Caught at the Crossroads

Why did I sign up for this job anyway? I thought I was gonna be like Dirty Harry or somethin’ when I joined the force; not like Will Farrell and Mark Wahlberg or those Other Guys in that movie, such phonies. The usual patrols were not Dave Lee’s favourite part of the job, but it paid the bills and let him eat. Same streets, same people, same phonies, same weirdo that asks me for change by Broadway; basically same routine day in and day out. Except today wasn’t an ordinary day, for once Dave actually gets the chance to do real cop work when a car goes speeding past him on 42nd Street. For Chrissakes!! That idiot coulda hit me! Hurriedly, he spins the car around and is off chasing the speeder. After what seemed like hours (which was maybe 10 minutes), Dave finally catches up to the mysterious driver and gets them to pull over. The car was nothing special; it was one of those little Volvo’s or something like that that has a commercial on every day when Dave’s trying to watch sports. Supposedly the safest cars on the market or some crap like that. But she had it painted Ferrari red; she drives it like a Ferrari too. He thinks.

Dave steadily gets out of his crappy little cruiser and makes his way over to the side of the stranger’s car. The window rolls down and there is this attractive blonde girl sitting in the driver’s seat. Wow is she ever young. He thinks. Then he says “May I see your licence and registration ma’am?”

“Sure, I have it somewhere I think....just hang on.....oh! Here it is!” she replies “Sorry about the wait” Polite too. “That’s ok there’s no rush.” He walks back to the cruiser with the license and looks at the name. Allie Caulfield....why does that name sound familiar? It doesn’t matter, I guess. Walking back to the car, Dave hands Allie her licence “It’s your first offence for speeding and I’m going to let off with a $100 ticket for going ten over instead of the $250 for going twenty over ok? I don’t wanna see you speeding again you hear? You could kill somebody.”

“Yes officer, of course.” She flashes him a little smile and tucks her long hair behind her ear. Wow does she ever have a nice smile; Dave thinks it looked like a pearl necklace had replaced her teeth. Dave goes through the rest of the day doing his usual routine of patrolling the streets and checking in on suspicious behaviour, but that woman Allie Caulfield remains in the back of his mind all day. That night, while lying in bed at 3am with his wife fast asleep beside him, he begins to think of the woman again. No I have to get her off my mind! I’m a married man and I have a son, I can’t think about her like this, I can’t have her.

Days turn into weeks, and Dave hasn’t seen the mysterious Allie. He still thinks about her, but he still sometimes wishes that he could see her again, just to talk to her. Then one day he pulls over a little red Volvo that was speeding along Central Park. He walks up to the driver’s window and sees Allie sitting in the driver’s seat. It’s her again!

“May I see your licence ma’am?” he asks. “Call me Allie,” she says as she gets out her purse and rummages through it “and what may I call you?” Dave is taken aback by her boldness and how outgoing she is. Not at all like my wife; she doesn’t even know my parents! “You can call me Dave” he says with a little smile. “Well Dave I really did try following your advice to not speed, but I was going to be late for my yoga class and I hate being late for anything.” Tell my wife that; she hasn’t been on time for ANYTHING in her life! She was even late to her wedding! “Well punctuality is a good habit to have” he says, trying to not sound like a total phoney like those cops in the movies. Walking to his cruiser again and getting the ticket written up, Dave starts to think Allie is almost the same age as my wife but twice the fun that my wife is! She actually is active and does something proactive instead of sitting around the house while I bring in the money to pay for our stupid apartment! Maybe I should....NO! I’m a faithful man and won’t do something like that, but who says my wife will think otherwise? Hmmm...I’ll have to carefully consider this.

“You were going 80 in a 60 speed zone so you’re being charged with a speeding with a $250 dollar fine.” He says sternly, trying to sound like some badass cop. Maybe I do have some Dirty Harry in me after all. Allie looks at the ticket and smacks the wheel “I’m such an idiot!” she yells “I can’t believe I didn’t listen to your advice Dave, I guess an ‘I told you so’ is what I deserve....I’m sorry, I’ll just be heading on my way...”

“Wait! I’m not going to say I told you so or anything like that, and you don’t have to apologize, we all make mistakes. It’s if we learn from those mistakes that make us better people. Have a nice day Allie”

“Thanks Dave, you too.” And with that she drove off. Dave stood there for a minute, quietly, not moving, but couldn’t help crack a little smile. She actually admitted that she was wrong and should’ve listened; my wife wouldn’t do any such thing! No, she would actually blame me for not telling her sooner when she is wrong instead of thanking me; it drives me crazy!

That night, Dave has a very sleepless night thinking about Allie. She is just better than my wife! My wife won’t know that I’m having an affair, and our son is too young to know any better. No I can’t....I shouldn’t....but maybe I will. God Dammit this is so much to think about! The clock ticks away on his bedside table; as time trickles past.

The next morning, while going down Broadway, yet another car goes speeding past Dave and has him on the chase again. After finally getting the car to pull over, Dave recognizes the car instantly. Third time this month, some people never learn I guess. On the bright side though, maybe I can talk to her this time.

He walks up to the car, and the window rolls down and Allie immediately hands him her licence. He can see she is upset, but just takes the licence and goes to write up the ticket. Five hundred dollars worth in tickets in two days! That’s half my salary! My wife would kill me if I had to pay this much! Walking back to the car, Dave gets a knot in his stomach. I can’t believe I have to tell her that she has to pay another Two Hundred and Fifty dollars, I’m not in the mood to give bad news....then again I never am.

“You are being charged with going twenty over the limit, so it’s another $250 fine.” Silence followed for a few moments, neither person saying anything. Then Allie starts to quietly cry. “I know this is hard on you,” Dave says “but you have to stay strong and learn to not speed.”

“It isn’t that simple, you wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me.”

“I speed because I hate driving, ever since the accident, I can’t stand to be in a car for a long period of time. I just want to get out of the car as soon as I’m where I need to be.”

“What was the ‘accident’?”

“My husband and I were driving home one night from a nice evening out for our belated anniversary. God he was so romantic...we went to that fancy restaurant that is over near the harbour, beautiful view of the Statue and the waterfront. Anyhow, we were driving home and the light changed red just as we were starting to cross the intersection...and then...I..he...it...I’m sorry...” She began to choke up, tears streaming down her cheeks. Dave hands her a tissue from his pocket. “Thank You. We were driving through the intersection and a car came speeding through going across and T-Boned us on the driver’s side. I was in the hospital for three weeks with a small fracture in my spine, a concussion, a broken leg, and a couple of bruised ribs. He was... he was...killed...instantly, both him and the other driver. I always thought he drove a little bit slow, but I didn’t think he would end up like that. Ever since that I always have had a habit of speeding. I always just want to get where I’m going without having an accident like that, I’m even scared to drive some days! Most of the time I never get into any trouble with cops, but I always seem to run into you now.”

Dave felt a wave of guilt come over him. He had given her three tickets in three weeks, two back to back! He felt awful. “I’m so sorry for your loss that is really tough to hear. Speeding won’t make your problem go away though! Going too fast can be just as bad as going too slow! I know you don’t want an accident to happen, but speeding will increase that risk! You have to find another way to conquer this fear!”

“I don’t know any other way to fight it! Don’t you understand?! You don’t know how it feels!” she sits in her chair, puffing heavy breaths each time. “I DO know how it feels! I know what it feels to lose someone you love. But there are safer ways to get over what we have lost!” Again, silence. After a few moments, Allie turns to Dave and says “Your right. There might be other ways to get over this; but I need help, I can’t do it alone.”

Dave stares at her, trying to find the right words “I’ll help you. Why don’t we meet tomorrow at the Starbucks by 52nd? That way we can try and figure out exactly why you feel you have to speed.”

“That would be greatly appreciated! Thank you! Shall we say at noon?”

“Noon is perfect; I don’t start until 1pm tomorrow.”

“Great see you then!” and with that, Allie rolls up the windows and drives off. She really is something, quite a strong woman. It may not be an official “date” tomorrow; but it’s a start. My wife doesn’t need to know about this, I mean it’s only coffee, it’s not like we are dating or anything.

That night, Dave slept like a baby, knowing that the next day he was going to finally get a chance to know Allie and really help somebody, but still he found his mind wandering in his sleep. I knew I should’ve gone in psychology and therapy like my parents did, it runs in the family...but I didn’t listen, I wanted to be a cop, I thought I would be a hero to this city. I thought my parents would be proud of me when I told them and would support me....not abandon me like they did all those years ago.

The next morning, Dave was up and full of butterflies, nervous about his little “date” with Allie at noon. It seemed the morning was going by so slowly! Finally, Dave found himself sitting in Starbucks, waiting for Allie to arrive. He looks at his watch, and sees the clock staring at him with its hands at noon. Moments pass and Dave looks again; it’s now 12:10. Allie said she hates being late, unless she was covering her actual “problem.” I’ll stick around a little while, in case she actually is a little late. It gets to be 12:15, 12:20, then 12:30. Maybe she doesn’t want my help after all....

Dave walks out of the Starbucks and gets into his cruiser when he suddenly hears a frantic plea for help on his radio. “Dispatch we have two cars in a bad accident on 54th! Repeat! We have two cars in an accident on 54th! Please respond!” Dave immediately rushes over to the scene, heart pounding and sweat pouring down his cheeks. He arrives to see a horrific sight. There are two cars wrapped around a street light and totally mangled, metal dusted over the street like grass, and the cars bent like rubber.

“What happened?” Dave exclaims “Where are the drivers? Are they alright? How did they end up in the traffic pole?”

“Calm down Dave, it looks worse than it actually was;” Officer Dion B. Castle, Dave’s best friend on the force, said calmly behind him, “The red car was going through the intersection trying to beat out a red light and got caught in the middle when it tried to stop. The other car T-Boned the car on the driver’s side and sent them both rolling into the pole. The driver of the other car is hurt but doesn’t have life threatening injuries. The driver of the red car wasn’t as lucky.”

“Who was driving the car? Do we have an ID on the body?” Dave was almost choking on his voice when he asked. It can’t be....just can’t be...I hope it isn’t her. Please don’t be her...

“We can’t ID the body; we don’t have any way of verifying who she is until they do the autopsy when she gets back to the lab.”

“Can I see the body Dion? I-I-I might know wh-who it is.” Dave was shaky in his words, praying that his feeling of who it was that was under that white sheet wasn’t correct.

“You sure you want to? The body is pretty grotesque, and we know how much you hate that.”

“Yes I know, that’s why I didn’t become a doctor, I just wanna see the body.” Hesitantly, Dave begins to walk slowly towards the white lump on the pavement that has the body of somebody’s daughter, lover, friend, co-worker, cousin, or sister. He knows that the body might be mangled, and that he might feel like throwing up after, but his curiosity just too much for him to push aside. He carefully draws back the sheet and finds himself staring into the face of Allie Caulfield. Her face is bloody and bruised, her nose broken in half, her jaw almost beside her ear. Her body looked like a contortionist gone wrong, but Dave doesn’t want to look at anymore. He holds back his tears, turns around, and walks back to his car. He sits there for a while, not doing anything. She’s dead! I can’t believe it! I was going to help this woman get through her problems and be able to get over her husband’s death! I should’ve met her at her house instead. I shouldn’t have made her drive! I think I might have even loved her! What if...? Suddenly a hard knock comes to Dave’s car window, and standing outside is Dion.

“Sorry to interrupt your train of thought there, but there is something we need to tell you. We went over the other silver car that caused the crash, and we figured out who was driving the other car...”

Dave could barely let him finish “WHO? Who was driving the car?”

“Well we checked the DMV Database and the silver car is yours Dave. Your wife is on the way to the hospital right now.”

“Somebody stole our car?!” rage was starting to fill up inside of Dave.

“Nobody stole your car Dave, your wife was the one that was driving and she was the one that caused the accident.”