“Stand
Off”
by: Roger
Alderman
The door to the Post St. John
Children’s Hospital burst open into the heavy pouring rain. Karen in
blood-soaked blue hospital scrubs rushes out of the door and turns to slam it
closed. She scans the rooftop and spots a copper pipe lying nearby.
Karen lays her swaddled package
on the ground and grabs the pipe. Quickly she wedges the pipe into the handle
ensuring no one can follow her. The door jars, as police and security officers
begin to bang on the door.
Karen snatches up her package and
runs to the edge of the rooftop. She pauses and looks at the swaddled package,
“They don’t understand!” She unwraps the package to look in the face of her
tormentor, a newborn blonde hair blue eyed baby girl.
Karen looks below through the
pouring rain and sees a group of police officers and their cruisers watching.
She steps back from the edge, as a helicopter comes within view circling the
hospital rooftop. Karen panics, “She’s possessed by the devil! She made me hurt
that poor nurse.”
Karen stands in the pouring rain
sobbing and whispers, “I’m saving the world. Why don’t they don’t understand.”
She looks at the baby, as the shock of the cold pouring rain causes her to cry
out. “Stop it!” She yells into the baby’s face, “You’re turning them against me,
I know your tricks!”
“KAREN!” A voice calls from
below, “Mrs. Dane this is watch commander Kelly, please return the baby to the
Hospital Nursery. No one else needs to get hurt.” Karen looks over the edge
seeing the rotund policeman with a megaphone and shakes her head in disbelief.
The baby screams, as the stormy weather increases in intensity announced by
booming thunder.
Karen paces back and forth along
the edge of the rooftop glaring at the baby in her arms. “Back off or I’ll
throw her I swear!” she screams out loud in hopes the police will realize she’s
in control not them. She cast her eyes skyward, “the soldiers of the adversary
are upon me. Protect me!”
Karen steps back in shock, as the
copper pipe bends allowing the police to flood onto the roof. Thinking quickly,
she climbs onto the exterior edge of the rooftop with the baby. Cruiser and
Helicopter searchlights flood the rooftop. Karen raises her empty arm to
obscure the disorienting bright lights.
Curtains get the thrown open in
windows along the patient room building nearby. Numerous patients and their
families gather watching the commotion one building over. Below the police
spring into action pushing the growing crowd in the parking lot back beyond
perimeter barriers.
Panic firmly takes hold of Karen
and her footwork in the pouring rain starts to fail her, as she slips to one
knee. The police on the rooftop rush at her, as the crowd below, screams out
fearing the worst. Karen catches herself and rises quickly, as she glares at
the approaching officers. She extends the arm holding the child out front the
ledge above the parking lot.
The officer quickly retreats back
several yards fear for the baby’s safety hangs on each face above and below.
“Get Back!” booms the voice of the watch commander through the megaphone.
“Karen, you have to calm down.” Karen sneers, “I don’t HAVE to do a damned
thing you say.”
“Mrs. Dane, its Doctor Crawford,”
a familiar voice bellows from below.” Karen’s surprised by the voice and looks
down and sees her psychologist standing among the police holding the megaphone,
“what are you doing here Doctor Crawford? Our appointment is not for two days.”
Dr. Crawford steps away from the
police with concern hanging heavy on his face. “Karen, listen to me. This is
not the way you want to do things,” Dr. Crawford pleads, “please come back down
and we can talk. You don't have to wait.”
Karen shakes with rage, “Talk,
Talk, talk that’s all you do. That or you make them force me to take those
pills.” She flips off the doctor below, as the helicopter adjusts its light ion
the pouring rain to illuminate her. “I’ll drop this evil little bitch if
everyone doesn’t back off,” Karen dangles the baby out from the ledge again and
begins to cry profusely.
Sgt. Kelly holding anger in his
expression turns a flustered Dr. Crawford to face him, “What is her deal?” Sgt.
Kelly wags and angry fat finger in the doctor’s face, “You get her down or
we’ll have to use force.” Dr. Crawford shakes his head, “That’s not gonna work.
She’s clearly off her meds and hearing the voices…”
Sgt. Kelly pauses for a moment,
as anger builds then gestures to Karen, “So this crazy bitch under your
observation broke into a nursery, attack a nurse, stole a baby, and is in the
biggest standoff in Brevard County history. Because the voices told her too?”
Dr. Crawford nods in agreement, “that’s pretty much it.”
Karen smiles, nods, and whispers,
“I understand.” She pulls the baby back
into her breast and smiles affectionately at it.” The looks to the police officers
and nods again. The officers on the roof are confused.
“She is surrendering,” Dr.
Crawford declares aloud. Sgt. Kelly exhales, “I really thought…” Karen hugs the
baby and leans backward allowing gravity to take over. The rooftop officers
rush to attempt to grab her and the child. Sgt. Kelly and Dr. Crawford look
away, as Cellphone cameras capture the fall.
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