The Blind Man Society

After fumbling with my keys for a minute, I entered the apartment, made my way through the kitchen, and walked down the hall to my door.  I set the guitar down in my hallway, put my bag on the bed, and plunked down at the desk in front of my laptop.  Powering it on, I glanced at the neon white numbers of my desk alarm clock and then back at the screen.  Logging in, I open the main document of a book that I say I’m working on to friends and family whenever they ask me what I’m up to every day.  My stock answer is: Writing.  Of course, most people don’t believe me when I say this because I’ve been saying it for years with little to show for it.  But, I am head writer for a popular website and they know that something must be happening every day.  Perhaps you have heard of it.  Its called, The Blind Man Society?

Scrolling through the pages of the word document because I waited too long to click on the pick up where you left off box, is a real pain.  And, time consuming.  But, I finally reach the spot, and type out the story I came up with at the pool.  It’s a slow process, and I’m only able to remember about six words at a time while I transfer it over to the word document.  But, before too long its all there, and I start in on the story once more.

This particular chapter, is dealing with feeding Police Officers.  How does one go about this?  Well, here’s what I wrote:

It was Friday. 

I was driving down the freeway, and headed for my lucky traffic light.  I shifted the manual transmission car I was in, and adjusted my speed as I headed up the exit ramp to Good Hope Road, in Milwaukee.  The light at the top of the ramp was red, and I shifted into neutral so that the car coasted and slowed.  I was almost at the top of the ramp, and the light turned green.  I floored it, and raced through the intersection.  In those days, hitting a green light on that ramp meant I was assured I could do no wrong from that point forward, and for the rest of the day and night.  It was a secret weapon and precursor for all important activities. 

I turned left through the intersection and sped up, heading down the slanting pavement towards the turn on to River Road at the bottom of the hill.  I was tempting people to race me along the way, and since I was in a beat up stick -shift minivan, and driving with an attitude, there was a never-ending string of cars that took the bait.  They all went roaring past – some laughing at the little 16 year old upstart driving like he was in a superior auto, some angry, some flashing smug looks. 

At the last minute I slowed down like Maverick hitting the air brakes in Top Gun, and they all went flying by.  At the bottom of the road, a cop lay in wait.  They raced by, and the police officer turned on his lights and went roaring after them to pull over the speeding group.  And, from that day forward, I called the drive there to River Road “traffic lights and predators.” It was fun to “feed” the cops.

All the cars were gone, the police in pursuit, as I made my right turn onto N. River Road, and as I drove slowly, carefully, observing the speed limit, I thought about my fascination with predators.  It occurred to me that the most beautiful and specialized animals on this planet are predators.  Whether their hunting techniques were ambush, pack hunting, active specialized hunting or camouflage…whether they were subterranean, arboreal or ground…desert, forest, air or sea.

I wonder to myself, as I’m rereading this, how its going to go over with the Police.  Will I have to be careful or worried?  Hm.