I have to admit that I was startled when I came around the corner to see Herman standing there. Nature has a way of showing us when something is dangerous, such as the bright colours of certain poisonous animals, or a rattlesnake’s rattle, or the look in this guy’s eyes. As he pulled back with the extinguisher, I drew my baton and went into a defensive stance. We stood in the lobby and I tried to convince him to lay down his weapon (which was exactly why he was brandishing it), trying to convince him that he wouldn’t be hurt if he did. When it became obvious that he wasn’t going to put it down I came to the conclusion that a sneaky mountie trick was necessary, a version of “look out behind you”. The glass entrance doors were just behind him and I planned on looking out them at an imaginary colleague and shaking my head. When he turned to look, I was going to hit him.
Just as I was about to put my plan in play, he suddenly turned and bolted out the doors, with me right behind. We ran out into the parking lot and he turned and we found ourselves in the same position as before. Again I tried to convince him to lay down the extinguisher, and again he suddenly turned and bolted, running up the street that runs beside the hotel. As I chased him, he aimed the fire extinguisher over his shoulder and squeezed off a cloud of the dry chemical inside. As the quickest way between two points is a straight line I continued through the cloud directly after him. Just as quickly I decided that I didn’t like running through that stuff, and so as he continued to squeeze off clouds of chemical as he ran, the gap between us lengthened as now I made these little detours around each cloud.
At the end of the street he reached the ridge and the drop to the bush, and again turned to stand his ground. I caught up, and just as I was opening my mouth to tell him to put the weapon down, He pointed the extinguisher at me and caught me with a blast direct to my face. Suddenly I couldn’t see, or catch a breath, and fearing that I was going to be hit with the extinguisher I dropped to the ground and rolled away from him. When I jumped up again, my eyes clear, he was gone. Just like a magic act, he had disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Comments
4 responses
Looking forward to Part 3! (-:
Clare,
I’m Jaime Hunter’s father (Nunavut Newbies).
I love your RCMP stories…keep ’em coming…they’re great reading!
Thanks Bev.
Hi Jaime’s dad. I’ll keep writing them, I use them when I can’t think of anything to write, which is quite often.
Having grown up with parents who worked in law enforcement and the criminal justice system, I enjoy your stories very much, Clare. Looking forward to more!