And so it Begins ("Some Guy . . . with a badge"

PB and SB (Skater Boy) are having a sleepover at our house tonight. Sleepover no longer means sleeping. It has little to do with sleep. The rule is, no noise after midnight so the old folks can hopefully sleep. The old folks (BB and me) stayed up a little later, knowing we couldn't sleep until they settled down a little.


Finally, though, we did sleep, until 3:45 when someone knocked on the bedroom door. We usually leave the door open at night, unless there's a sleepover. Then, we close it for noise reduction and privacy.


"Open the door," I said, because PB was out there mumbling. He continued mumbling.


"Speak up, boy," said the sleepy old man.


"Some guy wants to talk to you. He won't go away until he does."


"Some guy? Whaddya mean?"


"We were out in the yard drinking tea. I don't see why you can't sit outside on a nice night and drink tea. We were in our own yard. How is that against the law?"


"Curfew?" I said.


"Whaddya mean, some guy?"


"Some guy . . with a badge. He wants to talk to you."


BB gets up, pulls on some jeans, and goes down.


In a minute, he returns. ""I don't know what he meant, 'some guy,' it was a uniformed police officer, standing there with some teeny-bopper girl. And I don't know what he meant, sitting in "our own yard." The policeman said they were down at the corner talking to two girls. He's walking them each home and speaking to their parents."


"Did he get a warning?"


"He didn't get a ticket."


So, now it is five AM and I am awake, and have been since 3:45. I have insomnia anyway, and something like this makes it hard for me to sleep again. The boys have turned off their light and are quiet. BB has gone back to sleep. But I am wide awake.