The Jaywalker

Officer Luis J Perez of 19th precinct in Inglewood (or as he known to his peers as Jesus) always took his profession seriously. He was never to be found dunkin a donut nor give anyone a free pass let alone take bribes. He mostly made his quota from traffic stops and you can bet he will be there on the day of court to swear testimony and bear witness. He has earned several badges of valor in his 23 years of service since he earned his stripes right after he graduated Innsbruch Valley High School - albeit, thanks to some tugging and pulling of strings by his father, the veteran CHP officer, at the age of 22.

But he never let him down. They were Catholic and not only doled and dished out justice to law abiding citizens who might have erred or slipped, but they practiced what they preach. Teetotaler with siblings having earned college degrees, Perez were respected and a known family in their mid-century modern style house with Elizabethan decor that oddly stood out in their neighborhood due to three mastiffs that guarded them as engulfed from Cerberus itself.

Perez was idled by a Home Depot across an empty parking lot quietly filling out the timesheet. How things have changed! Now they have something called Facebook breaking out and there are even clips from Cops on a website called "YouTube" founded by three kids, one of whose name, Jawad Karim, was introduced to him by a Bengali person in a mosque in Long Beach. For twenty years he had to jot down notes in logbook and give citations but now with press of buttons he can pull driving records from DMV.

Cars are so modern now. So high tech. You can barely sense a Dodge Charger, which looks like straight out of Robocop, creep up on you due to being semi-souped up with reduced muffle sound.

He observed the little frail Mexican lady for a whole minute. The hunched over lady in a bonnet slouching on a walking stick and carrying a sack just got off the transit bus and walking towards the McDonald's on other side of the street. Officer Perez knew that most people like to take the short-cut and instead walk across the street midway. It was relatively quiet and it takes about 45 seconds, for he timed once, to walk towards the crosswalk to go on to other side which and then walk back again to the fast food restaurant.

And just like that, unbeknowst to her that she is being observed by a hawk, the lady started crossing.

Perez was at two-minds. I mean there were relatively few cars if not nil. So whilst she was not endangering herself or anyone else's life for that matter, Perez knew he had a job to do.

In his 20 odd years of tenure, he has been part of everything from drug busts of shady dispensaries to routine traffic stops for rolling through stop signs at quiet neighboorhood. As the eldest son of a sheriff, he has seen it all. He has arrested gangbangers with glocks in anklestraps and saw through the sly lady with an unbuttoned cleavage trying her best to skid through a DUI. He has given citations for smoking weed in public to minor ones for disturbing the peace at a quincenera party. He knows what it is to be despised and loathed and loved and respected at the same time. He barely broke a vowel and his stoic demeanor was only cracked when he took his kids to little league softball games as his enthusiasm know no bounds - where he feels alive, completely alive- and always conducted himself with utmost self-respect and dignity. Indeed he did live up to the motto of the words on the back his car.

Often he felt like God. He has faced short and tall, black and white, rich and poor, guilty and guilty who pretended to be innocents, janitors and managers, believers and atheist who never took the Bible as oath, and even testified against crooked cops.

As the lady safely crossed the street, Officer Perez slowly pulled up behind her and the lights went on after a single wail of a siren to serve as warning. The lady didn't care. She continued drudging... sluggishly.

Perez slowly got out. There were few kids who stopped playing ball in the park and momentarily looked at this quiet carnival. A 5'8" totally packed guy with baton and weapon approaching a defenseless septagenarian woman like a tornado approaching a wicker frame of a torn cottage.

And he knew it too. He was in no hurry. He has nothing to prove. He would be the laughing stock of the town should he call for a backup. But still instincts and training at the academy told him to keep his hands slightly touching the holster.

Haptic awareness aside, he was also an expert on body language. Least of the arsenal in his trade of street smarts.

"Hello... ma'am. Ma'am. MA'AM!" His soft inquiry ended with a firm interjection like a Victorian gig driver saying 'Halt!' upon arriving at the infirmery.

The lady either did not hear him or completely ignored him and kept on walking.

"Eschucha me... senora."

The old lady with face hidden under the bonnet kept walking.

"Lady. Listen lady. Do you hear me? Hey!"

Something was off. Officer Perez could sense it.

"Lady!!!"

The old transient kept trotting one pace at a time without a worry of the world.

The kids again stopped their game and leaned against the fence to enjoy this curious spectacle as if in a real life camera obscura.

And then it happened. She looked back. At him! For a moment, the officer was frozen. Yes, it was he who had to freeze. His whole stomach wrenched and he felt like he witnessed the worst of the worst darkness of human character through her eyes.

Or was he imagining it? Pull yourself together. His voice muttered.

"Ma'am. Are you okay? Do you need any help?" Suddenly handing her a citation was least of his concern. He was genuinely concerned for her well-being. Needless to mention he has met his fair share of strung-out mental illness homeless persons who would nearly jump onto the traffic.

The lady didn't reply. Her eyes glinted in spite and her slow breathing made hissing noise as if she was carrying an oxygen tank or plugged to a respirator. She gave a foul odor and he noticed her chopped off fingers like a three-toed sloth's hooves. God knows how long it has been she washed her blanket or shawl which enveloped her like a Belarusian gypsy.

And then it occurred to him. Maybe she isn't Hispanic after all. He was playing the game wrong all along.

"Do you speak English?" He said. "I apologize. Maybe you didn't understand."

The lady with folded face with contained sullen and sunken eyes stared at him and didn't whisper a nought. And then with a sudden punch to the gut that took him by surprise, she spoke in fluent Belarusian.

"так, я раблю. Tak, ja rabliu." (Yes I do.)

What on God's name. What are the odds she spoke of a distinct language when he instantly thought of it. But Officer Perez didn't pay much attention to this strange occurrence.

He started to get unsettling vibes more and more. He could barely make her visage even though she stood few feet away from him. But Perez knew he had to do his job. "Do you have an ID? Any passport or forms of identication?"

The lady didn't reply. Instead gazedly intently at the hapless man who didn't know what to do despite maintaining a professional demeanor on the outside.

"You will die. Everyone will die." She hissed.

Officer Perez was again taken aback. Is she a 51-50? Of course, it was not PC to use that radio code anymore. But was she? Was she a psycho? Officer Perez's internal chatter couldn't help from blurting out. After all, sometimes he has to trust his gut more than his neocortex, the executive part of the brain that makes all the decisions.

"You will all die." She repeated. And then she turned around and continued her merry way striking the cane on the sidewalk.

"Stop." Officer Perez didn't hesitate. He instanly pulled out his Sig Sauer P320 and pointed at her. Not a shake or quiver or a twitch in his muscle.

And before he knew what happened, he fired three consecutive bullets on her back. Point blank range. Center mass.

--------------------

Much palaver of the media and city's hoopla died down 4 months after this incident. On the day of sentencing when Perez was taken away to his ward on the wheelchair, his doctor again tried to eke out what went wrong. But the man, who never had a single blemish in his record and had exemplary and sparking credentials, seemed to have lost all touch with reality.

"You do know she came out clean? We ran her license and she was squegee clean with not a single infraction to her name?"

But the officer kept to his story. He kept on muttering under the breath.

"Had to... had to... had to... if Matilda didn't live.. if she didn't if she didn't live... Artem would have no one to come home to... Artem would die... die... off neglect...... if Artem died.... Batistuta wouldn't be born... and if Batistuta didn't broker the code... the engineers wouldn't award him the contract... if engineers didn't award him deal...Sally would get the contract... if Sally got the contract..."

"Enough. Stop it."

"If... she got the contract with Pentagon war with Yemen would erupt... if Yemenis retaliated after being struck... all the subways would simultaneosly erupt hitting 30 Taiwanese tourists...if tourists died.. Taiwan would join..."

The junior nurse looked Doctor Prasenjit. Her look seemed to convey that he is trying to justify it. This heinous and cowardly act.

"... if Taiwan joined then so would Russia.. then more mass graves... mass Abu Ghraib... mass murders... mass mayhem... mass catabombs... darkness... mayhem... depression.... men slaughtering their own moms... murder... kids murdering one another... darkness... beware of the ides... grave... mass grave Abu Grave.. Ghraib... mosques... cannibalism... dystonia... dysphoria.. presidents dead...all elect no more...Mao..."

Another nurse was observing him from behind the window of the fish bowl with a clipboard.

"Hey Jeffrey," he glanced at his colleague. "What was the name of the old woman?" But Jeffrey was too busy on Solitaire on his desktop.

"The lady you mean? Mathilda I think.... Wait let me check." Nurse Vinh looked her papers to confirm. "Yup. Mathilda."

Now how on the god's green earth would he ever know that!

Hans the new LPN muttered under his breath as he headed to men's room to relieve himself.