Red woke up about 3am and could hear someone talking in rapid Arabic over the telephone. Red jumped out of bed and ran to the other phone to listen in. One of the Muslims was on the phone with the State Complaint Department. He couldn’t understand what was being said however.

The next day at 6am sharp, the black shirt with his Volvo showed up banging on Red’s door. Red grumbled and opened the door only to be presented with a document which stated Red had to remove his dog from the premises.

Furious, Red told the black shirt there was no way he was removing Jeremiah from his house and shoved the document back into the black shirt’s face.  The black shirt informed him that the Muslims could not live with a dirty dog and demanded it be removed. Red told the black shirt he would get a pen and put Jeremiah in there outside if that would make the Muslims more comfortable. Anything to keep him from giving up his dog, the only thing he had left now with his child gone  and his wife in a catatonic state.

The black shirt said he would pass it by the Complaint board and see if that was acceptable. Red was thinking right then and there that all he had to do was set Jeremiah on this guy right now. But what would he do with the body?

The black shirt left and the Muslims were up saying their prayers to Allah. One of the Mexicans came from the basement where Red had placed them and the Muslims were upstairs. Red had to sleep on the couch since there was no room left for him.

The Mexican told Red they can’t have the Muslims up at 7am screaming their prayers to Allah this early in the morning. They needed to sleep late as their jobs were over night.

Red said he would speak to the Muslims about this. Just then the other two Mexicans came upstairs and they all rushed to the upper floor, blasted into the Muslims room and told them to shut up or they would knife every one of them. The Muslims started screaming in Arabic. Red rushed upstairs but too late. One of the Mexicans had already stabbed one of the Muslims. Blood was everywhere. The Muslim was already dead.

Red called 911 and a few minutes later, a hoard of black shirts squealed into Red’s driveway. They rushed upstairs to find a fight ensuing. The Muslims had their swords out swinging at the Mexicans but they were too agile to get sliced up. The black shirts stopped the fight immediately but not before the black shirts had shot all three Mexicans who were seriously injured. Paramedics were racing to get the injured Mexicans out of the house into the ambulances.

After the Muslims were all handcuffed and in the van, one of the black shirts came into the house to tell Red he was in big trouble allowing this to happen. Red tried to explain the situation but was told he would have to appear before the complaint board and state his case there because he was responsible for these men to be safe in his house.

Red told the black shirt he was not taking any responsibility for these men since he never asked for them to be living at his house to begin with and what a stupid thing to do to put the Mexicans together with the Muslims. Too many cultural differences Red explained. But the black shirt told Red he already had two strikes against him, the dog and this unrestrained fight that Red should have stopped before someone was murdered. Red was livid over this injustice and told the black shirt. The black shirt told him if he continued to back talk him, he would haul him off to jail to right now.

Red backed off and they drove away. He collapsed back onto the couch thinking how in the world he was going to work today with all that had happened in the past 24 hours. He had to devise some kind of plan to get out this nightmare that had been foisted upon him.

Suddenly Red thought about the mess upstairs and how he needed to clean up the bloody mess before Dusty came home. She didn’t need to be freaked out anymore than she already was. He called the State hospital to find out how his wife was doing. He requested to speak to her but was told she had not spoken a word or responded to anyone as yet.

Red fell onto the couch exhausted. He was not going into work. He just could not handle it after all the events of the day. Just then another knock on the door startled him out of his reverie. When he opened the door, there were two black shirts with guns pointed at him telling him they were advised to take him into the State Complaint Department until his case could be heard. He would be locked in a cell until such time his case came up before the judge. Red asked how long that would be and he was told it could be days.

As they were escorting Red to the van in handcuffs he saw another van called Animal Control taking Jeremiah and loading him into that van. Jeremiah was lying on a stretcher out cold as they had shot the dog with a tranquilizer while Jeremiah was outside doing dog business.

Red thought he could tear these guys to pieces if his hands were free. By now he was so furious he didn’t care who got hurt. His wife was gone, his child was gone, his dog taken off to who knows where. What did he have left to lose after all?  He vowed to take things into his own hands once this misunderstanding was resolved.

To be continued………….