Yes, Chinese Whispers. I'm not going to apologise for that, that's what the game is called, that's what it has always been called. Get over it.At around 20.15, the doorbell rang, followed immediately by a pounding on the door. I thought it must be Laurence unable to find his key.
It was the RCMP.
Laurence had been taken down by ten RCMP officers at Silver City, the multiplex cinema. Here is what we pieced together from what they pieced together.
A few days after the shootings at Virginia Tech, he stupidly bought a cap gun. He was going to see 'Shooter'. He got off the bus outside Silver City went past 'Watermania' where some kiddie saw him pretending to shoot the cap gun. Kiddie tells another kiddie who tells an adult and on and on until, by the time Laurence has bought his movie ticket and is about to pay for his popcorn, the police have been told a gunman is on a rampage at the movie theatre.
Chinese Whispers.
Five squad cars, all available cars, converge on Silver City, and on Laurence. Police Officers here are armed.
The first thing the officer told me, when he had ascertained that I was Laurence's mother, was that Laurence hadn't been shot.
The police were polite and concerned, but the whole of the city's police department had been alerted to a possible deadly situation because of my son's foolish actions.
Kevin bawled him out. Then he calmly talked the whole thing through with him. Then he gave him a shot of whisky. I just blubbed.
This time, THIS TIME, he is aware that he has done something extremely stupid. He doesn't blame the police or anyone else. That's a huge step forward.
But this whole thing is also a step back.
I hope we can get him through this.
He wasn't charged with anything. Well, of course he didn't commit a crime to be charged with. He has some nasty cuff burns.
That's all.
3 comments:
Mate, you must have been so frightened.
I bet it frightened him too.
What's that though? One serious incident since he's been with you?
Imagine what he would have been into if he was still here.
You and Kev are doing brilliantly with him.
He holds down a job and does his bit.
It's just a glitch in the matrix.
Big hugs to you all plus a smack in the ear for Loz.
Sx
Thanks Sleepy. Yes I was pretty spooked, but you're right. And in the cold light of day, it does seem a bit of a storm in a teacup really. Toy guns are now always manufactured in that bright orange colour so that people and especially cops, know that they are toys. The mounties were very good about it really.
I really feel for you there, because the line separating the innocuous from the absurd is so easily blurred nowadays. Add a touch of hysteria and it becomes strangely explosive.
It just goes to show how quickly things can get out of hand. The Irish Gardai are not yet armed, but I suspect that's only a matter of time.
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