A K-9, motorist, cop, and a priest meet. Will a heavenly blessing result?
Thirty-six-year-old-pregnant-widow Ruth Mitchell is running late for Easter Mass. Saved once in life by piano, is she about to be cradled a second time by love? Or, will the o...
"You were in quite a rush back there, 'Ms.' Mitchell," said Officer Night.
His title emphasis snapped Ruth back to the ticket moment.
"Yes," she said sternly, removing her sunglasses. "To church. I play the pipe organ. At more than one celebration today, I might add. You know, hymns like, 'Jesus Christ Is Ris'n Today!'—that was one of the first songs I ever learned to play," she sighed, her face going a bit flush.
Office Night leaned down, staring at Ruth as she rested her forehead on the palm of her hand. Had he been struck by Cupid's arrow here, and wanted to engage in an eye-to-eye discussion, or was he figuring that he might need to call an ambulance, and wanted Ruth to visually know that he was here for her?
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A moment later, Ruth's face crunched in dismay.
"Oh, come on, you know," she added, as she sprang back to life and started to lowly sing the hymn in tempo with the music in her her head, "Jes-us Christ is ris'n to-dayyy, Al - Al - Al - le - lu - ia!"
Nicholas's apparent disinterest caused Ruth to instantly stop singing, and him to stand tall again.
"Silent" Officer Night.
The cop sent her a caustic grin. Motorists that he had pulled over last year while working in High Peak Falls—the big city thirty miles away—had often tried to get out of being ticketed. Nick never heard this "pipe organ" excuse before today, though.
"Oh, yeah?" he challenged. "Which church?"
"St. Mary's, if you must know."
"Never heard of it," he said, flatly.
Ruth's mouth fell open. St. Mary's was the only church in Faith Hills.
"Clearly not a churchgoer, I see," she grumbled under her breath.
Officer Night nodded slowly as he put on his sunglasses again. His resulting facial demeanor was friendly, but his forthcoming words were somewhat singsong sarcastic.
"We can do this at the station house, 'Ms.' Mitchell."
Ruth snarled up at Officer Night, but his pleasant, authoritative smile did not wane—only the gleam in her eyes for him did. After slipping her sunglasses back onto her face, she leaned over to the glove compartment and withdrew the car's insurance card. A moment later, she removed her license and registration from her purse that was at her side.
"Here," she said, through an offended half smile, and handed him the identification pieces.
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"Are you, Ruth Mitchell?" he asked, looking over the identification pieces.
She eyed him, indignantly. "I hope you know that you're making me late."
The officer frowned in disapproval of her sidestepping his question.
Reading his facial expression she sighed, "Yeeesss, I'm Ruth Mitchell."
"There's no reason to be like that, Ms. Mitchell. I'm only doing my job."
"And I would be doing mine, if you hadn't stopped me."
"Then you shouldn't have gone through the red light."
"Ruff-Ruff-Ruff!"
The German shepherd's muffled barking pulled Ruth's attention again.
"Seems that your K-9 partner's on 'my' side."
Officer Night grimaced.
"Or he's just underscoring me being right about pulling you over, Ms. Mitchell."
"Really?" Ruth teased back, craning her neck to look at the patrol car. "Those sound like happy 'let-her-go barks' to me."
"Could be, Ms. Mitchell," said Officer Night.
"I should know," Ruth added, in spite of herself. "I had been on the 'Keep Us Safe' town committee that approved our town's first police K-9 unit."
"Well I'll be," uttered Officer Night, mentally scratching his head. "Oscar and I only recently became partners. I'm not certain that I know all of his idiosyncrasies yet. But he's never acted like this at a light-runner traffic stop before."
"Is that what I am, 'Officer Night,' a 'light runner'?"
"Yes," he said with certainty.
Ruth sent him a befuddle glare. "Well," she huffed, "if you don't know all about your K-9 yet, you should probably train more with him."
"No, he'll be all right," replied the officer, glancing Oscar's way, then back at Ruth, and attentive again to what he had been setting to write. "We're always training together. Much of the time in Faith Hills Park."
"Never heard of it," Ruth breathed out, fibbing.
"Touché," he mumbled.
Ruth crossed her arms and frowned as she watched Officer Night write out her ticket.
How truethat old motto was about a good cop—that one would even ticket their mother, if she broke the law.
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But Ruth wasn't Officer Night's mother.
With a forced smile, and in one fell swoop, Ruth took the ticket, her car's registration, insurance card, and her license that the patrolman held out for her.
"Have a nice day," said Officer Night.
Ruth looked at him, deadpan, as she blindly stuffed the ticket and IDs into her purse and drove away.
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Hi, guys! There was a church hymn video heading for this chapter, as well as a number of photos throughout. Sooooo cool that Wattpad has a multimedia feature!
What do you think about videos/photos within a chapter? Do they help to bring the plot more alive for you? Give you a better visual of my characters, their situation, thoughts, actions, and add to the overall storytelling process? Let me know in the comment section your thoughts about pics and vids in place. I can't wait to read your opinions, and also hear what you thought about Chapter 4! :p
And don't forget to "vote," please. :) Doing so helps sooooo much. Just click the star at the top of this chapter, or just below, to do so! Much thanks! :D
