NEEDLING

A youngish couple walked into the store. He’s obviously over the legal age, probably in his early thirties. She’s probably over the legal age, but somewhere in her twenties, so I ask them the inevitable question once they get up to the counter with their bottle. She’s in a bad mood, I can tell. He’s trying to make the best of it.

“And you’re both twenty one years or older?”
“Yes,” he says.

She’s all ready got her I.D. out showing it to me. I’m quiet, waiting to hear her answer. Nothing. We’re both looking at her. There’s some tension, though it has nothing to do with me.

“You need to answer me,” I tell her at exactly the same time as he tells her “You need to answer him.”
“Oh,” she says, surprised, “I thought that just showing my I.D. was enough.”
“You got to tell me … are you twenty one years old or older?”
“Yes,” she says.
“Cops and T.A.B.C. can’t lie to me,” I say as an explanation.
“I’m a cop,” he says, and flashes his badge at me.
It takes me by surprise. "Oh," I say.
"I wouldn't lie to you," he says.
"Well, you can't."
"But I wouldn't."
"Just in case, I guess."

It’s happened a few times, but still, it’s always a tad bit bizarre for me. A cop is a man or a woman—usually a man in uniform yelling things at me and not being particularly nice to me—who wants something from me at some unfortunate moment in my life. It’s always weird for me to see a cop in front of me, specially one who happens to be my customer, who is dressed as anybody and who is having the same troubles any of us are having. A person who is not asking cop questions from me, is not demanding cop requests from me, who is not being a COP with me … but who still is a police officer! It’s like when I was a kid once in San Francisco going to the French school and catching my teacher one day making out with some guy. I was with my best friend. Neither one of us could believe our eyes. We were ten. She was our teacher, not some regular woman in regular clothes, doing regular things as anybody else we saw in the streets. After that incident, I remember, it was always really hard respecting her as being my teacher. The total opposite with cops, these days at my age. Seeing them like this, vulnerable and human, forces me to respect them because it’s always hard for me to see police officers as being anything but officers, to relate to them as everyday fellows with everyday problems. The guy flashed his badge at me, all smiles. I didn’t know what to say, except that the T.A.B.C. people have been real hard these last few weeks, busting people, and pulling all kinds of folks to jail … I said the first thing that came to mind.

“So why are these T.A.B.C. people doing what they’re doing? What’s that all about?”
“They’re assholes, that’s what.” He didn’t hesitate a second to give me the low down, “they need to leave people alone, let them be …”
“Shit!” I said, “let me shake your hand, I’m so glad I’m hearing this coming from a cop.” And I shook his hand.
“It’ll all go to court, you’ll see, and they’re gonna loose, there’s no way around it. It’s invading people’s privacy …”
“Absolutely!” I was still in shock. Cops are regular human beings after all! Shit!
"Just watch your ass, that's all ... be real careful ..."
"I always am."