Apartment with Fish is Under Siege
The bright city lights render the late night sky almost completely starless. Walking home to our apartment Fish and I realize that something very serious must have happened at our residence earlier. The whole apartment complex is crawling with media and reporters. Half a dozen police cars are pulled up haphazardly in front of the cube like building. Their lights still running flash the surroundings with bursts of different colors. Briefly surveying the media vans and sidewalk trees so strangely illuminated our eyes are pulled to the main commotion. Most of the media seem be quite animated behind a police cordon. Craning their necks and elevating video cameras above heads to get a better glimpse at what is happening.
The whole circus is only a distraction from getting home. The main obstacle being the police barricade. Circling around to the left of the building there are less people and excitement. Still a policeman guards one of the entrances. Our pleas to enter are not heard. Thinking quickly Fish and I follow some Scientology reporters who are being allowed to enter the apartment courtyard. Our act of belonging with the group passes without a second glance. Our charade is assisted by the fact that Fish does carry a video camera leading credence to our non voiced claim of being reporters. Past the security wall and in to the inner courtyard our whole group is stopped by another policeman.
The courtyard away from the outside commotion is lit by faint moonlight. Most everything is briefly outlined but details are hard to distinguish. It is a cobblestone ground with two dirt plots at opposite corners where a tree and some shrubs have been coaxed to grow. Policemen inside the courtyard are not pleased to see us and quickly gather us together. We are all lined up against a brick wall of the courtyard to be questioned as to our intentions. Everybody else is really a reporter except for me and Fish. Trying to prevent footage of what we will see inside the police confiscate the tape from Fish's video camera and destroy it. That was only the recorders low quality tape. This type of recorder can carry two tapes at a time, however a sliding cover obscures the existence of the high definition tape. I must prevent the other more expensive tape from being destroyed as we can not afford, monetarily, to lose it. The policemen begin to question Fish's cover story of being a reporter and examine the video recorder he brought much more closely. Knowing that if I allow this to continue they will soon discover the hidden tape I speak up.
Of course we are not reporters. We have no company logos or gear beside our lone personal video recorder. Our appearance clearly shows that we do not come here looking for news footage.
The policemen briefly listen to my statement and then ignore it as they continue to play with Fish's video recorder.
Look at us. We are poor students with no affiliation to the Scientologists or any other reporting group. The only reason we are with them is so we can get back to our apartment. We are residents here.
This explanation seems to satisfy them as they let us go while they continue to interrogate the rest of the group. As we cross the corridor we approach the elevator and stairs. Taking the elevator would be a risk as we do not even know what the nature of this emergency is. The elevator could fail midway trapping us until someone deigns to rescue us. We ere on the side of caution and take the steps up.
The whole circus is only a distraction from getting home. The main obstacle being the police barricade. Circling around to the left of the building there are less people and excitement. Still a policeman guards one of the entrances. Our pleas to enter are not heard. Thinking quickly Fish and I follow some Scientology reporters who are being allowed to enter the apartment courtyard. Our act of belonging with the group passes without a second glance. Our charade is assisted by the fact that Fish does carry a video camera leading credence to our non voiced claim of being reporters. Past the security wall and in to the inner courtyard our whole group is stopped by another policeman.
The courtyard away from the outside commotion is lit by faint moonlight. Most everything is briefly outlined but details are hard to distinguish. It is a cobblestone ground with two dirt plots at opposite corners where a tree and some shrubs have been coaxed to grow. Policemen inside the courtyard are not pleased to see us and quickly gather us together. We are all lined up against a brick wall of the courtyard to be questioned as to our intentions. Everybody else is really a reporter except for me and Fish. Trying to prevent footage of what we will see inside the police confiscate the tape from Fish's video camera and destroy it. That was only the recorders low quality tape. This type of recorder can carry two tapes at a time, however a sliding cover obscures the existence of the high definition tape. I must prevent the other more expensive tape from being destroyed as we can not afford, monetarily, to lose it. The policemen begin to question Fish's cover story of being a reporter and examine the video recorder he brought much more closely. Knowing that if I allow this to continue they will soon discover the hidden tape I speak up.
Of course we are not reporters. We have no company logos or gear beside our lone personal video recorder. Our appearance clearly shows that we do not come here looking for news footage.
The policemen briefly listen to my statement and then ignore it as they continue to play with Fish's video recorder.
Look at us. We are poor students with no affiliation to the Scientologists or any other reporting group. The only reason we are with them is so we can get back to our apartment. We are residents here.
This explanation seems to satisfy them as they let us go while they continue to interrogate the rest of the group. As we cross the corridor we approach the elevator and stairs. Taking the elevator would be a risk as we do not even know what the nature of this emergency is. The elevator could fail midway trapping us until someone deigns to rescue us. We ere on the side of caution and take the steps up.
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