NOTE: If you haven’t been following this from the beginning, and if you want to know the full sequence of events, start with the introduction. Click on Archives on the right.
Diddlie walks over with the two boys both drinking from cans. She greets Niels with a hug telling the boys to get back in the car, but they run towards the Trips’ open garage. They are trying the doors of Jake’s Hummer, which are locked. One of them comes out with a huge flashlight. The other is following with a traffic cone. They set up the cone in the middle of Oval Street opposite the driveway, and stand beside it flashing the light as if to establish a checkpoint. Diddlie shouts at them to get out of the road. A large SUV with smoked glass windows comes down the hill, black and slow as a hearse. It stops and a man in a black flak jacket and baseball cap gets out, and walks towards the boys at a funereal pace. One boy standing by the cone and flashes the light at him as he approaches. He seems to be talking to the boys but I can’t hear anything. The other boy has moved over and stands next to the ditch on the far side of the road. Liberty has stepped away from her van to watch and says to Niels facing away from the street looking at her. “Niels, the boys need your help.” Niels looks around. “Shit a brick, what the fuck’s going on? Who are those assholes in black?” He bends down into his car, exposing the crack in his but above his belt, and turns off the engine.
“That’s Dad’s security service.” Niels stands leaning on the roof of the car staring toward the road. “How about calling off his goons, okay?”
“They are your sons Niels you deal with it. Those guys don’t know me anyway.” Niels yells to the boys to get out of the way. The boy by the ditch jumps across and scrambles through the gap between the fence rails and disappears into a yard overgrown with wisteria, vines, hollies and bamboo. A woman in a black flack jacket and baseball cap, runs from the SUV past the male guard, who is preoccupied with his phone. She reaches for the flashlight. He swings around to keep the flashlight from her but she grabs his other arm above the elbow, lifting him off the ground. He tries to hit her with the flashlight while yelling in protest, but he is off balance and easily disarmed. She starts toward us on the driveway, pulling him along. The flashlight rolls across the road and into the ditch. The boy says no more but tries to hold back.
“Anyone tell me whose child this is?”
“His name is Tron, and he’s my son. Get in the car Tron.” The woman doesn’t let him go. “Age?”
“Tron get into the car.”
“I can’t she won’t let go!” Tron tries to pull away but he is yanked back sharply.
“Let the kid get in the car will you!”
“Why is this boy blocking the road?”
Diddlie interrupts: “Look its okay they were just playing.”
“Are you his Mother?”
“No I’m … ”
“I need to talk to the parent.”
She addresses Niels. “My partner has called the police. I am holding your son until they get here.”
“Who the fuck do you think you are?”
“Irma Standov, Suburban Safety and Security Solutions. Your name sir?”
“I said let the kid go!”
“Sir, he has been blocking the road and endangering his life and that of others.”
“The hell he was.”
Diddlie steps close to Irma, putting one hand on her arm and the other on Tron’s sholder. “He’s been out there for less than a minute. I mean you just turned the corner at the wrong moment. Come on! we can take care of this.” Tron takes hold of Diddlie’s wrist with both hands. “Diddlie, get me away from her!”
“Tron, honey, just a minute.”
“The police will make that determination Ma’am.” The security man has picked up the flashlight and walks over. “The police will be here in a couple of minutes folks.”
Niels moves toward his son. The male guard moves toward Niels and stands in his way. “Will you get the fuck out of my way!”
“Stand back sir.”
“You rent-a-cop bullies have no right to hold my kid.”
“This is private property sir and we are contractually bound to protect it.”
“Yeah? Well when you pulled him off his feet in the road over there you were on public property.”
“You are responsible and you are standing on the property sir.”
Niels stops, and stares at him with his face so close they could kiss. The guard doesn’t move and remains facing him, blocking his way, his eyes hidden behind wraparound dark glasses. Diddlie breaks free of Tron and tries to get between them, pushing Niels away toward his car. “Back off Niels. Why are you guys calling the police over this? Its just two kids. There’s no crime here.”
“That’s for the police to determine Ma’am. Our procedure is to stay in place and await proper authority.” The male guard mutters code numbers into his phone.”
“Sir, you’d better find his brother. The police are going to want to talk to both boys.”
“Well that’s too bad. You scared the hell out of him and now he’s run away and I don’t know where. “I’ll find him Neils.” Diddlie walks off towards the fence on the other side of Oval Street. Tron starts pulling away from Irma and shouts “Diddlie come back, get me away from her!” She throws the cone into the ditch. “Won’t be long now honey. I am going to find your brother.” The male guard yells at her to leave the cone where it is. Diddlie steps over the collapsed rails up from where Tron’s brother disappeared, and walks behind the thicket leaving the cone in the ditch.
The guard turns to Liberty. “Are you Miss Tripp?”
“Yes I am.”
“Welcome home Miss Tripp. You can go ahead and unload. We will take care of this for you.”
“So they do know who you are! Where’s our liberty? Miss Liberty?” Niels has backed away from the guard and moves towards his car shouting his taunt. He sits in the car doorway with his head down, looking at the ground between his open knees, and spits. The SUV is moving up the driveway behind his car blocking the way out.
“There’s no need. Don’t you see how trivial this is?”
The male guard pulls a business card out of his pocket and hands it to Liberty. She looks at it and puts it in her back pocket as he goes on. “Miss Tripp we are following standard procedure as specified in our contract to protect your family.”
“Yes I appreciate that, but I don’t need protection from those two kids. This is a neighborhood thing, okay.”
“Do these boys live nearby?”
“No they live in DC.”
Niels looks up. “Liberty don’t tell those assholes a damn thing about me.”
“Sir your uncooperative and abusive manner has been noted.”
“Niels, shut up!”
“No Liberty. This is a fucking travesty and … Oh great here’s the god damn fuzz!” Niels spits again and sits staring at the ground.
A police cruiser pulls into the driveway next to the SUV. The cop is talking on his radio. The male guard walks over to the car. Tron breaks away from the female guard and runs for the fence. She tries to chase after him but Niels jumps up and runs in front of her saying “Excuse me ma’am”, giving Tron time to get away. Tron disappears into the thicket beyond the fence like his brother. The cop is out of his car, and he and the two guards surround Niels. Liberty walks over. “Officer can we just forget this whole thing? This is Niels Planck. He’s a friend of mine, and a business associate. I am really sorry about the kids in the street okay. It was wrong, I know, but we can take care of it.” Niels stands facing the officer but looking at Liberty.
“Liberty I said …”
“Niels keep out of this.”
“Ma’am he can either identify himself or I’ll take him into custody.”
“Like I said, I’ll talk to the officer, not these goons. What about my boys?”
“Sir you have not been paying attention. Your boys have run away. They don’t listen to you. Your friend has gone to find them.” Irma Standov takes Liberty aside while Niels greets all questions with silence.
Liberty walks over with Irma. “Fred, looks like this mess is going to take a while. There’s nothing you or I can do now.”
“Are they going to arrest Niels?”
Another police cruiser pulls up on the hill with lights flashing. Two cops get out leaving the doors open. Their car blocks the driveway and the open doors block the narrow street. “If he calms down she says he will probably get a citation. Otherwise the police might take him for a while.”
“He’s going to need an attorney the way he’s going now.”
Liberty mops her hair back. “For what?” Irma doesn’t answer. She is walking away toward the cruiser. “I guess he’ll be held responsible for his kids blocking the street.”
“How do they know who you are?”
“They know a lot more about who comes and goes from this house than I thought. It’s part of their contract, not that I’ve read it. They’ll kind of keep track of me as long as I live here.”
Walking down the hill towards home I see Rank Majors sitting in his car with the window open waiting to get by. “What’s going on?”
“The security people have called the police on Niels Planck.”
“Are those feral kids of his raising hell again?”
“Again? What do you mean?
“I mean Niels doesn’t control those twins. Its good to see “Suburban” is patrolling around here. They are the best.”
A third police car comes down the hill and parks facing the one already there with its roof lights spinning. Two more cars are waiting behind Rank’s to go up the hill. One of the new cops comes down and starts directing traffic away from Oval Street. The late afternoon sun glints in his dark glasses and he casts a long shadow down Wicket Street.
“They have certainly taken control up there.”
“Those kids have been in trouble before. You know what scares me is there’s lots more of these little crazies out there. No parental control. You know.” We can hear sirens in the distance.
