I am in my apartment in a city.* I hear an amber alert**. There is a personal copter stolen and in flight. Dangerous. I shake my head, what a stupid thing to steal, what an easy way to die.
I go out to the courtyard, fall leaves gold and brown, and I hear the copter. It is manned. Well, boyed. It's being flown by a boy about age 2. He looks exhilarated and terrified, both. I yell in my command voice: "Put the copter DOWN!" It flies out of sight. I shrug but then I hear that it's down. I move towards the sound and the two year old is running towards me, unhurt. I pick him up and he starts crying and snuggles in. "What is your name?" I ask.
The courtyard then floods with SWAT cops, a perimeter of guns. I hold the small boy close, but can't shield him, we are surrounded. I am not scared, just annoyed, and hope no one is stupid enough to shoot. "Calvin!" yells a woman and runs through the field of police with her arms out. The police do that alert twitch but no one shoots. Calvin reaches for his mother, howling and she takes him. A senior policeman walks forward as the the guns are pointed down to rest. "Where is the copter?" he says, a small phalanx of cops in vests behind him.
I shake my head at him. Calvin is still howling. He winds down a little. "Calvin," I say, "Where is the copter?" One eye peeks at me and he points....
....and I wake up.
*I was in Portland for the last three days, and two in a hotel room with a kitchen.
**There was an amber alert on I5 while I was driving north, maroon car, license number, abducted child.