Late-Night Adventures

My goodness, what a busy week it's been. Let me tell you a story.

Saturday night, the boy and I are snuggling in bed, just about to drift off to sleep, and the phone rings. He cocks an eye at the red "1:00" displayed on the clock, mumbles that nobody should be calling at this hour, and lets the phone ring. At 1:01, it rings again. Again, he ignores it, but with a hint of drowsy curiosity. At 1:03, it rings yet again, and finally he picks up and croaks out a greeting.

"Aww, man, did I wake you up?" It's his housemate. "I screwed up bad, dude. I got arrested for DUI. Can you come to the police station and pick me up?"

The housemate, hearing fatigue and reluctance as my guy tries to wake up and process this, promises to call everyone else he can think of before he calls back, so maybe someone else will be available to go get him. I know how this is going to turn out, though, so I sit up and start to focus.

Housemate calls back, unable to get in touch with anyone else, and gives us directions to the police station, which is 20 minutes down the road. We get dressed, and just as my guy is reaching for his car keys, I pull out mine. My brain is better at running on fumes than his, so it's safer if I drive.

We go down to the police station and pick up the housemate, who shows remorse, but can't seem to explain why he was drinking. He takes, "if you're behind on the rent, why are you spending money on beer?" as a comment instead of a question. Then he shares something neither of us knew about him: there's an active warrant out for him down south.

Well, crap. Why did we keep you from spending the night in a cell? He explains that it was just a fender-bending hit-and-run that he couldn't afford to deal with before he moved up here, which doesn't make us feel much better, but at least he's not a murderer or something.

As we finally get home and fall back into bed, the "2:20" on the clock reminds me how tired I am, and my guy is still trying to wrap his head around what just happened.

"I didn't even know he drank," he tells me. "Maybe I should start running background checks on potential tennants."

Yup, sounds like a wise idea.