Night. In the distance, darkness. Nearby, city towers. Here, on the lighted parking lot, fifty people milling around, listening to the evils of meat, shaking hands with a bipedal bovine and swine.
"Oh, well... I think that'll be okay. We aren't going to take all our time, anyway. Only have a half-hour of speeches.""Ah, good."
"I'm sorry we're late... there is just no damn parking anywhere."
"That's okay. Everything seems to have worked for the best."
I don't want to tell them about those last minutes waiting, wondering if/when they'd show, half-regretting half-enjoying the breaking of rules, until listening to the young girls sing I felt glad we had done it, glad we had stopped the clock from cutting them off in the middle of their song. Et maintenant fait accompli. And now it was done with.
The animal crowd arrives slowly, trickling in by twos and threes, bearing signs and leaflets and backpacks. The traffic light is already shining green in the twilight, with Equal Justice still taking down their signs.
Two people in a pig suit and a cow suit are wandering the small crowd, followed by the laughter of children delighted to be up after dark, out in the city with their parents, looking at a pig and cow walking on their hind legs. Aren't grownups crazy sometimes? It aint even Halloween!
Equal Justice is done taking down their signs.
Vegetarians are putting theirs up. I come down from my tent and snap a picture.
Then go back, sit down, and lay my head down, but only for a moment. As it has all day long, as it will for the next four days, my pen calls out to me and I begin to write more words in this, my very own Book of the Hours. You, you, you are my pen. Bleed ink, beat heart, breathe lungs; think, feel, touch, reflect.
"Hi! We're Global Energy... for nine o'clock.""Ah, welcome."
Night. In the distance, darkness. Nearby, city towers. Here, on the lighted parking lot, fifty people milling around, listening to the evils of meat, shaking hands with a bipedal bovine and swine.
"Danial?""Oh, hi, Dale!"
Chief Sergeant Dale Markzot, the man who got me this hellish no-pay job (after I practically begged him), has come by to see how things have gone this first day. First thing he notices is the empty First Aid station. Together we go looking for the ambulance no one told me was supposed to be here. It's parked on the street, half a block away. They've been sitting there all day long, waiting for someone to advise them....
"Tomorrow, Danial, I want you to make sure they are in the tent with you. That's why we have that sign saying First Aid. Technically, half the tent - one of the tables and two chairs - are theirs.""All right."
"If they give you any problem like today - "
"Dale - they didn't know, no one told them!"
"Well, yeah. So the problem was ours, actually. Sorry I said that - guess I'm just worn out. Okay... no one told you they were yours. Contracted for the site and only the site. Ninety dollars a day the City pays for them, so they can sit in the tent with you."
"Okay. Well, now I know. Wonder what else I don't know about?"
Chief-Sergeant Markzot laughs, "Bet you didn't know how long the day would be!"
"Well, no. Or the hot sun, either. Thank God for shade! But how're you holding up, Dale? You're working way more than a twelve-hour shift...."
"My feet are on fire, my back aches, and I'm hungry, but it looks like all the planning is paying off. Everything is working out pretty damn good." He looks at the ground in front of the tent - the side where First Aid should be has some broken glass, "What's this shit?"
"One of the electrical techs said it was a flourescent bulb from the tent lamp, shattered yesterday, or something. I tried to brush it aside with a newspaper, but that didn't work so good. I'm bringing my broom tomorrow morning, and sweep it up."
"Hell. Just as well we didn't have any medical emergencies today. People'd come up for aid and step on slivers of glass. Barefoot hippies shred their soles!"
"Sounds like a headline in Variety."
"Sounds like a lawsuit. Don't forget that broom."
"No."
Dale turns, stares out toward the small crowd of Animal Advocates. "Peaceful enough group. Families and all. Why aren't they carrying any big blowup pictures of slaughtered baby lambs?"
I laugh, half ironically, "Operation Rescue giving you much problem?"
"Mmmmm, not yet, actually. Maybe, tomorrow or the next day, after the convention actually opens. There's a rumor circulating they're going to hold a funeral for some fetus they dug up somewhere."
"Eewww. Well, it was quiet here today. Too quiet. Hope there's more people coming down tomorrow."
"Should be pretty good late afternoon and evening. You got the pro-choice church groups, and then, later, the Latino and the Gay groups. They're all marching in."
"Yeah... the... mediators were talking about that." I decide not to ask him about the Justice Department.
"And, of course," he says, carefully, looking toward the empty camera platform, "you'll have more media showing up here. But you're a glib guy, you can handle them."
"Hmmm. Explanations for the media. Hadn't thought of that. Good thing I'm familiar with the process that developed this site plan."
"Yeah." Markzot looks around one last time, "Well. Anything else, Dan?"
"I need some schedules. Only have the one. Think I'll go copy them myself, tomorrow morning."
"I'll get Bob to make you some more of ours. But you don't want to give them out too liberally."
"No. But if like you say the media...."
"Yeah. One to them. And the public, too, if they ask for one. Oh - one thing else... after the first day, how do you feel about the cops you're working with?"
"Pretty damn professional. And friendly."
"Good. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask; especially the two shift sergeants."
"What exactly are their duty hours?"
"Midnight to Noon, and Noon to Midnight."
"Yeah... I wondered. Saw 'em change around twelve."
"You meet everyone?"
"Pretty much. You took me around at seven this morning, and I sort of introduced myself - or Sergeant Davidson did - to the afternoon group."
"All right. Well, I'm sure I'll see you tomorrow... that is, if you aren't scared off after today...?"
"I wouldn't miss it for the world."
He smiles, and leaves me. Really cute guy, I think, again. It's three years now I've known his boyish smile. But tonight, watching him walk away in his dark blue uniform, I can see why gay groups like to have him work their parades and festivals. Butt he'd only break their hearts if they reached....
Oh shit, I must be getting ding-bat exhausted to talk like that!
True to their word, the Animals are done ahead of time. I scratch my head and realize that for the first time, today, I have not written down a single word they spoke over the microphones. Oh-oh. I have failed my plan.
Well, too late now.... I'll make up for it by going down and watching, up close, as the Global Energy Network begins their time.