safe, unsafe

Last night at 1:30 there were loud bangs on our door, and strong flashlights shining in through the floor to ceiling glass walls. Three police officers were outside, demanding to see us. They asked Dan to step outside, "would you mind stepping out here, sir?", while they blocked the doorway to force me to remain inside.

Then one of them asked if I minded that he came in. I said I didn't. He put the flashlight in my face, and then let it play around my arms and upper body. I was wrapped in a blanket because they had woken us up and I hadn't had time to find any clothes.

He asked questions. Had we had a fight? Had we been on the phone? Did we have animals? Was there anyone else in the house? I said that we hadn't, we didn't, there wasn't. He repeated the questions. More flashlight in my face. I didn't like it. It made me nervous. I didn't understand what was going on.

All the while the other two officers were asking Dan similar questions outside.

Then they looked at each other, apologized for having gotten us out of bed, and said that they had had a call about something sounding like a woman being beaten up by her boyfriend and that they were checking everywhere. We said we hadn't heard anything. They apologized some more, and then they left.

Then I didn't go back to sleep for a long while. I have never had a flashlight in my face before. I have never been separated from my boyfriend by police department standard procedure before. It's not nice.

And I sure looked down our pretty, calm, and quiet suburban street in a different way today. Where was it? What is going on out there?