The gray Cadillac sped down the ramp, off of the busy road. Strangely, the driver stopped at the stop sign at the bottom of the ramp. Then the car sped up again, going just over the 25 miles per hour in the 25 mile an hour zone. It took a left, making a loop in the neighborhood. A few seconds later a police cruiser came charging down the ramp and the street as well, moving faster than 30 miles an hour. Its lights were flashing but there was no siren, as this was a neighborhood.

Max and Emma were in a nearby field tossing frisbees against a telephone pole to see who could be most accurate. “Hey, check it out,” Emma said, pointing to the police cruiser. “They’re after somebody. I think they’re chasing the girl in that car. She doesn’t even look old enough to be driving.” “Probably some kid,” Max said, bending down to pick up his frisbee off the ground. While Emma watched the chase, Max chucked his red frisbee across the field, hitting the telephone pole. “Ah, I win!” he said.

The car turned left again, now driving in circles. Raymond could see it as he sat on his front porch. This was the second time the car had been around the block. This time it was moving at 5 miles an hour. The window rolled down and a young woman yelled from behind the wheel, “How do I get out of this neighborhood?” “Take a left,” the man said, knowing it would lead her to a dead end. She rolled up the window and kept driving, the police cruiser right behind her.

A phone buzzed in the Cadillac’s passenger seat. The girl reached over and answered it – “Yeah Julie, I’m okay. I just left practice early. But thanks for checking on me.” She chucked the phone back to the passenger seat. It buzzed again and she looked over to see a text message flash across the screen. It was from her dad. Oh, when he finds out about this, she thought.

Instantly there was a big “thud!” The driver hit the brake and jerked forward in her seat. The seatbelt caught her. She had thought to put it on at least. She put the car in park and then jumped out, running to the front. “Hold it, hold it!” a police officer yelled. She looked over to see him in uniform next to his parked car. A middle-aged woman lay on the pavement in a two-piece bathing suit. “I, I was just crossing the street…” she said weakly. “Oh my leg, my leg.”

The girl didn’t know what to do. The plan wasn’t going according to plan at all. The woman’s bare side was bright red from the collision. Her leg appeared disjointed. The girl paused, bewildered for a moment, so many thoughts running through her head. In an instant she took off running. The cop followed. The girl was too fast, seemingly sprinting down the street. Ding! A flying saucer in the form of a red disc golf frisbee slammed the girl in the back of the head and she went down like a domino on a wood floor. Ding! The officer went down next, just after a white flying frisbee caught him in the back of the knee. “Dah, crap!” Emma yelled, as she and Max ran toward the two downed runners. “I didn’t mean to hit him! I was aiming for the girl!”

Meanwhile the woman in the bikini was rummaging through the Cadillac. She pocketed a few small items from the car and then scurried back to her brick home. It was daylight and sure some neighbors had seen the chase, but most of the people on her block were away at work. Another police officer arrived after she’d gotten back to her porch and an ambulance arrived to check on her. She was okay. She gave a statement as to what had happened: “That girl was coming through the neighborhood and hit me as I was crossing the street. I reckon she wasn’t stopping for the police. She was blonde, about 16, had on a lime green shirt and them little runnin’ shorts, almost like she’d planned this thing. And she was fast as a hare when she took off running.”

Police arraigned the driver of the Cadillac, a 15-year-old high school sophomore, Cassandra Cuffee. She didn’t say a word and barely panted as she was cuffed. She was also questioned by administration at her school. “She would branch off on different routes sometimes on our runs. That day, she didn’t even finish the run,” Julie, Cassandra’s teammate told school faculty and police investigators. Julie was the cross country team captain. “Well, we have had a lot of complaints about stolen cars in some of the neighborhoods you all run through,” the police officer explained to Julie and other high school runners and their coach and school principal. “I just never expected Cassandra to be involved in something like this,” the coach said, nodding her head and looking at the wall in disbelief. Julie smiled slightly as the others were looking at their notes.

Cassandra recovered from her injury from the frisbee but did sustain a mild concussion. She forgot why she stole the car in the first place. She was convicted of theft and sentenced to 1000 hours of community service. The woman in the bikini had taken several bottles of controlled substances – mostly painkillers – from the backseat of the car. Julie knew from running those routes before and after talking to some people that some of the cars had drugs in them. Cassandra, a freshman, looked up to Julie who was a senior, and wanted nothing more to impress her. She stole the car to be accepted by Julie and so she could secure her place on the team. An act like that would impress Julie. Julie had selected the car and given her the route to take. The route was supposed to allow her to simply dump the car and run. Cassandra knew nothing about the drugs in the backseat. But the woman in the bikini did. And so did Raymond, a war vet. They had paid Julie to help them get drugs. Cassandra was the perfect scapegoat.

The owner of the car never knew what happened to his drugs. Neither did the police. No one had seen the woman in the bikini other than Raymond. And they knew nothing either. They were happy to have their supply. And Julie was happy to be at senior prom, wearing her fancy red dress that she could never have afforded without this expedition funded by her aunt and Raymond.

Max and Emma were given Good Citizen Disc Golf awards by the Virginia Association of Disc Golfers. The police officer that Emma accidentally took down was okay. He had a swollen knee for a few days, but after he recovered, started running more. He just finished his first half marathon and has since been able to chase down more criminals. Cassandra served her time and her father forgave her for her behavior. She switched schools, where she still ran cross country and made the all-conference team. She never spoke to Julie again. ~