Underneath the Peonies (Tom Hanson)

Chapter 5: Landslide

I found myself sitting in a little jail cell hold inside of the precinct that's disguised as a chapel. In fact, it's the church that Tom works at. What are the odds.

I was given a paper towel to wipe the ink off of my fingers after they took my fingerprints. It was pointless, because the ink stained my fingers. Sitting there, I felt like a child who was sent to the principals office, and the principal was my boyfriend.

Stealing that car finally caught up to me. I changed the license plates at least three times during my time with it but they caught me anyway. I knew they would eventually. But, they caught me after they received word that someone had once again broken into the abandoned amusement park in town and started up the rides. I don't know who snitched on me, but whoever it was better hope I never find out. I have nothing to lose.

I leaned back against the cold bars and noticed Tom walking over to me. He looked disappointed, but he opened the door and walked in. He closed the metal door behind him and he sighed. "Look, I'm getting real tired of catching you."

"I know, I'm sorry," I sighed. I didn't think I would care, but I hated seeing this look of dismay on his face.

"It says here that you ran a red light?" He asked while his eyes darted around on his clipboard.

"Yep," I said with a nod. That's how I was caught. I apparently ran the light, got pulled over, and the car was reported stolen. That cop did not give me a break.

"How do you run a red light?" He asked.

I gnawed on the inside of my cheek. I was a little embarrassed to admit my lack of drivers knowledge but I mumbled, "I thought that red lights after midnight were just suggestions."

Tom's curious eyes looked up from his paper and he asked in a high pitched voice, "what? You thought red lights after midnight were suggestions?"

"Yeah."

"I'm going to need you to walk me through it."

"Well—okay, so it was almost four in the morning, and I saw the red light so I made the stop. Then, I checked to see if anyone was coming. No one was so I continued to go because I didn't see anyone."

He sighed, "okay."

"All of a sudden, I saw the lights and I got pulled over. The cop asked me for my license and registration so I said, 'I can't imagine what I've done Officer, but here you go'."

Tom looked down at his clipboard again and bit his lips together to keep himself from laughing. I noticed his coworkers were pretending like they weren't listening to us, but I continued on with my story.

"Then the cop told me that I ran a red light, so I had as offended and I said, 'excuse me. I made a full stop, looked in every direction, then I counted silently to three in my head and I proceeded through the red light with caution as I am legally allowed to do'."

Tom looked back up at me and asked sarcastically, "how'd that work out for you?"

I dramatically looked around the cell I was locked in and said, "you tell me."

"Well, you're free to go. Is there anyone I can call for you? Your mom?"

I shook my head and said, "no, that's okay."

Someone in the precinct whistled and said, "hey, yo, Hanson! Autograph!"

Tom looked at me for a few moments before he retreated out of the cell. The door closed behind him, so I wasn't sure if that meant I could leave or not. Instead, I decided to watch him. Tom walked over to the Douginator and scribbled his signature on the paper he was holding. Then, he grabbed our coats from the coatrack and he fetched his car keys from his desk.