n.

"I puked on the tarp twice before they got me there, and almost did it a third
time on the way to booking. It got up my sinuses and down my throat, too. I
couldn't stop gagging, couldn't stop crying, but by now I was getting pissed.
I'd been raised on the whole Sony message: 'A Car for the Rest of Us,' gone with
Mom to their Empowerment Seminars, wore the little tee shirts and the temporary
tats and chatted up the tire-kickers about the Sony Family while Mom was busy.
This wasn't the Sony Family I knew.

"I was tied up on the floor beside the desk sergeant's counter, and a Sony cop
was filling in my paperwork, and so I spat out the crud from my mouth, stopped
sniveling, hawked back my spit and put on my best voice. 'This isn't necessary,
sir,' I said. 'I'm not a thief. My mother owns the dealership. It was wrong to
take the car, but I'm sure she didn't intend for this to happen. Certainly, I
don't need to be tied up in here. Please, take off the restraints -- they're
cutting off my circulation.' The Sony cop flipped up his goofy little facemask
and squinted at me, then shook his head and went back to his paperwork.

"'Look,' I said. 'Look! I'm not a criminal. This is a misunderstanding. If you
check my ID and call my mother, we can work this all out. Look!' I read his name
off his epaulettes. 'Look! Officer Langtree! Just let me up and we'll sort this
out like adults. Come on, I don't blame you -- I'm glad! -- you were right to
take me in. This is my mom's merchandise; it's good that you went after the
thief and recovered the car. But now you know the truth, it's my mother's car,
and if you just let me up, I'm sure we can work this out. Please, Officer
Langtree. My wallet's in my back pocket. Just get it out and check my ID before
you do this.'

"But he just went on filling in the paperwork. 'Why? Why won't you just take a
second to check? Why not?'

"He turned around again, looked at me for a long time, and I was sure he was
going to check, that it was all going to be fine, but then he said, 'Look, I've
had about as much of your bullshit as I'm going to take, little girl. Shut your
hole or I'll gag you. I just want to get out of here and back to my job, all
right?'

"'What?' I said, and it sounded like a shriek to me. 'What did you say to me?
What the hell did you say to me? Didn't you hear what I said? That's my
*mother's car* -- she owns the lot I took it off of. Do you honestly think she
wants you to do this