Domestic Violence Officer

Domestic Violence Officer

Domestic violence officer Sharon Mallikoff was grinding on the pink pencil that said “Women’s Shelter “and had a hotline toll-free phone number printed below. The same hotline was hysterically ringing and blinking with the alarming red light on the phone itself. Nobody picked it up. Two volunteer girls that were working at the office went to Canada to get married to each other, and that made Sharon even more frustrated. Their leave of absence not only increased the load of the work and but also reminded that her marriage was not in sight either. She even did not want to imagine what was going on the other side of the hotline, trying to pretend that she does not hear the phone. Finally, the phone silenced, and the annoying ringing has stopped. "Dead hopefully." – thought Sharon with sarcasm. She got used to the fact that she could not control her emotions or her thoughts and gave up on attempts to think correctly. Her thoughts existed in some other parallel world, and although there were scary and merciless, there were free and independent.

Sharon was not free and independent - she was obliged to make a supportive serious face and record statements of who bitten up whom and with what.

Sharon was not alone in the office. There were policemen and a crying, dark complexion girl. A dirty colored piece of cloth was covering the girl's head, and she had a smell of something unpleasant and depressing. Her name was Miamu or Maiamu, but Sharon did not really care. She was just trying to spell it out on the application form from the faded passport. The passport was colored a disgusting hue of green that had expired visa on page 20 with a smudged customs stamp.

The policeman who brought Miamu put aside his aluminum clipboard and looked at boring replica artwork on the wall. He felt extremely uncomfortable by being in the building named "Women's Shelter" because the name itself considered him as the enemy. He never offended or, for haven's sake, used violence against woman (except, of course, during arresting suspects), but he was afraid to make even one move in this environment. Even if he tried to prove to "the building" that he was on its side, that would be considered offensive too. He has only one expression on the face "please let me go, please !!!" – But he knew that he would not be "let go," so he was playing with his radio in hopes that something horrible would happen and there will be "to all units, to all units” announcement. But damn radio was only bubbling about endless traffic accidents on the highway.

The domestic violence officer looked at the girl and thought that her face would look much worth if she has been a white "chick." Her browses probably would have all the gradients of blue and lilac. That cruel though extremely amused Sharon, while her moral voice trying to protest silently whispering statements like "how could you" or "shame on you!" but the voice was weak and lost all its credentials during the nine years of Sharon's work experience.

They all were waiting for the interpreter and were breathing stalled cold air of the building. Something in the air created an atmosphere of unavoidable dullness, the smell of something claustrophobic and suffocating. Even the color scheme of the interior was picked to kill any desire to exist. Windows were covered with dry and unpleasant to touch vertical blinds that absorbed the aroma of the room and were releasing it back when heated by the sun. In theory, it was a nice day outside, but blinds were shut tight for privacy purposes, and artificial lights were flooding the room with pale white, which made everyone look like cadavers.

Sharon get used to this room and even found some elegancy and comfort in it. It was a place she found peace in it by placing personal items around her half cubicle and was proud of her rudimentary interior decorating skills. She was lucky that one side of the desk was facing the window, and her eyes could occasionally 'sneak peak' to see how it was outside despite what the weather app was telling.

To kill time, Sharon continued on chewing pencil until she tasted something weird and probably carcinogenic. She washed down the unpleasant taste with a gulp of cold but still tasty specialty coffee. Then she grabbed the mouse and started browsing the internet as if she were looking for something vitally important. The weather channel was usually overdramatic about the forecast, screaming - "heat alert" "humidex"(Sharon never really understood how that was calculated since everybody has their own "Index" of "Humid"), then she looked outside the window between deliberately misaligned blinds ant there she saw the dream, her dream – the summer.

She dreamed that she would be laying on comfortably dry grass, under the pine trees, breathing the warm, vitalizing air, feeling the pleasantly biting rays of the sun, and looking at the endless blue sky. She wanted to melt into the moment and be melted forever.

"Do you think she will be deported ?" – asked the policemen and instantly killed Sharon's happy thoughts. His question sounded like a thunderstorm in the noisy silence of the room that consisted of Miamus crying, the humming of light tubes, and a hypnotizing whisper of air conditioning. This question sounded like a lousy joke during the funeral, and even before Sharon could compose the answer in her brain to continue the uninteresting dialog, Miamu grabbed the hotline telephone while shouting: "no deport, please !!!". She threw the telephone to the window and jump out of it while little diamond-like shiny pieces of broken tempered glass still were flying all around.

Policeman and Sharon rushed to the window and saw the fugitive running through the green space accidentally forgotten by developers and stretched between pretending to be a beautiful shopping mall and permanently angry highway. The girl's headscarf felt, and her gorgeous long hear freed from years of captivity spread wildly and made her look like a long-forgotten goddess. She quickly disappeared between bushes, leaving Sharon and the policeman shocked. But in a second, they realized that they were both breathing….

There were breathing a couple of sweet minutes. The fresh air was flowing from outside, gently moving dented blinds. The air was filled with the smell of dry grass, melted pine tree juice, hot rocks, and dry earth. The outside air rushed into to lunges sodomized by lifeless filtered air, causing a burst of animalistic, uncontrollable happiness and unstoppable desire to breathe…..

"Attention to all units! Attention to all units! " mumbled policemen's radio.

- I have to go – he said

- Yes, of course, – answered Sharon, not even looking at him and continuing breathing.

- Thanks! – He replied

- What for?

- You know …

Sharon looked at the policemen and quickly smiled with the smile that could be extracted from this kind of people only by a miracle. Then she made a cold stone face.

- Good buy then!

- Good buy.

Sharon returned to her table. She knew that it was in her power to call window repair guys, and they would fix it, and she has to file the report, etc, etc…but she was not moving. Well, the telephone was broken, so she could not make a call, and the smartphone in her purse was not smart anymore and had a low battery, and, of course, she has forgotten the charger on the kitchen table at home - felt happy with that compromise she continued breathing and melting into the moment.