Thirty-Four
“I’m so glad Mikaela lent us her car,” Demi said, checking her blindspot before changing lanes. “Her car doesn’t smell like the interior is all ashtray, the lights all light, and it starts, too.”
“I’m not sure you’re describing your car as anything other than a very big, impractical paperweight,” Mayumi said.
“Hey, it’s an ashtray and a paperweight,” Demi said with a smile. “I slept in a Honda like this one for a while, though it wasn’t mine. And when the owner found out, he kind of treated me like I was a family of raccoons. Though to be fair it was 1 in the morning and I did not have my face on.”
“This after you left home?”
“I prefer ‘fled,’ even if it sounds a tad melodramatic.”
“I’m here, if you want to talk about that.”
“Not yet,” Demi said. “Maybe not ever. A part of me kind of likes it where I left it- and that’s why I left. Speaking of… any idea what we’re going to do when we hit Seattle?”
“I’ve got some money. Didn’t even remember it until last year. Should set us up in a decent-ish apartment.”
“I more meant-“
“I know. But I don’t know. I kind of imagine there’s going to be protests for a while. And I also imagine the cops aren’t going to be cowed for long. Some of them are going to have to crack skulls, just to not feel as powerless as they did that night.”
“And we aren’t going to let them, right?”
“Wasn’t planning to. But- we have to tread cautiously. Nothing broken. Nobody dripping blood, if we can help it. We can’t give them the PR win they so desperately want. But a move I think we both can pull off, grab a riot helmet by the strap and back and tear it off, then break it apart like an egg. That’ll take the fight out of them real quick.”
“I like that. And it’s even going out of our way not to hurt them, just to show them if we wanted to, we could. And it shows we aren’t the violent monsters that, well, they are.”
“The big question really is where do we need to be to be most effective as a buffer,” Mayumi said. “Not all protests are created equal, after all.” “And not all protestors can’t handle themselves as well as we can.”