The Policeman Who Just Wanted a Friend

Two weeks ago, I took a flight back from Michigan to Colorado. It was a long day, including Kyle driving me through heavy snowfall to get me to the Chicago airport, a long wait there due to repeated delays, the flight to Denver, getting a ride from the airport back to my car from Bobby, and subsequently driving for an hour or so back to Fort Collins.
I was really tired and as I turned onto the street I live on, I saw the police lights go on behind me.
I pulled into a parking lot and the officer approached the car. Don't look like you're reaching for a gun and remember to call him "officer", I thought. The same two thoughts I've had every time I've been pulled over. I rolled down the window and waited.

Hi, how are ya! Can I see license and registration?

Sure, I said and handed it to him.

Where are you coming from tonight?

From the airport in Denver.

Back from Christmas vacation?

Yep, gotta go back to work tomorrow.

Where do you work?

At a place called Visible Prod. in Old Town.

What do you do?

I'm a medical animator.

Wow sounds really boring and interesting at the same time. (This was said with the tone of a sarcastic sitcom teenager)
I'm also gonna need to see proof of insurance, he says. I begin to look for that and he goes back to his car for a moment. He returns.

Do you watch the show Heroes?

No, I say, but are you talking about my car? I've heard there's one on the show.

Yup, featured prominently.
"To the Versa!" he says, imitating an Asian person's voice.

I'm sorry, I say, I know my insurance stuff is in here somewhere.

Man, it is cold out here, I don't know what I'm doin' out here. It is so cold tonight, what's it like in Michigan?

Weather-related answer.

Now, you haven't been drinking, right Alex?

Nope..

.. although your last name is Beerhorst!, he says as he inspects my license closer.

I explain my last name, in a surprisingly succinct manner.
After some time, I find what I've been looking for and hand it over. He looks at it for a moment.

Oo.. and its expired... oh no, wait, he says, looking closer... Its good.
So, where do you live?

Um, on the corner of City Park and Elizabeth, I say, on this street.

Ha! Almost made it! Well, you were speeding back there on Shields so don't do that again, kay?

He stood there in the cold until it was obvious this conversation couldn't continue and he said, Well, have a good night!

OK. Thanks officer.

(nailed it, but too late for the respect to gain mercy. Didn't need it this time though.)


OK, a second story:

I don't remember my dreams, pretty much ever. But three nights ago I had a really scary one. I was in an old abandoned vine-covered house looking for something. A woman/girl was with me but she had no depth of character, my sexist mind presented her simply as an emotional foil. We think we hear a voice while inspecting one of the upstairs bedrooms but we can't properly identify it. This is unsettling enough though, and we decide to leave. After my first few steps descending the stairs I happen to turn around to whisper something to my accomplice and see, standing stock still in the bedroom across from the one we were in, a ghost. This is obvious because he wears a Navy admiral costume, dusty blue, from the early 1900s. His clothes are not transparent, but his face is and, even scarier, it looks like it has a slight Photoshop motion blur applied to it. "Do you see that..." I begin to say to the woman/girl, but she cuts me off, saying "I know". She is terrified and refuses to turn around or stop moving and her expression makes me terrified too.

I woke up breathless and I think to myself, " I can't believe it, I saw a ghost" and then the brainhaze clears and I realize its a dream. The next night I had a dream about a store called The Philosophy Box, but I'm done writing.