It is often said that you should write about what you know – A statement I agree with entirely. It is also said that you should be careful what you wish for – a lesson I learnt last night!

Yesterday afternoon I was frustrated by the fact that my desire to write epic stories was thwarted by the boring, event-less life I’ve lived so far. I was longing for something exciting to happen. Something that could lead to an interesting story. The scary thing is, I got it. That very night. Now I know this sounds fictitious, but it’s not. It is absolutely true. There have been few times in my life when I’ve felt as relieved as I did last night at the sight of the flashing blue and red lights on the police car coming towards us. People often complain about the cops and how bad they are, but last night they were there when we needed them.

As a Christian, every second Wednesday night I go to a lady’s Bible study at the house of one of the older ladies in my church, Enid*, over in the next suburb. My next door neighbour, Charlie*, drives me, my mum and sister, as well as an ninety-one year old lady, Gloria*, who we pick up from her hostel. Last night, as we were leaving at the end of the study, Enid was commenting on how glad she was she didn’t need to get her car out because some idiot had parked a massive truck out the front of the house, blocking a quarter of her driveway. I was just helping Gloria (who would have been very small and seemingly fragile when she was twenty-one, so you can imagine what she’d be like now at ninety-one) to the car when two obviously drunk, young men appeared from behind the truck. (For the sake of differentiation I shall refer to them as the car guy and the bat guy – names that will make sense later on.)

“Listen lady, listen,” car guy started saying to my sister who gave one look at him and smartly decided to ignore it and get into the back of the car (a two door Yaris). He then turned to the rest of us to get our attention while bat guy came behind him shouting their native language. From here it all becomes rather confusing and blurry – I have a montage of memories that I shall attempt to order for you. From what car guy was half shouting at us, it sounded like bat guy (who lives across the road) had kicked him out of the house and was trying to get him to leave. We of course thought it had something to do with the truck (we found out later on that he had threatened the other man’s wife).

Car guy was blocking our way to the car which was in the middle of the narrow street waiting for us to get in, while bat guy started apologising to Enid and swearing about the other guy. Enid was begging them to stop swearing and move out of the way so we could put poor Gloria in the car. That’s when car guy noticed her. (I think he might have been drug addled as well as drunk.) Bending down to look her in the face, he starting to appealing to Gloria for help, or at least to be on his side. Not knowing what was going on, and desperate to get out of there we tried ignoring him and asking him to move so we could get in the car. At this, he grabbed Gloria’s hand out of Enid’s and started kissing it.

“I love you. I love you.” Like I said, he was drunk. Bat guy wasn’t impressed. They were soon shouting at each other over our heads. We took the opportunity to move towards the car, but car guy still had hold of poor Gloria’s hand. He was much bigger and stronger and we couldn’t keep moving. We were all telling him to let go but he wouldn’t listen. He just wouldn’t listen. The lights were on, but nobody was home. Then finally, I don’t know why, maybe bat guy said something that got him really angry, he let go. I didn’t stop to find out what was going on, just hurried Gloria as fast as her little, old legs could carry her over to the passenger seat at the front. Mum helped her in while I rushed round and climbed behind the driver’s seat into the back with my sister, clipped my belt in and breathed as I waited for Mum to climb in with us. But she didn’t.

Turning in my seat to stare out the back window. Car guy was on the ground by the truck. Bat guy, who was much taller and more built, was kicking him in the torso. You could see the whole body moving with each thud, quivering like a trampoline as a child jumps up and down. The sort of thing you see on T.V.. Bat guy’s foot moved up and slammed into car guys face. The car lights illuminated the entire scene as though it were happening on a stage. Mum and Enid came blazing in with a new found bravery inspired by terror. Grabbing hold of the strong, angry bat guy they started shouting at him to stop. My sister and I sat there mute, staring through the window in horrified disbelief.

As I said I can’t really remember everything, just fragmented snaps. I don’t know how it stopped but the next thing I remember is grabbing Mum’s stuff as she clambered into the car, squishing my sister to give Mum room to find the seatbelt. Charlie hopped into the driver’s seat and started the engine as we all shouted at Enid to get inside her house. We starting edging forward slowly, still urging Enid to go inside, as the men came rushing up to the car. Car guy ran to the passenger door next to where Gloria was sitting. Charlie quickly reached out to hit the internal locking but she wasn’t fast enough. Car guy swung the door open while the car was still in motion and promptly sat his heavy body down on ninety-one year old Gloria’s lap.

Gloria had handled herself very well until now. She’d shown us all by, staying calm and collected. But this was just too much. He was far too heavy for her and she has had lots of problems with her legs. The distress in her voice was evident. I felt so helpless, squashed in the back, as her half scream, half whimper rose in pitch.

“Get him off! He’s hurting. He’s hurting my legs! He’s hurting my legs!” I can still hear her crying out, haunting my thoughts with the pain it carries and the frustration that I was unable to help. I just wanted to get out and drag the idiot onto the ground and drop him there – drop him so hard it hurt. But there was nothing we could do except pray and shout. But shouting wasn’t really doing much good. Especially as we were all shouting and he and bat guy were shouting at each other too.

“I’m not going, I’m not going. Call the Police, call the police,” he kept saying, not listening or caring about the fact he was hurting her.

“Just get off, you’re hurting her!”

“I wouldn’t hurt you!” he said turning to look at Gloria at last. “I love you.”

“But you are hurting her! Get off!” He eventually moved off Gloria’s lap but was still in the car, sitting down in the foot space below the dashboard, clutching tightly to the door as bat guy tried to drag him out of the car.

“Call the police!” He was still yelling as we tried to get him out of the car. But he just wouldn’t budge.

“Yes, police please,” I heard my mother’s muffled, phone voice say from behind me. I was leaning forward between the front two seats trying to help get him out while my mum huddled behind me. I turned around in surprise. She had her mobile out and was trying to explain what was going on after dialling 000. Everyone was still screaming and shouting and she was having trouble being heard.

“There’s a man in our car and he’s sitting on a ninety-one year old lady,” you could hear she was trying to keep calm and use her lower register. “He’s just got further into the car.”

Out of what seemed like nowhere, car guy had just dived further into the car, stretching across Gloria’s lap and into Charlie’s. Gloria started crying out in pain again as he reached for the car keys, trying to take them out and stop us from leaving. Thankfully the car was still on and the keys were locked in. Being under the influence, he couldn’t think straight and had no idea how to get them out. His fingers fumbled, ripping the key rings off as Charlie tried to stop him. I could hear in her tone of voice, which was getting angrier and panicked, that she was struggling to stay calm and not to attack him.

His shirt was off and the street light was shining down on his sweaty skin which was covered in scratches. Leaning forward, I couldn’t quite reach him, which was probably a good thing because I think I would have made things worse if I could have. Charlie started banging her hand on his shoulder, trying desperately to get him off. She wasn’t hitting very hard though – he might have lost it complete and attacked us if she did. To be honest it looked almost like she was giving him a massage. It would have been quite funny if it wasn’t so scary.

There’s another blank spot in my memory here. Once again I don’t know how we managed to get him out of the car. I just remember the way my heart was pounding against the rib cage as we tried to shut the door. It was wide open and Gloria was still quite shaken, unable to reach up and pull it shut. I tried leaning round but it was no use. We were all so scared he was going to come back in. Charlie was stretching out over Gloria, her finger tips centimetres away from the door. I could feel myself willing her fingers to reach as I prayed we would get out of there. Whack. The door shut. Charlie locked the doors and relief began to flood my veins, a relief that came all too soon.

We started to drive off slowly (the street was very narrow). Mum was telling the lady on the phone that he’d gotten out and we were driving off when car guy came up and grabbed the car. This time he couldn’t get the door open so he went round the front and started yanking at the windscreen wiper. Charlie turned the wipers on to try and get him off as we sat there in horror and dismay. We were all still shaking and just wanted to go home.

I will never forget what happened next. My mum, who was still on the phone, lost her calm completely. Her voice rose about five octaves as she half screamed down the phone line.

“He’s got a baseball bat!”

I was so frightened my mind wasn’t functioning properly. My first thought was “What do you mean he’s got a baseball bat. This is Australia, not America. We use cricket bats. You of all people shouldn’t get them confused Mum (she loves her cricket).” I looked up and sure enough, bat guy was coming at car guy with a bat. At first I thought Mum had got it wrong in her panic and it was in fact a cricket bat. On second sighting though, I saw that baseball bat it was. All I could think was “What are you doing with that? You should have a cricket bat mate!”

And then it hit me.

He had a bat.

OH CRAP HE’S GOT A BASEBALL BAT!

He was coming round the car waving it in the air. I was so scared I could hardly breathe. All our eyes were fixed on the windscreen, the wipers still running, waiting to see what would happen. Hoping nothing would happen. Praying nothing would happen.

And then we saw them. The two most amazing, flashing lights I have ever laid eyes on. Red and blue, red and blue, coming closer and closer up the street.

I could feel the air finally leaving my lungs as my mum spoke once more to the lady on the phone.

“It’s O.K. They’re here now. I can see the police.”

*All names have been changed due to privacy issues. All other information is true according to subjective memory.