Police

     I came home from my morning shopping trip, parked in my driveway, and duly noted a police cruiser parked on the side street by my house.  I got out quietly and looked around, up and down the street, in yards, and down the alley, but saw no one.  the police car was unoccupied.
     There's been incidents.  There was a fire down the street just two weeks ago, arson, and the man and the woman found both shot to death in their car.  There was the awful incident a few years back where a man shook his baby to death, and later we all learned that he had fled another state, another wife, another life, after having done the same thing.  One of my neighbors was strung out on heroin before wrecking his car, his marriage and his life; that house is still abandoned.  Another was known to have clogged the sewer lines with hypodermic needles.  Even one of my own roommates called the police after some kind of staged suicide attempt.
     So, I walked quietly around to the front of my house.  there, on the main street, was another cruiser and an unmarked squad car parked right across the street.  But this was near the middle of the day, there was bright sunshine and hardly any traffic.  Nothing was moving and there were no sounds.  I looked at my neighbor's house, everything seemed to be in order.  The hardware store was quiet.
     After a minute or two of waiting, and still hearing nothing, seeing nothing, I ventured in to the hardware store.
     The cashier was on top of the situation.  He had it all scoped out.

     "They are having lunch together at the pizza shop", he stated boldly.
Just then one of the officers passed by on the sidewalk.  "How's it going?", he asked.

     I think there is a lesson in there, somewhere ....