“That’s
impossible!” I say to David grabbing back my keys. “Who would have changed this
lock?” I try to put my key in the lock again and there is no way that it is
going to work, it’s clearly a new lock. It’s then that I notice a few wood
shavings around the lock and near the bottom of the door. “This lock is brand
new and was recently installed!” I scream as David walks over and peeks into to
the window. “I think someone is in there,” he says holding his hands to either
side of his eyes to block out the light. I cup the window as well and look in, I
can’t see anyone in there but it looks as if things have been moved around.
“Mother Fucker!” I scream and walk over to the front door and begin pushing the
doorbell. I can hear it ringing in the house.
“You think that Bill M. got home early?” David
asks still trying to see in the window. “Mother Fucker!” I scream again and begin
pounding on the door with the hand that’s not ringing the bell. “I can see
someone moving in there,” David yells at me and I begin to knock louder and then
start kicking the door.
“Are Tommy and
Roy home upstairs?” David asks stepping back to look up at the front of the
house. He doesn’t have to ask twice before I bolt up the front steps to their
house and begin ringing their doorbell. There is no answer and clearly Tommy
and Roy are not home.
I stomp back down
their steps and onto the sidewalk where I tell David to help me start searching
for a pay phone. I find one half a block away, I drop in the change I have in
my pocket and dial the police department. After explaining what happened the
police tell me that “They are sending officers to my house to respond to my
call.”
David and I run
back to the house and sit on the front steps waiting for the police to arrive. After
about ten minutes a squad car slowly crawls up the block. I jump off the steps
and run into the street to flag them down.
The cops look at
me like I’m crazy as I explain the whole story about living with Bill M. and
how he was just in the CDPC (Capital District Psychiatric Center) and how it
seems he got home earlier than planned. Well, to be honest I haven’t let them
get out of the car before I start my story. The two officers just keep looking
at each other while I talk. “Have you tried knocking?” one of the cops asks. “I
have tried knocking, banging and ringing,” I respond feeling like I am about to
get hysterical. The cop who asks me if I rang the bell climbs out of the car
and heads up the walk towards the house. He begins to ring the bell “Albany
Police Department,” he yells through the closed door. I am standing right
behind him “I think he’s in there and he’s hiding.”I say over his shoulder. He
shoots me a look and I run back to look into the window.
“Can you prove
that you live here?” the second cop who is standing by the car yells out to me.
“Yes, that’s all my stuff in there!” I scream back at him. “Can you prove it’s
your stuff and your house?” “Do you have a lease with you?”the cop at the car
yells to me. I find that this line of questioning is insane and before I can
shut my mouth I tell him so.
“Break down the
door!” I command the cop pointing at the door. “Can’t until you prove that you
live here,” the officer by the car yells out to me. David quickly grabs my
elbow and pulls me back as I take a step towards the officer, I am not thinking
and this is going to get bad unless I can calm down. “Please, break down the
door!” I gently command this time, again pointing at the door. “Nothing we can
do until you can prove it.” The cop by the car says while he opens the driver
side door of the car. I quickly explain that my landlords live upstairs and if
the cops can just wait to get home they will vouch for me.
The cop who was ringing the bell begins to walk back to the
car shaking his head. “If this is a lovers spat, you two love birds will have
to work this out before you call us again.” He says pausing before swinging his
legs into driver’s side of the car. “Love birds?” I yell as the cop car slowly
crawls away from the curb before heading down the block.
“Let’s go to my house and we can deal with this in the
morning,” David says catching my arm.
I am up early and David tells me to calm down. At 9am David
drives the Pontiac to my Jay Street apartment. I have not been able to sleep all
night knowing that I will have to deal with this shit today. I haven’t seen
Bill M. since he entered the hospital and I was hoping that I could avoid him
and this situation. David pulls up to the curb and I quickly hop out of the car
and run up the sidewalk. David shuts the car off and follows me, by the time he
gets to me I am furiously ringing the door bell and alternately banging on the
door. David pauses and starts looking in through the front window. “I can see
Bill M. in there and he’s heading to the door.”
To be continued…….
Geoffrey Doig-Marx holds all written and electronic rights to his writing "A Day in the Life". It can not be reprinted in part or whole without his written consent.
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