Just Call Her Cannon

That would be my mother.  My mother has read a lot of detective stories and watched every known detective show produced.  In the old days she was particularly fond of Mannix which I thought was absurd because in every episode Mannix always got knocked out at least once.  Then along came the rotating NBC Mystery movies featuring Colombo, McLeod and McMillan & Wife and the other series of hard nosed detectives like Cannon.  Now we were getting serious missions.

My mother could detect a lie at 50 paces; she could hear the rattle of a cookie bag from 100 yards; and she could walk like a Mohican, silent as the grave.  We could not get away with anything for long; snooping for Christmas presents, sneaking a cookie, lighting a match in the basement.  We were caught by the invincible one, our mother.  As children it was terribly annoying and it became our task to foil her in our mischief.  We practiced our own stealth movements; we found secret hiding spots in order to evade her and yet, in the end we were caught.

Years went by, the younger members of the family had it easy since we taught them the moves and Mom was slowing down.  Pretty soon we thought Mom was getting old. 

We were wrong, she now had bigger fish to fry.  We moved to the big, big city (that would be Calgary) and there was nefarious doings out on the streets.  My mother was up to the challenge.  Did I mention she had eyes like a hawk?  She could read a newspaper from across the room, and I’m talking fine print like in the Wanted Ads.  She had incredible night vision and this is where the story gets hot.

Yes, it was a hot night in Calgary, steam was smoking off the asphalt and it was impossible to fall asleep on this July night.  Mom got up to open the window a little wider and what did she see?  Activity 7 houses down that looked odd to her.  She stood there and watched not able to see precisely what was happening but she was able to identify the culprits because she watched them return to their houses.

The next day Mom saw the neighbour walking around his car and as he happened to be the father of Charlotte’s best friend Mom told Char to tell him that if there was anything wrong with the car she knew who did it.  Later that afternoon there was a knock on our door.  Two officers came to get my mother’s evidence.

That was her first interaction with a police officer but it was not her last.  A few months later the neighbourhood convenience store was robbed but not before he had been spotted running down the back alleys.  Who did the police call but my mother, to see if she had seen anyone suspicious in the neighbourhood.

That’s when we started calling her Cannon!