THE DECLENSIONS OF AUVRE

242. THE DECLENSIONS OF AUVRE:

He was swinging that stick like a cabbie drives and as he walked he was hitting everything in his path - this crazy guy walking along the street while passers-by gawked and trembled and ducked into any alcove or entryway they could find so as to get out of the way - he smashed glass he smashed car windows bus-stop glass-frames advertisements a barber-pole a light stanchion a mailbox and lots more - he was just wildly hitting anything along the way and finally the police got there in two blue and white cars which stopped askew at the curb and the cops dashed out with their own billy clubs and just got right up to the guy from behind and took him down as they were beating him with their clubs - restraint it was called - about as randomly as he had just been hitting everything else and it lasted about twenty seconds - a lot of noise and yelling too and then they had topped this guy over and had him pinned flat on the ground face down and head bleeding and his arms they cuffed quickly behind him and then they tied his legs and pulled him up like a sack of some still-wriggling potatoes or something and I saw they tied a rag over and partially into his mouth too and his tan pants and flannel shirt both were splotched with blood as well and they managed to heave him prone onto the back seat of the police cruiser and I saw them then lock him in the cage and get back in and drive away quickly - lights flashing and sirens blaring and it all happened so swiftly that I wasn't sure what I'd just witnessed but everyone else around was relieved and the suit who was left behind - some plainclothes fancy detective sort - was asking people questions and jotting things down on his notepad and I heard the usual snippets 'outt'a control just crazy man this guy was waltzed the street like he had a pick-axe just breaking things up' and another said 'I was fearing for my life and he looked just like he was looking for heads to cracks - one crazy guy he was' and 'I saw him swing that once and I watched that whole window over there just crackle and burst apart like it was smashed' - which only made a little sense since I guessed it actually WAS smashed and that's all that really had to be said instead of all that dramatically cinematic stuff but I chuckled just figuring it was a film-student talking or something but I never saw or read anything else about it so I never got to know who it was or what had precipitated the crazy attack or why and what happened to him I never knew.