Day 780: 5 Minute Freewrite: Monday - Prompt: hot spot (and, The Posture of Innocence, day 47)

At the end of a successful workday, Captain Lee has to drop himself and give himself 50 pushups because somebody triggers both his PTSD and his PTS-R.E.-Lee at the same time ... but then heads out for a much better evening ...

To get totally caught up on The Posture of Innocence, here are the prologue, day 1, day 2, day 3, day 3.5, day 4, day 4.5, day 5, day 5.5, day 6, day 7, day 7.5, day 8, day 9, day 9.5, day 10, day 10.5, day 11, day 11.5, day 12, day 12.5, day 13, day 13.5, day 14, day 15, day 16, day 16.5, day 17, day 18, day 19, day 19.5, day 20, day 20.5, day 21, day 22, day 22.5, day 23, day 23.5, day 24, day 24.5, day 25, day 25.5, day 26, day 26.5, day 27, day 27.5, day 28, day 28.5, day 29, day 29.5, day 30, day 30.5, day 31, day 31.5, day 32, day 32.5, day 33, day 33.5, day 34, day 34.5, day 35, day 35.5, day 36, day 36.5, day 37, day 37.5, day 38, day 38.5, day 39, day 39.5, day 40, day 40.5, day 41, day 41.5, day 42, day 42.5, day 43, day 44, day 44.5, day 45, day 46, day 46.33, and day 46.67!

A 22-man grab is a pretty good day for a division of six men with a reserve of six men – given that they had exhausted the limits of their legal resources (Judge Lofton had gleefully written out 22 of the 23 warrants Captain Lee had requested before leaving town), they had to await further developments the next day, and so took off from work at 6:00, after warm commendations from the division's commander, Captain Lee.

Commissioner Scott called down to Captain Lee with a special word of thanks at 6:05: “Thank you for coordinating things from your office brilliantly, and not endangering yourself in the field. You are far too valuable to be out there grabbing folks anyway.”

Captain Lee flinched – another Lee in the family had once been told he was too valuable to endanger himself in the field, and historical PTS-R.E-Lee was a real thing for H.F. Lee ... nonetheless, in another parallel, he warmly acknowledged his superior's words and turned the praise back on to the commissioner's excellent leadership and guidance.

In still another parallel, the modern Lee dealt with his feelings alone … the hardest thing he had ever done was to send his “unit” into the field and not be there to guide and look out for them. Granted, going from financial institution to financial institution to make arrests was not exactly fighting house to house in some hot spot of the conflict-ridden world. White-collar criminals tended not to make a scene – they feared public humiliation more than they feared death, and if given the option of going quietly with two plain-clothed officers in unmarked cars with a minimum of explanation to those around them, they tended to take it.

Captain Lee intellectually understood this and had arranged the manner of the arrests with the reality of that in mind … no one but God knew of his feelings of dereliction of duty, of having failed his men, of having abdicated his chief duty to those who bothered to serve under him. He had nearly broken down and cried when Lieutenant Longstreet had called to say it was all done, and that everything had been a complete success. But then came Commissioner Scott, who of course meant well … nonetheless, his words had hit that hot, painful spot in Captain Lee's psyche, and Captain Lee had to drop himself and give himself 50 pushups in order to work off his flash of rage!

After that was done, Captain Lee closed up his office after making notes of things he would need upon arriving again at 7:45am, and then went to his car. He had driven to work on this day because of the tight time constraints. In his trunk were his guitar, banjo, and mandolin, plus his “uniform” for his evening's work. The beautiful thing about music was having somewhere positive to take his troubled emotions.

Day 47.5 is up