A Sleepy Altercation

The sound of the doorbell cut through the air like a knife. No answer. A few knocks and a ring later, Persey steps over Rebecca and Miranda to open the door. Miranda is conscious, though barely. She’s on the floor, slumped against the wall. Rebecca is also sitting on the floor hugging her legs, and resting her head on her knees. She looks exhausted.
Two officers are at the door, one male and the other female. The woman asks if anyone rang the Police. Persey looks over her shoulder at Rebecca. With a small voice she tells them she made the call.
The male officer leans forward to ask her if she can speak a bit louder, when the woman notices Miranda and pushes Persey aside to get a better look. She walks in, and kneels next to the bloody mess. She motions for the male officer to join her.
         “She has a split lip and what looks like the first stages of bruising around the eyes. Also, her nose doesn’t look quite right. I’m not sure if she’s conscious, but she’s definitely breathing” and then turning toward Rebecca: “Are you alright dear? Did anybody call an ambulance?”
          “What happened here anyway?” the male officer interrupted, looking from girl to girl. Rebecca shrugs and gets up.
          “I didn’t call anyone” came Rebecca’s reply as she stretches her arms and legs before walking towards her ground floor bedroom, between the staircase and the kitchen. The male officer notices her bruised knuckles and moves up to stop her.
          “Can you please stay with us for now miss? We may need you to provide some more information.”
Rebecca turns around and leans against the kitchen doorpost, looking bored.  “Fine, I’ll stay.”
Meanwhile, Persey had rung the emergency number and got through to the ambulance services. She walks over to the female officers and hands her the phone.
         “They have questions” she said in a monotone voice.
Miranda still hadn’t moved. The male officer looks from a sweaty, seemingly unscathed Rebecca to the beat-up mess on the floor. He then looks at Persey, who is trying to avoid looking at Rebecca. “What happened here?”
Persey looks at Rebecca, but is clearly too frightened to say anything. She looks down at her feet, and then kneels next to Miranda.
         “Is she going to be ok?” Persey asked the female officer
The policeman interrupts and repeats his question, a bit sterner this time. He then turns to Rebecca: “Miss?”
Rebecca looks him dead in the eye, but still displays no emotion whatsoever.
         “Self defence.”
The two officers look at the semi-conscious mess on the floor, at Rebecca and back at Miranda again.
The Policewoman turns to Rebecca: “I’m going to repeat the question…What happened?”
         “Self. Defence.” Rebecca leaves the doorpost and steps towards her room.
The policeman also steps forward, shouting: “Hey! Please do not go into that room!”
As he walks up to Rebecca, the woman redirects her attention to Miranda.          
         “Honey, are you ok? Speak to me dear, what’s your name?”
Although Miranda had come to by now, she was not able to speak and her attempts resulted in painful groans.

Rebecca, clearly bored, asks the male officer if she can finally go and get some sleep now that Miranda has shown to be alive and kicking.
         “Well, maybe not kicking,” she adds, letting out a little laugh as she steps into her room.
         “Hey!”
Rebecca turns her upper-body to face the officer.
         “What? Self-defence! I’m sorry, I really need to get some sleep. I will leave the door unlocked, and if you need me, just come and get me. Oh, and please do take of your shoes before entering my room. Thank you.”
The policewoman walks up to Rebecca and yanks her back into the hallway by her right elbow.
         “I’ve just about had it with you, Missy. Look at the state of her, and you don’t have a scratch on you! How is that self-defence!?”
An unimpressed Rebecca shows her bruised and bloody knuckles to demonstrate she didn’t come off as unscathed as the woman made out. The male officer was losing his patience now too: “Can anyone call the fucking Paramedics?”
The only reply he received was Rebecca’s, asking if she could finally go and get some sleep now.  She then entered her room and closed the door before either officer could reply. Baffled, they watch the door close on them.
Stepping over Miranda, the woman walks up to Persey and takes the phone from her hand, walks back and gives it to the male officer. All Persey could do was repeat her words: “They have questions.”
The policewoman goes back to Persey, and taking the girls hands into hers she asked: ”Can you tell me what the hell happened here?”
         “She got mad”, Persey shrugged.
         “She got mad?”
         “Yes.”
         “Who got mad? The girl in the bedroom? Do you know why she got mad?”
         “Yes, Rebecca. But I don’t know why. Probably the noise again.”
The police officers exchange looks. The woman questions on.
         “Noise.”
         “Yes, she always complains we make too much noise and she can’t sleep. But, but, but she also makes noise”, Persey rattled off. Miranda tried to move a little, but it was too much for her. The policemain said: “She may have bruised, or broken, some ribs too. You shouldn’t try to move honey, the same goes for speaking. We’ll take you to hospital in a minute. There will be plenty of time to have your say after we’ve fixed you up a little.”
Although this made Miranda and Persey feel much better, they looked more comfortable, in any case, it was all the female officer could take.
         “I want to know what in bloody hell is going on here. And I don’t care who has to bleed to bloody death to do so!”
Her outburst made Rebecca come out of her room, and she takes a seat on the stairs.
         “Are you just about done yet? I would really, really like to get some sleep. Whispering would be good also.” Upon hearing this, the policewoman walks over to Rebecca, and without so much as a word or a look, she puts her in handcuffs.
         “You can sleep in your cell. I have had it up to here with you lot.”
Not sure what sort of reaction to expect from the girl, everybody is anticipating the worst. But Rebecca just sat there, looking tired and dejected. The policeman returns his attention to Miranda, looking at his watch impatiently. Rebecca, having noticed him glancing at his watch earlier, asked him if he has to be somewhere. He looks at her, stupefied.
         “Excuse me?”
         “Do. You. Have. Somewhere. To. Be?” she asked slowly, and then toneless, though at normal speed: “Because if you do, it’s fine by me. I’m just about ready to go anyway.” Turning to the woman she continues. “Feel free to put me in your car. I don’t really care about comfort anymore, as long as I can get a semi-quiet place to get some shut-eye. – Really, you can put me in the car now. Is it warm? In your car I mean, because if it’s freezing, I’d rather you not. I have trouble sleeping when I’m cold.” The policeman snapped.
         “Would you just shut up for a moment! You have just beaten someone to the proverbial pulp, and all you can talk about is getting some sleep! Un-Fucking-Believable!” he thundered.
         “Well, if they’d let me sleep in the first place, none of this shit would’ve happened to begin with!” Rebecca snapped back.
         “What is this shit about sleep? I swear, if no-one starts talking anytime soon, I’m going to beat the crap out of all of you!” the women interjected.
Dripping with sarcasm Rebecca said: “Oh goody, police brutality. Will I get a bigger settlement because I’m cuffed?” Both police officers started towards her, but were interrupted by the arrival of the ambulance.

Having sent Miranda off to the hospital, and allowing Persey to go with her, the officers were stuck with an unresponsive Rebecca. The only thing leaving her lips were the words: “Sleep, need sleep. After sleep I’ll say anything you want me to. I promise. Sleep, need sleep…” Realising they weren’t going to get anywhere with this one they picked her up and were pushing her to their car as the landlords mother arrived.
         “What’s going on here?” she asked in her thick Italian accent.
         “Nothing that concerns you, Madame”, came the stern reply.
         “What you mean ‘nothing that concerns me’? Everything concerns me! This is my house, my tenant! Now I insist you tell me at once!” The policewomen groaned, and asked Rebecca: “This doesn’t happen to be your mother, now does it?”
Rebecca wanted to laugh, but she just didn’t have the energy. She managed half a smile for the officer, and a thankful glance in the direction of her landlady. Now that she has arrived, everything was sure to be okay. She knows the score, she knows the nightmare her fellow housemates are. Hell, she likes them even less than I do!, she thought happily.
         “Now let that poor girl go. What have you done to her? Look at the state she is in! Let her go, now! Come on dear. After these brutes release you, you go to my house ok? I’ll deal with this.”
         “Madame, would you like to come to the station with us, and help us get to the bottom of this?” the offered, realising they wouldn’t go anywhere at this rate, and may even create a scene.
         “Why can’t we do it here? Why the station? I’m sure whatever it is, we can fix it over a nice cup of tea. My house is right there on the corner, why don’t we go and have a nice little sit-down.”
         “Why don’t we not”, the male officer interrupted crossly: “We have already spent too much time on this as it is. The young lady here is has probably beaten her housemate into a pulp and has definitely not been very cooperative with us. So therefore there is no other alternative. She is coming with us!”
         “Fair enough, than I’m coming too! Look at the state of her! She can’t possibly comply with anything like this. Uncooperative, my foot! Now what are you still standing around for, let’s go then! Before this poor girl collapses to her feet!”

Rebecca hadn’t sat down properly yet, or she was off in the land of nod. Her landlords’ mother, however, was certain this was due to the officers’ brutality and was verbally laying into the two officers.
After ten minutes, or so, they arrived at the station. Dazed, but feeling slightly refreshed by her short nap, Rebecca was led into a booking room, her landlady still hurling abuse at everyone and everybody.
I don’t understand why nobody likes her, she thought, this woman is the greatest! I miss my mum. She then realized, nobody had read her her rights yet. Interesting, she thought.
         “Okay, now you’ve had your little nap. Can you now please tell us what happened?!” But before Rebecca could answer, her landlady was at it again: “You want to know what happened? I will tell you what happened! Those no good girls were probably up to their tricks again, is what happened!”
         “One more word out of you, Madame, and we will have to remove you from this interview!” The officers were clearly fed up now. Rebecca moved a bit closer to her landlady, grabbed her hand and gave it a little squeeze.
         “What happened is I lost it. I don’t regret it, I’m not sorry, and I’m prepared to take full responsibility.” Her landlords’ mother opened her mouth to say something, but Rebecca shook her head.
         “Good to hear you’re ready to take responsibility now, but that still doesn’t tell us what happened.”
         “Right. Okay. You see, I work a lot of nightshifts, and although I appreciate it’s not fair to ask them to keep quiet all day just because of my job. I do expect them to be considerate. I wear earplugs to muffle most of the noise, but when they go to have a dance in the garden with the radio full blast I have to draw the line. Persey and the others are okay, but Persey’s cousin, Miranda, my word she is the most irresponsible person EVER! She has to get her way. And because my room is next to garden, hallway AND kitchen, I get to experience every little fight she has with her boyfriend, every song she likes on the radio, every party she throws for her classmates, you get the drift. Her cousin will kick her out of their room if she’s too loud, so she will sit on the stairs, in the kitchen, or hallway. And she’s gobby too! Adjusted to life in England pretty quickly, that one!”
Her landlady was nodding her head in agreement, face dripping with disdain, as Rebecca continued: “So, this morning I finished a set of five twelve hour nightshifts when she was running, and I mean running! With boots on and everything! Around the house for whatever it was she needed. She then decided to cook something in the kitchen with the radio full blast. By that time I had already politely asked her to calm down a bit a few times. She would agree, and be quiet for a minute or two, before she went on. Now, normally Persey would step in at this point and think of a reason to separate us.” Her landlady snorted, clearly not agreeing. She received another warning glance from the female officer, before directing her attention back to Rebecca.
         “Just to recap, before you continue. This girl Miranda and you don’t get on. You feel she doesn’t respect your needs, and she feels you are too demanding?”
         “Yes, that sounds fair enough”, Rebecca nodded.
         “Alright, so what happened next?”
         “Well, basically, I stormed out of my room, yanking my earplugs out, then yanking the cord from the radio. I was on my way back to my room, ignoring her verbal abuse, when she pulled me back by my arm and pushed me. I was so tired all I could do was lapse into a blind rage, I must’ve laid it into her, obviously, but I don’t remember it. The next thing I remember is Persey screaming and pulling me off of her.” She looked up at the officers, distress pouring from her eyes, before continuing: “You must know what it’s like to come of a series of nightshifts. You must know how it feels. Or rather how you can’t feel anything anymore, how all you want is just some sleep. Just a little bit, so your heart can stop going 90miles an hour, just to feel human again.” Rebecca eyed the officers again. The female officer relented.
         “If you can just bear with us a moment, we will go outside and discuss your case ok?” Rebecca nodded and slumped back into her seat, looking vulnerable. Her landlady opened her mouth to say something, but Rebecca just shook her head, looking exhausted again. In stead of launching into her planned tirade, her landlady just said: “I had no idea things were so bad, why didn’t you tell us?” Rebecca shrugged.
         “How about you move into my house? The room up top is empty, why don’t you take that one? I’ll give it to you for the same price as what you’re paying now, and it’s much bigger, with a nice big window!”
         “I’m ok. But thanks anyway”, Rebecca smiled. She had escaped one mother, and was not about to move in with another.
         “Well, then we’ll have to evict the others. You know I’ve never wanted them there in the first place, but you know how stubborn Fredo can be. I have warned him they would be trouble!” Shocked Rebecca retreated. Although they drove her crazy at times, that was only because the house was just too small. It wouldn’t be fair on them to turn them out, just because of her and Miranda not getting on. Realising the police will also want them to separate she conceded and accepted the room, for now anyway.

The officers returned to the room.
         “We’ve just spoken to the hospital” the male officer started.
         “Miranda will be fine. Apart from some bruises, a broken nose, two broken ribs and a few bruised ones, there are no signs of other internal injuries” the female one continued. Rebecca cringed.
         “We will treat this as a Domestic, which means that if Miranda doesn’t press charges we will let you of with a warning. Had you been a man, and she your wife you’d be in a lot of trouble. But as you’re both girls, and in compromised circumstances, we won’t take the matter further.” Rebecca sighed with relief, barely containing a smile. The Policewoman hadn’t finished yet.
         “However”, she said sternly: “the two of you cannot go on living under one roof. This will be the condition we’re placing you under.” Before the woman could finish her sentence, Rebecca’s landlady interrupted: “That’s sorted already. We have already agreed that Rebecca will come live with me for now. I have an empty room and no other tenants, she will be fine there.” At this the policewoman smiled and placed the relevant paperwork in front of Rebecca to sign.
         “Now go and get yourself some sleep girl. I don’t want to see you here again”, she said before taking the papers and seeing them off. Rebecca nodded solemnly, whilst mentally reminding herself to stay calm. She knew Miranda would never press charges, and tried to keep her face as straight as possible on her way home.