“How long will they be?”

“Mmm… Probably an hour or two?”

“Ahh…”

“You got somewhere to be? Do you need to make a call?”

“I don’t think I’ll be telling anyone about this!”

They both laughed and the friendly light-skinned gentleman drifted through the doorless doorway into adjacent the room.  Henry remained seated.  The door of the small room’s other doorway opened.  A pleasant-looking latin woman entered.

“Hello,” Henry greeted her.

“Hello,” she returned with a smile.

“How’s your day going?” asked Henry.

“Oh, it’s been good,” she replied. “It’s almost done.”

“Am I keeping you?”

“Oh, no.”

“Good.” The lady briefly took a seat on the opposite side of the room just a few steps away from Henry before rising again and walking through the empty doorway and returning with a clipboard.  She reclaimed her seat.

“So,” she started,”you just have to read and sign this okay?”

“Yeah, no problem,” replied Henry.  He very much liked the lady’s aura. “What’s your name?”

“Cynthia,” she replied warmly with a smile.

“Do you have a family?” asked Henry.

“I do.”

“Children?”

“Two girls,” she replied, “two and six.”

“That’s lovely.”

“Thank you,” she said before asking, “are you a student?”

“I was,” replied Henry, “I didn’t finish.”

“What did you study?”

“You’re going to laugh,” said Henry, chuckling himself.

“Well I already am now!” she laughed along. “What?”

“Criminology.”

Cynthia bursted out in laughter.  Henry bashfully joined in.

“That is funny.”

“I told you.”

“Okay well I think I’m gonna take off,” said Cynthia.

“Okay, well have a good night!” replied Henry. “It was very nice to meet you.”

“It was very nice to meet you too,” she said before mouthing, “you’ll be fine.”

They shared a smile and Cynthia left.  Henry adjusted himself to sit upright in improved posture.  He then emptied his mind, focused on his breath, and sat in silence, his face serene and unmoving.  He sat there for some time like this.  How much time he did not know.

The door opened and two police officers entered.  One Asian and one Caucasian, both in their thirties.  The Asian man sat in the seat where Cynthia sat a time ago and the Caucasian remained standing.  Henry crossed his legs.

“So,” said the Asian, “what happened?”

“I came here to buy some groceries for dinner.  I walked through the men’s aisle on the way to get some pasta.  I saw the razor that I had bought from here a couple months ago.  When I bought it one of the attachments was missing.  So I opened the package calmly and openly in plain view and grabbed the attachment that was missing.  I don’t know why I didn’t just bring it to the customer service desk, but that’s what I did.  Then I did my groceries.  Then right before I was about to cash out, I guess I was in the spirit, I put the almonds in my pocket. Then I paid for my groceries and I left.”

The Asian paused for a minute, “You seem like a good guy.  Are you low on money?”

“No, not like that.”

“Do you work?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“At the community centre down the street.”

“With kids?”

“Yeah.”

“You know if you get convicted you can lose your job?”

“Yup.”

The Caucasian officer had been silent thus far, “I don’t buy this, ‘In the spirit’, ‘I don’t know’.”  He was much harder than the Asian officer.  “You had a plan.  You came here to steal that razor.  It wasn’t a cheap one either.”

“Actually I took an attachment.  I had already bought that razor.”

He wasn’t listening and continued, “We know how this works.  You do this all the time.  What, you only did this one time and you got caught? No.  If you don’t know why you did something, then who does?  Enough with the excuses.”

The Asian officer started to look much harder.  Henry said nothing for a while, then started, “I’m not making any excuses.  I take full responsibility for my actions.”

The two officers looked at each other and had some sort of understanding.  The Asian officer got up and the looked through the open doorway.  It had been silent in there since they had arrived.  “Do you want us to charge him?”  There was no audible response.  “Okay, come with us.  We’re going to bring you up to the car, we’ll look over a few things and make our decision.”

Henry got up at his own pace and followed the officers out of the small office.  He exchanged smiles and waves with the friendly light-skinned gentleman on the way out.

The caucasian officer led the way.  Henry walked a few steps behind him.  The asian officer led the rear.  Henry examined the caucasian.  His sharp, short haircut.  He was about six feet tall and thick.  He wore a robust uniform.  Bulletproof.  Hand gun on his waist.  Pepper spray.  He turned around to see if Henry had tried any funny business.  A number on his chest.  As they walked closer to the store’s exit, the asian officer caught Henry up.  He looked much harder, thought Henry.

“You know what,” he said, “maybe you aren’t such a nice guy.” He spoke to himself as much as he spoke to Henry.  “You do this all the time.  If we let you off you’re just going to do this again.  Who knows what other criminal stuff you get up to?  You don’t care.  We should take you right to the station.”

Henry didn’t respond as they walked through the exit doors.

Their car was parked right outside of the store.  The caucasian man opened the back door and Henry jumped in.  It was so tight!  Henry sat twisted behind the passenger seat with his legs sprawled out behind the driver seat.  This was the only way he could fit.  The asian officer sat in front of him and the caucasian in the driver.

Henry peered through the glass to the front of the car.  The officers were looking at the screen that sat in between their seats and spoke in hushed voices.  Then the caucasian officer started, “So why did you do it?  What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Ummm…” Henry paused.  He sat in contemplation as he tried to truthfully answer why.  “Uhhh… I think…”  He needed a little bit of reflection and self-examinaton to reply to this one.

“You’re not making a good case for yourself here, Henry,” replied the caucasian officer warningly.

“Let’s take him in,” chimed in the Asian, “clearly he doesn’t give a shit.”  Once again, he spoke almost as much to himself as he spoke to Henry.

Henry did not defend himself, but began to feel a little annoyed.

“You know you can lose your job, right?  We went over that?  You might not ever be able to get a decent job again.”

“Yeah,” replied Henry, his brief annoyance had subsided.  “I know,” he added calmly.  He did know.  Henry knew just as well as the police officers exactly what he had done, and the potential consequences.  As Henry regained his composure, it seemed the opposite was true for the officers.

“You know Henry, I don’t get it,” said the caucasian, “most people like you… We bring ’em in here and they’re begging for forgiveness and promising they’ll never commit a crime again.  You, you…”  His temperature was rising.

“How do we know you won’t do this again?” demanded the asian officer in a raised voice.

“You don’t,” replied Henry.  Silence followed his response and Henry rethought it.  It was true, he confirmed with himself. They would never see him again.  He could give them his word, but his circumstances might change.  Also, they’d only just met him.  They didn’t know anything about him and they didn’t seem quick to give out trust.  They could, but wouldn’t “know” simply from his word.

“You know, maybe I’ve got it,” said Henry.  The officers perked up.  They didn’t know how to react to Henry’s previous response, maybe they could get him here. “Well, I don’t know.  You guys must understand.  I think everyone has some sort of “flaw” that goes against their character.  Or is it even a flaw?  Does it really go against their character? My character?  Maybe it doesn’t… I mean you guys seem like “good guys”, you don’t make any mistakes that you just can’t explain?  That completely seem to be in contrast with the rest of your life?  That cause you pain?  Do you guys get it?”

“Yeah… I think I get what you’re saying,” said the caucasian, his voice somehow softer, embarrassed.

“Or you know what,” started Henry again, this time with more conviction, “that’s bull shit.”  Henry saw the two officers exchange glances in front of him but they said nothing, and he continued, “Well it’s not bull shit, but it is bull shit for me.  I’ve been quiet.  I’ve listened to you guys.  You guys want me to play your game.  I’m not playing it.  It’s bull shit too!  You guys are in it.  I hope you don’t believe it but you’re clearly in it.  I’m a decent-seeming young working white man who went to university for a bit.  Because of that, to you I ‘just made a mistake’.  You guys play good-cop, bad-cop, I’m a little boy who’s never gotten in trouble before, I cry, I beg you forgiveness, you threaten me to the last then you let me off, I thank you guys with everything in me and you guys feel like the good guys.  No harm done, I get to keep my job and be the ‘contributing’ quiet white dude.  Forget that.  What about the unemployed immigrant?  You guys give him the same treatment?  No, you bring him to jail and you convict him for taking a two-cent razor and overpriced almonds.  Now he’s even worse off.  He had nothing to begin with and now he’s worse off because he’s not white and working and from school.  Doesn’t he need more of a break?”

“And I know exactly why I did what I did.  I just didn’t want to crash your party.  I didn’t want to ruin everything for you completely.  I know this is scripted.  I know you have the script ready for each profile in the book.  You know what?  I’ve done it before and I’ll probably… You know what, I actually won’t do it again.  I know my job is on the line.  I know my future is on the line.  But if that happened today then I would have dealt with it.  And I would have been given more of a chance!  But I would have fought it with the people that aren’t so lucky!  The ones that don’t look so decent by your standards, or by your institution’s standards.  I hope you guys don’t believe it.  But I did it because I don’t care about this corporation.”  Henry motioned to the store.  “You think I care to take from a corporation that takes so much from me, humanity, and the planet every day? If I can save myself a couple dollars on its malfunctioning or overpriced products and hurt the corporation at the same time? Man that’s a double win.  I knew what I was doing and I was okay with it.  But you guys don’t want to hear that, you can’t hear that.”

Henry had gotten quite passionate.  He waited for a response.  Nothing.  He looked as the two officers looked at each other in front of him.  Neither of them said a thing.

“Well… uh… Henry,” began the caucasian, “you… uhhh… must of… the guys in there never tell us to let people off and they told us to let you off.  So, uhhh…”

The asian officer stepped out of the car and opened Henry’s door.  Henry struggled to get out of the cramped car, but once out he looked the officer in the eyes.  The officer returned the glance for a couple brief moments and then broke eye contact.  Henry laughed.  The officer said nothing and got back into the car.  They drove away.

Henry felt the cold, evening air.  He looked around, took a couple of deep breaths, shook his head, and began his walk home.