Consequences. (a short story)

Chapter Three.

   Gary made his way along the main street to the Taxi stand and asked to be taken the short distance to the near bye Hospital in order to check on Jenny. After arriving at the Hospital he struggled to find his way around the Hospital. But after a while he found where Jenny had been taken, but the Hospital staff would not tell him anything about her condition as he was not family.

   In frustration he gave up and started walked back the way he had came when a TV reporter approached him.

   “You’re from the coffee shop sedge, aren’t you?” asked the reporter.

   “Yes,” replied Gary.

   “Are you here to see how the women is?” asked the reporter.

   “Her name is Jenny and yes,” replied Gary, who then continued, “do you know how she is? They want tell me.”

   “She’s fine,” said the reporter, who then asked, “how about an interview? We’ll pay.”

   “How much?” asked Gary.

   “You are the guy who took down the gunman?” asked the reporter.

   “Yes,” replied Gary.

   “For an exclusive interview, $10,000.00,” said the reporter.

   “Here and now,” said Gary.

   “Yes,” replied the reporter.

   “Deal,” said Gary.

   “Come with me, we’ll do it in the garden near the Hospital’s entry,” said the reporter.

   Once outside the reporter teamed up with his production team, they had a van with a satellite dish on its roof and it was full of technology. There was a producer, sound man, camera operator plus the reporter. Once they got organized, which involved setting Gary up with a microphone as well as getting both him and the reporter in just the right place, the reporter started, “I’m here talking with Gary Williams, the Hero of today’s coffee shop siege, Gary can you tell me how the siege started?”

   Gary outlined the events surrounding the siege and how it ended.

   The reporter then asked, “did you fear for your life?”

   “Well, yes,” replied Gary, before he added, “it was obverse that the young man had a mental health problem and could do anything at any moment.”

   “Yes, but did you think about what might go wrong, you could of been killed or one of the other hostages,” asked the reporter.

   Gary gave the reporter a steely stair, before answering with, “I was faced with a problem that needed to be fixed, and I fixed it, yes things could of gone wrong, but they didn’t. The road to total inaction is paved with, ‘what could go wrong’, nothing will ever happen unless you take action.”

   “The Police tassed you, mistaking you for the gun man, how do you feel about that?” asked the reporter.

   “Well, they did not mistake me for the gun man, I told them that the gun man was tired up on the floor, I told them who I was, I had my hands in the air, I turned around to show them that I was unarmed, I told them where the gun was, they did not want to know,” replied Gary.

   “Why did they taser you then?” asked the reporter.

   “Stupidity springs to mind, or the blind adherence to their training, but I expect it was my refusal to lay on the ground,” replied Gary.

   “Why wouldn’t you lay on the ground, after all they were pointing guns and tasers at you?” asked the reporter.

   “I’m not a criminal, I had just taken out the gun man and I was not going to lay on the ground like I was the bad guy,” replied Gary.

   “They might of shot you,” said the reporter.

   “It might of been worth getting shot just to see the public relations nightmare that would of resulted,” replied Gary.

   “Do you regret it?” asked the reporter.

   “My goodness no, I would do it again, you must do the right thing in life and then live with the consequences,” replied Gary.

   “Have the Police apologised,” asked the reporter.

   “No,” replied Gary, before adding, “all they have done is berate me with, ‘you should of left it to us,’ and, ‘you could of been killed,’ as well as continuing to treat me like the bad guy.”

   “The Police have said that everyone has been offered cancelling, are you going to take up that offer?” asked the reporter.

   “They have not offered me counselling, and I would not do it anyway, why would I want to do that?” said Gary.

   “It can be helpful to talk it through,” said the reporter.

   “My goodness, who told you that,” replied Gary.

   “Thank you for talking to us,” said the reporter while looking at the camera.

   “No worries mate,” replied Gary.

   While the sound man was removing the mice from Gary, the reporter thanked him for doing the interview. The producer came over and handed Gary a sheet of paper and asked for his banking details, Gary wrote something on the sheet of paper and handed it back to the producer, who smiled.

   “No problem,” said the producer.

   “I will need a receipt to show that you did pay them,” said Gary.

   “No problem, I will e-mail it to you,” replied the producer.

   Gary made his way to the Taxi stand and headed home after an eventful day.            

www.yellowduckmotorsport.com.au                                    jimpope@westnet.com.au                                                 youtube.com@jimpope9410                                                                                          

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