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Melody's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 6/27/00 -------------------- 6/18/00 6/6/00 5/19/00 5/14/00 5/12/00 5/8/00 4/5/00 4/1/00 3/27/00 3/9/00 3/8/00 3/7/00 3/1/00 2/8/00 2/7/00 -------------------- Melody's Introduction

March 27, 2000

Monday night

A cop knocked on my door tonight. Here's what happened.

I have my cool new car right? And, I've decided to sell the van eventually. Meanwhile, I was letting Steve's friend Chris drive it because the transmission went out on his Explorer, and in exchange he was fixing it up for me so that I can sell the blasted thing.

So, the van is still running, believe it or not, even though the inside lights don't work at all, but at least it doesn't short out anymore and will start. Well, apparently today, Chris was driving in Mountain View on El Camino, and he rear-ended the car in front of him, and I do believe Stevie and Jeremy were in the van with him.

I had absolutely NO clue or idea that Chris doesn't have his driver's license! I am not sure what happened or WHY... And, I knew nothing of this incident until this evening when I received a phone call from some lady who lives in Redwood City named Sue. She asked for James Winchell, this guy who is still staying at my house...one of those, "but I don't have anywhere else to go" people, and who now has a girlfriend, oh that's ANOTHER story... Anyway, she went on to tell me that James Winchell was apparently driving my van, and that he rear-ended her, and even though she didn't think she was hurt at the time, her back feels frozen, and she's dizzy and stuff...

I had no idea what had happened. I was sure James hadn't been driving the van. It HAD to be Chris. But, why did she think it was James?

OH NOO, I thought, this van is BACK to haunt me! And, it was still in MY name, so technically, I am the "responsible party."

I told her I'd have to get back to her, but she said she was going to call the cops back. Chris showed up in the van a little while later, with Stevie and Jeremy. Apparently, he had signed James' name on the statement because he has no driver's license! And, he is terrified of being thrown in jail for this, and begged me NOT to say it was HIM driving, that I didn't know.

And, everyone apparently was gonna play dumb, but I don't know about all this. And, I wasn't sure what to do because nothing like this had ever happened to me before.

Next thing you know, this cop is knocking on my door. He asked me some questions. I told him I didn't know who was driving my van, but it wasn't me... He asked that all the teenagers on the premises come downstairs, and down they went, Stevie, Jeremy, James, Julie, Melissa, Trish, and then I pointed to the little red-headed kid asleep on the couch while watching TV... I think he was a bit amazed. And, he discounted my boys, saying they definitely did NOT fit the description of the person driving my van, but he wanted to take a picture of James for good measure, even though James didn't sign his own name.

Then, he asked if he could search the house to make sure the person fitting that description wasn't there, and I said OK, fine. And, he searched the house which was fine except for the unmistakable smell coming from Melissa's bedroom which we won't get into here 'cause it makes me mad. Luckily, the cop was cool about it, and he even said he was impressed with the set-up of the boys' bedroom and admired their Jimi Hendrix posters, whew!

I was a basketcase through all of this...I had visions of people getting hauled off for heaven knows what, much like that "Cops" show...had no idea what would happen, and also was amazed that even though all these teenagers have their arguments and mini battles how, when push comes to shove, even risking themselves, they stick up for one another, never turn their friend in NO MATTER WHAT...

Of course, the cop doesn't know this. Or does he?

I am not sure. All I can tell you is it was one DRAMATIC EVENING!

melody