In the middle of band practice at my house tonight, we heard a weird sound. It sounded, well, you know what, in the movies, five gunshots in rapid succession sounds like? It sounded like that.

After a bit of “Should we call the police?” “What would we tell them?” “Maybe it was a car backfiring. Five times.” we decided to get back to rehearsing, until about 20 minutes later Stephanie wandered over to the window and said, “There’s a police car at the end of the block.”

Make that five police cars, and the concomitant number of cops milling around the house on the corner, shining flashlights in every direction. We spent a good ten minutes ZOMGing, scrambling from window to window to get a better view, and spinning wilder and wilder fantasies about what might be going on a couple hundred feet away from our house. Finally I decided to call the Providence Police to see what was going on.

Phone ringing
Woman: This is Diane.
Me: Um, hi. Hello. Yes. Um, I’m trying to reach the Providence Police?
Woman: This is.
Me: Oh! OK. Um. Yes, I live on [my street], and I can’t help but notice that there seem to be several police cars and several officers at the end of the block. Is something going on? Is it safe to leave our house?
Woman: [my street]?
Me: Yes.
Woman: Yeeeeah. Yup, we do have some things occurring, but it’s nothing you need to concern yourself with. [emphasis mine]
Me: (pause) So… we should just go about our business?
Woman: Yup.
Me: (pause) Thanks?

So, there you have it. Some things occurred on my street tonight. I feel so much safer.