Curious Beings

We are, by nature, curious beings.  Take for example Wednesday evening.  The day was full of thunder and lightning storms, some of the thunder shaking the house.  Shortly after one large clap two police cars with lights flashing and sirens screaming raced past our house.

I need to pause here and tell you about our neighborhood.  We live in an area of homes built about fifty years ago.  Some of these homes house the original owners, while others are home to young families.  Our home is situated on a corner of two roads which access most of the neighborhood.  So, it's not unusual to see an ambulance rush past.  (We wonder if the frequency is due to the elderly residents in the area.)

But Wednesday evening was different.  These police cars were serious about where they were going - no pausing in the intersection, and they were booking!  A few seconds later a third police car rushed past, and then a fourth, fifth and sixth, in quick succession!  A minute or two later an ambulance passed.

Now, aren't you already wondering what happened?  So were we.  We reasoned out that it was not a fire, like might have been caused by the lightning in the area, because we didn't see any fire engines.  Although later we thought about the location of the fire stations and realized they would have traveled to where we saw the police cars disappear by a different route.

So, what could it be?  We thought about different options.  The ambulance didn't indicate a traffic stop or drug bust.  As I described, we are by two access roads, but they are not main roads, so it appeared to be something within the residential areas of town, but a typical 911 call - say for a heart attack wouldn't have warranted six police cars.  A car accident didn't seem likely, again, within a residential area with low speeds and those SIX police cars.

I tutor an eighth-grader in math, and he showed up a few minutes after the excitement passed.  He had seen nothing on his way to our house, but he was just as curious as the rest of us about the goings on.

Is your curiosity peaked yet?  I would love to tell you what happened.  I was so curious that I searched the internet for the police blotter.  I read about some interesting things, but none of them occurred Wednesday evening.  I'd love to tell you what happened Wednesday, but I can't, because I don't know!

I suppose the reason we have books of fiction is that we are curious beings.  And I also suppose that most of them conclude, tying up loose ends along the way, because we don't like not knowing what's going's on!  (And if you have any ideas about what could have happened, please let me know!)