When I was a third grader in Elementary School, I was just your regular,
everyday kinda kid – staying out of trouble, going to school, doing my homework,
hanging out with my friends. That was, until I had a run-in with the police.
The day started out quite normal – except that after a few nights of going to bed super-late, I was exhausted. I couldn’t even tell you what cereal I ate for breakfast that morning. I had barely made it through school that day and I was glad to finally be on the school bus, heading home. The other elementary school kids on the bus were loud and crazy, as usual! I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the window – imagining how good my pillow would feel as I snuggled into my bed for an after-school nap.
I must have a pretty good imagination or was even more exhausted than I
realized because the next thing I knew I was looking up at a circle of unfamiliar
teenage faces staring down at me. Someone must have poked me awake but I
thought I must still be dreaming because why would all these older teenagers be
on my school bus??! I tried to pull my thoughts together – “Okay”, I told
myself, “I’m sure I can figure this out”. I mean, here I was on my bus with a
bunch of people I didn’t know – all staring at me – and I had no idea at all where I
was!! After getting the courage to make that verrrry long walk up that narrow
pathway between the seats to the bus driver, I learned the bus driver was as
surprised as I was that I was still on the bus! This didn’t make me feel any better
at all. Plus, at the time, all of those highschool students looked to me like big
scary giants. The bus driver said that he’d have to drop off all of the other people
on the bus first and finish his route before he could drop me back off at my bus
stop, which would easily make me a hour and a half late getting home. I was not
a very happy Benji.
It turns out that after the bus drops off all the kids from my elementary school, it
then goes to a nearby High School where it does another run – this time with the
high school students. So when little third grade Benji fell asleep on the bus and
woke up with a bunch of seniors around instead of 1st and 2nd graders… you
can imagine how scared I was. For one thing, I wasn’t sure what I was going to
do. I also wondered what my Mom must have thought when I didn’t get home
that day and how worried she must be (and how much trouble I was going to be in!)
Now it seems pretty bad that this really small (but brave) third grader was stuck
on a bus full of people he didn’t know for a really long time, but – it gets worse.
That’s about when we first heard the police sirens, I wondered what accident
had happened or what crime was taking place to try to take my mind off my
troubles. The sirens got louder and louder and the flashing lights brighter but it
wasn’t until the bus slowed down that I realized that the police were actually
there for my bus. I wondered which high school kid was going to be in big
trouble as a policeman climbed onto the bus. Imagine my surprise when he
called out in a very stern voice, “Which one of you is… Benjamin Bear?!?” I
sunk lower into my seat and slowly raised my hand above the bus seat in front of
me as I croaked out, “I am”.
Now I was completely terrified out of my mind because the police officer took me
into his car and put me in the prisoner cage backseat thing. I wasn’t sure what I
had done so I scanned over everything that I had done that day and pleaded to
them that I was innocent. “I swear I didn’t pack an extra oreo! It wasn’t me, it
was just there in my lunch!” and “Okay, I promise with a cherry on top that I wont
talk during class anymore… I PINKY PROMISE!” The 2 cops let me go on like
that for a little while before telling me that I wasn’t actually going to jail, that my
Mom had called the school after I was late coming home and the school notified
the transportation department who called the police to come get me.. At that
point I was actually thinking jail sounded a lot better than going home to a
very.very.very ,very angry Mom. So I started pleading guilty… “You know I stole
Mikey’s chocolate milk during lunch the other day – but we were really just
playing a trick on him and hiding it… that has to be worth at least a year behind
bars!”
Of course, my Mom wasn’t mad at me at all – just terribly worried. – and boy, did
I get a big hug when I got home! On the plus side, the police men gave me a
lollipop and a plastic police badge that I still have somewhere. But the next
afternoon, on the bus ride home after school, I don’t think I even blinked once
the entire ride back home – and I never minded going to bed on time again.
