Yard Wars

In regular times, the Beck family living inside the house at number 15 Chancellery Street includes the mom, Mrs. Beck, a retired English schoolteacher who spends most of her days now sewing, knitting, and cuddling on the couch with her tuxedo cat named Virgil. Also, the dad, Mr. Beck, is a retired firefighter who was with the fire department for over twenty years before retirement. Nowadays, he spends most of his time on his computer following and trying to outsmart the algorithms that dictate the stock market. The Beck’s only child is their daughter, Angela, a young lady in her mid to upper twenties. She sometimes lives with them but often spends her days on her college campus to be closer to her boyfriend, whom her parents have never met. Angela is an aspiring nursing student on every honor roll since starting school. This has made Angela the apple of her parents’ eyes. Like her mom, Angela has hair that does not reach past her neck and barely covers the green and orange flame tattoo right above her cervical vertebrae. Usually, in the late afternoon, around 16:00, neighborhood kids of all ages, including those on skateboards and bikes, can be seen playing in the streets. But on this particular day, there weren’t any. There was hardly any traffic on the road all afternoon, but that changed with the sight of a white SUV and the sound of its screeching tires racing down the street. The driver slammed on the brakes just before they arrived in front of the Beck’s house. Now, behind the SUV, one could hear the sounds of the paramedics getting louder as they were coming down Chancellery Street. Just ahead of the paramedic, the white SUV, with the driver-side window rolled down, came to a screeching halt. The driver, a young lady who appeared to be in her upper twenties to early thirties, pulled up and parallel-parked just ahead on the north side of the street in front of the Beck’s house. The paramedics immediately stopped and parked behind the white SUV with the back of their ambulance adjacent to the entrance walkway to the Beck’s house.