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“Listen up, everyone!” I say once I finally get it working properly. My voice echoes over the chanting, singing and general hum of the crowd, distorted and metallic, but loud and piercing. I pause until I have everyone’s attention.
“Thank you all for coming and joining me in this protest. We’re doing a good thing here! A very good thing! The children need a space to belong in this town, somewhere to make new friends and hang out with old ones. Somewhere that’s not a mall or the sidewalk.”
Eagle and I lock eyes and for a moment I’m transported right back to that simpler, funner time in our past, when the biggest question on my mind was where we’d hang out that night. I feel like he’s thinking the same thing and with just as much longing. And oh my, but he’s a strikingly beautiful man. The sudden realization rips through my brain, making me forget the words of my speech.
“We’ve been heard, I’m sure we have,” I continue after a long pause, finding my words again. “But now we have to show them we really mean it. And for that, we have to occupy the rec center!”
Cheers go up, agreeing with me, led by Josh. Eagle is standing perfectly still, his dark eyes locked on me with a mixture of fear and awe in them. I get the fear. He’s always trying to protect me, mainly from myself.
“We will chain ourselves to the building. And we won’t leave until we have their word that the rec center is staying!” I shout, and this time the excited roars of agreement only come from my friends—the ones that helped me organize this rally. They sound puny amid the echoes of the roar that went up before.
I didn’t expect much more than that. Most of these people are here just to have something to do tonight. They don’t really care about the rec center.
“Come on, people,” I say. “You know words alone won’t do anything against capitalist greed. When have they ever? Action is the only thing that works. Decisive action!”
This time I get a louder response. But the majority of those gathered have lowered their banners and are starting to move to the edge of the crowd.
“I know it sounds extreme, but this is an extreme situation,” I add. “Tomorrow morning the bulldozers are rolling in and nothing will stop them. Unless we’re right there, standing in their path.”
The sound of agreement is still loud, but the flow of people leaving is a river. Oh well, at the end of the day, even if it’s just me chained to the building, it’ll be enough.
“Let’s go!” I shout and wave people over to follow me before putting the megaphone down.
Eagle catches my arm before I can stride to the table to start handing out chains and handcuffs.
“I really don’t know about this, Lily,” he says. “Your father—“
“What’s he got to do with it?” I snap.
“You know how he gets about you being arrested,” he says, looking like he’d rather not be speaking.
“I won’t share any of his secrets, I never do,” I say. “But you’re welcome to leave, since you obviously know more of them.”
He winces. I know I’ve hit a nerve and now he’s stuck between wanting to protect me, or whatever he thinks he’s doing here, and not wanting to disappoint Cross in any way, shape or form. I can’t relate with the latter at all.
“Look, this is vital to my plan for this protest and people are lining up to help,” I say more quietly and evenly. “It’s more than I expected. I expected to sit here alone, chained to the outside handrail. So this is a win. Be happy for me, Eagle, and let me see it through.”
I don’t quite know what I’m reading in his eyes right now, but it’s a lot of things. Deep things, the way wild rivers, ancient forests and lakes are deep. I wish we weren’t from such different worlds. I wish we could share more.
I’m vaguely aware of police sirens in the distance. They’re growing louder. He’s still holding onto my arm, still looking deep into my eyes, and I have nothing to say. Clearly, neither does he. I wonder if that’s a win.
The police sirens are deafening and the flashing blue and white lights are overshadowing the lovely multicolored display of the streets around us.
“We should get out of here,” Eagle finally says. “What’s the point of getting arrested, anyway?”
He chuckles as he says it, and I rip my arm from his strong grasp. That question doesn’t deserve an answer. He does not truly understand me or believe what I believe in. He never has. I just always wished he would.
No less than ten police cars surround the parking lot in record time. I didn’t even know the cops around here had this many cars.
“We are breaking up this rally!” a man’s voice echoes, magnified by the radio. I know who it is— the police chief himself. He likes to break up my protests personally. “Go home, folks! You are here illegally.”
The crowd gathered at the folding table is looking around with wide eyes, mostly at me. Some of them are already holding handcuffs. Damn, we came so close. The ones further out at the edges are breaking away like a flood.
“I say we let them remove us with physical force!” I shout.
Eagle has a very pained expression on his face, but I ignore it as I grab a length of chain and stride over to the rec center entrance.
Cops are closing in from all sides now, urging people to leave quietly. Many do. Too many. Soon it’ll be just Josh and me, and a few of the others. As per usual.
