What's Going On

"It's so exciting," Clara said, "I used to love to know what's going on. One night I heard a report come in, a man was holding his family hostage. It was over on James Street in that big blue apartment house on the second floor. I woke my daughter Arianna who was seven at the time and bundled her into the back seat under a big quilt. We drove over. There were three squad cars and two detective cars I recognized. You get to know them all. I parked with a view of the house. While I was sitting there I saw a silhouette of an officer go past the kitchen window. Then I was riveted. I must've stayed for hours, waiting and watching."


"My mother used to listen to the police radio and when something exciting was happening she'd grab me and drive over to where the action was. Even if it was the middle of the night in the dead of winter," Arianna said, laughing. 'I'd be like 'Ma, why are we here,' and she'd say 'I just had to come see what was going on.' One time there was a man with a shotgun threatening his family. 'This is more exciting than the movies,' she said.
'But you can't see anything,' I told her. I'd be trying to keep warm under the quilt.
'I can imagine what's going on behind those walls and that's even better,' she'd say.
'But ma, can't you imagine from home?'
'No, it's not nearly as exciting.'"