Since I incriminated my mother on Facebook, I feel it necessary to absolve her of her "guilt". The charge I brought against her was that she had to talk her way out of being arrested for breaking and entering. While that is in pure fact true, that does not clearly tell the entire story. Let's start at the beginning ( . . . a very good place to start . . .).
The day was Wednesday. The sun was shining down on beautiful Long Island. The plan was for our family to go to my Aunt Chris' house and swim while they were at the beach with some friends. Then they would come back over and we would play some games. Sounds harmless, right? Enter burglar alarm.
We got the house key from our grandma and started out. Upon arrival, we realized that the key was not for their house. Mom walked across the street to the neighbor's house and knocked on the door. They knew we were going to be there and they reportedly had a key to the house. No answer. Of course.
The call of the pool from the fenced-in backyard was quite alluring and so we decided to just get in and swim since we were already suited up. :) We swam and had a great time for probably 30 minutes. Then the worst possible thing happened. The neighbor came over with the house key. I can hear you already saying, "Ah, but that is good!" Just believe me on this one. It wasn't.
While the rest of us were swimming, mom went around to the front of the house and unlocked the door. Then she disarmed the alarm. Almost.
In the backyard, the cries of "Marco!" and "Polo!" were being sounded, when everyone stopped dead in their doggy paddles. We heard the horrific and gut-dropping sound of a security alarm echoing out all over the quiet neighborhood. Immediately some of the more adventerous people in our family ran around the side of the house. Those not endued with such a danger-seeking spirit stayed plastered to the side of the pool with only their necks sticking out of the water. I leave it to you, my readers, to determine which group I was in. I guarantee that all my friends just guessed wrong.
According to the eye-witness reporters that came around to the back of the house, the alarm was screeching, "You have violated a protected area. The police will call. Leave immediately". Because, of course, it is always good to tell a criminal to run away from the cops. I don't get it.
After the alarm sounded for a long time and no police had arrived, we went back to swimming. We did get a good laugh out of the neighbor two doors down who was playing drums in time with the alarm!!
About 30 minutes into the alarm sounding, mom walked around from the back of the house to get her knitting book from the car. Lo and behold, there was an officer at the front door!!
"What are you doing coming around from the backyard?" (sort of gruff and with a thick NY accent)
"Swimming?" (said rather innocently, I must say)
"Whose house is this?"
"It is my sister's house". She proceeded to quickly tell him who the house belonged to and what we were doing there.
I suppose he was satisfied with the answer, because he bid her good day and left. He actually probably already knew that her story was correct, because the security system had telephoned my grandma (who was the contact person) and she had informed them that we were allowed to be there.
Lessons learned:
1. Don't go swimming in pools that don't belong to you.
2. Security alarms make great back-up for drummers.
3. Always keep your knitting book close by.
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