Posted by sam at November 12th, 2004
I thought creative writing and specifically short stories would be funner and easier to write. I have found that they are a lot harder to write than I thought. Coming up with an interesting storyline is the most difficult part by far. So in this story I just used a true story and changed the names to protect the (not)innocent. I don’t really like how it turned out, but you can read it if you’re really bored.
First Paragraph here, and the rest below the cut.
THE CLOSE CALL
By John Samuel Garfield
The night was similar to the nights they had come here before. It was dark and late enough that nobody would be up to catch them. They had problems with the neighbors before, once, when they were egging their target house. The neighbors woke up and came running out side to catch them. But, thanks to some slick maneuvering, they were able to get away.
Tonight Sid was driving. Not his own car, he was driving Ralph’s who sat in the back seat preparing tonight’s prank. He had just finished crushing the dry ice when they pulled up to the house, and was now loading it into the 2-liter bottles. The house was dark and usual. As far as they knew, there was only one occupant, their computer teacher from school. He was there early every morning, so they assumed he must sleep early and they would be safe assaulting his house in the wee hours of the morning.
The other accomplice, Kirk, was going over the plan, “Okay, so Ralph and I will run up to the house. I’ll hold the bottles, and Ralph will pour the water in. I will cap them and leave.”
“Well how can we fill two at the same time?”, Ralph inquired.
“Okay, we’ll go one-two, one-two, like this,” Kirk made the motions of filling two bottles and capping them, “start pouring the second one while I cap the first one.”
“Okay.”
“And you stay in the car, Sid,” Kirk continued from the back seat, “ready for a quick getaway if we need.”
“Sure,” Sid replied, “I’ll leave it in Drive with the E-Brake on so we can get away without pushing the brake in to shift gears – no brake lights.”
“Good thinkin!” exclaimed Kirk,
With the plan in motion, they set to work. The target house was the second one down on a fairy short cul-de-sac. Sid parked Ralph’s explorer So that when he looked out of the driver side window, he was looking right up the street where the house was. All they had to do was walk across the street and up the cul-de-sac.
Before Sid knew it, the other two had left the car and were doing just that. Ralph carried a gallon jug of water, and Kirk had in his hand the two 2-liter bottles, one in each hand. The bottles were not capped, so the dry ice inside let off a little steam out of the top of the bottle. They looked like a couple mad scientists or something.
Sid waited and watched for cars coming down the street. They had not established a signal or anything, so he hoped nobody came. He occasionally glanced to his to cohorts to see how their progress was coming along. They had found a nice spot on the front lawn of the house and were preparing to pour the water into the bottles. Ralph kept glancing over his shoulder nervously towards the house, but Kirk was focused on the bottles.
He had the first one ready and was staring at the top of it waiting for the water to pour into it. He finally looked up. Ralph was standing above him, but still looking back at the house. Kirk said something, what Sid could not tell from the car, and smacked Ralph on the knee. Ralph immediately started pouring and soon smoke was billowing out of the top of the bottle. Kirk screwed the cap on, and then they repeated the process on the second bottle. They left the bottles right there, next to each other, on the lawn, in front of their teacher’s house.
The two hurried back to the car and hopped in. The three sat and watched the bottle intently. As the water reacted with the dry ice and created steam, the pressure slowly rose inside the bottle. With nowhere for the steam to go, the bottles expanded and warped, making weird hissing and cracking noises the boys could barely hear through the car’s cracked open windows.
After a minute Ralph spoke, “What’s taking so long? These usually go off quicker.”
They waited longer. Two minutes became five, and five became eight. They sat in silence, watching and waiting for the pressure to cause the bottles to explode.
Kirk finally broke the silence, “Yeah,” as if there was a five minute delay in answering Ralph’s comment, “they shouldn’t be taking so long.”
“Hey, let’s wait another minute or two and get out of here whether or not they have gone off,” said Sid.
“Agreed,” said Kirk.
Ralph let out a sigh and sat back in his seat. Kirk and Sid soon followed. After a minute they stopped looking at the bottles all together. Ralph started playing with an abandoned McDonald’s toy that was on the back floor. It was a toy car. Sid remembered when Ralph got it. He had immediately pulled all four of it’s wheels off, thrown three out the window, and chewed the last one up and spit it at Kirk. Kirk retaliated by grabbing the toy car and throwing it in the back seat, where Ralph has just found it.
After about two minutes Sid spoke up again, “alright let’s give it just another minute.”
The other two stayed quiet, apparently uninterested in the dry ice bombs now. Sid started thinking about what a dumb plan it was. Eggs were good because you threw them and left. Toilet paper was good because you got the trees and you left. With dry ice bombs, you had to stay and watch until they went off, or you wouldn’t get the satisfaction of knowing that you woke up your victim.
As these thoughts began to stream through Sid’s head, he started looking around, bored. He was about to say “let’s go” when he looked in the rear view mirror.
At first he did not understand what he saw. Some hint of movement on the street? Where did it go? Oh wait, it was closer now. A big black shape gliding ominously up behind them. A car! It was a car! As soon as he realized it he informed the others, “We gotta a car coming up with it’s headlights off!”
“Cop!” Kirk yelled.
“We’re busted for sure!” exclaimed Ralph.
The car came up and stopped right behind them and turned on it’s lights. There they were, sitting stupidly up in their car, exhaust coming out the back.
“Let’s tell him we were just sitting here deciding where to go hang out,” suggested Ralph.
“No, one of the neighbors probably saw us, he’ll never buy it,” answered Kirk.
Sid continued watching the police car. In addition to turning on the headlights, the officer inside had apparently turned on his search light also, and was using to it scan the cul-de-sac.
“He doesn’t see us.” said said softly.
Kirk and Ralph whipped around and confirmed for themselves that the officer was now searching the cul-de-sac with his light.
“Well let’s duck down before he sees us!” Ralph said quickly, leaning forward in his seat.
“No,” Sid replied, “the movement will catch his eye for sure. Just sit and we’ll see what he does.”
Ralph sat back and folded his arms, apparently unimpressed with the idea.
“He’s turning.” said Kirk.
Sid looked and saw that the squad car was slowly turning up the cul-de-sac, still searching every nook and cranny with it’s lights. He moved slowly up the cul-de-sac until the realization seemed to come to all of them at once. Ralph was the first to vocalize it, “He will see us for sure once he turns around,” he said.
It was true, the headlights of the squad car would be shining right into the side of their car, and they would be sitting there, stupidly, not knowing what to do.
“Hey!” Kirk exclaimed like he had an idea, “when he starts his turn at the end of the cul-de-sac he will be looking away. That’s our chance to make a getaway. Just pull away slowly and then gun it as soon as he’s out of sight!”
“Yeah!” said Ralph in support.
Sid weighed his options in his mind. If he went for it while the cop was going around the bend at the end of the clu-de-sac, he would run the risk of being seen. The cop must be trained to notice details, and surely he would see movement out of the corner of his eye. If he stayed, they could duck down and hope not to be seen. Sid hesitated. He hesitated a moment too long, and the squad car had now come full circle and heading straight back for them.
Sid felt like a dear in headlights. The squad car pulled up to the car, it’s headlights shining in on three stunned and stupid looking teenagers. The moment it sat, seemed like an eternity. Sid began to think of the consequences of his actions. Bombs were particularly bad because not only do you get slapped with destruction of property, but possession of an illegal explosive. All three of the boys had also turned 18 within the last year, so they would be hit with stiffer penalties as they were adults now.
As these thoughts flowed through Sid’s mind, the squad car began to move again. It turned so it was parallel to them and began driving down the street. How was this possible? How had he not seen them either time when his headlights were shining right into their car?
No matter, the police car had now turned in behind the row of houses into a park that ran along behind them. He again turned on his search light as he passed behind a tree, and then behind a house, out of view. As soon as he was out of sight, Sid released the emergency brake and pulled a U-Turn, never touching the breaks, and leaving the headlights off. He sped away.
They never did hear the explosion of the bombs they had made. They thought it would have been rather funny if the bombs had exploded while the police officer was driving right by them. Kirk claimed to have gone back a looked the next day. He said he saw where they were and the grass was all dead there. Sid didn’t really believe him, as he knew Kirk was prone to exaggeration.
