Tuesday, March 14, 2006
It's A Small World After All
I managed to damn near kill myself myself years ago when I got caught in a gravity storm. I busticated my leg so badly that I'll either limp for the rest of my life or capitulate to my doctor and do a joint replacement one day. The accident knocked me clean out of police work and into the insurance business, where if the bad guy runs, I just wave and tell the insurance company to deny his claim. This is all going somewhere....lessee....oh, yeah, that's it! I went to the police academy with Mel, a terrific guy who had moved from Arizona to New Mexico and accepted a position as a Captain in our Investigative Division. He needed to re-certify in New Mexico, so I actually went to the academy with this Captain who wore three-piece suits to class every day. Weird, but Mel was just one of the guys there, despite his lofty rank. Anyway, several years later, I smashed my leg and left law enforcement. We first went to Albuquerque for a couple of years, but eventually landed in Arizona for good in 1987. I'd been here a couple of years when I went to the movies one night and was standing in the refreshment line with Mateo waiting for our usual extra-large popcorn. We were chatting away when something about the guy just ahead of me in line caught my attention. I looked more closely, and damned if it wasn't Mel, whom I had not seen since leaving New Mexico some years earlier. It seems he had moved back to Arizona, and managed to go to the same movie theater on the same night at the same time and stand in the same popcorn line as me. What are the odds?
A couple of years later, I was in downtown Phoenix at MVD looking up records, hunting down one asswipe or another, when I heard a familiar voice coming from about three windows down. I looked, but could see only the back of the guy's head. Nonetheless, I was nearly certain I recognized him. I asked the clerk if she knew the guy, and she said she did. "Is his name 'Steve'?" I asked her.
Yep.
It was my former Chief of Police, whom I had not seen since leaving New Mexico over a decade earlier. He too, had landed in Arizona once he left the public sector, and just happened to end up at the same government building, at the same office, on the same day, at the same time, doing the same damned thing I was doing.
I have no idea what the odds are that shit like that could happen not once but twice. It's gotta be somewhere around the odds that Bubba's going to make a wrong turn, get lost, and knock on my door to ask directions when he's in town next month. Or perhaps equal to the odds that I'm going to hit The Powerball, or maybe that the Cardinals will make the playoffs.
OK, so maybe that last one is a little out of line.......
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A couple of years later, I was in downtown Phoenix at MVD looking up records, hunting down one asswipe or another, when I heard a familiar voice coming from about three windows down. I looked, but could see only the back of the guy's head. Nonetheless, I was nearly certain I recognized him. I asked the clerk if she knew the guy, and she said she did. "Is his name 'Steve'?" I asked her.
Yep.
It was my former Chief of Police, whom I had not seen since leaving New Mexico over a decade earlier. He too, had landed in Arizona once he left the public sector, and just happened to end up at the same government building, at the same office, on the same day, at the same time, doing the same damned thing I was doing.
I have no idea what the odds are that shit like that could happen not once but twice. It's gotta be somewhere around the odds that Bubba's going to make a wrong turn, get lost, and knock on my door to ask directions when he's in town next month. Or perhaps equal to the odds that I'm going to hit The Powerball, or maybe that the Cardinals will make the playoffs.
OK, so maybe that last one is a little out of line.......
