Bloody Saturday

'No need to bang so loud!' I grumbled, extricating myself from the sofa. Spinach and prawn curry had been cooked and eaten, the kitchen cleaned, and Inspector Rebus was just starting, over on the Drama channel.

The hammering on the front door continued. Opening it, I found at least twenty teenagers congregated on the street, asking me where they were.

'What a strange question!' I thought, until they explained that they needed to call an ambulance. They'd been down in the Heavens (the valley behind our estate) celebrating the end of their exams in the time-honoured way by drinking strong liquor, when some people from another group, apparently from Gloucester, began throwing bottles from a height. One of the missiles whistled between two girls' heads, touching their hair, and another struck a girl on the forehead, wounding her. A young man carried the injured girl up the incredibly steep track to our estate, while the bottle throwers jeered and told them to carry her all the way to the hospital.

At this point the victims knocked on our door. Chairs were fetched, along with blankets, towels for the blood, and torches. I decided to call the police, because the teenagers were too scared to do so. Eventually the ambulance arrived, and the girl was patched up, before being taken to hospital. The police came later, and all the young girls ran to hide their bottles in the bushes!

The upshot was that the police couldn't take any action, because no one had seen exactly who threw the bottle that injured the girl. 'Incidents' were taking place in several areas of Stroud, and there were only four officers to cover the whole town, on a Saturday night. There was one suspect's name on everybody's lips, though. Apparently he has a Taser, but is not a policeman. He Tasers people for fun. Tasers can be built, it seems, by people in the know.

I am aware that the Heavens is a party area in the summer, because we hear the noise from the footpath all night long at weekends. I'd expect young people to be drinking and smoking weed rather than, say, knitting in the dark, but Tasers?

The young people were so scared, and cold, and half-drunk, but basically good-hearted, I did feel sorry for them. It doesn' t seem that long ago that I was seventeen and full of beans, and fears. So when one of the girls, who was phoning home, said that she was 'outside the house of a lovely old lady and old man' I squawked,
'Less of the OLD lady!" and the rest of the group laughed, too. At 54, I certainly must seem ancient...

After speaking to the young people, the police spoke to me briefly, then the crowd dispersed. The chivalric young man who'd carried the girl up the path apologised profusely to me on behalf of all the youngsters who'd ever made a noise in our neighbourhood on summer nights!

Reflecting on this week, it's only two nights since the fire brigade was here, putting out a bonfire-gone-wrong (weedkiller may have been involved, and tinder-dry grass, I've heard). Who needs the inner city and TV dramas when it's all right here?
I'll skip the helicopters, though.

Oh, and the photo is of the Woodford Silver Band at our school fete. It was windy, but not too wet. My card stall did ok. Apparently it is NOT OK to take photos of ambulances, so I assume thosr photos shouldn't be published either.

Let's hope the girl recovers fully, and that we can look forward to some quieter summer nights...