My Run-in With The Law

Sunday evening was one of those halfway muggy, halfway lovely Fallish nights; the kind where you can't decide if you want to jump in a pool or go for a walk.  Joey and I opted to go for a walk, so we harnessed up Henry and took the long way to Half Price Books.

Henry loves Half Price Books.  And we like sneaking him in.  Fortunately for us, Half Price Books is all about being Green and eco-friendly and, therefore, they're totally into animals.  So we haven't gotten kicked out. Yet.

We pranced right on through the front doors, big as you please, Henry jingling his way along and looking up at everyone with his large, emotive eyes.  People walked by us whispering, "Ohhh, what a cute dog!" and, "do you see that puppy?"

Henry and I split off from Joey (who was sitting on the floor in the Theological Dictionaries section) and walked over to the Christian novels.  Neither of us saw anything we were interested in, so we wandered around looking for heretical books to hide.

A non-heretical Family Bible Quiz book caught my eye, so we sat down on a stool in a little alcove and I began quizzing Henry.

He wasn't doing very well.

Joey came around the corner and I asked him, "In what book are the Apocraphal books not found?" 

He looked at me like I'd lost my mind.  "In the Bible..." he said, tentatively.

"You are correct."  I said, and held up The Family Bible Quiz book.  "That was supposed to be a Level 2 question, but I think it's easier than Level 1.  Henry's not doing very well at this."

Joey was not surprised at this. "I'm going to go and look at their Greek texts," he told me.

"We'll be right here."  I said.

We love the Half Price Books near our house, because lots of DTS students sell their textbooks and Joey is able to find really helpful books for a fraction of the cost they are sold at the, um, DTS bookstore.

But Henry and I sat there on the stool quizzing each other when a little boy came around the corner.  Henry began crying and skittering around excitedly.  He obviously wanted to play with the little boy Quite Badly.

The little boy's mom came around the corner too and politely asked if her little boy could pet Henry.

I obliged and held Henry down so he wouldn't lick the little boy's face and frighten him. Henry sat like an angel.  He wagged his tail furiously and otherwise showered his affection on the little boy.

Someone wearing all black had rounded the corner and was standing very near the little boy and his mom, watching Henry and I.  I glanced up and my heart stopped.

It was a policeman.  Armed.

Busted!

I was about to start apologizing all over the place for bringing our dog into the store when the policeman smiled and said, "Thank you!"  He then took the little boy's hand (who also thanked us, at the policeman's reminder) and they walked away.

Henry and I (mostly me) sat there with our hearts pounding.  That cop had really scared me.  I put away the Bible Quiz book and went to find Joey.  I told him about the policeman and he laughed at Henry and I.  We're such chickens, you know.

We all left the store about 15 minutes later, unscathed.  (After, of course, we hid another book that Joey wants to buy but can't yet afford.  We've got a whole big stash going behind a staci of about 50 copies of The DaVinci Code.)