I made another cup of tea and sat down at the breakfast table staring at the backyard. There was no activity, no snow, rain or wind — just another dull day in winter. My son went back to the study to continue doing whatever he was doing.

Officer Jackson knocked on the door as I was ready to take the first sip.

“Well.” He said as he came in the foyer and I closed the door behind him to shut out the cold. “I’m guessing the damage to your lawn is about $1000. You want to work out with the kid’s parents or should I charge them? I’ll have no problem doing that.”

I asked him if the kids were drunk or were on drugs. I had seen them from the bedroom window walk with their hands behind their head and then sitting on the curb in a row as the officers were talking to them. Officer Jackson said there was no evidence of that. He said they had driven over my lawn and then tried to run away, at highway speed, from another officer from our neighborhood who was following them. He was the one in the black pickup. “That’s Hit and Run,” he said. He also said it was a dangerous situation.

“What if you were out getting your mail and were hit?”

“I agree,” I said. “That’s exactly what my son said. Worse, what if some kids were playing outside, it’d have been horrible.”

I thought the best course of action was to let the law be in charge rather than me getting involved with some people I didn’t  know. They could come back with a gun and confront me.

“Charge them,” I said.

“Ok,” Officer Jackson said. “It’ll be after the holidays. It’s going to be a criminal charge.”

“That’s a serious charge, Dad,” My son said. “It’ll be on their record.”

I didn’t  know he had come out of the study and was standing right behind me.

“Well, they did something wrong. They have to face the consequences.”

My wife didn’t even want to look at the lawn when she returned from work.

“Nah” is all she said when I asked her if she wanted to take a look. She just lied down on the day bed in the study and took a nap.