting to happen, he was really going along with the plan because it was a relief to belong to something again, plus, although it was a long shot, he could help his brother in some way. Then maybe, just maybe home would be back to normal… He glanced over to Rose, she looked at home hiding in the bush, hiding and ‘people watching’, he wasn’t going to call it stalking like Jake did although he wondered how many times they had been ‘watching’ him. 

Jake was confused, not the normal, ‘this math problem is confusing darn it,’ confused but an, ‘I know what I am on about and this don’t make any sense’ confused. These Academy kids should not be able to beat the Garuda High kids looking at them practice… NO WAY. It was sooooo obvious to Jake that these kids were not brilliant, still didn’t disprove his ‘robot’ theory, maybe they were only running on half power or something. It was also obvious to the others as well, maybe they were making too much of this, maybe there wasn’t a conspiracy and drugs involved. However, they had made the effort so they may as well continue with the plan of entering the school and looking around for anything dodgy. 

Just as the ‘gang’ were deciding which of the plans was least risky they noted the kids on the field huddle around the coach. OOOo thought Jake this could be a good opportunity to make a dash for it, obviously they were huddling around to do the hands in, XXX ON THREE routine which tended to mark the end of every practise that Jake had ever attended. Even Rose thought it was a good time to try and sneak across the field while they were occupied. 

Only Jodie noticed that something was a bit strange with the ‘huddle’. A slight feeling of disgust washed over her, she was sure that they were dipping their fingers into something and then licking them, HOW DISGUSTING… She had done it once with peanut butter when she was a kid and had got into SOOOoo much trouble, her mum had kept the jar and showed her the mold that had developed from the ‘germs on her fingers’. It was one of the few times she had got told off by her mum and she would never do it again, maybe these kids knew no better. She wished her mum was still around…

The others, oblivious to what was going on (possibly as they were all proponents of the old finger dive and lick) did wonder what had invoked such a reaction in ‘the kid’. 

“What’s up Jodie?’ enquired Ellis quietly hoping to be a role model and stop Jodie shrieking. Jodie thought that witnessing the disgusting event was almost, but only almost, worth having Ellis put his hand on her shoulder. She blurted out what she had seen,

“They were dipping their hands into something and then licking them, like Yogi Bear and a honey pot…. Errrrr it’s disgusting, don’t they know what can happen to them….”

As the other two tried to calm Jodie down and get to the bottom of what it is she had actually seen Jake was far, far more interested to what was happening on the field. As they moved away from the huddle the Academy kids were suddenly faster, stronger and it seemed even more ‘aggressive’. These were the kids who had thrashed Garuda High’s asses, these were the kids who had beaten the crap out of him, the others turned and saw him pointing a gawping as the kids flew around the track and javelins soared through the air to almost Olympic medal distances. 

The drug conspiracy was back on… They had to get their hands on the stuff, the ‘honey pot’ as Jodie had called it. But how? A lively debate ensued about the best way of nicking it from the field although the prospect of trying to outrun these doped up kids (or alternatively revved up robots depending on whom the reader sides with) was not one that any of them were relishing. 

Rose then caught their attention and pointed, a runner was doing the 400m but keeps speeding up and speeding up… after what must have been 1000m they were still sprinting, Jake in particular was in awe and to be fair slightly jealous until she stopped, not slowed down to a stop but just stopped. The body seemed to move in slow motion, the limbs just stopped but the momentum carried the torso on until it just face planted into the floor. All the other kids seemed to ignore it, just the coach and one other adult walked over towards the body. By the time they got there the ‘gang’ could her a first responder siren getting closer and closer…. “But no one called the ambulance…” murmured Ellis.

As furtive, confused looks, were passed between them another a mumbling voice was heard from behind the bushes and ragged oak trunks, it seemed to be coming from where they had left the rope trailing over the fence. As they crawled nearer it seemed that it was some kind of gardener, at least he seemed to have garden tools in his toolbelt, and he appeared to be talking to himself. On closer listening it sounded like one mumbled side of a conversation. Peering hard no one could see any sort of walkie talkie are new fangled earpiece communicator, yet it sounded like a conversation. 

“Yes there is a rope over the wall near the practice grounds…. No one in sight but must search the area….. I will detain them….”

Rose tapped Ellis on the shoulder and pointed, from across the field adults were converging on the thicket, not running, not shouting, just walking purposely towards their location.

“Guys, let’s get the fuck out of here,” she hissed in a stage whisper while pointing to the converging adults.

Before Ellis could feel surprised at hearing Rose swear the gardener began to turn around…

Intentions were shown and not discussed, Jake picked up a rock and hurled it into a bush 10m to the side of the man who then turned suddenly and strode towards the noise. Ellis and Rose bolted for the rope, grabbing Jodie on the way, Jake picked up another rock and got between the man and the fence. Hearing Rose cry out as Ellis failed to ‘boost’ her up the gardener turned.

“You kids STOP, stop right now… Put the rock down son you don’t want to do that…” 

But Jake did want to do it and as Jodie scrambled over the rope he unleashed a throw and the rock hit the gardener, who collapsed on one knee but not before pulling a handled rectangular device out of his belt and tightened his trigger finger onto a lever under it. Jake dived for the man, remembering the only knife defence session Sensei had let him attend, he grabbed the man’s hand with both of his, moved to the side and twisted the man’s wrist, as a cry forced itself from his diaphragm the man loosened his grip and Jake slid the device/gun out of his hands.

“Son,  give it me back, give it me back and it will all be alright.” 

But Jake knew it wouldn’t be alright, the so called gardener had already mentioned his varsity jacket. So, he smacked him ‘jodan tsuki’ to the temple and the man dropped… Jake was over the rope in a flash.

“This way, then we will loose them..” yelled Jodie, a slight tremor in her voice as if she was trying to persuade herself… A police car siren could be heard in the distance.

By the time they got to Ellis’s house Jake had thought of a plan, Mr. Jackson (the caretaker) caught him as he entered the gym to stash the ‘gun’ in a locker but luckily saw it as nothing out of the ordinary. Jake figured that if they played it right they could manufacture an alibi for the whole morning. 

Jodie, Ellis and Rose would have just finished ‘hanging out in the tree house’ while Jake arrived from a workout to pick Jodie up… Sweet talking all around seemed to convince Mrs. Easton that the sequence of events was indeed as Jake described and she was sad to see Eliis’s possible new ‘special friend’ leave…

As Jodie was washing up before dinner Jake had some bonding time with the Sarge who was listening to his ‘not actually illegal’ police frequency scanner. Actually, Jake just wanted to know what the Sarge had heard and to lay the seeds of the alibi in his step pa’s head… It seemed to work, in fact he was just internally congratulating himself when heavy footsteps pounded up the porch steps followed by heavy knocks on the door. 

“Bob, Bob its Stu… err I mean Officer Jackson here… open up Bob we need a word with you about this afternoon…”

Sarge looked at Jake,

“Open the door son, let’s see what the cops want…”

Appendix 1 

Police call codes

10-50 Accident PI – personal injury.

10-52 ambulance required.

K-11 emergency vehicle K-11 P-1 P-2 squad cars

10-23 arrived on scene. 

10-10 fight in progress

10-60 Squad in vicinity

10-32Person with gun

10-4 acknowledgement 

10-76 En route

10-80 Chase in progress

10-78 Assistance needed

10-68 Dispatch information

10:63 prepare written copy