A Television Drama

Carolee Mitchell had the vacuum on when the first police cars arrived, or she would’ve turned and looked. What caught her attention was the flight of the bird, which led her to realize the situation outside her house. Outside her window she found police cars parked in front of her house and along the two blocks. Uniforms were armed, and some on her neighbour’s terrace with rifles and field glasses. Reporters and TV crews took up the streets as well. Neighbours that stood outside their front doors were instructed by the police to return inside; though no one paid any attention to this. At one point, Carolee thought if she should’ve stepped outside but then realized nothing was really happening.

Carolee went to Pete’s study to view the side street through his window. It was more quite, no uniforms but just an ambulance with its siren off. Then she turned back to the barking, but noticed something and turned her head. Sitting up against the laurel hedge, she found a young man sick, hurt or dead. His head hung down. She became aware of the blood when he lifted his head slightly. The thought of calling of the police came to her mind, but immediately seemed ridiculous when they were just not even 70 feet away. However, the young man suddenly picked himself up, drunkenly ran across the lawn, through the trees and out onto the parking strip. A moment later, she then found him lying on his back. Not too long after he was suspected, and then apprehended.

Pete returned home with the newspaper. The front page had shown a sketch of the suspect’s path. Carolee had pointed out that it didn’t mark the place where she had found him sitting. She began to wonder if she had notified the police, would the sketch have been affected. Carolee is now beginning to doubt the fact her streets would return to being safe or was ever safe to begin with.