Pete Carter laughed. He looked so exited as he was trying to open the front door of his house for more than ten minutes. It was cold, it was dark and it was windy around ten PM on a Friday night. Most of the people in the city are drunk on a Friday night. Pete Carter is no exception. He was exited and laughing on a bitterly cold night only because of the fact that he was drunk.
Pete is living in the same street as I am. I looked at him with suspicion when I came back home after a team dinner. He was trying to open the next door. Looking at the state of the weather and the state of Pete, I cared to wait for a minute to ensure that he gets inside the house safely. After getting an assurance from him that he is good, I stepped into my house.
After twenty minutes, I was getting ready to hit the sack when I heard the doorbell ring. It is quite unusual to expect a visitor at this time, so I was a bit nervous to open the door. Afterall the city is full of drunken people on a Friday night. When the doorbell rang for the fourth time, I reluctantly went to the door.
“Whos that?” I asked.
A sweet voice came on the other side and said “Hi I am Sarah and I have got a situation here. Can you please help?”
Help?, Me? At this time?, I thought for a moment and then reluctantly opened the door. When I opened the door, I saw a young woman in front of my door with deep blue eyes. I was staring at her eyes as I have never seen one as glowing as hers. She, probably has the most beautiful eyes in the world.
“ I know it is very late and I am sorry to disturb you at this time” were her first words and they came out quite fluently.
Before understanding what she said, my brain was working out whether she was drunk. The way she spoke confirmed that she is not.
“That’s ok, what can I do for you?” I asked.
“Thanks. Do you know this gentleman” and pointed her finer at the person lying on the pavement in front of our house. I took a close look at this person and it is none other than Pete. He was so drunk to stand up on his two feet. He was wide-awake though, staring at the sky and was pretending to be normal.
“ I have never seen him before but I just saw him trying to open the door” I said.
Sarah then had a look at Pete for a moment and then her watch and then the open sky. It was bitterly cold for Pete to survive the entire night on the pavement in front of my house. “Its too cold for him to survive all night, if you don’t know him I will call the police now and hand him over” she said and gave instructions to her friend Danielle, who is inside the car, to call the police.
Anne, who resides in neighbouring house, came back from work soon after. She looked at Pete for a moment and recognised him immediately.
“I know him” she said, “He resides in house number 23”
I interrupted her and said “But, he was trying to open number 19 for a long time”
“That’s quite simple to explain son, he is drunk!” said Anne.
Sarah interrupted and asked “How are you so sure that he is not residing in 19?”
“Because I do!” she replied. “Fair Enough!” I said and shared a small smile.
Anne tried to wake Pete up and pulled his shirt collar to make him sand on his two feet, but he was too heavy for all of us.
While, Anne was frantically trying to wake him up, he grabbed her chest and said “Honey, I love you, Kiss me Honey!”
“I know sweetheart, but now stand up” she replied.
Sarah was enjoying the fun to the fullest and was transmitting every singe word said by Pete to her friend Danielle who is still inside the car. So am I.
I went inside the house for a moment to get my sandals as it was too cold to stand with the bare feet outside the house. Within a couple of minutes, a couple of police offices came from nowhere.
The Police officers are in his early thirties. They wore a tight trousers and a bullet proof vest. The first person to come out of the police car introduced himself as Officer Fletcher. Sarah explained the entire story to him. Finally Officer Fletcher called Officer Nixon for assistance and they tried to pull Pete up.
Like a crane lifting a huge construction material, the police officer systematically lifted Pete up. They should have dealt a lot of similar cases before, I thought.
After lifting him up, Officer Nixon had to hold him with both his arms to ensure that he is not falling again. They then, with great difficulty, dragged him to house number 23.
Pete was vociferously protesting that he wont enter the house.
“I live in house number 23” he said.
“Yes sir, you do” replied Officer Fletcher.
“Then why are you getting me here, my house is there” Pete said and pointed to house number 19. None of us could control ourselves from laughing until our stomach ached.
Pete then escaped Officer Nixon’s arms and dragged himself to house number 19. He then called Officer Fletcher and showed number 19 on the door and said “See this is 23 and this is my house”
Officer Fletcher laughed for a minute and then said “Listen sir, I am a police officer and you have to believe me in this matter. This is house number 19 and your house is ten meters away!”
“You are a liar” he told the Police officer. Now, the officers had no choice but to drag him to house 23.
Officer Nixon told Officer Fletcher “ There is no other option, we have to get the keys from him and open the house and leave him there”. Officer Fletcher nodded to approve the idea.
Sarah, Anne Danielle and myself were watching the action together. Every second was fun as Pete came up with funny things almost every minute. Sarah, especially was enjoying the most. She was jumping all the time with excitement when Pete spoke every single time.
When the police officers dragged Pete to his house again, he refused to hand over the key to them. So, the police offices searched his pockets to find the key. After two minutes of drastic searching, they couldn’t find any.
Officer Nixon then spoke, “Where is the key sir? I cant find it in your pockets”
Pete starred at the officers for a moment and finally said “ I don’t have a key, I lost it”
Sarah, burst into laughter and ran a fair distance in circles unable to control it. Even the police officers couldn’t control their laughter. The only person who is not laughing in the entire setup is Pete. He was looking at us with amusement, as he was unable to understand why we were laughing. Residing in house 23, Peter was trying to open house 19 for more than twenty minutes. The funniest part is, he is trying to open the wrong house like most drunk people do, but Pete went a step further by trying to open the wrong house without a key in hand!
The police officers and us were trying to think a solution for this case. For the first time in my life, I was trying to solve a case with a police officer. It was funny and it was serious, as Pete needs a place to stay. Officer Nixon confirmed that there is no space in the jail for Pete as they expect a fair number of drunken people to hit the jail that night.
Anne suggested that Pete stay in his daughter’s house that night. But she is not sure where his daughter stays. So, Anne asked the police officers to check on his daughter’s details if possible.
“Where does your daughter stay?” asked the police officer.
“I don’t have a daughter” said Pete almost spontaneously. Anne reassured the police officers that Pete indeed has a daughter staying in the same city. So, she called her husband over the telephone and found out that Pete’s daughter stays in Warwick Street but he was not sure about the house number.
Officer Nixon said, “ I have handled many such cases and I think I can talk him out!” and then asked Pete “Who stays in Warwick Street?”
Pete’s face brightened immediately and said “My daughter stays there in house 19”. Everyone had a big sigh of relief that we found a place from him to stay overnight.
“I will take you there, come with me” said Officer Fletcher.
“I wont come there” declared Pete.
Everyone was stunned for a minute. No one can understand, apart from the fact that he is drunk, why he is refusing to go to his daughter’s house.
Finally he said “She will kill me if I go there”
Officer Nixon had enough and said “OK, we will take that risk now” and dragged him to the police car parked nearby.
While dragging him to the car, Officer Fletcher turned towards us, winked and said “Case solved guys, now you go back home and thanks very much”
“Thank you very much for the help” said Sarah. I looked at the most beautiful eyes in the world for a minute.
“That’s ok” I said and shook her hands and finally said goodbye to her and went back home.
No comments:
Post a Comment