almost out.

The cop took me into booking and told me to stand next to this vertical, human-sized ruler where he snapped my picture.  At this point, I asked him if there were any charges against me and, much to my surprise, he said 'no'. I said 'I'm free to leave, then?' and he said 'you need to call someone to come and get you.'  OK, here's problem #1.  I'm 40 miles from my girlfriend's house and she's not coming, I could pretty much bet the farm on that.  I asked him to call me a cab, whereupon he asked me how much money I had on me.  Well, he was looking through my wallet as he asked, and he said 'it looks like you've got seven bucks here.   Where do you plan to go?'

Immediately, my addled brain went to work.  I asked him to call me a cab that could take me to an ATM, then I could withdraw the rest of the money needed to take me somewhere to get some medical help for my obvious problem.  He picked up the phone, and I could hear him saying "yes, he needs to get to Manchester.  $85?  Well, he's got $7 here and says he can get the rest if you take him to an ATM.  I don't know.  Well, then you can keep the $7 and leave him there.'  The cop hung up the phone and looked at me.  'You're lucky', he said. 'He's been burned too many times by guys like you, it's a good thing you have the $7 to get to the gas station.  After that, whatever happens, its up to you guys. Get back in the cell, and when the cab gets here, I'll sign you out."

What a relief, I thought.  I'm almost out of here, and sure could use a drink.  The only problem is, is that I'm pretty sure I only have about $40 in my checking account.  But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.