Second Draft Chapter 2

A little excitement can sometimes be a dangerous thing.

You think to yourself that if you just had a little excitement, you could get everything out of your system. But excitement is addictive. The more of it you have, the more of it you want.

You might think that after being chased by the police the previous week, I would have had all the excitement I could handle for a while. Instead the opposite began to happen. I began to wish for more trouble.

My whole life suddenly seemed to be incredibly dreary. I went to school. I sat down in my seat. I sat and listened to what they had to say. I did what they told me to do. I went to church and sat in my seat and listened to the minister. I went home and listened to my father. I was always sitting, always listening, always doing what other people told me to do.

When the police had been chasing me, it was the one moment I had felt truly alive. The blood pounding in my ears, my legs leaping off the road, the speed that I was capable of, all of it became a fixation for me.

Of course the running in itself wasn’t special. I had run lots of times before. They made us run in gym class, and I always hated it then. But with the police in pursuit everything was very real. Every movement I made counted for something. Every burst of energy was important. After I had done that, how was I could I run in gym class ever again? Even the games I played with Simon and David seemed pale in comparison.

I never really planned anything. I never made a conscious decision that I was going to court danger again. It was just an impulse. A sudden, foolish impulse.

It was still summer, but the weather was unseasonable cool that day. A gentle breeze was in the air. It was a small breeze; enough to gently cool my face, but no more. It was the kind of day that just made me feel like running.

I was on my way to David’s house, when I passed a police station. It wasn’t the main police station, just one of the small neighborhood branches. There were only two officers there. One was inside, the other was standing outside. The one outside nodded a greeting to me, and I automatically nodded back.

I kept walking but I could see him from the corner of my eye. He was obviously tired from standing outside all day. He took off his hat and set it on the window ledge next to him while he ran his fingers through his hair. A bucked filled with water was hanging from a rope next to the police station. He walked over and began to drink from it. I stopped and starred at the hat.

I don’t think I had ever seen one up close before. I always saw it off in the distance on the head of a police officer. Now it was in my reach. It was mostly black, with gold stars on the front. It was new and sparkled in the sunlight. I had to have it.

The policeman was still drinking. The bucket was significantly bigger than his mouth, so that as much water was spilling down his chin as was going down his throat. He didn’t seem to mind. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down greedily even as the water fell off his chin and onto the brick road. It was a long drink, but it would be over any second.

If I had time enough I might have thought carefully over all the potential consequences. But since I had no time, I simply acted. As the policeman tilted his head back for one final gulp, I dashed forward, grabbed the hat, turned, and ran.

I’m not sure when he noticed me, but I could hear his heavy footsteps behind me soon enough. I was running for all I was worth. I don’t know what would happen if he caught me, but I was sure it wouldn’t be good.

He was relatively young as police officers go. Probably in his mid-twenties. His legs are longer than mine, and a lot faster than me as well. I may have had the head start, but I could hear his footsteps getting closer and closer. “Why couldn’t you have stolen a hat from someone old and out of shape?” I asked myself.

I was running wild now. My arms were moving back and forth as fast as my legs. Up ahead is the main street. I burst out of the side street and onto the main street with him right behind me the whole time. I had so much momentum now that I could hardly turn, but somehow I managed to turn down the main street and keep running.

I couldn’t feel my legs. I was terrified, but I was also filled with the excitement. My numb legs carried me down the street. We passed all the shops. We passed the bakery where David and I had drawn on Angelo’s face. There was a new poster of Angelo on the window, but I didn’t have time to notice it.

He’s almost got me now. I could hear his footsteps right behind me. I could even hear his breathing. I felt at any moment he could reach out and grab me. I would never make it to the market like last time.

The adrenaline had kept me running so far, but it was beginning to catch up to me. My breathing was getting heavy as I was gasping for breath. My side was beginning to hurt. Part of me wanted to just slow down and let him catch me. He was going to get me anyway. Why delay the inevitable?

I didn’t consciously decide to slow down, but my legs seemed to guess what my brain was thinking, and slowed down on their own. Out of the corner of my eye I could see his arm reach out to grab me. No, not yet, I decided. I’ve got a bit more energy in me yet. He’s not going to catch me yet. I gave myself one final burst of energy. He snatched at the air.

In a desperate attempt I turned off down an alley, not knowing what I would find. The very suddenness of the turn took him by surprise. He kept running down the street as I darted into the alley. By the time he changed directions, I had gained a little more time.

It was a small narrow alley. Brick houses were lined up on either side. And at the end of the alley was a small wooden wall. A dead end.

I kept running forward anyway. Under the wall was a small crawl space underneath for the rainwater to run. I was small enough to fit under it, but I didn’t think he was.

I lost a little bit of time getting down on my hands and knees, but he was still catching up. I could just barely squeeze under the fence. I tossed the hat through to the other side first, and then wriggled my body through. First my head came out the other side. Once I got my arms through, I use them to push against the wall, and the rest of my body came through much easier. I was almost all the way through when I felt him grab my ankle. He gave my leg a rough pull and half my body was jerked back under to the other side.

But the crawl space was too small for him to pull me all the way through. It was only with a lot of wriggling and squirming that I had made it halfway through in the first place. I knew, especially if I put up a fight, that I couldn’t be pulled back through again against my will. He was able to pull my legs, but my upper body refused to go under the wall. I used my arms to brace against the wall and pushed in the other direction.

He jerked hard on my leg. I hollered in pain. I kicked wildly with my free leg. Beneath the soles of my shoe I felt my foot hit something. He loosened his grip, and I quickly pulled my legs through.

I scrambled to my feet on the other side. As soon as I was standing, I ran over to the hat and made sure it was okay. It had some dirt on it, but once I brushed it off it still looked as new and shiny as ever.

But my relief was cut short. I heard some clattering noises, and looked behind me to see that he had actually found a way to climb over the wall. He must have climbed up on one of the windowsills on the adjoining houses. Then from there he could probably reach the top of the wall, and pull himself up. When I realized what was happening, he was already swinging his legs over the wall.

I started running again. I turned down the first street I could find, and then down the next one after that. I was weaving in and out of all the alleys and back ways. My hope was to be able to loose him before he could catch up to me again, but I soon heard this heavy footsteps pounding behind me.

[Tense change? Present tense for more vividness?] It was only a matter of time before he would get me now.

I ducked down another alley, only to notice that it was another dead end. There was a red brick wall at the end of it. I didn’t have time to ponder my bad luck. All I could think about was how to get around it.

As I got nearer to it, I realized that it was the church wall. And there was no way under this time. And it was too high to climb over.

Except for maybe that tree standing next to it. I could climb the branches. The first branch was just out of my reach, but maybe….

First I tossed the hat high into the air and it went over the wall and onto the other side. Then I ran and jumped and latched onto the first branch. I was hanging by just my arms at first, and I had to struggle to pull the rest of my body up with me. I pulled my chin up to the branch, and then he caught me again. He grabbed me around the waist and tried to pull me down. My arms stretched out, and my chin bumped the branch as it went back down, but my hands held tight.

I squirmed and kicked against him. He loosened his grip and I tried to pull myself up to the branch again. He grabbed me and pulled down again. This time I simply let go. With the added force of his tub, my body fell into him and it knocked us both to the ground. He hit first and I landed on his soft body.

I got back up before he had a chance to realize what happened. His hands reached to grab me, but he catches only the air.

I still had a few seconds before he gets to his feet. Instead of jumping for the branch again, I climbed up on the windowsill of the neighboring house. He was beginning to sit up now, still dazed from the fall.

From the windowsill I can step onto the branch. I put my hand on the trunk to steady myself. I put one foot on the branch and then shifted my weight forward onto my outstretched leg. The branch bent slightly. Instinctively I backed off.

The policeman was standing. I put my weight onto the branch again, and stepped off from the windowsill. The branch wavered. I hugged the trunk for support.

Once I have reached the first branch, the others are all close by. It’s almost like climbing a ladder as I quickly stand on one branch after another.

The policeman, enraged, grabbed at the first branch. He was taller than me, so he could reach it easily, but by this time I had already moved on to the other branches. He grabbed the first branch and made an effort to pull himself up. He managed to get his neck above the branch, kicked his legs in the air while his face reddened with the effort, and then, decided it was taking too long, and dropped back to the ground.

He ran to the windowsill and climbed up on that. He leaped recklessly to the first branch. He landed his jump perfectly, but the branch snapped under his weight, and he tumbles to the ground. He was sprawled out on the ground now, using swear words I didn’t even now existed. He got up, but I noticed that he got up very slowly. He walked over to the tree with a noticeable limp.

I was at the top of the wall by this time. I could drop over to the other side any moment, but I waited to see what he would do. I already had one foot over the wall. He looked up at me. Our eyes locked for maybe ten seconds. And then he limped away.

[tense change?] Getting down was almost as tricky as getting up. There were no trees in the church on which to climb down. There were, however, soft bushes directly under the wall. That at least was an improvement from the hard bricks on the street side. I supposed I should be grateful for small blessings.

I lowered myself off the wall slowly. First I put one foot over, then the other. I grabbed the edge of the wall with my hands, and hung down with my legs dangling below me so that I would only have a short way to fall before I reached the bushes.

I let go. The bush broke my fall nicely, although I had broken the bush. It was crushed under me and its nicely trimmed branches were now broken and pointing in every direction. I took a moment to examine myself for injuries. One of my elbows was bleeding, but other than that I was fine. Satisfied with my examination, I got out of the bush. I knew I should leave before the church groundskeeper saw me. This wasn’t my church of course. It was the downtown church, where Simon, David, and the rest of my classmates went. Still, better to get out of here just the same.

The hat was lying on the ground near the bush. I picked it up and dusted it off. As I held the hat, I suddenly realized that it was mine. There was no one chasing me now. It was all mine. I had actually managed to take it, and I had escaped. The glory of what I had done enveloped me. I was so enamored with myself, I temporarily forgot about the flattened bush and the groundskeeper lurking somewhere. Then, a sharp sound startled me back into reality. I think it was the sound of a dog barking nearby. It wasn’t barking at me, but the sound still jolted me back to my senses. I looked around to make sure there was no one else in the yard. And then I ran around to the front of the church, out the gate, and back into the street.

I couldn’t wait to tell David. I could already imagine the look on his face. Somehow I still had the energy to run to his house.

I rapped on the door impatiently. When no one answered, I knocked again. I took a few steps back to get a wider view of the house, but I could see no one moving inside. I went up to one of the side windows and pressed my face against the glass. “Hello! Hello!”

I thought maybe I could see a figure moving. She was walking leisurely across the room-…Nuts to this! I didn’t have the patience to wait around today.

David’s room in the basement had a small window that was level with the street [go back and change from 1st chapter]. I got down on my hands and knees and pounded on it. I cupped my hands around my face so I could see through the window. The glass wasn’t very clean, but I could see a blurry figure of David sitting against the wall and…He was reading some sort of book. He noticed me, but he was slow in getting up. I tried to pry the window open from the outside in my impatience. When that didn’t work, I rapped on the window again. Finally David came over and opened it with an annoyed look on his face.

“What Jon?” The two words had an unusual crispness to them, as if David was trying to indicate his annoyance by his clear enunciation.

I slid my legs through the open window and then jumped down into the room.　　I had the hat hidden behind me at first. With a very deliberate motion meant to build up the suspense, I slowly revealed the hat. Once it was out in the open, I held out the hat triumphantly to David. He looked at it blankly for a moment. Then suddenly his eyes widened. “What the hell is that?” His voice had changed from annoyance to anger, but I knew him well enough to detect a note of amazement hidden underneath.

“It’s a police ha-…”

He didn’t even let me finish. “Have you lost your mind?”

“No I, I…” Wait just a minute. What did he think he was doing putting me on the defensive like this? “David would you just let me tell my story?” I blurted out. “I came all the way over here just to tell you about this.”

He sighed. “Fine Jon, go ahead.”

I launched into my story. I told the whole thing, with all of the details, right down to the weathered look on the policeman’s face. [Go back and add]. David tried to interrupt at one point, but I stopped him. “Come on David, you said you’d let me tell my story,” I complained. He shut his mouth, and just motioned for me to continue.

As I told the story, I could tell he was getting more and more into it. He was fighting it, but he couldn’t help getting swept away by the drama of my story. I could tell just by watching his expression. He found it harder and harder to hold his stern face. And by the end of the story, his face had gone over completely to one of amazement.

As I finished my story, David’s face broke into a smile. “You’re incredible man. Insane,” he took a breath, “but incredible.”

“This hat is nothing,” I said proudly. “I’m going to get myself a whole uniform next time.”

He laughed dismissively. “Yeah, whatever. I’d like to see that one Jon.” But even then there was a look of admiration in his eyes, as if he really thought I could do it. And at the moment, I really thought I could do it as well.

Excitement still flowed through my limbs, and I felt that I couldn’t stay here confined in David’s small room. I felt the walls closing in on me already. “Come on, let’s go outside,” I said.

I started for the window again. “Are you sure?” David asked. “Don’t you want to lay low for a while or something like that?” He was trying to sound like a gangster, and not doing it very well. “Until the heat dies down I mean.”

“No it will be alright. Let’s go find Simon and show him.” And then we were out the window and back into the streets.

We never did find Simon. He wasn’t at his house, and his mom didn’t know where he was. We went around to all his usual hangouts, but he was nowhere to be found that day.

In the end I was happy just to have spent the afternoon outside. After the excitement of the morning, my blood was racing too much to be indoors. And I was happy to spend the time with David. He was a good person to talk to. He had a way of making you think that whatever you were talking about was the most fascinating thing ever. We skipped rocks in the stream, and I babbled on about life and home and my father and brother, and he listened to me the whole time. He made small comments every now and then, but never tried to change the focus of the conversation.

And then, once the church bells rang at five O’clock, I parted ways and I headed home.

Once I got home, I circled around to the back of the garden where there was a small wooden tool shed. The door gave a lot of resistance as I pulled it open, and the air inside the shed was very and old smelling. The shed didn’t get a lot of use anymore, and I figured it would be safe to hide the hat there for a couple days at least. But, just to be safe I hid it in a corner on the back shelf, behind some old sacks.

It wouldn’t have been safe to just walk into the house with the police hat. Even if my father wasn’t home, the servants might say something. And even if the servants didn’t say anything, Abel was sure to blab about it if he found out. Abel could never keep his mouth shut about anything.

With the hat securely stowed away in the tool shed, I made my way back to the front of the house, and strolled in the front door. I was immediately greeted by one of the servants. “Your father’s waiting for you sir,” he said.

Evidently my father overheard, because he shouted from the dining room. “Jonathon! We’re in here.” I entered to see my father and Abel already eating.

“You’re late,” he said. “I told you dinner was going to be at 6 tonight.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, slipping into my chair. Again, this was the sort of thing that he could either explode at, or simply let pass, depending on his mood. He chose to let it pass.

“Your dinner’s cold,” he said sharply. “You’re lucky I let you eat dinner at all. Your grandfather would have sent me straight to bed without anything to eat if I arrived late at the table. When I say six, I want you here at six Jonathon.”

“Yes, I’m sorry,” I said again.

For a couple minutes, the silence was only broken by the clink of spoons against soup bowls, and the slurping of the soup itself. Then my father asked us, “so, what did you boys do today?”

“Nothing,” Abel whined. “I was in this house all day doing nothing. I hate summer.”

“Well if you feel that way, I have a lot of work around the house that needs to be done,” my father answered. “That should keep you busy.”

The pitch of Abel’s whining went up. “I want to go into town.”

“You can’t go into town by yourself until you’re older.”

“But Jon goes-” Abel began.

My father cut him off. “Don’t argue with me Abel,” he said sternly. “You can’t go by yourself until you’re older.”

There were a couple more minutes of silence following this outburst. Then my father addressed me. “And what did you do today Jonathon?”

“Nothing,” I answered.

“You were gone from this house all day, and you didn’t do a single thing?”

“Nothing important.”

“Well, why don’t you take Abel with you when you do nothing tomorrow?”

“He can’t keep up with us,” I protested.

“If you’re doing nothing then it shouldn’t be a problem.” Underneath the sternness there was a bit of sarcasm in his voice. He thought he was being clever.

“But Dad-.”

“Don’t argue with me Jonathon.” His voice was trembling slightly, and I could tell he wasn’t far from one of his explosions. I decided to shut up.

“School will be starting in a week anyway,” he continued in a slightly calmer voice. “And then we won’t have to worry about how you boys spend your spare time. In the mean time, just take your little brother with you when you go into town.” He stopped there and went back to eating his soup, but shortly afterwards he started up again as if struck by a new thought. “And watch him Jonathon. Don’t just take him to town and leave him there. Keep your eye on him.”

After dinner the servants cleared away our plates. My father stood up and dismissed us. “I want you boys to get to bed early tonight,” he said. “No more staying up late, and then sleeping the morning away. You’re going to wake up early tomorrow. School is starting again soon, and you might as well get used to that schedule.
“I want to hear about the Restoration again,” Abel pleaded. “Can you read to me about the Restoration before I go to bed.”

My father took out his pocket watch. “I do have some work left to do tonight. But I suppose I could read to you about the Restoration a little first. Jonathon, do you want to hear as well?

“No, I’m going to go outside and play with the dogs,” I said.

“Don’t stay out too late. I mean what I said about not sleeping all morning again.” I nodded. Abel was now gently tugging at my father’s arm to get him to come into the reading room. My father laughed. “Okay Abel, you go ahead of me. I’m going to see if I can find one of the books on the Restoration around here. Then we’ll read it together.”