part 7

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At around 9pm I decided that I should head home and get some rest since I made plans with Loupe for the following day. But I was having a really good time with my friends. Sleep would come later. Before I knew it, it was already 11pm and I told James and Loupe that I was going to head home and sleep. James offered to walk me home, and Loupe said she would join us. And at that precise moment there was a loud knock on the door, followed by a loud voice,

"Open up! This is the police!"

"What the f**k?" Loupe got up, walked to the door and began unlocking it only to be pushed out of the way as the cop could not wait, and forced open the door faster than she could manage to open it.

"So we’re having a wild party here, aren’t we?" The first one I saw was a young police officer. He very comfortably came into the livingroom, with an air about him that would suggest he owned the apartment space. A second cop followed him in right away. They both looked very comfortable and arrogant .

"There is no party," Loupe was getting ticked off. "I have two friends over, and they are going home now."

"Oh! So you finish throwing beer bottles at your neighbors and decide to call it a night. What, you run out of bottles? Did I get that right?"

"What? What beer bottles?" James asked confused.

"We had your downstairs neighbors call us asking for help. You guys were out on the balcony throwing bottles of beer at them, while they were trying to enjoying a nice evening outside."

I was sure a mistake had been made, as there were never any bottles, only cans. And no one was throwing them, but drinking them. The officers proceed to ask us our names. I told them my name was Kar.

"That’s not your f*****g name!"

"You would know this better than me, because?"

"Where’s your I.D.?"

"I don’t have one with me."

"Drivers licence?"

"I don’t have one. I don’t drive."

"Typical. What? It got suspended cause you were driving drunk?" There was something extremely unsettling about this one young officer. It was not his looks, but he was an extremely unattractive individual.

"No... I don’t have a licence because I never learned how to drive. Therefore I never drove drunk, or drove at all for that matter."

"You know what you did you little s***s? You hit a poor woman on the leg with a bottle of beer. A bottle of beer falling from the 7th floor does a s**t load of damage!"

"How many times do we need to tell you. We do not have beer bottles."

"Well not anymore you little f***s, considering you were busy throwing all of them at your neighbors!"

At that point in time there was another knock on the door. It was 2 more police officers. The very rude young cop almost ran to the door to let them in. It became clear that he was in his element. A blind man could tell that this young police officer was enjoying himself. A lot. Loupe, James and I stood in the livingroom confused. The buzz I felt from the beer began to dissipate. I could not understand how a good evening turned into this.

"We never had any bottles of beer." Loupe attempted to explain to the young cop who was doing all the talking, yet again.

"Well your neighbors saw you with their own eyes, throwing beer bottles at them until you finally hit the poor woman."

Another officer chimed in. "Are you even aware of the damage you have caused?"

"We never had bottles of beer." James was starting to get upset now.

"You were drinking beer though, huh?"

"Yes... but from cans."

"So the truth comes out huh? You three little f***s get drunk and then decide to go and torment your poor neighbors downstairs. Wonderful."

"We never threw any bottles. Yes we drank beer, but it’s a Friday night, and we are all in our mid 20's. We were not doing anything illegal. Nothing was thrown!" Loupe was becoming very annoyed and angry. Rightfully so.

This only infuriated the young cop further.

"Nothing illegal huh? Well, we’ll see about that. A******s."

"Can you please keep it down. I just put my child to bed, and my brother just had surgery and he needs his rest. He’s trying to sleep."

I looked over at the officers and the young cop’s eyes lit up right away.

"Oh!... so there are more of you." He turned to his partner.

"Did you hear that? There’s more little fuckers! Wonderful. We’re going to search your place, and we’ll see what illegal drugs you’ve got."

"No one here does drugs." Loupe sighed.

"Shut up b***h! That’s hard to believe. We’ll get your kid up and I’m sure we’ll have no problem getting the truth out of him."

I could see Loupe looked extremely uncomfortable then. No child should have to wake up and listen to this police officer with uncontrollable verbal diarrhea . The evening took a very wrong turn, and without giving it a second thought I jump in.

"It was me! I threw the beer bottle. It was an accident. No one else was involved. I’m very sorry for it"

"Oh! Hah, hah! So there we go. We finally hear the truth."

He looked at the other police officers with great pleasure. He was beyond satisfied with himself now. If you didn’t know any better, you would get the impression that this man had just invented something magnificent, that would better all of humanity, judging by the extremely pleased look on his face.

"Kar! What are you lying for?!" Loupe turned to the cops. "She’s lying!"

"Oh no. She’s just finally telling the truth. We’re still gonna search your place. I’m sure we’ll find enough illegal s**t to lock your asses in jail where you belong."

"I was lying. I just didn’t want you to disturb her brother and son from sleeping, which you’re obviously going to pursue anyway."

"Damn f*****g right!"

"There were no beer bottles ever. We only had beer cans." I couldn’t believe we were still on this.

"Oh, we’ll see about that!"

The rest of the events went by quickly. They compressed into each other. Loupe’s son and brother were woken up and dragged out of the rooms they were sleeping in. Her brother was obviously still a little high on pain medication, which presented a field day for the young officer. Unfortunately it was also obvious that he was in pain. We were all asked to stand in the hallway of the apartment because the police needed to ‘defuse’ the situation. I will die wondering what situation needed to be ‘defused,’ but this is what tax payers money pays for. Officers to ‘defuse’ imaginary situations. James was told to stand further away in the hallway. Loupe and I were by the front door along with her brother. One officer had woken up Loupe’s son and I could hear mumbled voices coming from one of the rooms. An officer had began to question the child. The very angry and excited officer accompanied us and stood in the hallway while the other ones stood close by and one decided to continue inspecting the apartment. I can’t remember what it was about exactly, but he continued to talk. By ‘talk’ I mean he let Loupe and I know what pieces of ‘s**t’ we were. How we were simply wasting air and causing trouble for everyone.

The officer who was speaking to Muchacho looked like he was done with that. He came out from the room and informed the others that he was finished.

"Can I please go see my son now?"

"F**k no. He’s fine! Relax." The young cop seemed to be happy that he was given an opportunity to snap at her.

All together there were 4 police officers.

Nothing was happening. We continued to stand in the hallway. Time passed. I began to feel very uneasy. Loupe’s brother was in pain. I just really didn’t want to be there and was afraid I would say something I would regret. And so I made a mistake that I would pay for, for the rest of my life. I asked for permission to go out on the balcony and have a smoke. The young angry cop did not seem to care, and simply told me to go ahead. He was occupied with something else. I grabbed my purse, gave Loupe a sympathetic look and headed to the balcony. I was surprised he did not object. Weeks later when we talked about that night, Loupe looked back on that moment and said,

"Yeah you went out. I was surprised you were allowed. The young cop wouldn’t even let me check on my child, but he didn’t object when you asked to go out and have a smoke. So I asked him what the deal was. He told me I had a good point and went straight after you."

The rest she didn’t see because the curtains were drawn, but I remember perfectly. I will remember it forever because in the few moments that followed, the life I lived and was accustomed to would end.

I was on the balcony digging through my purse looking for my lighter when the balcony door opened and the young angry police officer stepped out. He closed the sliding door behind him.

"What the f**k are you gonna smoke b***h?"

"A cigarette? Did... you want one or something?"

He ignored the question and continued.

"So... this is where you were standing throwing beer bottles at the neighbors huh?"

He looked over the railing.

I started to feel annoyed and gave up my search quest for the lighter.

"I thought we already covered this. There were never any bottles. I took the blame so you wouldn’t wake up my girlfriend’s kid and brother."

"People like you make me sick. F*****g sick."

"People like what exactly? I did nothing wrong and you are the one who told me I could go out on the balcony to have a smoke. Why did you give me permission to go out on the balcony if you didn’t want me out of your sight and were going to follow me anyway?"

That right there was the icing on the cake. His demeanor changed. He started walking towards me, and before I knew what was happening, a very swift accurate and painful punch was delivered to my left eye. I dropped my purse. I felt shock, as my mind was completely unable to make sense of what was happening. He wound up a little and a second punch hit my left eye again. I instinctively grabbed the balcony railing with my left hand, but very weakly. Everything spun, and I didn’t understand. This man was not much bigger than me, but the force of his punches was incredible. I don’t know how I didn’t pass out right there and then. The last thing I remember feeling were his arms on me. I remember at a point my feet were off the ground, and the rest went blank.