Chapter 10: Doctor and Teacher

So, it went with the rest of the semester. I also did classes on Use of Force and Autism/Mental Health. In each lecture my PowerPoint presentation included examples and videos of recent incidents where police officers had been videoed going way beyond what was needed. Is it necessary to shoot criminals? Sure! It happens all the time! Is it necessary to stand over the body of a dying criminal and put an entire magazine into their body? Is it necessary to shoot an unarmed teenager in the back because you think he had something in his hand when the crime he committed was backtalking to a police officer? And is it necessary to shoot a naked unresponsive man sitting in the middle of an intersection whose only crime seemed to be blocking traffic?

To my mind, many of these incidents happen because of the training police officers receive, going back to their time at the academy and then continuing to their training on the force. You would hear things such as “If one bullet is needed, a dozen is better!” and “Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six!” This is combined with the idea, frequently reported by politicians, that our heroic police officers had the most dangerous job in America. My mother constantly told me that. The fact of the matter is that being a police officer wasn’t anywhere near the most dangerous. Depending on the source of the data and statistics, being a cop was somewhere between #15 and #20 on the list. The really dangerous jobs were things like logging, farming, and construction. Try telling that to Mom!

Not everybody at the academy agreed with what I was teaching, but enough agreed that I was allowed to give my presentations. What everybody seemed to agree was that more than ever before, police forces were under public scrutiny, and at a level unheard of in earlier times. More and more officers were wearing bodycams, and security cameras were everywhere in metropolitan areas. Don’t even mention that everywhere they went somebody was aiming a smartphone at them! My point was that police officers had two choices about being shot with cameras. They could fight it and lose or live with it and smile. One thing many officers didn’t consider was using the omnipresent coverage to help them. Somebody is running away, and you don’t know if they have a gun? Stop and grab up all the video footage from doorbell cameras and security cameras, then run the footage through facial recognition software. The odds were increasing daily that you could figure out who the criminal was, and then go in calmly with overwhelming force at a time of your choosing. Not everyone agreed with this, but as more cameras came into use and as the software became better, it was becoming a standard technique.

Kelly came for a visit at the end of the first week of February. She left the offspring with her parents and packed a small bag, and then drove to Athens. Fortunately, she had told me her plans ahead of time, so I was at the apartment and not at the library. She came over after her last class at Matucket State, arriving around half past three. She knocked on the door, but when I opened it, she already had her copy of the apartment key in her hand. “Hey, babe! Am I happy to see you!” I said.

She came in and hugged me tightly. “I missed you even more! Oh, I am so happy to see you!” She kissed me and then stepped back. “Here, take this.” She handed me a small suitcase and stepped into the apartment with me.

“How are the kids? Your mom has them?”

She nodded. “She and my father, at least until they get an offer on them. Dad said he had contacts overseas in the slavery business and was going to make a few phone calls.”

I snorted and laughed. “Tell him to make the best deal he can. When they offer to sell them back, I want to make a profit.”

Kelly looked around the apartment. “This place looks even smaller than I thought it was.”

“Same size. I’ve just moved my stuff around, I guess.”

“Give me a few minutes. I need to clean up. I came here directly from class.”

I just nodded and she headed to the bathroom. I didn’t think about it at the time, but she carried her handbag with her. Then I heard the shower start up, so I decided to clean the place up a bit. That didn’t involve cleaning, though. I just sort of organized the mess and loaded my dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Then I pulled a bottle of whiskey out and some Seven-Up and made a couple of drinks. They were ready in time for Kelly to come out of the bathroom.

“Whoa! That’s interesting!” I said.

Kelly had entered the bathroom in her hideous schoolmarm costume. She had come out in a tiny and transparent chemise. “Why haven’t you unfolded the bed?” she asked.

“What?”

“Grim, you didn’t think I came here for a weekend alone with you and was planning to walk around and see the sights of Athens, did you?”

I laughed loudly at that. “No, it’s just that I folded the bed up this morning before you came. I didn’t want you to think I was living like a slob. I normally leave it open.”

“Well, unfold it!” she ordered, laughing back at me.

I unfolded it so that it was lying flat again. As soon as it was set, Kelly hopped on and motioned me to join her. I chuckled and climbed on the bed with her. We spent the next couple of hours getting to know one another again. Kelly informed me at one point that she was suffering from Orgasm Deficiency Syndrome; I wasn’t around to take care of matters and now she was in a deficit situation.

“Is that like a budget deficit?” I asked.

“Basically.”

“I thought it was up to Congress to handle deficits. Maybe you want to call Drew Ferguson and ask him about it? He’s our Congressman.”

Kelly squawked about that and told me that not only did I need to take care of the deficit, I needed to build up a surplus for the future! I laughed at that but got back to work. That kept us busy until dinner. After that we got up and got ready for dinner. I changed the sheets while Kelly showered, and then I cleaned up while Kelly dressed. When I came out of the bathroom, my wife was sitting on the bed wearing a calf-length black wrap dress that showed a lot of leg and was slipping on some matching high heels. “You look great, babe, but I hope you brought a coat. It’s in the forties out there and windy,” I said.

“You sure about that? You might like what happens with this dress when it gets windy?” She stood and twirled around; the dress swirled lightly around her and showed her legs nicely.

“I do like it, but I don’t find pneumonia all that sexy.”

“I have a coat out in my car.”

“The Miata?” I asked. She still had the car her father had bought her when she turned sixteen.

Kelly nodded. “I left the minivan with my folks. It has the car seats in it, after all.”

I nodded in understanding. I put on some khakis and a dress shirt, and then went out to her car and retrieved her coat, a lightweight lined trench coat with a built-in hood. Then it was back into the apartment to give it to Kelly and grab my wallet. We were both familiar with Athens since we had gone to school at UGA. I had earned my masters here over the last few years, and Kelly had gotten all her degrees here. We decided to use her car and I would drive. There were any number of restaurants within a fifteen-minute radius.

First, though, I headed west on Atlanta Highway to a place I had seen driving around town. I pulled in and Kelly looked at me. “What in the world?”

“Come on. We can discuss the deficit situation inside.”

“Grim!”

“Give me a break, babe! I know you’ve been inside places like this. You’ve bought stuff at places like this.”

“No, I haven’t!” Kelly blushed deeply. “I did it online!”

“Well, now you get to see what it’s like. Take a walk on the wild side!” I got out of her car and went around to her door and opened it. “Come on, think of the wild tales you’ll be able to tell your mom and mine.”

“Oh my God!” Kelly climbed out of her car and took my hand as I led her inside Sexy Suz Couples Boutique. Sexy Suz was an adult emporium and sold adult toys, lubricants, lingerie, bondage gear, videos, and anything and everything related to sex that anybody could imagine. Kelly’s grip tightened as I opened the door. Unfortunately for her imagination, white slavers were not waiting for us inside. Instead, it was a fairly average store, only one that didn’t sell things you would find in the local Piggly Wiggly. It was all I could do not to laugh at her.

Kelly’s eyes popped as she saw what was inside. Rather than a dirty and dark illicit hole-in-the-wall, the place was well lighted and with large glass windows and was in a strip mall. “You want to check with your mom, see if she has any marital aid needs?” I asked.