Action Gram

There are moments in life that seem too rare to be true, like walking through the woods with cottonwood dancing through the sky like tiny fairies, or when the temperature is just right and snowflakes really do look like the paper ones you cut out in school.  There are moments when something almost magical happens and you wonder if your eyes really saw what they did.  It was like that one evening when I was leaving the police station after waiting all day for some headline news to come in for tomorrow’s newscast.  Maxwell Wright had covered the headline stories for the past two weeks and I was determined to find some morsel of news that would break his reign as “King of the Hill” at the news station. 

I brought my laptop with me to work on a backup story while I kept my ears peeled for something spectacular.  At 1:00 am I was still without that spectacular something, and mournfully left the station with only my backup story.  I walked down the stairs onto the sidewalk and was about to cross the street to my car when I was swept off of my feet and my laptop flew into the air.  It wasn’t there long because the culprit of my fall swept it under his arm and flew down the street.  I had scarcely started to cry for help when what appeared to be an elderly lady swung her cane at the man’s head so fast that it swept him off of his feet and knocked him out cold.  She caught the laptop and gently laid it down.  I jumped up and glanced around to see if anyone had seen what I did, and when I looked back the woman was gone.  As I walked toward the man laying on the sidewalk, Officer Fredericks opened the door to the police station. 

“Did you see that?”  I asked like an awe-struck child.

“I heard some racket out here.”  He followed my glance to the laptop thief.  “Did you do this, Maggie?”  I walked over and picked up my laptop bag, then looked down the street.  “Maggie?”

“Did you see . . .”  I hesitated, “an old lady?”  

Officer Fredericks walked over to the man lying on the ground.  “Maggie, this is no old lady.  This is Justice, pickpocket extraordinaire.”  Just then Justice groaned and placed one hand on his swollen red forehead. 

“This man tried to swipe my laptop, but this old woman . . .”  Fredericks slapped handcuffs on the exposed wrist, rolled Justice over and cuffed his other wrist.  Officer Martinez appeared at the door.

“Well Fredericks, what do you have there?  Why if it isn’t Justice?  How nice of you to visit!”  Officer Martinez walked over and helped Justice to his feet and together they walked back into the station.  “Maybe this will count for the news you’ve been waiting for all day, Maggie!”  Martinez called out over his shoulder.

I stood there, looking bewildered down the dark street as if I would see some old woman appear in a Ninja outfit.  A moment later, Fredericks poked his head out the police station door.  “We need you to answer a few questions before you go, Mags.”  I slowly turned and walked back inside, still dazed.  Officer Fredericks was sifting through the first aid kit for an icepack while Justice sat in a chair, dramatically groaning because of rather sizable goose egg on his head. 

I sat down and wrote down a brief description of what happened just moments before.  Chief O’Neal sat at the desk across from me and leaned back.  “You okay, Maggie?”  He asked with sincere concern.  

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