Man Hunt, or A Day in the Park

Yesterday afternoon Bill and I walked Lily to the baseball field for a run and then we continued along to the pond. It was a beautiful day. We kept seeing people out walking their dogs, but we couldn't speak with them because they were all on the phone. When we got to Edgewater Drive we saw flashing red and blue lights reflected in the water, and police cars on the other side of the pond. "That can't be good," I said, and laughed because our friend on Edgewater Drive says that.

We met up with with Milo, the very handsome young chocolate lab who loves Lily, and wiggles and moves like a cartoon. The kids in Milo's family were on the street with their mom and the neighboring kids eating fudgicles. A helicopter flew overhead. One of the kids was petting Lily, hiding his fudgicle behind his back. Then the other mom came over and said, "My neighbor just told me that she heard on the police radio that there's a manhunt going on, and the guy has a gun!" We saw the helicopter hovering overhead, staying in one spot like a gigantic dragonfly. Both mothers panicked and began hurrying their children into their respective houses, saying "We're going inside now." "Why?" the kids asked. "There's a very bad man on the loose," Milo's mother said. One of her daughters asked, "What about Daddy?" He was out on the street power washing the mud off of his RV. "Daddy will hit him with the power washer if he comes near," she said.

We kept walking and passed a man with chaotic gray hair who was standing in his driveway beside his black pickup truck. The truck door was open and he was on the phone. I noticed the Veteran seal on his license plate. He snapped the phone shut and looked at us. "It's the Staties," he said, meaning the State Police. I told him that we had just heard from a woman on the lake who had heard about it on her police radio. "They're looking for a guy," I said. "I just saw police racing down Rathbun Street," he said. The man was squinting at the helicopter. "Can a helicopter really have a view of a person on the ground?" I asked. "Yes, they can see really well from above. They can tell if it's a man or a woman." "Really? Do they use binoculars?" "No, they can see. He's only 1,000 feet up," the man said, gesturing up. The sound of the helicopter made me think of war. I watched the helicopter, imagining the pilot seeing us; two men and a woman and a dog on the ground looking up at him. I grabbed Bill and called up, "It's not him!"

We continued walking. Bill said they're probably trying to flush the guy out of the woods. "How can they do that?" "They have police dogs, and guys on the ground, along with the helicopter." I could only imagine it would be really easy to hide from a helicopter, especially in a city. Couldn't you just curl up into a ball under a shrub or a couch, or hide in a tree house or a shed?

When we got home I decided to give Lily a quick shampoo under the hose while the air was still relatively warm. My neighbor came into the yard to pet Lily. "I need a dog hug," he said, not minding that she was sudsy and soaking wet. "I completely understand. Did you see the helicopter?" I asked. "I heard it," he said. "They're looking for a guy, it's a man hunt," I explained. "Great, that's wonderful," he said, rolling his eyes.