FIRST CHAPTER PREVENTION FORCE

Chapter 1

Kids on the merry-go-round spin so fast they are a blur. First one vomits pink. Then a second, yellow. The streams whip outward from centrifugal force, painting the ground like one of those spin art machines. One kid loses his grip and is thrown into the snow bank, where his body completely disappears.

5 year olds run around in winter jackets, scream, and have fun on the playground of the Elwanger-Barry School on Meigs Street. A pleasant January day in Susan, New York. Shining sun. Blue sky. Landscape blanketed by six inches of snow. Little mountains, where the plow scraped it into piles.

A girl with elaborate braids scales 100 feet up the rock climbing wall, on which a Shawn Dunwoody mural reads, “EXPRESS YOURSELF” in vibrant playful letters.

The teacher yells, “Be careful Aisha!”

There are no safety harnesses. Aisha smiles and waves, losing her grip, and falls. The teacher gasps. Before she can hit the ground, clear safety gel pops up 5 feet high, like a blob of hand sanitizer, to smoothly absorb her force. She rolls to her feet and runs back to climb again.

Others are propelled down the e-slide and screech as they go round the loop de loop. Eager sliders run to line up at the base of the ladder. A tall skinny girl pushes past a smaller boy.

“No cutting!”

She shoves his shoulder.

“Hey!”

A ding-ding-ding sound seems to come from nowhere and everywhere. Lights on the ground make a large circle, which shrinks to a single point at the location of the violence. The alarm and converging lights repeat, pointing the way to ground zero for the teachers running to the scene.

“What happened?”

“She pushed me.”

The woman raises her forearm screen to watch the replay.

Three teachers surround each child, and take them inside. They sit in a room in a circle.

The woman next to the girl says gently, “Okay Debbie. What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“You pushed Kenyata, didn’t you?”

“So?”

The teachers look at each other disappointed.

“Why did you do that?”

She shrugs.

The woman puts her hand on her shoulder. “Okay dear.”

A man talks to the boy. “How are you doing?”

“Okay.”

“How did you feel when she pushed you?”

“I didn’t like it.”

“You made Kenyata feel bad. What do you think about that?”

Debbie keeps her head down and shrugs again.

One of the teachers throws up his hands.

The woman says, “Okay, that’s enough for now.”

They take Kenyata out for a physical exam and to begin a course of trauma therapy.

“Your mother is on her way, and we’re trying to reach your father.”

The girl shifts nervously.

Soon the mother arrives. “Dear Lord. Where’s my baby?”

“I’m afraid there was an incident.”

The mother hugs her daughter nearly smothering her.

“She’s fine. She was the perpetrator.”

“What?” ; “What did I teach you about being ignorant?!”

“Wo! Wo! Wo!” Three teachers pull the mother away, and two protect the child.

They sit her down and she fans herself as they play the video for her.

“I guess we know where Debbie learned this behavior.”

She shifts in her seat.

“Well it doesn’t matter. We will provide your family with all the counseling it needs, and everyone will be happy as clams in no time.”

The mother nods humbly.

“We still haven’t been able to reach the girl’s father.”

The mother acts like she doesn’t care where he is.

Healy drives, bright eyes scanning the streets for crime. She chatters happily,“I got an A in piano class! I didn’t even know they gave report cards for tutorials.”

Spoct answers from the passenger seat, “Please watch the road.”

Defiant and happy. “I can drive and chew gum at the same time.” She pulls up fast to a short stop behind the car in front of her.

Spoct says with a slight Spanish accent,“The number one cause of accidents is distracted driving.”

She makes a cute little sound, not quite a word, a vocalization she makes when almost going to say something.

Sky billboards float digital shimmers over the skyline.

Eat Your Vegetables

When in Doubt, Be Kind

One has a close up of a man’s smiling, kind, and wise face, in his 60s, with a pencil mustache and lightly salted hair, which reads: Rich Uncle has Your Back 

“It’s amazing you find the time to take lessons.”

“You make the time.”

A call comes over the radio, “Car 54, pick up one client, Blanford Parker, parental neglect.” The dashboard screen shows his height, weight, and species: human.

“We’re on it.” Healy makes a sharp U-turn and B-line.

Spoct howls excited.

The streamline, mirror finish convertible with no top and no wheels flies three feet above the ground. On each side of the chassis is a jet engine, spanning the length, resembling a curvy torpedo with sharp points at both ends, which look like jousting lances. The blue sides have white letters which read, “Department of Crime Prevention.”

Healy frowns. “Parental neglect. My heart drops just thinking about it.”

The computer shows his current location and a live video of him inside a Wegman’s. They approach the castle with its giant Ferris wheel slowing rotating. People go down the water slides which curl around the exterior of the store. Others eat on the outdoor patio.

They pull into the parking lot. A giant mechanism picks up the cars and stores them in the underground garage like a vending machine. At the other end, it retrieves them for those exiting.

The silver convertible gently lowers to the sidewalk. They step out and walk up just as the subject is walking out.

“Blanford Parker?”

He eats from a bag of chips, and slurps a straw of red drink. “What did I do this time?”

“There was an incident with your son. You need to come with us.”

“What did that stupid moron do this time?”

Spoct says, “Hey. Watch your language.”

“Don’t you know negative words can damage his psychological development?”

“Don’t tell me how to raise my kid.”

Healy says, “What you teach your child today, affects my child tomorrow.”

“You can’t arrest me for tomorrow.”

“That’s our sworn duty, to prevent crime.” She extends her arm, pointing the way.

“Screw you. I’m not going anywhere.” He runs inside. They chase. The store is overwhelmingly enormous. He runs down aisles stocked with every delicacy imaginable. Monkeys in uniforms do acrobatics as they prepare gourmet dishes. One does a flip and lands, holding a tray of sushi in Spoct’s face. “Would you care to sample an avocado roll, sir?”

Spoct chomps it down and keeps in pursuit. He yells to the fugitive, “Don’t run. It only adds to your charges.”

They pass a rotating display with bells. lights, and music presenting plates of prepared meals to customers strolling by with their hovering shopping carts.

Healy says, “All we want to do is help you form a healthy relationship with your son.”

“No one tells me what to do!” He runs into a display case knocking everything down and flopping on the floor among boxes of cheesecake.

Spoct says, “Sir, please calm down.”

“We’ve got an app for that.” Healy hits him with the relaxer ray. The man becomes a wet noodle.

Spoct says, “Too much.”

They bring him to his feet. She dials the device up and down, making him go from maniac to zombie, controlling him like a puppet, until she finds the right level. “Sir, if you promise to control yourself, I’ll take the ray off.”

He nods groggily.

Spoct licks one of the spilled cheesecakes off the floor. “Mmm. Pizza cheesecake.”

Healy shows him that she is putting the ray gun away on her belt.

He smiles warmly, then takes off running in the opposite direction, slipping on a cheesecake and landing in the meat case. He does the Australian Crawl through packs of steaks and chicken.

Spoct and Healy look at each other, not impressed.

Spoct says, “I knew there was something hinky about this guy.”

Healy unbuckles her holster.

Spoct takes his time getting his gun out. “It’s good that he’s going to get the education he needs.” He aims.

Healy takes the full two handed stance. They both shoot. Long strings of tape fly out their guns and wrap around him. It tangles as he squirms like a caught trout. He is wrapped up like a mummy.

Healy walks over. “We tried to tell you.”

They wrap him in the trailing ends of the tape like a cocoon, and carry him out.

“You b*&^%$s are gonna pay for this!”

Spoct takes a strand of hanging tape and puts it over his mouth, quieting him. “That’s enough negativity from you.”

Healy pats him on the head. “We’re gonna teach you some manners back at the station.”