First Draft: Chapter 23

It was Thursday afternoon around 4ish.  I was reclining in Clio’s room, listening to her talk about her day.  She usually recited her days to me in great detail, telling me about every single little event regardless of its significance.  By the time I was done listening to her, I was usually to sick of hearing about her day to feel much like talking about my own.  For the most part she didn’t seem to mind this too much, although there were times when she complained about not knowing as much about my life as I knew about hers.  To this complaint I would usually shrug and ask her what she wanted to know.  Sometimes that would end the conversation right there.  Other times she would say, “I shouldn’t even have to ask you.  You should want to tell me stuff.”
But this was petty stuff.  For the most part we were too busy being in love to do much fighting.  On this particular day, she told me about her day, then she asked me about mine, and I didn’t really feel like giving a detailed chronology so I just mentioned that I was still thinking a lot about my conversation with the Duke.
“Oh yeah,” she said in a sympathetic voice.  “What are you going to tell him.”
“Well, there was never really any question about it.  There’s no way I’m going back to FJC.  I’ve had it with that.  I feel so good to be done with it.  I could never go back now.  The only thing is I don’t think I could look Old Flash in the face and tell him that.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Write him a letter I think.  Drop it off at his office when I know he’s not there.  I’ll probably never be able to look Flash in the face for the rest of my life, but I think it’s what I’ve got to do.”
She grabbed my arm tightly.  “I’m worried.  What are they going to do to you.”
“Nothing.  Flash said he won’t do anything.”
“What about the other Cadets?”
“Relax.  I’ve been able to handle them so far.  Hey, is that a new painting on your wall?”  It certainly is not a pleasant thought to think that there is a gang of thugs out just waiting for the right opportunity to pound you.  And so that was my key to surviving the whole affair, just not thinking about it.  Clio didn’t seem to operate the same way though.  She preferred to dwell on thoughts that upset her, and she was ruining my attempts to do otherwise.
“No, that’s been there all year.  I mean it Jon, I’m really worried.  There might be more of them next time.  What are you going to do?  You can’t fight them all?”
“I don’t have to,” I said, kissing her cheek lightly, “I can outrun them.”  True, it wasn’t the manliest way to deal with the problem, but if I was into all that manhood stuff I probably wouldn’t have quit FJC in the first place.
“You’re faster than all of them?”
“Well, most of them.”
“Oh Jon.”  She looked almost close to tears.
“Okay, okay relax.  Suppose they catch me,” I gave her another quick kiss, “which they’re not going to, but suppose they did.  What’s the worst thing that could happen to me?  They’d just rough me up a little bit, kick me a few times maybe.  I could handle that.”  Or they could blind me, give me brain damage, paralyze me from the waste down.  Crap!  She was doing it again.
“Maybe you should just rejoin.”
“No!” I shouted.  I’m not going to rejoin and I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
She looked almost frightened by my outburst.  “I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have said that.  I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I’m not going to get hurt.  Now can we please talk about something else?”
“Like what?”
“Well, you remember my friends David and Helen?”
“Yes, the ones you talk about all the time.”
“Right.  They want to meet you.”
“That’s nice.  I’d like to meet them too.”
“Helen and I were thinking we could all go out for dinner sometime.”
She made a face.  “I don’t know if I have time.”
I had expected this.  “I know you’re busy.  What about on a weekend or something.”
‘That might work.  It depends.  I don’t want to commit too far in advance though.”
“It’s just for one night.  It won’t be that long.  I mean, look how much time you waste with me.”
She hugged me.  “I don’t think that’s wasted time.”
“Well, see?  You’d be with me when we go out with Dave and Helen.”
“But it’s not the same.”
For some reason, time spent with me alone was much more valuable than time spent with me and other people.  I never quite understood it.  “Well, I’ll get back to you when I know what night David and Helen want to go out, and we’ll talk then.”
“Okay.”
“Did I tell you I’m going to that youth group thing tonight?”
“I thought you didn’t want to go.”
“Ah, it wouldn’t hurt to check it out.  If I hate it I won’t go again.  I don’t suppose you’d want to go with me.”
She shook her head.  “No.  I’d like to but—“
“Too much homework.”
“I’m sorry.  I know I’m a bad girlfriend.”
“No, it’s okay,” I said, stroking her hair.  “I know how important grades are to you.”
I kissed her.  She kissed me back enthusiastically.  “It’s nice that we can be together now though,” she said.
“Yes.  It is.”`

I arrived at Helen’s room right at 6:30.  David was already there.  He greeted me enthusiastically.  “Jon!  Helen told me you decided to come,” he said, warmly shaking my hand.
“Well, you guys got me curious,” I replied.  “Now what exactly do we do at this thing anyway?”
David moved his hand in a waving motion.  “You’ll have to wait till we get there Jon.  My lips are sealed until then.”
I gave a short laugh.  “Man, what is it with you guys?  All this secrecy.”
David just raised his eyebrows in response to my complaint.  “It will be worth it Jon.  Trust me.”
“So what are we waiting for?” I asked.
“I think Icarus is meeting us here,” Helen responded.
“Well, sit down Jon,” David suggested.  “We’ve got plenty of time until 7 anwyay.”
I looked around Helen’s room.  There was certainly a lot of pink everywhere.  Pink bed sheets, pink furniture, pink picture frames, pink, pink, pink.  It was tastefully done.  Helen and her roommate had really done quite a job on it.  There were fresh flowers all over the place, and the room always had a pleasant smell to it.  I would never have designed my room like this, but the way Helen had things set up was pleasant to look at.
“So what’s this I hear about a double date,” David asked me.
Helen smiled, but she was behind David so he couldn’t see it.  “I think it would be kind of fun,” I answered.  “What do you think?”
“I’m all for it.”
“Swell.  When works good for you?”
David pointed at nothing in particular, a gesture he had the habit of doing at times.  “I don’t know.  I’ll get back to you on that.”
“Okay.  Well, let me know when you get a time.”
“Will do,” David said, taking a seat in a pink chair.  “I’m very eager to meet this girl though.”
“Yeah, I think it would be neat for you to meet her too.”

When Icarus finally did show up, it was almost 7.  I was pretty frustrated, and even David seemed a little bit angered.  Icarus burst into the pink room, bubbling with a story about a hot girl and a tight shirt.  I don’t think anyone was really able to decipher what he was saying, but supposedly he was trying to say why he had come late.
“Don’t worry Icarus, we should be okay,” David answered.  He tried to appear calm, but I knew him well enough to detect the irritation in his manner.  “We’re meeting on campus tonight, and these things never start on time anyway.”
“Where on campus?” I asked.
“The old chapel,” David answered.  “We’ve got to go.  We can talk on the way.”
Icarus didn’t even appear to notice me until we started walking.  “Jonny!  My what a pleasant surprise it is to see an upstanding young man like yourself coming along.  We finally talked you into this, huh?”
“You got me curious.”
‘Well you won’t be disappointed Jonny.”  Icarus playfully put his arm around my shoulders and shook me a little.  “Man, I’m so glad you came.”
“So now that I’m doing this, what do you say to coming to a few art guild meetings.”  I asked the question even though I knew full well what the answer would be.
“Oh I don’t know about that Jonny.”
David, walking in front of us, turned around and laughed.  “That’s the spirit.  Don’t let him pressure you into you anything Icarus.”
I persisted in my futile quest anyway.  “Come on man, you haven’t been to one meeting yet.  And, you’re the person who got me into all this.”
There were certainly a variety of ways Icarus could have responded to this statement.  He could have changed the subject, which would have been a little obvious but wouldn’t really have surprised any of us.  Or he could have taken the humble road and admitted that he was far too lazy to go through the trouble of coming, which I don’t think any of us expected.  Or he could have tried to convince us that art guild really didn’t interest him.  Instead, he decided, much to my great amusement, to go a totally different path altogether.  “I don’t think most of the people at art guild really understand what art is all about,” he declared.
“Oh really?  Not even Hermes?”
David looked back at me briefly, with an expression that seemed to be saying, “Oh just let this one go Jon.”
“Well Hermes is a genius,” Icarus responded, “there’s no doubt about that.  However most of those other people don’t really understand art.”
“And what do you mean by that?” I asked.
David quickly interjected himself to change the subject.  “Icarus, have you taken any art classes here at the university?”
Icarus scoffed.  “What?  At the University?  What a waste of time that would be.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” I exclaimed.  “I took a couple art classes.”
“You wasted your time Jonny,” Icarus replied.
“Why didn’t you tell me that at the time?”
“Oh come on.  We both know that’s not what you wanted to hear at the time.  You wouldn’t have dropped those classes anyway, so I just kept my mouth shut.”
“Icarus,” Helen asked sweetly, “why are the art classes a waste of time.”
Icarus visibly swelled.  He was enjoying his little moment in the spot light, and conducted himself as if he was an expert in the field addressing his admiring fans.  “The University doesn’t understand art.  It can’t.”
Icarus waited for his admiring fans to beg for him to explain his statement, but David made his second attempt to ease Icarus away from his nonsensical philosophy.  “It’s kind of cold out, isn’t it Icarus?”
I can’t be sure, but I suspect that Icarus realized what David was trying to do, because the way he responded seemed tailor designed to upset David.  “That’s the trouble Dave.  No one seems to really know what it is to be truly cold here in Fabulae.  You see …”

The Chapel was one of the older buildings on campus.  It was one of those buildings that looked like it had housed royalty at some pre-historic time.  The lower half of it was completely covered with ivy, which became somewhat sparser as the eye followed it up.  The whole thing was a sort of grayish color, which was able to show through the green ivy at some places near the top.  Like every other building on campus it had several very well maintained flowerbeds surrounding it.
We circled around to the back entrance.  David rapped on the large, wooden, old looking door.  The door opened slightly.  A voice called out form inside.  “Who is it?’
“Angela, it’s me David.”
“And Helen.”
“And Icarus.”
Angela opened up the door.  I waved timidly at her.  “What are you doing here Jon?” she asked.
“It’s okay,” David quickly said.  “He’s with us.”
“You’re sure he’s cool?”  Angela asked, examining me closely.
“Angela, I’ve been best friends with this guy since we were what?  4?  5?”
Specifics didn’t really interest me.  “A hell of a long time,” I replied.
“A hell of a long time,” David repeated.
“Alright, come on in,” Angela said, stepping aside.
We quickly by passed the normal chapel stuff.  The pews, the pulpit, the windows, I’m sure you can picture it very clearly without even needing my description.
We then went down a flight of stairs to the chapel basement.  And there were all sorts of familiar faces down there.
For starters there was Simon.  This explained perfectly why Dave and Helen kept running into him.  He was always at these meetings.  Simon was buys talking to Ares, someone I knew form school.  Other old schoolmates of mine located around the room were Emma, Bernadine, Pax, Julius, Phillip, Phobos, Dionysius, Varrio, and Rosa.
I walked right up to Simon and Ares, interrupting their conversation.  As soon as Simon saw me approach, he turned from Ares to great me warmly.  “Jon!  What are you going here?”  Simon said, extending me a hearty handshake.
“I brought him,” David answered proudly, coming from behind me.
“Well, congratulations to both of you,” Simon replied.  “Jon, you’re going to love this.”
I took a step back from David and Simon.  “You guys lied to me.  You told me you’ve been meeting each other on the street.  It’s been here all along, hasn’t it?”
“Yes, and I’m sorry Jon.  It was necessary,” David answered.
I noticed at this point that Rosa was rapidly approaching us.  She still looked magnificent.  She was by far the prettiest girl back when we were in school, and possibly the prettiest girl at the University.  I had spent years admiring her from a far, but she probably didn’t even know who I was.  As she approached, I opened my dry mouth to say something.  I just wanted to say hello, or something to see if she remembered me.  I cleared my throat and—
“What is the Cadet doing here?”  Every syllable she inflected with a furious tone.
“It’s okay.  He’s with us,” David quickly said.
Her eyes were glowing with fire.  “You brought him here?” she asked in an accusatory tone.
“It’s okay,” David answered in that calming tone of his.  “He’s not even in the FJC anymore.”
She turned suddenly to me.  I thought I was going to burn up under that fierce gaze of hers, but at the same time I was impressed that she not only knew who I was but what I had been doing the past few years.  “We don’t want you here Jon,” she growled.  “Go away.”
I just sat there kind of dumbfounded by the hostility, but Simon spoke up in my defense.  “Hold on a minute.  He could be a valuable ally.”
“Yeah?  For who?  The last thing we need is for him to report everything we do to the FJC.”  Rosa’s whole demeanor was flooded with an aggressive confidence.  I lost my voice to speak, but David spoke up for me.
“Rosa, he quit the FJC.  They hate him now.”
“What kind of twisted person would join FJC in the first place?” she asked.  “Certainly not the kind of person we want here.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” I managed to squeak out.
“Yes you did Jon.  You just chose to go the easy route and make daddy happy and join the imperialists.”  How fiercely she spoke those words.  How the fire danced in her eyes.  How her lovely cheeks were red with fury, and her black hair seemed to quiver with rage.  Was it really any wonder the three of us remained quiet, caught under her power?  And since we were all quiet, she turned her anger elsewhere.  “Who let him in?  Was it Angela?”
Perhaps the mention of Angela’s name reminded David of the conversation he had just had.  He spoke up again, using the same argument he had used against Angela.  “Rosa, I’ve been best friends with Jon since I was four.  I know this man.  If you trust me at all, then trust him.  If you don’t trust him, then maybe you better throw both of us out because if he can’t be trusted then I have no credibility.”
And Rosa backed off at that point.  “You better be right,” she said to David, “because one mistake could ruin us all.”  She turned and walked away.
We all sat in silence as we watched her leave.  She walked with determination even after she left us.  I don’t know where she was going, but it must have been important.  Finally, when she was out of sight, I found my voice again.  “I take it this isn’t really a church youth group,” I said.
Simon just laughed.  David answered me.  “Well in one sense it is Jon.  This is a group of young people who meet in a church, is it not?  But no, this is not a church youth group in the normal sense.  I’m sure you understand the need for secrecy, right?”  I nodded.  “This is the Young Clodians, Jon.  Now don’t look so confused.  I’ll explain.  You never did read Clodius’ book, did you?”  I shook my head.  “No, I didn’t think so.  Well, its been banned of course, but we’ll try and get you a copy if you want.  Anyway, that book made a profound impression on a lot of us, so we got together to form this organization.  We’ve even been able to keep in communication with Clodius somewhat.  Letters from him are brought to us through a network of sympathetic individuals, and letters from us are brought to him the same way.”
Perhaps reader, this comes as no surprise to you.  Perhaps many pages ago you realized that this “church youth group” was really connected to Clodius.  It surprised me though.  I didn’t really know how to respond to this.  “Wow.”
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Simon spoke up.  “After he was exiled from Fabulae, Clodius fled across the boarder to Fenestra.  He’s been there ever since.”
“Is he alright over there?” I asked.
“As far as we can tell he’s doing fine.  The letters we get from him are sort of few and far between.  The Fenestram government doesn’t really like the fact that he’s over there, but they’re content to let him stay for now.  So far he hasn’t really criticized the Fenestram government, so that certainly helps.”
“But I assume he hasn’t stopped criticizing Fabulae’s government.”
“Right you are Jon,” David answered.  “His letters are full of observations on Old Flash and the rest of them.  He’s really something.”
“His letters really are brilliant,” Simon agreed.
“So he’s able to lead you guys all the way from Fenestra, huh?”
David quickly corrected me.  “He doesn’t lead us Jon.  We have no leaders.  Everyone in this group is an equal.  After all I think that’s what we’re really struggling for here.  Equality.”
“No leaders?”  I found this hard to believe, but Simon reiterated David’s point.
“No, he’s serious Jon.  We all make decisions as a group.  It’s how we think the government should work.”
It seemed questionable at best.  “That’s crazy.  Nothing would ever get done.”
David simply smiled in reply.  It was Simon who answered me.  “Just watch Jon.  I think you’ll be impressed with how much we get done.”
David excused himself to talk to someone else, so I talked to Simon for a bit.  “Now Simon, you’re burning the candles pretty thin at both ends, aren’t you?  I mean you’re hanging out with Joshua, and you’re doing all this stuff.”
Simon gave my shoulder a comradely slap.  “They’re both causes I feel strongly about Jon.  When something’s important to you, you make the time for it.”  I eyed Simon skeptically.  “Well for instance Jon, think about how much time you dedicated to FJC.  And those were both things you didn’t really care about, right?”
He had a point.  “That’s true,” I admitted.  I changed the subject.  “So what exactly do you guys do anyway?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean what do you do?  Do you do anything or do you just sit around and talk about Clodius the whole time.”
“No, no were very active.  It’s all top secret though.  If old Flash found out about our little organization, we’d be put in jail before we knew what hit us.”  No doubt about that.  Old Flash didn’t take too kindly to University students trying to overthrow him.  “How much of Clodius’ book did you read Jon?  Any of it?”
“Not a word?”
“Okay, well in the book Clodius describes how the rich people, with the help of the government and the church, are exploiting the working people.  Half of our battle is to just get people to realize that.  We print up a bunch of literature, flyers and stuff, and try and get it to the working people so they’ll know what’s going on.  It’s kind of risky, but we post the flyers in working class neighborhoods at night and then just run.  So far I don’t think the Strates have a clue.
“You mean they don’t know who’s posting the fliers?”
“Jon, they don’t even know the fliers exist.  Somebody always takes it down before the Strates can see it.  People really appreciate what we do, so as soon as they see a flier they take it down and show it to their friends and family.”
I was still rather unimpressed with this club.  “So that’s all you guys do?  Just pass out leaflets?”
‘Well that’s the main thing.  We’re also working on organizing the working class for the revolution.”
“The what?”  My voice unintentionally squeaked as I talked.
“The revolution.  It’s when we overthrow Old Flash and his cronies, and institute a more just and equitable government.  Organizing is kind of slow going though.  If we recruit the wrong person, it would be disastrous.  One bad apple could throw everyone else in jail.”
Our conversation ended as Rosa’s voice cut sharply through the crowd.  “Alright, let’s get started here,” she demanded.  I shut up immediately.  I didn’t dare to disobey her.
“Come on,” Rosa said, clapping her hands together, “we all have other things to do tonight.  Let’s form a circle.”
“Julius isn’t here yet,” Emma said.
“So?”
“So I think we should wait for him.”
Rosa just rolled her eyes in response.  “He’s almost a half hour late.”
“I think we should wait for him,” Emma insisted.
“This is ridiculous,” Rosa responded.  “We could spend the whole night waiting.  He knows what time the meetings are at.”
“I want a vote,” Emma replied.
The room was silent briefly.  Rosa was obviously disgusted by this proposal, but Emma did not back down.  I’m not quite sure how Emma did it.  I would have withered up under Rosa’s glare, but Emma just glared confidently back.  It probably only lasted about ten seconds, but it seemed like much longer, as if time just froze completely well these two started into each other’s eyes.  “Fine,” Rosa said at last, in a voice oozing with disdain.  “Who wants to start the meeting now, a half hour after it was supposed to begin?  Okay, now, who wants to wait for Julius to show up, even though Julius is a half-hour late?  All right Emma, it looks like the people have spoken.  Now, shall we get started?”
It had been a clear defeat for Emma’s proposal.  Only Pax had voted with her.  I had abstained from voting myself, since I was a new face.
We all circled up, even Emma who did not appear to hold a grudge about her defeated proposal.  David was on the other side of the circle from me, sitting with Helen.  I sat between Icarus and Simon.
“Alright, welcome everyone,” Rosa began.  “I think everyone but Julius is here.”  Rosa gave a slight nod to Emma as she added, “and I’m sure he can join us easily enough if he comes in late.”  Emma gave a slight nod in return.  “We also have one newcomer here, who many of us already know.  Hello Jon, welcome to our meeting.”
I waved a hand to the crowd as a greeting gesture.  “Thank you for having me.”
“Now Jon, are you going to be a permanent addition to our numbers?”
I didn’t really know what to say.  I wasn’t even sure what this club was like yet.  I certainly didn’t wasn’t to commit myself.  So I ended up saying something like, “maybe”, or “we’ll see,” even though I knew that would only increase her suspicion of me, which it did.  She responded by giving me a scrutinizing glare, and then returning her attention to the meeting.
“There are no new letters from Clodius.  As for the last letter we sent, I can only assume it has reached him by now, although you can never be to sure with the underground mail delivery service.”  She smiled to punctuate her joke, and she got a couple of chuckles from the crowd.  “However, we do have a little unfinished business to take care of from last meeting.  Varro, would you go over you proposal one more time in case anyone wasn’t here last time?”  Rosa’s eyes rested on me briefly when she said that last part.
Although I was obviously the only one who hadn’t heard the proposal, Varro played along with Rosa and pretended he was addressing the whole room.  “Well, as I mentioned last meeting, I think we really ought to be taking down minutes of each meeting.  I mean, we wouldn’t use anybody’s real name or anything like that, but I think it is important to keep a record of what we decide.  That way, when we make a decision it is firmly established in print, and no one has any doubts as to what was decided at any given meeting.”
Varro stopped speaking, and looked back towards Rosa.  “Alright,” Rosa announced, “there it is folks.  Now that proposal was seconded by Bernadine at the last meeting, and we did some discussion but we never arrived at a vote.  Would anyone like to make any additional comments?”  Hands flew up.  Rosa arbitrarily picked one.  “Yes, Angela?”
“I think it’s an unnecessary risk,” Angela said.  “If those documents were left lying in the wrong place or ended up in the wrong hands—“
“They won’t end up in the wrong hands,” Varro blurted out.
“Varro!  Order!  Let her speak.”  Varro quickly shut up under Rosa’s fierce gaze.
“Oh come on Varro,” Angela replied.  “What if you’re caught jay walking and the Strates decide to search you, and you have the minutes on you.  All our decisions are right there for them to read.”
“Maybe we should invent a secret code,” Icarus suggested.
Rosa shot down Icarus’ idea immediately.  “That’s ridiculous.  We’re not going to make a secret code.”
“It’s just too much of a risk.  That’s all I’m saying,” Angela finished off.
“Does anyone else have any intelligent comments?” Rosa asked.  She emphasized the word “intelligent” and Icarus couldn’t resist speaking up.
“What’s wrong with the secret code idea?” he asked.
“Icarus come on.  We have enough trouble understanding each other anyway with out trying to write in code.  Besides, who’s going to make up a code that the Strates can’t break?  And when are the rest of us going to have time to learn this code?”  That shut Icarus up.  He just kind of looked down at the floor.  “Any other comments?” Rosa asked.  “Yes, Dionysuis?”
“I’m kind of concerned about the idea of minutes,” Dionysius replied.  “I don’t think they’re very democratic.  I mean, when ever there is a disagreement about what decisions were made on a certain day, we should just vote on it instead of letting a sheet of paper dictate to us what we are going to do.”
Varro throw up his hands in disgust at this comment, but didn’t say anything.  “Anyone else?” Rosa asked.  Most of the hands had gone down by now.  Only David’s remained.  Rosa gave him permission to speak with only a nod.
“I guess I have just sort of a practical point,” David said, “but I don’t know how necessary minutes are.  I mean, I can’t ever remember us arguing about past decisions.”
“I agree with that,” Phillip piped up.  “Minutes have never really been necessary before.  I don’t know why they would be in the future.”
“Okay, well if there are no more comments—Does anyone else want to comment?  Okay, seeing that there are no more comments, I move to vote.  All those in favor of minutes?  All those opposed?  The motion fails.”  Once again I didn’t feel comfortable voting.  Varro, Bernadine, and Icarus were the only ones who voted for it.  Everyone else voted against it.  Nobody seemed surprised that the motion failed, least of all Rosa, who didn’t even break stride.  “Okay, let’s move on to new business, shall we?  The flyers that we have been handing out for the last month or so have been very informative and very helpful, but I think we’ve reached our limit with them.  All our usual safe places have seen them, and even a few of our not so safe places.  So, Varro has prepared a new flier.  Varro, do you have a copy with you?”
“I do,” Varro said, reaching behind him for his backpack.
“Maybe you could just pass it around and let everyone see it,” Rosa suggested.  Varro nodded in response.  “Okay, everyone look closely at this,” Rosa continued.  “If anyone has any problems with it, let us know.  Otherwise, this is the new flier that we’ll be handing out for the next few weeks.”  Varro found the paper he was looking for, and passed it to Phobos on his right.   Phobos looked at it, and then passed it on again.  “Now, I think the final item of business is to discuss our organizing in the working class neighborhoods, and the future of the student worker alliance.  Whose been doing field work in that area?  You have, haven’t you Bernadine?”  Bernadine nodded yes.  “And Ares, you have too, right?”  Ares also replied affirmatively.  “So, how has the work been going?”
“I’ve been working on that too,” Emma spoke up.
“Yes, that’s right.  I’m sorry.  Alright, what’s the report?”
“We’ve got about 70 dedicated workers,” Emma responded.  “I know it’s not a lot, but everyone of them is dedicated to the revolution.  They’ve even started meeting on their own.”
“Now I think we ought to send a student delegate to their meetings,” Angela said.
“I agree with that,” Phillip stated.
Rosa turned her face to Emma.  “Any thoughts on that Emma.”
Emma scowled.  “I think it’s a horrible idea.  We need to preserve the autonomy of the workers.”
“We also need to let them know we support them,” Angela replied.  “If we had a delegate at all of their meetings, It would show them we’re behind them.”
“I want to hear from the others who have been active with the working class,” Rosa declared.  “Bernadine, Ares, what do you two think?”
They looked at each other for a moment, unsure of who was going to speak first, and then Ares decided to take the floor.  “I not only think it’s a good idea, I think it’s essential.  We need to work closely with each other to make sure we’re the same movement working towards the same revolution.  We can’t coordinate plans with the workers unless we know what they’re doing.”
Once Ares stopped talking, Rosa gave her cue to the next speaker.  “Bernadine?”
“I thin a student delegate is premature.  The workers are just beginning to organize, and they haven’t structured themselves yet.  If we send a delegate, it might be to easy for them to build their structure around us.  We need to wait until they’ve independently established themselves, and then maybe we can send a representative to their meeting.”
“This is silly,” Angela exclaimed.  “We’re talking about sending one delegate, not a hostile take over.”
“We need the workers to have equal power,” Emma said.  “Once they are ready to take that equal power, then we can talk about exchanging delegates, not before.”
“Let’s just take a vote,” Rosa said.  “I think both positions are firmly established.”  It was amazing really what a tight grip Rosa had on the assembly.  She was able to move things along at a breakneck speed.  Barely had the issue even been brought up, and she was calling for a vote.  No one objected, and she was able to have her vote.  Emma and Bernadine were defeated by just a margin of one.
Emma was furious and made no secret about it.  She began swearing in a loud whisper, loud enough for almost every person in the room to hear.
“Is there a problem, Emma?” Rosa asked.
“Hell yes there is.  This is classism revealing itself within the very movement supposed to eradicate it.  This is bullshit.  It’s a bunch of middle class students who think the workers are too stupid to organize themselves.
“That’s unfair,” Angela shouted out enraged.
Rosa replied in a much calmer, subdued tone, but there was power in her voice.  She spoke with such confidence it seemed impossible not to believe her.  “Yes,” Rosa said, “it is.”
“Then why don’t we post pone sending a delegate until the workers are organized?” Emma asked.
“Emma, that issue was democratically voted on and decided.”  Rosa’s voice left no room for compromise.
“Then I propose that I be the delegate,” Emma responded.  There was a brief silence, after which she added, “if we’re going to do this, we might as well have someone who understands the workers.”
“Emma, we understand the workers just as well as you do,” Angela interjected.
Emma’s eyes flared up.  “Do you Angela?”
Rosa held up her hands for silence, and got it immediately.  “This is out of order.  Emma has nominated herself as a delegate.  Does anyone want to second the nomination?”
Bernadine’s hand flew up.  “I do.”
“Any other nominations?” Rosa asked.
“I nominate myself,” Ares said.
“I second him,” Angela quickly added.
Rosa looked around the room.  “Okay, seeing no other nominations, I move for a vote.”
Well, it was a close vote again.  I continued my streak of not voting.  Emma won her position though, despite the frustrated looks of Ares and Angela.  Even Rosa, who had also voted against Emma, seemed slightly upset.  Her cheeks began  to redden.
Icarus nudged me, and I turned to see what he wanted.  He handed me Varro’s flier, which had been working it’s way around the circle.  I glanced at it.
“Attention all workers:
“Arise you who are hungry.  Arise those who are poor.  Arise all whose children don’t have a place to sleep.  Arise those who don’t have enough blankets to keep warm at night.
“In the banks is stored more gold then you could possibly dream, so why are you starving?  Why are the wealthy reaping the benefit of your hard work, and you don’t get paid enough to buy clothes for your family.  They may try and tell you that you’ll get your reward in heaven, but don’t listen to their lies.  Demand your earthly bread now.  Organize yourselves.  Educate yourselves.  There is power in groups.”
Varro’s writings continued down the page.  My eyes skimmed over it briefly but I felt like I had gotten the general point of it.  I handed it off to Simon.

When the meeting finally ended, I left with David, Helen, and Icarus after saying good-bye to Simon.  Rosa interrupted us on the way out.  She walked right up to us, looked David in the eye, and pointed at me.  “He knows to keep quiet about this, right?”
“He knows,” David answered.
Rosa looked at me.  “I know,” I said quickly, not wanting to infuriate her.
She didn’t seem quite satisfied until David added, “Look Rosa, he doesn’t want to see his friends go to jail.”
Rosa looked at me again.  “Well, welcome aboard Jon.  I hope to se you back here again.”  She waited briefly for a response, but I was too afraid of saying the wrong thing, and so said nothing.  Rosa then just walked away.
“Looks like you passed Jonny,” Icarus said joking.
My throat was dry from the encounter with Rosa, so I made a noise as I tried to clear it.  “Don’t worry about her Jon,” David said to me.  “I think she does like you, she’s just extra cautious.  And there is a lot at stake here.”
We started walking back.  It was dark, but Helen made a comment about how beautiful the moon looked.  It wasn’t quite a full moon yet, but it helped to illuminate our path back to the dorms.
“So what’s the verdict Jon?” David asked.  “Are you a convert to our cause?”
“I could be.” I had to admit, the whole thing was rather intriguing.
“The next meeting is in a couple days,” Icarus said.  “Same time, same place.”
My mind ran over my schedule.  “I can’t do it.  I’m going out with Clio that night.”
Icarus made a disgusted noise.  David replied, “Jon, we’re giving you the opportunity to be part of something important here.  This is something that really matters.”
I turned sharply to face David.  “Okay David, first of all, it’s my life.  I’ll be the judge of what really matters, and second of all I hardly ever get a chance to go out with Clio.  She’s always busy with homework.  It’s important to me to go out with her when I can.”
“It’s okay Jon,” Helen cooed.  “We understand.”
“I don’t,” David said, walking away.  Icarus wouldn’t even look at me.
“You could bring Clio with you,” Helen suggested.
“Nah, she wouldn’t like that.”  Nor could I see her taking time away from her schedule to do it.
Helen looked at David and Icarus walking away, and then back at me, and it was obvious she was embarrassed for David.  “Slow down you two,” she commanded.  Icarus initially kept walking, but once he realized David had stopped, he stopped as well.  “Stop being childish,” Helen reprimanded them.
I felt like I should say something to smooth things over.  I approached David and Icarus.  “Look, I’m sorry.  Just be patient with me.  I’m not sure what I want yet.”
I didn’t even look at Icarus.  I knew he wouldn’t understand.  I looked David in the eyes and he stared right back at me.  After a moment’s consideration, he put his hand on my shoulder.  “Its all right Jon.  You do whatever you want.”