Page 27 of A Brighter Yellow
“Yes. She can’t be mine. She’s too annoying.”
Ochre grinned. “What’d she do now?”
“Well, you remember her little stunt at that tree protest? Well, those frigging Blackpool asshats that she flipped formed a protest group with some of the locals. Now they call themselves People for the Trees and support unions and other blue-collar rights stuff while trying to team up to push the environmental agenda.”
“Seriously? That’s great.”
“No, it’s not because now they’re on my Facebook. They are on my Instagram. They are everywhere, and they keep inviting me to things. And Scarlet keeps encouraging them! Every time they go to New York, she shows up for them! They drive me insane!”
Ochre laughed. “Well, I think I’m about to get on the mailing list, so, sorry, but it’s probably only going to get worse. I’ll explain why later.”
“Ugh, fine. Uh… How’s it going with Anna?”
“It’s going,” said Ochre sourly.
“Eek, that doesn’t sound good.”
“Yeah, we’ll see. Talk to you later.”
He hung up and turned to Anna. “Um, I kind of know these guys. I think they’ll help.”
“You kind of know them?” she asked, one eyebrow going up in a very skeptical expression.
“I may have helped perform a massive spell that maybe changed the course of their lives. But it’s probably best not to bring that up.”
He didn’t wait for Anna to respond. Instead, he walked directly up to the folding table and looked at the sixty-something woman who was crocheting a pink hat.
“Hello,” he said. “My name is—”
“Ochre Lucas!” shrieked the woman, throwing her hands and ball of yarn up in the air. It bounced across the table. Anna caught it.
“Yes,” he said.
“Oh, my God,” said the woman getting up, and coming around the table. “Oh, my God. I was there at the trees. I saw everything. The nice lady talked to me. Oh, wow!”
“The nice lady?” asked Ochre. That was new.
“The blonde one in the white dress. She came with the guy with the long black hair.”
“Uh,” said Ochre. “That sounds… like my parents.” He was going to have to call Azure back and ask about this.
“Not everyone saw them,” continued the woman. “But I talked to her. She was so nice. She wanted us to help you. I just… Wow. I’m so happy to meet you.” She grabbed his hand and shook it fervently. “Steve!” She turned and bellowed over her shoulder, and a thick-looking, muscle-builder type man in a black jacket immediately came out of the crowd.
“What’s up, Sue? Did you—oh wow! Ochre Lucas!” Steve grabbed his hand and shook it too. “Wow, it’s great to meet you! I talked to Scarlet a couple of months ago at a protest.”
“That’s great,” said Ochre. He could feel Anna glaring at him as she put the pink yarn back down on the table.
“We read all your articles,” said Sue, and Ochre felt startled and genuinely touched.
“Really? I… Well, thanks. Actually, we were hoping that you could help us with something.”
“Of course,” said Sue, and Steve nodded his firm agreement.
“We’re looking for an Encana employee who may have hurt my friend,” said Anna. “He looks like this.”
She held out her phone, showing a picture from Charlie’s Instagram.
“Oh, that guy,” said Steve, looking at the photo. “That guy is a douchebag. Yeah, he’s here. Every time he pulls in, he acts like he’s going to hit picketers with his stupid car.” Steve pointed across the parking lot to a Lexus IS. “He’s probably going to leave soon if you want to wait. I swear he only works like half a day.”
