by Susan Thomas
My mother was born and bred in New York, and apart from a few years away at law school, she lived nowhere else, never wanted to live anywhere else. She loved the city, but the city that gave her life also took her life. Mom was on a lunch break and walking back to work when an armed robbery took place. Officers responded very quickly and arrived, sirens blaring, just as the criminals erupted out of the building.
The three criminals opened fire and my mom was collateral damage. Strangely, she was the only one hurt. Faced with overwhelming force, the three men surrendered without the officers firing a single shot. I was on duty at the time but a car was sent for me and, sirens wailing, I was rushed to the hospital where I met my dad. One look at his face told me that Mom was DOA. We clung to each other and I guess we too were collateral damage.
I was barely three months out of the academy and very much on probation, but the department was good to me. I was placed on compassionate leave and given a lot of support. Dad too was given leave by his company. Mom had few relatives left alive, but two cousins came to the funeral along with Dad's family: his parents, his brother and two sisters and their spouses and children. Everyone was kind to us.
My uncle suggested that we both come and stay with him and his family. Dad wanted to go and I agreed. Dad came from a small town in Arkansas called Palmer Springs, and never wanted to leave, but he met Mom when he was carrying out electrical work at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville; she was at the School of Law, and when they met, they fell in love immediately, and never fell out of it.
You'd be hard put to find a couple more devoted to each other, but Mom was adamant; for her, leaving NYC was impossible. She had enjoyed her time in Fayetteville but that was it. Now back to the city. Dad made the choice to go with her but he never really liked living in a large city. Even Fayetteville seemed too big to Dad! Me? I gave it little thought. I had a goal in life and one I accomplished.
I took the entrance exam for the NYPD as early as I could and was enrolled in the Cadet Corps. I just about age qualified for the academy although breezed all the requirements. Then I was out on the streets as an officer, although very much under supervision. My parents were proud, if more than a little bemused, at how much I wanted this. Now, with the death of Mom, I wasn't thinking much at all.
Palmer Springs is very different to anywhere in NYC. It's small for a start. There is an elementary school running to Grade 6 and one high school which runs from Grade 7 to Grade 12. There is a small library, a couple of stores, a community center, churches, a diner, a couple of bars, and that's it. Oh yeah, there's a large college out on the edge of town named Alderton College. Actually it's a school for girls but it's called a college.
We'd only been in Palmer Springs a few days when Dad took me for a walk. "Nina, Jim wants me to become a partner in his business," Dad said. Jim is Dad's brother and he is also an electrician. At that time he had about eight men working for him. They did electrical work, alarm systems and had branched out into other techie stuff.
Talk about dumb... my question that is. "But Dad, how are you going to be a partner all the way from New York?"
"Nina, I wouldn't. I'd sell the apartment and buy a place here and still have plenty of money to buy a share in Jim's business. New York prices being so much higher than here."
My "Oh" was because the floor of my life was no longer there at all. Mom dead and Dad selling up and moving here left me feeling... well rather alone to be honest. "OK Dad, I guess I can find somewhere to live but I won't be seeing much of you will I."
"No, no, no. I'm not explaining myself very well. I meant you move as well. We sell up and move here together. I can buy a really nice house with some land for far less than our apartment will sell at."
"But I have a job..." I don't know whether you call police work a job but that's what I said.
"Of course, and Garrett Carter, he's the police chief here, is going to need a new officer. One of his men is planning to retire very soon and he's looking for a replacement. He'd like to talk with you about it."
"You've been talking to him about me!"
"No, you know what small towns are like. He heard that Jim wanted me to join him and immediately thought you might want to stay here too so he came to see me."
I wasn't impressed. Garrett Carter could have approached me directly but I guess that's not the Palmer Springs way. Mom might be dead, but a man is head of his family, and that still included me, so the police chief was obliged to speak to him first. Does that sound archaic? Yes, well it is but in many ways it was protective. Families closed protectively around their young ones. That included me. I was only just twenty-two but to Palmer Springs that still made me a 'young one.'
That's what the family was doing now. They were looking after us in their own way and to them 'looking after' meant bringing us into the fold of the family. No harm in a chat so I went to see Garrett Carter. The police chief is a tall man with what I believe is called a 'rangy' physique but conveying strength and power. His eyes were an intense blue that really caught and held my attention. His fair hair had waves in, for a woman they might well have been created, but for him were natural.
"Miss Blackburn, I am so sorry that you have lost your mother," he said. "Please accept my sincere condolences." He looked and sounded sincere and not just trotting out standard platitudes, so I thanked him and we got down to business. He knew I was still on probation but that was not a problem as I would still be on probation. Everything else was 'win some, lose some'. Pay was lower but then so were costs. You know how it is. All in all, although different from policing NYC, I would still be a police officer but in a tight knit community.
He wanted me, and without being immodest it is easy to see why. I had always wanted to be a cop. I had breezed all the entry requirements for the NYPD. I'd been in the Cadet Corps, trained in the academy, and done three months out on the streets. On top of that I was young and a woman. His other officers were men and the youngest was middle aged. He wanted a better balance. I bet some of you are thinking, 'OK, done deal,' right?
Wrong! There was a huge elephant in all this. You see Palmer Springs is not New York. In fact it is like very few other places. It's that male authority thing, that bit about the man being the head of the family. Although there were strictures governing his authority, a husband and father had the right to use corporal punishment. It was a right that was used. Palmer Springs is, and apparently always had been, a domestic discipline community.
I had only been twenty-two a few days before Mom was killed, but if you think that is too old to spank, think again. Dad had never spanked me growing up though Heaven knows I wasn't always a good girl. That was because of Mom. But now being twenty-two would not help me. I knew from my cousins exactly what the score was. If I messed up in Palmer Springs, Dad could put me over his knees and spank my bottom. Alternatively he could make me bend over while he spanked me with a paddle or strap. Oh yeah and one more little gem, those spankings would be on my bare butt.
I knew fine well from my cousins that it wasn't a theoretic authority. Even the ones around my age still got spanked, not often it's true, but it still happened. I was faced with a choice: remain in the NYPD, find somewhere to live, and live far away from my dad and his family; or become an officer with the small Palmer Springs police but come under Dad's authority in a domestic discipline community.
I raised the issue with Dad and he was straight with me. "Nina, I respected your mom's views while she was still alive but there were times that you tested even your mom's resolve. You were never truly awful, but boy did you press our buttons. If we had lived here I would have spanked you. I miss your mom but I am not going to be bound by her views now she has passed. So yes, if you live with me you will be under my authority, and if necessary I will spank you."
That's my dad. Always plain and straight. I dithered for several days, but as my cousin Ellen said, she's twenty-one by the way, "Oh come on Nina, getting a spanking isn't the end of the world. Sure you get sore, and it's no fun, but you get over it quite quickly. Anyway if you don't mess up you don't get spanked. Simple." So I agreed. I didn't really want to face life without my dad being around. You may think that feeble but we had always been close.
Of course we had to go back to New York, and there was a lot to do, but everything went smoothly and three months later we were moving into a house in Palmer Springs. It was much bigger and airier than our apartment in NYC. We had land front and back so would have yard work to do we'd not had to do before. Or at least I hadn't. My new uniform was simple... a grey short- sleeved shirt with pockets on the breast, dark pants, good solid footwear in black, and a type of well-made baseball cap.
Garrett Carter took me out and basically drove around his whole jurisdiction introducing me to as many people as possible. I was surprised to find that Palmer Springs police officers did not routinely carry a side arm. We had guns in our cars but normally walked around without one. Garrett told me that no officer in the history of the small service had ever been shot, or killed any other way, while on duty.
After two weeks of being on duty with him I was surprised to find I was trusted out on my own. I wasn't long before I found something for me to deal with. I spotted two teenagers climbing over a low fence and into an orchard. One was carrying a six pack of beer in his hand. Now it was easy to tell they were underage and it was also a school day, so they were skipping school. I pulled over, radioed in to say where I was and what I was doing, got out and climbed over the fence to find the kids.
The shocked look on their faces almost made me laugh. There was a girl wearing tight leggings and a casual top. The boy was wearing jeans and a hoodie.
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