my peaceful view and Chad...

Yesterday, Cole and I were swimming in the pool when a helicopter started circling overhead.  It was green, non descript so I couldn’t make out what it was doing but I had a feeling it couldn’t be good. Usually I wouldn’t think twice about a helicopter circling.  In Hollywood it was the norm.  Searchlights flashing through the living room went unnoticed but here in Austin, I watched it like an exotic bird hoping it wasn’t surveying a small forest fire. We live on the edge of a greenbelt and it’s bone dry here, we would have to kiss our newly rented condo good-bye.

After more than two hours of swimming and helicopter circling it was time to head back to the condo.  As we reached the top of the hill, a police car crawled by and continued down our quiet, tree covered road, and parked in the front of our entrance –guarding it. 

“Are we safe,” Cole asked.

“Yes,” I said remembering when I was about his age, living in Mays Pond, a suburb of Seattle, my neighbor saw a man hanging out on the side of my house and called the police. Within minutes, they were there. The man was already gone.   Nothing goes unnoticed in the suburbs. 

The good news was that with the arrival of the police it most likely wasn’t a forest fire. The bad news was it was probably a criminal on the run.  I hurried Cole into the house and locked the door behind us.  I didn’t want to scare him but I also didn’t want him to think nothing was going on.  It is important for children to read the signs, listen to their instincts, and respond accordingly.  

We settled into dinner standing in our kitchen.  We still don’t have furniture and Cole is sanctioned to eating in the kitchen because of the off-white carpeting.  Before long, I heard a loud woman’s voice.  My first thought was, oh great we do have loud neighbors but it sounded different, almost like a TV.

I stepped outside on the patio. “We are know you are in the house,” boomed across the canyon.  “I can not guarantee your safety if you stay in the house.  You need to exit on the West side of building with nothing in your hands.  We know who you are.”

They know who he is?

“CHAD, you must exit the house and talk to the police,” reverberated through the canyon.  Wow, I thought, this is different.  Even though Chad had obviously done something wrong, there was still care and understanding in the woman's tone. The anonymity of LA gone. 

As I listened, I noticed people moving with flashlights down in the greenbelt.  I hoped it was the police and not more of Chad’s crew on the lam.

The police gave Chad plenty of time to get out of the house.  At one point I thought I heard gunshots but when I went outside the police woman’s voice droned the same information. “Chad you must exit the house on the west side. I can not guarantee your safety.”  No fear or panic present.

Eventually Chad must have left the house.  I’m not sure what time. By 12:30am when I was sitting on my patio enjoying my Sleepy Tim tea while meditating on the sound of the wind rustling the trees, the moon and the stars, it was quiet.

Perhaps this was God’s way of saying welcome to Austin, you aren’t that far from Hollywood.  I must confess.  I did keep my eye on the greenbelt for those flashlights shimmering through the trees.