Dead or Alive?

You know how sometimes people say, it was an ordinary day? Well, this wasn't like that. It was a crappy day. Quite literally, the dog had diarrhea, and his preferred pooping spot was on the living room floor.

Not only that, the baby had a tummy upset and kept being sick.

So when my neighbor knocked on the door with a guy she introduced as her cousin, well, I was already stressed enough. But in that way we all do, I swallowed the stress and invited Anna and her cousin, Dave, in.

"It smells of poop in here!" Anna said, not unkindly. We had an agreement that we would be honest with one another about house smells. Better to hear about a stinky house from a friend, right?

No, not necessarily.

I told her and Dave about the dog, and the baby, and flicked the switch on the kettle. Then I got back to cleaning as they made themselves comfortable on the sofa.

"I need to ask you a favor."

I hadn't heard Anna's voice so serious before. I stuffed more dirty newspaper into the outside bin, quickly washed my hands, then sat down in the living room.

"What is it?"

Dave was looking at his shoes.

"Dave's on the heroin. He stole his stepdad's fishing gear, and he's got the police looking for Dave. The police know all my family; he can't stay at mine. Can he stay here for a bit, please?"

I thought about it for a few seconds. The baby would be none the wiser. But my daughter, Yaz. She would be home from school soon. I didn't want her to see him shooting up, or stoned out of his mind.

"He can stay a few hours. Not overnight. And no shooting up in my house."

Anna nodded. "Okay. I'll go home now, I'll be back later. I'll try to think of a plan!"

So that made me at home with a stranger who was, actually, a junky. Determined to be fair to him, I offered him a drink which he didn't take, and tried to strike up a conversation.

After some pleasantries, he said,

"Look, I appreciate you letting me stop here. I won't shoot up, I don't have any gear. I'm sorry I've had to ask you for help."

He sounded honest. He actually sounded quite a genuine guy; he told me about his girlfriend, how she would let him stop there if he could just get out of Seacroft.

His stepdad had taken money out of his room, which is why he nicked the fishing equipment. I asked where it was.

"Hidden in a boarded up house", he said.

I glanced out of the window and there, outside Anna's house, was a police car. Two police officers were watching her house, drinking cans of red bull.

Just two doors down from me.

I was harbouring a criminal. They could arrest me!

He certainly would have been arrested if he had stayed at Anna's house. But the police had no reason to suspect me.

Nevertheless, it was nerve-wracking.

And exciting - I hadn't been on the wrong side of the law before! I was going to get away with it!

Dave and I chatted on for a bit; fortunately both the dog and the baby had stopped pooping and vomiting. He didn't seem like a bad guy, we were getting along fine.

I would have relaxed more though, if I didn't see that police car out of the corner of my eye!

The doorbell rang, jolting me out of my seat. It was Anna.

"Did you see the coppers out there?"

"Yeah, they are watching your place, closely. They haven't even glanced over here."

"What are we going to do?" She sounded nervous.

"Dave can nip through to the houses behind. I go there for my Avon round. There are a few houses tinnied up. He can stop in one 'til night time." I offered.

"He'll have to go through the Ukandu garden. She'll grass him up if she sees him. Then the police will have him," Anna worried.

Dave spoke up. "The fishing rods are close to there. If there are boarded up houses then it'll be easy to hide. I can get over to Julie's when it's dark."

"Ok. You go. If Mrs Ukandu sees you, you'll be done for. "

"Her kids are at school and she worked last night. She'll be sound asleep," I pointed out.

"Ok. I'm off. Thanks." He nodded in my direction and ran quietly out the back door.

The police stayed outside Anna's for a while longer, but saw nothing at all.

I learned that Dave had slipped away. He made his way to Julie's house. I was pleased to have helped him for a while.

I got some news.

His girlfriend Julie had got him a job at her work and everything was going well. He was taking it easy on the drugs.

But then, he heard his mum had been badmouthing him to other family members. Betrayed, he hit the drugs hard. He got fired, and Julie nearly lost her job, too.

Furious, Julie threw him out.

That's the last we heard of Dave. Anna doesn't know where he is, or if he even exists any more. He is probably living rough somewhere. He might have died.

Guilty.

That's me. Because if he had got arrested they might have gone easy on him. They might have put him on a drug rehabilitation programme.

Did I, by enabling his escape, prevent him getting needed treatment?

Am I partly responsible?

Did I make it worse? It feels like I did.