Authors: Dianne Stevens
Since everyone else was drunk, Beth decided she would drive, but she didn’t know if she would remember how to get back to the hotel.
Beth cringed when she heard the crack of thunder in the not-so-far distance. Not having anything to shield her against the rain, Beth shivered as the cold water soaked through her shirt and met the warm skin on her back as she bent forward trying to dodge the mud holes as she rushed to the car. She was already panicky because no one was in any shape to tell her how to get back to the hotel. She made a couple of wrong turns and was never so glad to make it to a parking lot in her life. She almost had to pry her fingers from the steering wheel because she had been holding it so tight.
As soon as they got inside the hotel room, everyone climbed in bed and went to sleep, clothes and all. Beth volunteered to take a rickety cot that had a permanent hard crease where it folded and lumps everywhere else. She tossed and turned all night and hardly got any sleep. The next morning she was exhausted while everyone else woke up bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and raring to go.
They woke up at 10 a.m., but, by the time they all took showers and packed, it was noon.
They stopped at a country store and picked up a few snacks and some cokes, and 30 minutes later they pulled up to the tiny beach. Murky brown salt water inched its way higher up sand with each powerful wave. Compared to the thunderous storm the night before, the day was beautiful and clear. The breeze whipped against them as they made their way across the warm gritty sand to find a place to the lay their blankets.
As they began setting everything up, Beth glanced out across the water in time to see a seagull swoop down and catch a fish. With the wriggling fish clamped tightly in its beak, the bird darted away from the companions who were trying to steal his prize.
The small beach with its light brown sand was packed with people, all trying to get in the last days of suntan weather. She just knew she was going to be able to add to the tan she had been working on all summer. Beth stood with her back against the wind as she tried to spread out their flapping blanket. The other girls rushed to set everything on top of it to hold it down.
“I am so-o thirsty and hungry!” Julie said.
“Me, too!” everyone else said at almost the same time. None of them had eaten anything since before they went dancing the night before.
“I’ll fix the sandwiches,” Beth said. “Annette, why don’t you dig out what everyone wants to drink from the ice-chest?” After they ate, they put suntan lotion on each other and kicked back.
Beth was lying on her back, drinking an ice-cold coke, and talking to Becky when a group of guys started walking toward them. Beth smiled conceitedly knowing they were coming to flirt with them.
“Hey, y’all, look what’s walking over,” Beth said as she pointed with her head.
Everyone turned and watched, waiting to hear what the guys were going to say.
The cutest guy spoke first.
“Hello, I’m Sheriff Chatman and you are all under arrest for having glass bottles on the beach.” The cocky Wyatt Earp wannabe smiled as he flashed his badge.
They all just stared at him with open mouths.
“You’ve got to be joking!” Beth finally said since they were closest to her.
“No ma’am, I assure you, we’re not.”
“Bu-but arrest! Th-that’s too drastic!”
“Ma’am, I don’t believe the three kids and one adult who had to leave their fun-in-the-sun this week to stay in the hospital all day waiting to get stitched up would agree with you.”
“But arrest?” Beth cried out in bewilderment as she chewed on the fingernail of her thumb.
Can’t you just give us a warning or even a ticket?”
“Ma’am, we started out the summer doing just that,” the sheriff thinly placated. First we gave warnings and then tickets, but neither seemed to work. We want the news of today’s clean-up method to spread into Texas. So hopefully, by the beginning of next summer, we won’t have this problem. Believe me, you won’t be alone today.”
“Oh, Lord, please don’t let it spread into Texas,” Beth silently prayed. “But this is our first day to ever come here. We didn’t know you weren’t allowed to have anything glass on this beach.” Beth hands were open in a pleading gesture.
“If you look, you’re sitting under the sign that says ‘No glass on beach’ right now!” The sheriff said heatedly, pointing to the sign to the left and above their heads.
Beth moaned and closed her eyes tight. Tears were seeping out at the corners. She opened her eyes wide in hope that no more would follow. What little patience the sheriff seemed to have ran out.
“I’m afraid all of you are going to have to come with me to the police station. The one who drove can follow in her car but the rest will have to ride in our cars. You can pick up your things and put them in the driver’s car. Let’s go please.”
Everyone got up as if they were robots and started picking up. When they got to Julie’s car, she told everyone to calm down.
“When we get to the jail we’ll have to call our parents to pick us up. We’ll do just like we did when we told our parents where we stayed last night. Jana can tell her parents that my parents said we could come here today and everyone else will say it was Jana’s parents. We will call home at different times to be sure no parents meet up with each other. If they question you as to why you were left, just tell them you could only leave with the person who was responsible for you, which will be the truth. Tammy and I won’t be able to bail ourselves out even though we’re 18. We may not be able to talk to each other after we get there, so who wants to call first?
It doesn’t matter to me; 30 minutes apart should do it. Jana, why don’t you go ahead and call so that we can get your parents out of the way. It won’t matter as much if the others happen to meet up. Trust me, it’s going to be okay,” Julie said bravely then added unsurely, “Hopefully they won’t put us in the cells.”
“Hurry up ladies,” one cop interrupted.
After they put everything in the trunk of Julie’s car, the cops escorted everyone but Julie to their police cars. They opened the door for Beth, Jana, and Becky to get in one car and Tammy and Annette in the other.
It only took them a few minutes to get to the police station. It didn’t matter what Julie said; Beth was scared to death. Beth knew that, if she told her guardians the story Julie said to tell, Susan and Jordon would be furious. It wouldn’t matter to them which parents said she could drive to Louisiana to go to the beach. If she had not asked them and not gotten their permission, she was going to be in major trouble. She also knew that the lie was still better than the truth. If she could get around by only telling them the story of getting up this morning and driving over, maybe she would only get grounded for a few weeks. Beth closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, and let it out slowly through pursed lips. She didn’t even want to think about what would happen if they found out she went to a nightclub and stayed overnight in a hotel.
Who was she going to call? She thought Jesse would be the least of the three evils. She just hoped she could make it sound as innocent as Julie implied it would. The thought passed through her mind about how Julie could know so much about what was going to happen. She would have to remember to ask her when or if they got out of this mess.
“This way, ladies,” the cocky little sheriff said as he pointed toward a door. “You will need to call your parents to bail you out or you will have to stay and visit us a while longer,” he said with a grin that looked as if belonged on a snake. “Your friend’s license’s plate is from Texas.
Is that where you’re all from?” he asked Beth.
Their driver had already questioned them and Beth didn’t feel like answering the same questions again so she just looked into his probing eyes and kept walking. At this instant she didn’t care if she made him mad are not. He had already arrested them.
As Beth stepped inside the front of the police station, she inhaled a whiff of something that turned her stomach. The room smelled old, stale, and like sweat. No, that was wrong; it smelled like old stale sweat, not fresh sweat, but sweat that most likely had embedded itself in every porous area of the room over the last 40 years. As Beth glanced around the room, she saw other people in shorts and bathing suits lined up against the back wall. The sheriff spoke the truth; they apparently were not alone. It seemed other people were harassed today as well.
Beth thought it was probably pretty much routine after they were called to the front desk.
They asked the same questions. A little chunky woman asked if Beth had any identification.
Beth wasn’t about to hand over her illegal identification. She hoped no one else would make that error. She didn’t need Julie to tell her that that would be a big mistake. She gave her Social Security card and driver’s permit. After Beth answered all the questions and she signed the last paper, the woman told her she could call home. Beth told the woman she would have to wait because her guardians wouldn’t be home for another 30 minutes. The woman then told her that she could wait along the wall with everyone else.
Beth let out a sigh of relief; at least they weren’t going to throw her in jail. When she knew Jana’s parents were almost in Lake Charles, she went to the phone to call home. Jesse had a line in his house and she hoped he was in it.
“Hello.”
“Hello Jesse, Um, what cha’ doing?”
“Beth?”
“Yeah, it’s me, Jess,” Beth answered in a weak voice.
“I just came in to change clothes and get cleaned up. I’m about to go out. Why? What did you need? Susan and Jordon are outside on the porch. Do you want me to get them for you?”
“No!” Beth said startled then more calmly, “It’s you I needed to talk to anyway.”
“Me? Okay, Elizabeth, what’s going on?”
“Well, um, I kinda need you to come get me”
“Where?” Jesse asked suspiciously.
“Well, hmm, I’m in Lake Charles, Louisiana.”
“Lake Charles! What in the world are you doing over there and who are you with?”
“I’m here with some of my friends from school. We went to the little beach they have here.”
“What happened? Did the car break down?”
“Nuh, uh, we didn’t break down, Jess,” Beth said shaking her head her head slowly, the phone held against her ear.
“Did y’all have a flat tire?”
“Nope, we didn’t have a flat either,”
“For crying out loud, Beth, what happened? Did you have a wreck? You’re not hurt and at a hospital, are you?”
Beth could tell he was getting worried and aggravated at the same time. She did not want him getting more aggravated than he was about to be in the next few seconds. So she took a deep breath.
“I’m in the Lake Charles jailhouse,” Beth rushed out and then waited for a whole 10 seconds for it to sink in.
“JAILHOUSE! What in the hell do you mean you’re in the Lake Charles jailhouse? What did you do?”
“Jesse, calm down. The only thing I did wrong was have a glass bottle on the beach.”
“What was in the bottle?” Jesse asked with suspicion in his voice.
“It was only coke. Apparently, they made today the day they were going to rid the beach of anyone who carried a glass container. The room is full of people who did the same.”
“You can’t ride home with one of your friends?”
“Jesse, apparently you haven’t been in jail before because you would know I need someone who is responsible for me to come and bail me out and assure them I’ll be back for my court date,” Beth was getting louder as she spoke. She was upset because he was asking her all these questions and was not on his way to get her. “Jesse, if you don’t get in your truck right now and come get me, they are going to put me in a jail cell with the bad people! And don’t tell Susan or Daddy!”
“Okay, I’m on my way, but it will take me over an hour to get there. Something sure sounds strange about this.”
After Jesse hung up with Beth, he immediately looked up the number and called the police station to speak to the person in charge.
“Hello, I’m Jesse Bately, Elizabeth Barrow’s uncle. I am on my way to get her, but it will take me over an hour to get there. Under no circumstance are you to put that innocent child in a jail cell. If anything happens to her there, I will do everything in my power to bring charges against you. She isn’t even 16 yet—for crying out loud! Brought to jail over glass on the beach, who ever heard of such? What, y’all don’t have any criminals in Louisiana so you make up for it by going out and arresting children on the beach?” Jesse said heatedly.
“Sir, just come get your niece. We have no intention of putting her in the back.”
“I’m on my way,” Jesse said; but, as he hung up the phone, he was a lot more worried now than when he first talked to Beth. Many things could happen in the hour before he could get there. All kinds of nuts would be in that place with her.
When Beth looked up about 50 minutes later, Jesse was walking in the door. She knew he must have flown all the way there. It was a wonder he didn’t get pulled over and brought in to join her. That would have been funny if the circumstances wouldn’t have been so dire. She would have had to call Jordon then to get them both out.
The look on his face when he finally found her and made eye contact was a look of relief for a few short seconds, but Beth noticed it did not take long for it to turn into a look of rage. She didn’t know if he was angry with her or the cops for bringing her in, most likely both. The way he marched over to the desk, she was sure that, for the moment, he was madder at them—for which she was temporarily grateful. She couldn’t hear what he was saying but she could tell by the way that he was using his hands he was ticked off. Beth thought if he did not calm down he was going to end up in jail yet.
Beth walked over to where he was and gently touched his arms.
“Can we leave yet? I can’t wait to leave this place.”
“Yeah, just a second, I have to pay your fine and sign some papers. Wait for me over there where you were.”
“Okay, Jesse, but calm down before they throw us both in jail,” Beth said trying to get him to act rational. She saw that he took a deep breath then bent and signed his name on the documents.