Charmion

“Not me!” cried Mrs. Bailey. “I’m here with my adopted daughter, who very much wishes to become a police officer…”

Then Chief Ketchem noticed Charmion coming toward him. Stepping quickly backwards, he gasped and uttered: “I’ll be an incarcerated perpetrator in Saint Peter’s courtroom!” And before he stepped aside he cried out, “Halt, and stand right where you are! There’s no chair or sofa that’ll seat you; you’re a heck of a lot bigger than what they told me you were!”

“For God’s sake, why make such a big thing out of our sweet Charmion’s size and height?” angrily complained Mrs. Bailey. “It’s no big thing to either her, me or our family!”

“Well, it certainly is important to the folks who wrote the Police Officer’s Manual for height and uniform requirements. No way will we be able to hire Charmion as a full-time officer, but we can, with miscellaneous funds, make her a special officer of traffic and crowd control, department promotion, and other unfunded duties helpful to law enforcement – as far as those funds will allow. Mrs. Bailey, you do meet the department’s height and weight standards, and if you can pass the medical physical, you will be eligible to attend the Police Academy.”

“I brought our dear Charmion here, as she, not I, indicated a desire to be a police officer, after Officer Number One and Officer Number Two stopped our pickup truck recently.”

“I certainly did read that report, and also the report of the robbery attempt at the shopping mall. That was of interest to me, but neither of the officers mentioned your size, other than ‘an overweight load in the truck’ and that a ‘hefty, brave young woman frightened and held the perpetrators.’” Chief Ketchem, his eyes narrowed with concentration, measuring Charmion’s height and physique, stood pondering it all with an expression of awe and respect upon his face.