Transportation Workers on Strike!
We Want a Living Wage!
Bell’s feet stomped the floorboards as if he could work the brakes from the passenger seat.
“What on earth are you doing!” he asked.
“Losing our tail,” Nina said. “I hope.”
41
Walter looked behind them. He didn’t see how it was possible. The police car was fishtailing after them into Grove, only a block and a half behind. There was no way Nina could lose them, when they had line-of-sight on her.
“Okay,” she said. “Be ready to get out. And don’t leave anything behind. Sorry, Nitida.” She patted the Beetle’s dashboard. “But we won’t be coming back.”
Bell looked incredulous.
“We’re getting out?”
“Stay if you want,” Nina snapped. Her foot was still all the way to the floor. “But I’m not coming to visit you in jail.”
Walter gripped the seat back.
“Nina,” he called. “Look out!”
Several seconds beyond the last possible second, Nina stomped hard on the brake, sending the car into a screeching skid that stopped just inches from the shrieking, scattering crowd.
“Out!” She grabbed the walkie-talkie and shouldered out through her door. “Out!”
Walter and Bell threw open their doors and staggered out as Nina ran around the car and hooked arms with them.
“Into the crowd. Come on!”
Walter looked back as he followed her, and saw the police car skidding to a stop right behind her Beetle. The two cops spilled out, guns raised.
Nina raised her voice.
“Don’t let the pigs through, brothers!” she called. “They’re here to bust up the protest!” The crowd roared and seemed to fuse into a single, solid organism behind her as she dragged Walter and Bell through it and across the plaza.
Bell looked over at Nina, face lit from within with admiration and other, more complicated emotions.
“That... that was brilliant.”
She shook her head.
“Not unless we get to the park, it isn’t.” She raised the walkie-talkie and clicked in. “Kenneth. Are you there? Have you reached McAllister yet?”
“Uh...” A long crackly pause. “I don’t think so.”
“Well, take it when you reach it, and keep an eye out. There’s a protest going on at City Hall. A lot of traffic and a lot of people. When you arrive, look for us.”
“Uh, okay.”
“What about me?” It was May’s voice.
“Just head over to the park on your own, May. And just stay calm. We’ll meet you there.”
“Roger.”
Walter pulled up short, hauling the others back.
“Cops!” he hissed.
Nina and Bell looked around. A line of policemen stood and blocked off the steps of the city hall, and more were walking through the protest, keeping an eye on the picketers.
Nina slowed her step and took a deep breath.
“It’s okay,” she said. “They’re not looking for us. As long as we don’t stand out, we’re fine. Just take it slow, and try to look like you’re here for the protest.”
A crowd of men and women in bus driver uniforms marched past in the direction they wanted to go, all shouting and raising their fists. Walter, Bell, and Nina followed in their wake, chanting along with the rest.
“More say! Higher pay! More say! Higher pay!”
The marchers turned at the north side of the square, and started south again, but Walter, Bell, and Nina left the train and melted into the crowd that had gathered to watch it all.
They were almost to McAllister Street.
“Kenneth,” Nina called in on the walkie-talkie. “Where are you now?”
“I’m on McAllister, about a block from the plaza,” he replied. “You sure this is where you want me to be? It’s completely jammed.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “Just keep coming.”
Nina squeezed through to the street side of the crowd, then pulled back. There were cops there, trying to move everybody onto the sidewalk, but people were streaming across the street in both directions, weaving through the cars and slowing traffic to a standstill.
“Do you see them?” she asked.
Walter craned his neck and looked east, but all he could see were people’s heads.
Bell, however, nodded.
“He’s moving, but it’s slow.”
Walter looked back into the plaza, scanning for the cops that had chased them there. He couldn’t see anything in that direction either, and the shouting of the protesters drowned out all other sounds. He felt as if he was in a cornfield on a windy night, with wolves prowling somewhere nearby. He’d never know they were on him until he felt their teeth in his leg.
Nina ground her teeth, frustration creasing her brow.
“All we’ve got to do is stay here and stay calm,” she said. “Just stay calm.” But she looked about as calm as a chihuahua in a firecracker factory. All that adrenalin still seemed to be churning through her veins. Walter was feeling anything but calm, himself.
He looked east, going up on his tiptoes.
“Another half block,” he said. “Almost there.”
He looked behind again, and his heart seized up. Through a gap in the crowd he could see the cop with the salt-and-pepper mustache. He and his buddy were striding across the plaza, scanning for them. He grabbed Bell’s arm.
“Duck down!”
“What?” Bell frowned.
“The police are here!” Walter said. “You’re too damn tall!”
Bell crouched down, dropping his head between his shoulders. There was a guy holding a huge sign to their left. Walter pulled Bell and Nina behind it, then snuck a look around it and back toward the plaza.
The two cops were walking along the edge of the crowd, heads moving constantly. Walter pulled back, heart hammering, just as the one with the mustache started to look his way.
Had he seen?
Was he coming?
“There’s Kenneth’s bus. Come on.” Nina took his arm.
Walter turned toward the street and followed Nina and Bell as they stepped off the curb. One of the cops in the cordon stepped up to stop them, but Nina pointed past him.
“Our ride’s here,” she said sweetly. “We’re just trying to get out of this mess.”
The cop waved them by and kept pushing the rest of the crowd back. In the minibus Kenneth, Judy, and Simon were looking for them. Judy saw them first and threw open the side doors.
“What happened?” she asked, her little ferret face looking even more anxious than usual.
“Tell you later,” Nina replied, pushing past her onto the back bench and lying down with her hands over her head. “William. Walter. Lie on the floor.”
Walter squeezed down between the seats under Judy’s feet while Bell did the same under Nina’s.
“Close the doors!” Nina said. “Quick!”
Judy pulled the doors closed again and looked down at Walter.
“Don’t look down!” Nina whispered. “Pretend we’re not here! Act natural! Relax!”
Judy raised her head, quivering, and kept her eyes front.
“Anybody coming?” Walter whispered.
“Not yet. Not...” She pressed a thin spidery hand to her mouth. “Oh, God. They’re right outside. They’re—” She held her breath for a tense moment, then let it out. “They’re crossing the street. They’re looking through the crowd over there.”
Walter closed his eyes and let out his own held breath.
“So what happened?” Kenneth asked over his shoulder, keeping his eyes on the street. “Why did the cops chase you?”
“Why do you think?” Nina asked. “Keep driving.”
Kenneth grunted, annoyed, but did as he was told. It took ten more minutes to get through the crowd and get moving again. Walter thought it was the longest ten minutes of his life.
42
Leslie sat in the idling van. They were in the parking lot of a fast food joint called Butchie Burger, waiting for Payton to come back from the bathroom. The restaurant’s mascot was an anthropomorphic Boston Terrier in checkered pants and a bow-tie, holding a huge hamburger. He seemed to be leering down at Leslie with a maniacal grin.