“Yeah, at Cloud 9,” Hal said into his phone as he cruised around the woods, doing his normal checks of his area. The cop on the other end of the line was one of the smuggest, cockiest assholes Hal had ever had the pleasure to meet. It was the same cop that caught him driving under the influence. “I don’t know where everyone was, but it was quiet.”
“Quiet?” the cop asked.
“Yeah, it was weird, man. Can y’all just go check on the place?”
“You want us to check on a ‘quiet’ trailer park?”
“This isn’t a joke.”
“I’m not saying it is, but you have to understand how that sounds. Hal, we’ve got only two officers on duty at night. You know how things are around here. They’re quiet.” He put emphasis on the word as if to further make fun of him. “This means we don’t really have the manpower to go checking on things unless there’s an actual problem. Now, I’m not saying there isn’t, but none has been reported to me.”
“I’m reporting it to you now,” Hal said. “I was attacked by a damn dog. A mean motherfucker, too. He wasn’t normal. I’d say that thing had rabies. What if he attacked the people at the trailer park?”
The phone became muffled on the other end like the cop had placed his hand over the speaker. Hal was sure he heard laughing on the other end.
“Well,” the cop came back with, “I can assure you we’ll take care of this.”
“You’ll send somebody over there then?”
“We’ll take care of it.”
That was as good as it was going to get. Hal was pretty sure they’d do absolutely nothing. Some of the daytime cops were good guys. They took the job seriously, but the nighttime guys, unfortunately, were lazy assholes. They dealt with very few real situations. Every once in a while they probably got called to a domestic dispute, but this was a town with little to no violent crimes occurring. People here were good people who policed their own.
Hal hung up his cell phone and threw it on the seat next to him. He wasn’t going to go back to Cloud 9 himself. Of course, he was worried about the people who lived there, but the cop had a point. Nothing seriously out of the ordinary had occurred other than a dog trying to attack him for walking into what could have been its owner’s house.
He laughed out loud and said, “Damn good guard dog, that’s for sure.”
A memory came back to him that made him laugh even harder. It was from a long time ago.
They were lying in bed together after making love. Sheila’s head rested on his chest. She wanted a pet. She thought it would do Susanna good to have an animal to take care of. It would teach the girl some responsibility. Hal knew the truth of it. Kids never did well with that kind of responsibility. It would end up being he and Sheila cleaning up after it.
“How about a turtle,” he’d suggested.
“Boring,” Sheila said. “Plus, they grow too fast.”
“A bird?”
“Birds are meant to fly free. It’s mean to put one in a cage.”
“A gerbil then.”
“Eww. Might as well get her a rat.”
“A rat then.”
She slapped his stomach and he flinched, laughing.
“I think we should get a cat,” Sheila suggested. “Amy’s cat had kittens. She’ll give one to us, I’m sure.”
“Cats are fuckin’ mean,” he said. “They’re evil.”
“No, they are not!” She looked at him with her mouth wide open, having a hard time digesting his words.
“Let’s get a dog,” he said. “At least that way we can let it run around in the yard—”
“And cover our yard in dog shit,” she argued.
“It’s better than filling our house with the fresh aroma of kitty shit in a sandbox.”
“It’s a litter box.”
“Dogs are better for security anyway,” he said.
“Cats are good for security too.”
“How?” This time he had to sit up. He couldn’t believe she was suggesting a cat was a good security measure.
“They meow when there are intruders.”
“Ha! Do you know what a fuckin’ dog does when there’s an intruder? A dog barks and goes nuts. Even the smallest dog goes apeshit when there’s an intruder!” Hal snarled and attacked Sheila’s neck, pretending to bite it. She squealed and laughed. “You know what a cat does when there’s an intruder?” he added. “It runs for its fucking life. It says, ‘fuck this family’ and runs.”
Sheila laughed.
And they picked up one of the kittens the very next day.
“What do I know?” Hal said aloud as he continued on his route.
Going down his checklist of nightly areas he needed to make sure were safe and secure, he started with the bathroom area near the lake. The lights were on, the stalls were empty, and it seemed everything else was in order. Nothing to report.
He continued on his route. He looked around the Green Briar campsite, the Overlook campsite, the Carlsbad campsite… all seemed fine. A black bear was spotted making its way through the Flagstaff campsite, but it wasn’t bothering anyone. None of the campsites were even open to the public, so Hal left the animal alone. It was looking for food, and it wouldn’t find any. He considered throwing it a piece of the cheeseburger he had for lunch, but he decided against it. He was supposed to be deterring the bears, not feeding them and teaching them to come looking to people for food.
When it came time to eat lunch, he decided he’d go check on the college kids and see if they were still looming around, illegally camping next to the lake. Tonight was supposed to be their last night according to what they’d told him yesterday. He wasn’t going to bother them, he only wanted to make sure they were okay.
“Everybody dressed this time?” he asked as he stepped out of the bushes.
Hal was met with silence. The kids were nowhere in sight.
Their campfire had started to burn down. Soft music flowed from inside one of the tents.
“Hello?” Hal called out.
A sickening feeling hit his gut. Where were they?
He didn’t hear the sexual sounds of anyone getting busy inside the tent, only the music.
What if something happened to them? And you let them be here? This is your area. This is your Zone of Responsibility. Fuck the zones. Where are these kids?
A squeal came from the water and Hal whipped his head left to see Lenny pop up out of the lake. His blonde girlfriend, Becky, swam away from the boy and splashed water at him as she retreated. They were laughing and having a good time.
“For fuck’s sake,” Hal muttered. “Thank God.”
“Sir?” a voice came from his right.
Hal glanced that way and saw Kip’s head sticking out of the tent.
“I’m sorry,” Hal said, “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Kip laughed as he opened the flap. His girl for the weekend, Rachel, was next to him, covering her chest with what appeared to be his T-shirt.
“Good to see you again, sir,” Kip said as he raised a beer. “We’re staying out of trouble.”
“I know you are,” Hal replied. “I just wanted to stop by and make sure y’all are okay.”
“Everything’s fine here,” Lenny, the slightly goofier one yelled from the water. Becky swam over to him and held onto him.
Now that is one lucky guy.
Hal wasn’t a pervert, but from the way she was facing him that close, holding onto him, it was pretty clear she wanted the boy. Lenny would be getting lucky tonight. Hal, feeling like some kind of peeping Tom, turned his attention back to the tent.