21 Jump Street (Tom Hanson)

First Meeting Mickey Gregg

"Yeah," she said casually... like this was normal. "Jump Street headquarters."

I was unimpressed. I laughed and said, "this is ridiculous."

"You might not like us, but you better respect us," she said. I noticed her looking at my hair, and she finally stopped when I pat my hair down again.

We were both interrupted when I heard the sound of squeaking. I looked behind Mickey as she turned around and saw some guy walking towards us from a yellow and red fireman's pole that was at the other end of the chapel. He said to me, "hey, what's happening, man?"

He wore a bomber jacket with fur, and an European hat on top of his thick brown hair. He did not look like a cop in the slightest. A drifter? Possibly. A hippy? Definitely.

"Excuse me," I said to Mickey before I walked over to the hipster. He looked much older than the rest of the officers in the chapel, so he would be my best bet for finding the captain. "Hi. I'm here to see, uh... Captain Jenko."

"Yeah? Far out," he said.

I waited to see if he was going to elaborate, but he did not. I raised my eyebrows as I asked, "is he here?"

"Yeah." He chewed on a toothpick. Mickey left me and headed back to her desk, kicking her feet up on the table again and leaned back in her chair, no longer paying me any attention. I found myself looking back at her constantly without even meaning to.

From across the chapel, Ioki called out, "yo, autograph."

He walked off, so I followed him. I was getting impatient so I asked, "could you tell him Patrolman Hanson is here? I don't want him to think I'm late."

I heard some muttering coming from behind me, but I ignored them. Why were they being so immature? I was not going to let my new coworkers make fun of me for taking my job seriously.

"Hey, you ain't late," he said to me. Then he paused to listen to the music and asked, "you like that sound?"

I was getting frustrated so I barely gave it a listen and I snapped, "not really."

"Me neither. Praise God, hallelujah! Maybe I'm sane! Been a deadhead since Woodstock."

The man began walking away so I followed him. "I didn't go, I was only five. Look, I really got to check in with Captain Jenko."

"Yeah," he said and walked over to Doug to inspect his gun for no reason.

"Yeah, well, where can I find him?" I asked. I was about to ditch this maniac and see if Mickey would be willing to help me. She seems to be the most logical person here after just a thirty-second conversion with her. Besides, I wouldn't mind talking to her again. In fact, I hope I do.

"You're looking at him, Hanson. I'm right here. Except on Saturday nights. I play lead guitar with some dudes in my garage band."

"You're Captain Jenko?" I was in disbelief. I looked him up and down, hoping that he would announce that he was joking and send me to the real Jenko. He was the most unsophisticated, weird, hippy captain I have ever met. And I have met a lot of captains.

"It gets better, doesn't it?" He flicked at my chest and made me follow him into his office. I wanted to walk back through the chapel and run down those stairs and never come back, but I knew I could not do that. It was a great internal conflict, but I finally kicked myself into following Jenko. I didn't mean to, but I found myself looking back at Mickey and I thought that she was looking my way, but she immediately turned back to her paper.

I snapped myself out of it and we walked into his office, and it was not any more professional than the squad room. There were posters on the wall, a dart board, and even a piano. He pointed up at a poster of some musician holding a guitar and said, "hey, can you believe that guy? Huh? He could squeeze more music out of a Stratocaster than Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Alvin Lee put together. Oh, man. Jimi was the best. Too bad he had to throw it all away on a short ride getting high."