First Draft Chapter 29

I was thirsty.
That was my first thought as I awoke, just thirst. I had gone to bed the night before after having a big dinner, but nothing to wash it down with. The whole night I had dreamed about oceans, and rivers, and rain, and now I awoke with a terrible thirst.
I looked out my window. Blackness. It was still the middle of the night. I grabbed an empty glass from on top of my glass and headed downstairs to the facet.
I didn’t know what time it was. I didn’t really care all that much either. All I knew is that in a few minutes I would be back in bed. There were people still awake in the dorm, but then there were always people still awake in the dorm. It was a building full of young University students who never slept. I passed one individual one the way to the stairs who walked almost in a daze. His looked confused and he was constantly blinking as he walked around. Then again, after having just woken up, I probably didn’t look all that different.
Once I got downstairs things were a bit more active. There was a group of students playing cards at a table. Five of them to be exact, three guys and two girls. They also seemed rather subdued, as if they should have all been in bed three hours ago and some unknown impulse was causing them all to stay up and play cards. They all had tired, groggy faces. One of the guys had a cigarette hanging loosely from his mouth, as if it were on the verge of slipping out from his lips at any minute. The girl sitting next to him seemed annoyed at all the smoke, but too tired to do anything about it. No one spoke; they just put down cards, and picked up others, all in a slow, silent fashion.
In contrast to this silent group of insomniacs, a very animated discussion was going on the other side of the room. There were six students, all males, babbling excitedly and passing a newspaper back and forth among themselves. It was the newspaper that was apparently the subject of conversation, but since they were all talking at once I had difficulty understanding what they were actually discussing.
These students were actually seated right next to the facet, so as I walked over to fill up my glass I began to discern little bits and pieces of what they were saying.
"Look, it says right here."
"It will never happen."
"It says so right here, read it for yourself."
"Boarder skirmishes are one thing, but a full scale—"
"You don’t understand."
"They really wouldn’t stand much of a chance anyway."
"Yeah, they’re smart enough to back down."
"But what if they don’t?"
"Then we’ll clean them up."
"Hey, look on the other page. They’ve got the full story."
I glanced sleepily at them as I filled up my glass, and then greedily drank down the cold water. I filled up my glass a second time, and tried to drink this water just as quickly, but my throat resisted, and I ended up slowly sipping most of it down. I left the room, the discussion still being carried on in loud tones from one table, and the sleepwalking card players still carrying on with their game. As I turned up the stairs, I caught a glimpse out the window. The sky was beginning to look pink now. It would be day soon now. I would have to wake up pretty soon.
I made my way back to my room, shut the door, and slipped back into my covers. I was fast asleep again within minutes.


When I woke up again, I could tell I had overslept. The sun burst through my window with a warm radiance not common to the early hours of the morning. I rolled over and stared at the floor for a while, then took my covers off, stretched my legs, and stood up.
Unfortunately, the extra sleep didn’t seem to help me any. I felt more tired then I usually do in the mornings. My head felt slightly dizzy, my limbs felt weary, and my eyes were hurt by the bright sunlight flooding into the room. I almost wanted to just crawl back into bed and sleep the rest of the day, but I also felt like I should get up and make something of the day. The latter part eventually won out.
I walked drearily to my dresser and rummaged around for some clean clothes. At this point in the day I wasn’t too concerned about how my clothes looked, I just wanted something I could get outside in. Actually, I’m never too concerned about how my clothes look. That’s not to say I’m not as vain as the next person is. I worry about how my face or my hair will look, but clothes have never been something I worry about. In fact I’ve never liked it when other people are too concerned with clothes. I used to hate it when my father made me dress up various events, and I thought David’s recent habit of intentionally dressing down was just as silly. Clothes, after all, are just something one wear’s to keep warm.
Or at least that’s the way it should be I think. Certainly not everyone agrees with me on this point. Of course on the University campus, there are plenty of other people who share my philosophy. There are slobs everywhere you go: people with wrinkled shirts and mud stained pants that haven’t been washed in a couple weeks. I usually give these people a fraternal smile as I pass by. Sometimes I even go so far as a wave. And they, having no idea who I am, understand, and will smile and wave back at me. We all understand this brotherhood of style.
There are all sorts of people at the University though. Probably the majority of them are sharp dressers. You know the type. They’ve always got clean, neatly pressed clothes on. Everything on them matches everything else. Everything they wear is always up to date, shiny and otherwise new. These are usually the same people who walk down the University halls as if expecting all of us other students to gaze at them in admiration.
Clio, on the other hand, spends an enormous amount of time making sure she’s not identified with the sharp dressers described above. She likes to look good, but she wants to look different. Usually this takes the form of wearing all black. At a place like this that’s all she needs to do to set herself apart. Other times she’ll take ordinary pieces of clothing and decorate them herself, using her own distinctive style of painting to give herself a look no one else on campus can come close to.
And then there’s Hermes. Hermes would have other people believe he’s a fellow slop, that he just grabs wrinkled clothes out of the closet and throws them on. In reality, Hermes spends a great deal of time choosing his clothes, and then tries to rumple everything up to hide the fact that he’s always wearing interesting color combinations. He’s not one of those sharp dressers. Everything doesn’t match everything but the color combinations do have a certain appeal to the eye that Hermes deliberately strives for. They love it over at the art guild meetings. He’s always getting complimented for his clothes.
But me? I’m just a common slob. Through anything together, and I’m set for the day. This rule especially applies to days I oversleep, and I have a desire to get outside fast and make sure I haven’t been missing any fun that might have occurred while I was dreaming. Once dressed, I opened the window to get some fresh air into the room.
I was surprised by the air that came in. It was unusually warm for this time of year. Although, winter was nearing it’s end now. Perhaps this warm air was just a sign of an early spring. The air itself even smelled like spring, in that indescribable way. I drank it in deeply, then closed the window and headed outside.
Once outside, it seemed that I hadn’t been missing out on anything terribly fun. The campus was pretty quiet. I could see one or two people walking around in the distance, but other then that no one was even outside. A bit unusual for a day this nice, but it was also a busy time of the school year. Everyone was probably in class or studying inside now.
As far as class, it was too late for me. I had slept through any classes I would have gone to that day, and even if I hadn’t I really didn’t feel all that much like attending. I was still slightly dizzy from oversleeping, and I would rather be in the fresh air then stuck inside a classroom. I decided to take a walk. Anyway, a warm day in the middle of winter is really a perfect reason to be outside by itself.
Leaving the all too familiar setting of the University, I found myself wandering around in the town directly outside. Things were a little bit more active here. Children were running around on the street, reminding me of how I used to do the same kind of things not all that long ago. Old men were sitting on benches talking to each other. "I knew it would come to this," one of them said to another as I walked by. "It was just a matter of time. I said that over and over again, and now it’s finally happened." His companion simply nodded in response.
The bakery was open, and the sweet smell of it filled the street as I walked past. I had neglected to eat any breakfast, and the smell captivated me, but I had left all my money in my room, and so just walked on. At the street corner a woman about my age was openly crying, not seeming at all embarrassed about this public display of sorrow. Her friend was trying to comfort her. "Now, don’t worry," her friend said, gently embracing her crying friend. "It won’t last long. These things never do."
I felt a couple drops of rain, and looked up at the sky, worried that I might get caught out in a storm without my coat. The sky was a clear and sunny as ever. No more drops of rain came.
It was mostly just businesses in the streets that surrounded the University. Usually places that catered to the University students. A lot of cheap restaurants and book stores, plus a few coffeehouses. I past by a newspaper stand, where an overly aggressive vendor was trying to hawk his papers off on everyone who past by. I deliberately avoided eye contact with him so I wouldn’t be harassed, but he called out to me anyway. "Sir, we’ve got the most up to date news here sir. This is hot off the press. Find out everything that’s going on right here sir." I just kept right on walking.
I past by another restaurant, and the smell of grilled meat assailed me. I became more acutely aware of my empty stomach, and stopped walking to debate whether it was worth it to go back to my room to get money or not. I was hungry enough now so that I would not enjoy the rest of my walk without eating, and yet it had taken me a good twenty minutes to get to where I was right now. If I went back to my room, got money, and came back here to eat, that would be another forty minutes. I had really hoped to walk through more of the city before it got dark.
While I was standing there, trying to make up my mind, I became conscious that an adult couple was talking about me. They were seated at a table just outside the restaurant, and it was probably their meat I had smelled in the first place. They were probably in their early forties, and no doubt thought I was out of earshot. I nearly was, but once I realized I was the subject of their conversation, I strained to hear what they were saying. At the same time, I was careful to look away from them, so as not to let them know I was listening in on their conversation.
"He looks young, doesn’t he?"
"Yes. He’ll be one of the first to pack his bags and go off, no doubt about that. He looks pretty healthy too. He’ll make a great soldier."
"It’s such a shame isn’t it? Such a waste of young lives."
"These things always are dear."
And that was when I first found out about the war.


I bought one of the newspapers on my way back to campus. The Headline itself took up almost the whole first page. "War declared," it read in colossal black letters. I tried to read some of the story as I walked back.
"After several months of tense negotiations, the Duke felt he had no choice but to declare War today. After Amicae refused to agree to the Duke’s modest peace proposal, all hope was lost of a non-violent solution to the problem. ‘I feel like we have tried every possible alternative,’ the Duke was quoted as saying, ‘and they have refused to budge on anything. They have brought this war down upon themselves’.
"The Senate voted shortly afterwards to approve the war, showing unanimous support for the war effort. ‘There’s not one of us here in the Senate who has any question that we did the right thing,’ the Senate President reported. ‘We can only hope now that the war will be over quickly, and we wish all the best to our troops. We’ll be praying for them daily.’"
I folded up the paper and quickened my pace. Once back on campus, I began to look around for someone I knew to tell me what was going on. I went by the academic buildings first of all. Almost no one was in class. They were all outside, talking, or huddled around the same newspaper, trying to read it all at once. I scanned the campus lawn for people I knew, and when I saw no one, I went back to the dorms.
I went to David’s room to see if he was there. The door was locked, but when I knocked, David opened it. "Jon, good to see you. Come in." I entered the room, and saw that Icarus and Helen were also in David’s room. Helen was sitting on a chair by David’s desk. Icarus was lying down on David’s bed, his head was propped up by his arm, but the rest of his body was limp. "I was hoping you would stop by," David said, closing the door behind me. I flashed the paper in front of David’s face. "Yes, we’ve already seen it Jon," he said calmly.
"What does it mean?" I asked.
"This is no surprise," David replied. "We knew for quite sometime now that Old Flash was planning on a war. It was just a matter of time before things got underway. The only real surprise I guess is that it took him so long to finally declare it."
"How are you feeling Jon?" Helen asked.
"Um, well a little surprised I guess," I answered honestly.
"You look surprised," David answered.
"Have a seat Jon," Icarus said, indicating towards one of David’s chairs.
"I’ll just stand, thanks," I answered.
"Why so surprised?" Helen asked me. "We’ve talked about this at almost all of the Youth Group meetings."
"He’s only been to two of those meetings," David reminded her.
"But you must have heard about it," Helen said.
I nodded. "I guess even though I heard about it, I never expected it to actually happen."
"Wake up Jonny," Icarus said. "What did you think Flash was going to do? Back down?"
"So what now?" I asked.
Icarus and Helen both looked to David for an answer, but David just shrugged. "There’s a meeting tonight. We’ll talk about it then."
"Are you coming tonight?" Icarus asked me.
I looked around at all the faces in the room. I knew they were going to be angered by my response. "I don’t know. I did have other plans."
"Jon this is important," David said in a patient voice.
"I know. I’ll see what I can do."
"What sort of plans do you have?" Helen asked.
"I was going to go to the Cave with Hermes."
David shrugged. "That’s no big deal. Reschedule. He’ll understand."
"He might," I admitted slowly, "but it’s so hard to catch him on a free night. We had to plan this almost two weeks in advance." David looked unimpressed. Helen was probably disappointed with me too. I felt self-conscious, and changed the subject. "What sort of things are you guys going to be planning tonight?"
"Who knows Jon. Whatever we can pull off I guess. Maybe even massive demonstrations or riots in the streets."
"A full scale revolution," Icarus chimed in.
"You guys are insane. You’re going to get yourself killed."
"Well maybe we will Jon, but not before—"
By the casual way he was answering me, I could tell he had not really thought about the consequences, so I cut him off. "No, I mean it. The Strates are going to shoot you right in the streets."
David eyed me carefully, as if he was sizing me up before a fight. "Jon I’d rather die fighting for what I believe in than fighting in some meaningless war. You realize we’ll all be drafted for Flash’s war unless we stop it? You don’t even have a clue what this war is about Jon. Are you willing to go die in it?"
I opened my mouth halfway, then froze. I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there with my mouth half open. I didn’t want David to be disgusted with me. I didn’t want Helen to be disappointed in me. I didn’t want Helen to know what a coward I was. I tried to think of a way to change the subject.
I looked away from David to avoid his stern gaze, and accidentally locked eyes with Icarus. Icarus looked back at me with a relaxed face. Everything about Icarus looked relaxed. It was as if he was just about to melt into the bed he was lying on. But in Icarus’ serene face, I could see a glimmer of wisdom. He knew. He was about to expose me for who I was. He opened his mouth, and I knew what the words were going to be before they even came out. "Jon’s not going to fight," Icarus said in a languid voice.
"What?" David asked.
"Do you think Jon, with his connections, is going to be in the front ranks of this war? Flash would never do that to him. Jon’s going to have some sort of nice job supporting the troops from safely back home."
David turned to me with a questioning look, and in my face he read the truth of Icarus’ statement. He asked me anyway. "Is that true Jon?" I just stared at the floor, too ashamed to answer. I knew Helen was watching me, but I didn’t know what else to do. "Well this explains a lot," David continued in a sardonically tone. "No wonder you never knew anything about this war. Why bother to keep up on this stuff when it doesn’t affect you anyway, huh Jon? I mean, who really cares why people are fighting and dying when you’ve got this nice little job back home anyway."
"What do you want from me?" I yelled back. "I’m sorry I was born, okay? If I had to do it over again I would have picked another family to be born into."
"Just come to the meeting tonight," Helen said. Her sweet voice wiped all anger from me. "Just come and watch, and that’s all. You don’t have to join anything you don’t want to."
I swallowed, ashamed at my outburst in front of Helen. "Okay," I said, trying to preserve what dignity I had left. "I’ll come."
"Nine 0’clock tonight Jon," David said. "Swing by here at 8:30, we’ll go together."
I nodded. "Sounds good."


And so I once again found myself in the mysterious chapel basement for another secret meeting of these young student revolutionaries. Icarus, David, Helen and myself passed by Angela’s watchful eye to the meeting area. And once we opened the door we found it was packed. Absolutely packed. There was hardly even room to sit down.
"Let’s get a seat near the front," Icarus suggested.
David looked skeptically at the situation. "Maybe near the back would be better," David said. "I don’t think we’re going to be able to get anywhere close to the front."
I looked around the room. It was full of young faces. Many of them I knew. There were a lot of people there I had gone to school with, and a lot of people I knew from around the University. Most of the faces though were new to me. People I had never seen before in my life. They all looked about my age, so I assumed they were University students, but I had never seen them before on campus.
"How’s this work?" David said, motioning to an empty space against the wall.
"I’m going to try and get closer to the front," Icarus asserted, and with that he plunged forward into the crowd.
"Is this spot alright Jon?" Helen asked me.
"Um, yeah this will do."
"We’ll be able to hear fine from back here," David assured us. "The acoustics are pretty decent."
"Do you think very many more people will come?" I asked.
"There wouldn’t be room for any more," Helen observed, which was the conclusion I had arrived at myself.
"I don’t think so," David answered. "This meeting should have started ten minutes ago. Anyone who is coming should be here by now."
"Is Simon here?" I asked, stretching my neck out to look around the room.
"I don’t see him," Helen said, also looking around the room with me.
"I’m sure he’s here somewhere," David said confidently. "This is too big of a meeting. He wouldn’t miss this."
I continued to look around the room, but I didn’t see Simon anywhere. While I was still looking, Rosa walked to the middle of the room. She didn’t even have to say anything, and every bit of chatter in the place stopped. It became dead silent.
"Thank you," Rosa said, nodding to the crowd. "It’s good to see so many familiar faces here. Although I think this is the first time we’ve had you all here at one time. Now, we’ve got a lot of things to discuss here tonight, so if everyone could try and keep questions and comments to a minimum it would really help. I wish we had some advice from Clodius right now, but as you know we haven’t heard from him in about two weeks. I don’t know why he hasn’t written. We hope he’s alright." Icarus was sitting in the middle of the room, almost directly at Rosa’s feet. Somehow he must have been able to find a seat there. I still didn’t see Simon. "We’re going to have to act without Clodius. We have to take action now or we’re going to loose our moment." Several cheers echoed from the audience. Rosa regarded them impatiently. "Quiet. Quiet please we don’t have time for this. We’ve got a lot to get through tonight and if we start applauding all the time we’re never going to get out of here. We’ve got to focus here. This war is nothing new to us, we’ve been talking about it for a long time and—"
"We should march in the streets," someone shouted out.
"You’re not recognized to speak right now," Rosa said, shooting a fierce glance in the direction of the voice. The room was dead silent again. I didn’t even dare to breath too loudly. Rosa continued. "We have compiled a list of all the suggestions that have been made at past meetings. That list should be circulating around right now. Does everyone have a copy?"
I didn’t have a copy. I looked over and saw that David and Helen didn’t have any copies. I was about to raise my hand and complain when David stopped me. He knew what I was about to say before I said it, and reached out to put his hand on my shoulder. "It’s probably because we came late Jon. Don’t make a big deal of it." My hand, which was halfway up in the air, dropped back down to the ground.
A few other hands went up around the room, and Rosa acknowledged them. "Do we have any extra copies?" she asked, turning around. I wasn’t sure who the question was addressed to, and it looked like Rosa herself wasn’t completely sure. Rosa looked around the room, turning in a circle. "Where’s Varro?" she wondered aloud. "Where is he? He should have the other copies." Then Rosa abruptly gave up on her search for Varro, as if it had been a passing thought that only briefly distracted her. "Okay, never mind," she said in her usual confident voice. "It looks like we don’t have extra copies, so everyone try and share. Now remember this is an illegal list you have in front of you. Opposing the war effort is an illegal act, so these lists do not leave this room. Is everyone clear on that?" Rosa paused to let her words sink in. "Okay, I hope everyone can see this list. If you can’t, then I’m sorry but we’ve got to move on here. Does anyone have any suggestions that are not represented on this list?" Pause. "Anyone? Anything at all." Another pause. "Alright, well I would like to recommend, in that case, that we limit our discussion to what is already on this list. Any objections? Yes, Dionysius."
"What if someone thinks of something else during the discussion," Dionysius commented. "I mean if we’re too rigid here, we could loose some really good ideas."
"I agree with that," Phillip echoed.
"Phillip, you were not recognized to speak," Rosa barked out. "Okay, listen we need to establish a couple ground rules. First of all, we have so many people here tonight that we can’t all just speak out whenever we feel like it. Unless you are recognized, please keep your mouth shut. Secondly, don’t repeat or agree with what’s already been said. We don’t have time for that. Just limit yourself to new points. Okay? Is everyone cool with these rules? Alright, now are there any other new points?" Everyone was silent. I think they might have been partly intimidated after Rosa’s outburst. And when Rosa called for a vote, she overwhelmingly got her measure approved. Only the suggestions on the list could be discussed.
Rosa seemed a little happier after that vote. Her eyes seemed to sparkle as she continued talking. "Great, now we get to the tough part. We need to decide what exactly we’re going to do to resist the war. I’m opening the floor up to comments. Yes, Bernadine?"
"I propose we organize draft resistance on campus. We get a whole lot of people to sign a promise saying that they will never fight in the war."
Rosa nodded approvingly. "Good. That’s something we’ve talked a lot about before. The idea is we educate students about draft resistance and get them to agree to go into exile or go to prison before they join the army. Question, Phobos?"
"But, that’s illegal. We could all get put in jail before we even start the resistance effort."
"Of course it’s illegal," Rosa cried out. Then she restrained herself before addressing the whole audience. "Is everyone clear on this now? Resisting the war is an illegal act. Everything we talk about tonight will be illegal. The question is, do we have enough support on campus to make this worth the risk? Judging by the packed room we have tonight, I think we do. Any other comments on this proposal? Go ahead Pax."
Pax cleared his throat. "I think an action like this is absolutely essential. This is the back bone of what war resistance is all about, and unless we make ourselves a visible presence we won’t be succeed."
"Good point. Okay, unless there are any objections, I’m going to call a vote on this proposal. Any objections? All those in favor? All those opposed? Looks like the suggestion passes easily." And it did pass easily. Actually, from where I was sitting it looked like it passed unanimously. As usual, Rosa was trying to move things along as fast as she could. It was almost nauseating trying to keep up with her. She hardly paused at all to wait for objections before beginning the vote. "Now, we can delegate the responsibilities at the end of the meeting. I’m sure Varro will be more than willing to write out the literature for us. Who is willing to help distribute it and collect signed promises?" Again, the number of hands raised was overwhelming. It was as if every person in the room raised their hand. Rosa laughed with joy. "Great, great. Unless there are no objections, I propose Bernadine be placed as head of this project. Any objections? Bernadine, is this okay with you?"
"I’d be honored," Bernadine answered enthusiastically.
"Alright, everyone, our first act of resistance has now been made official. Tomorrow the revolution begins." Several pockets of the room broke out in applause, which quickly ceased. It was as if in the excitement of the moment some forgot about Rosa’s prohibition on unnecessary noise, and then once they remembered they quickly stopped and looked anxiously around the room to make sure no one had seen them. "Okay, any other proposals? Dionysius?"
"An anti-war march." Dionysius shouted out the suggestion in his deep, booming voice. It was a voice that seemed ill-suited for the man behind it, a twenty-two year old man who looked like he was fifteen, and seemed to have a perpetual smile on his face.
"Okay." The way Rosa stretched out the word okay, holding it in her mouth forever before letting it go, indicated that she had some reservations about the idea. "That is one suggestion we have talked about in the past," Rosa continued in that same, slow, hesitant voice. "There are some serious concerns associated with it though. Any comments?" About five or six hands shot up. Rosa pointed to one of them. "Yes, Phobos, go ahead."
"I think that’s a terrible idea," Phobos answered. "I mean, what good are we to the revolution if we’re all dead? And that’s what will happen too. If we march in the streets, those Strates will fire on us."
Rosa nodded. "I think I’m going to have to agree with Phobos. Marching in the streets is going to be strategically unwise. Every illegal march for the past one hundred years has ended in bloodshed. I know every person here is willing to take certain risks, but this would be pure suicide. Yes, Ares."
Ares stood up, unlike the rest who had made their comments sitting down. "I think we could do our march," he said, "but we need the support of the workers first."
Ares was then silent. He looked around the room, a smug smile on his face. He was obviously quite satisfied with his comment. Rosa had to press him to get him to say more. "What exactly did you have in mind?" she asked.
"A general strike," Ares declared. "They could paralyze the city in half a day if they just all walked away from their jobs. Then, we could march all we wanted to, and it would be the last of Flash’s worries."
Emma bolted up from the floor, and pointed an angry finger at Ares. "That’s not your decision," she yelled.
"Emma, you are not recognized to speak," Rosa said, but it was too late. The room quickly disintegrated into yelling.
"The workers make their own decisions," Emma said, trying to make herself heard above the roar of the crowd. "We can’t issue them orders."
"If the workers aren’t going to join us in the fight, then what are we doing this for?" Ares responded. "Why are we risking our lives for them if they aren’t going to help?"
"Quiet, quiet, quiet!" Rosa screamed from the middle of the room, but to no effect. Everyone was trying to talk over everyone else.
From where I was sitting, even David was getting disturbed by the events. He got to his feet and tried to help Rosa quiet the crowd down. "Everyone be quiet," he yelled. "We’re never going to get anything done this way."
David’s voice itself was just swallowed up by the noise, and he was just another voice yelling in the room. In his attempts to help Rosa, he was just adding to the problem. I thought of mentioning this to David, but he was too engrossed in his yelling to really pay any attention to me.
Instead I just looked over at Helen. Although it was too loud to say anything, I thought Helen and I could just look at each other, and she would be able to read in my face that I thought this was all very foolish, and I would be able to see the same thing in her face, and she would smile at me understandingly. That was what I hoped for, but when I looked over at Helen, I saw she was looking up at David with admiration, very proud of his actions. I turned ahead and watched what was happening at the front of the room.
Like David, many other people were standing up in an attempt to get their voices heard, as if standing would help them yell louder. Consequently, since I was sitting on the floor it became harder and harder for me to even see what was going on in the middle of the room. Rosa was silent now, although she did not look happy. Her arms were folded across her chest, and she had a cross expression on her face. She looked like an angry mother, waiting for her children to stop yelling. The room showed no signs of quieting down though. Half the people were busy yelling at each other, and the other half was full of people like David who thought that by making more noise they could get things to be quiet.
I looked up at David. He was still yelling. "People, please, be quiet. Quiet." Completely oblivious to the fact he was making as much noise as anyone. Helen still looked up at him with adoring eyes. In the center of the room, Icarus was now standing too, also yelling something. Who knew what he was trying to say? Probably something ridiculous.
I looked back in the center of the room, and Rosa wasn’t there anymore. Before I had time to wonder where she had gone, she came back in to the room carrying a pistol in her hands. She calmly pointed the gun upwards, and fired three shots into the ceiling. The loud sound of gunfire echoed through the small room. Immediate silence followed.
Rosa brushed the plaster off of her that had fallen from the ceiling. Even in a simple act like that she looked forceful and determined. There was absolutely no wasted motion. It was just one sweep of the hand down one side of her body, and then a simple sweep of her hand down the other. There was still a lot of white dust left on her, but that didn’t seem to bother her at all. Rosa walked with a graceful deliberation back to the center of the room. Everyone was quiet, although most people were still standing. David was rubbing his ears, and my ears were ringing a bit too.
"Emma, your comments are always welcome here, but I must insist that you wait to be officially recognized before you begin talking," Rosa said in a monotone voice. "I’m afraid that goes for the rest of you as well. I think this outburst demonstrates the need for us to conduct ourselves in an ordered fashion. Now, to that end I would like to make an additional proposal, that from this moment forward, anyone who makes an unauthorized outburst will be forced to leave for the remainder of the evening. Unless there are no objections, I would like to move for an immediate vote. Any objections? All those in favor? Opposed? The motion passes." Rosa’s hand shot out, pointing the pistol directly at Emma. Several of the people around Emma flinched at the sudden movement, but Emma stood still, gazing back at Rosa. "Now, Emma, I believe there was something you wanted to say."
Emma cleared her throat and began. Rosa lowered the gun, then tossed it to Angela, who caught it, took out the remaining bullets, and wrapped the gun and bullets carefully in a piece of cloth. All this was sort of distracting to everyone, including Emma, who watched what was going on even while she was talking.
"If the workers want to issue a general strike, then I am as much in favor of the action as anyone, but let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that we have the authority to tell the workers what to do. We can’t make any plans on the assumption that they will do anything."
"But you don’t see any harm in suggesting the idea, do you?" Rosa asked.
"They’re perfectly capable of coming up with their own ideas," Emma answered.
"But there’s nothing wrong with making suggestions," Rosa insisted. "I mean the point is we’re supposed to be collaborating with them, right? There’s nothing wrong with passing ideas back and forth."
"But this is an idea in which they take all the risk, and we do nothing."
Ares had been itching to get in on this conversation from the beginning. His hand had been in the air from the moment Emma began talking, and his face was showing increasing signs of impatience, but Rosa continued to ignore him, and Ares wasn’t about to speak without permission. "Emma, I really don’t see what the problem is with just making a suggestion," Rosa reiterated.
Emma lashed out angrily. "You don’t understand. You have no idea how they live. You just assume they’re going to think like you about everything."
Ares had begun to make little chirping noises in hopes of getting recognized. Rosa looked at him with annoyance, and then continued. "Okay Emma, explain it to me then," Rosa said in a curt tone. Rosa, I think it is safe to say, had little tolerance for harsh comments directed at her.
"Look, the fact of the matter is that when you’re born into the lower classes, you have very few economic choices open to you. These people don’t have all the same options you do. They don’t attend the University, or get nice professional sounding degrees. They can spend their days wasting away in some factory, just like their parents did, or they can join the one profession that offers them a future. The army. And so many of these people who work in all the factories have sons serving in the army, and they’re proud of their sons, and the last thing they’re going to do is to paralyze the war effort back home while their sons are out on the front lines."
"But if we act now we can stop this war before it even begins."
"They might not see it that way."
Ares chirping had risen louder in volume. "Shut up Ares," Rosa said angrily. "Listen, Emma, your point is well taken that we can’t issue an orders to the workers, but I want you two to strongly suggest to them that they go on a general strike." Emma assumed a defiant pose, so Rosa gave the directions to Ares. "Ares, make sure the benefits of a general strike are explained to the workers in relation to the war effort." Rosa looked over at Dionysius. "And if the workers go on general strike, you’ll get your march. I think it’s too risky to do otherwise." Dionysius nodded understandingly. "Any objections?" Rosa added, almost as an afterthought.
Rosa continued talking, but I was beginning to lose interest in what was happening. I looked over at David. He was still watching the events with great interest. His face was fixed looking towards the front. He was so fascinated he didn’t even notice me starring at him. And I looked at Helen. She seemed a bit more distracted, looking around the room a bit. We even locked eyes once when we were both looking at David, but she quickly looked away. I looked towards the front of the room for Icarus, and saw him leaning back on his elbows, with a relaxed look on his face, just slowly taking everything in.