there were only two students in the class that day - romeo and juliet.
here is your assignment for today, miss anthony told them.
write a story between 300 and 600 words long, about a child whose dog is struck and killed by a speeding ambulance.
romeo wrote this story:
champ
as the sound of the ambulance’s siren receded down the street, billy joe looked down at the mangled body of his best friend champ.
i swear to you, champ, he said, i will get the son of a bitch who did this, if i have to search the whole world over.
a plan was already forming in billy joe’s mind.
the next morning he skipped school and went down to the police station.
a uniformed lady policeperson was seated at the front desk and asked billy joe how she could help him.
billy joe had his story ready. he explained that he was working on a project for school and that on the previous day he had seen an ambulance speeding by and was impressed by the skill with which the driver had handled the vehicle while traveling at such a speed to aid a person in need, and that he wanted to interview the driver and write a story about him or her.
you could interview any ambulance driver for such a story, the police lady said.
but i want to interview this one, billy said.
are you sure it was a police ambulance?
um - i think it was.
and it was at what time? and where?
around four o’clock. i was walking home from school. it was at washington and chestnut streets.
all right, let me check.
billy waited while she scrolled down a monitor in her desk.
there is nothing here for an ambulance that time. at all.
oh.
you sure you don’t want any ambulance driver?
no, i want the one i saw.
it was probably from the ambulance service. delta ambulance.
where are they?
first and main.
thank you . i will try there.
billy left the station. he thought he felt the officer’s mildly curious gaze on his back, but he did not turn around.
at the front desk of delta ambulance, a blonde lady in a driver’s uniform of white shirt and black string tie listened to billy joe’s story with a look of mild annoyance.
i don’t think that sounds like a very good idea. i don’t think i have the authority to authorize that. how old are you, anyway? shouldn’t you be in school?
wouldn’t it be good publicity? billy joe answered her questions with a question.
the woman sighed. i could call the manager.
billy joe panicked inside. he imagined the manager as weighing three hundred pounds with a big black mustache and asking all sorts of questions he could not answer.
no, don’t bother. billy joe told the woman.
he went back outside. the sun was shining. his eyes filled with tears.
i’m sorry, champ, he mumbled. i’m sorry, old buddy. i guess i just didn’t have it in me.
with his head down, billy joe stepped off the sidewalk into the street and into the path of an onrushing bus.
the bus struck him and hurled him twenty-five feet.
he died almost instantly. the last thing he saw was the face of champ in the sky.
i’ll get them for this, billy, champ said. i will track them down through a thousand hells and galaxies… down a thousand dark streets...if it takes forever…
part 2
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