calling 911

Last night, I was sitting on my comfy green couch with a velor blanket on my legs as I watched random shows and typed a paper, when all of a sudden, I heard screaming and swearing and then got a loud, forceful pounding on my front door and then another pounding.

Gulp.

Heart racing, I looked through the peep hole and saw one of the people who live across from me standing there. I opened the door and found a 20-something girl standing there with mascara streaming down her face as she hysterically sobbing. She told me in short gasps that her brother had hit her and she needed to get the police here. I dialed 911 and handed her the phone.

She told the cops that her brother had just beat the **** out of her and left. She gave them the plate number and asked that someone go look for him. This conversation happened as she wandered in and out of my door. She gave 911 all her information about herself, her mom and she kept asking when the police were going to get here.

At one point when she was on the phone, she walked outside (I sat down on my couch and was looking at my computer trying to figure out what to do) and all of a sudden I hear something hit the ground and a new batch of screaming broke out. When I got to the door, I see the girl and her mom on the ground pulling each other's hair and swinging. They're yelling and screaming horrible things at each other. I didn't know what to do so I stood in my doorway and I thought about calling the cops but I realized the girl was still holding my phone.

All of a sudden, the mom looks up and seeing me, pushes the girl off of her, jumps in the door, yells "You're never coming back in here" at the girl, and slams the door. The girl is still crying and comes back in, asks for a drink of water and wants to look at her face in a mirror.

Then, after waiting for another few minutes, the cops come and she goes out to talk to them. I closed the door and listened as she explained what happened to the officer and then watched through my peep hole as the officer talked to the mom and tried to get in. Then, there was a knock on my door and it's the cop. He comes in and wants me to tell him what I saw. I explain and he goes out and talks to the girl again.

I hear through my open sliding door that they're talking and then, the mom starts yelling again and I hear the girl say, "You want me to tell them about the cocaine you've got in there?" The mom yells back, "You mean yours?" This went back and forth for a few exchanges and then the cop says, "You want me to check your purse for cocaine? Is that what this is about? You've got weed. You want me to look for cocaine?"

After this, I looked through the peep hole and saw another dop going in there with a flashlight. After another few minutes, another knock came to my door and there was the other cop. He came in and said, " I know you talked to the other guy, but I need to know what you saw." I told him and then he said, "You're going to have to be a witness, unfortunately. I'm sorry." I told him, "I teach in West Valley, I understand about witnessing." He laughed and took down all my info. Then, he asked if I'd heard anything from these people recently and thanked me for helping them make sense of their craziness.

The cops stayed with the girl outside for a while until her ride came and then finally, about an hour after it all started, the cops left and things were good.

Whew. I was so jittery when this was going on that I called my mom and talked to her as I listened to the last little bit of the converstation between the cops and the girl. Crazy. Crazy.