Page 26 of A Brighter Yellow
“If he was the one at her house, I’ll know,” said Anna sourly. “I can handle it myself.”
Ochre took a deep breath and counted to ten.
“You’re going to have to get to him first,” said Ochre. “And for that, you’re going to need me. Unless you’re just planning a full-frontal assault on the Encana office.”
In his head, Anna went up in a ball of incandescent rage. She spun around and glared at him.
“Let’s get one thing straight,” she said, poking him in the chest with a fingernail that was suddenly very thick and pointed, “I don’t need anyone. Charlie ismyfriend, and I will handle it.”
“I have credentials. I can get us inside,” Ochre snapped.
She made a very inhuman noise, turned on her heel, and stomped off toward the Encana offices. Ochre counted to ten again, took some deep breaths, and thought about not following her. It might be nice to let her discover that things were a lot harder without him.
On the other hand, she might just actually be crazy enough to storm the Encana offices.
He hurried after, rounded the corner of an older brick building, and ran into Anna, who had stopped abruptly. He fumbled, trying not to grope her. She stood still as he managed to peel himself off of her without touching anything inappropriate, but that was only by sheer luck. The entire front of his body buzzed as though he’d been running a jackhammer.
“Well, we’re done,” she said as he took a step away.
“What?”
She had been the one stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. How was he getting booted over that? Then he realized that she was staring in dismay at the Encana office across the street, where it was surrounded by an entire picket line.
“We support unions,” she said. “I can’t cross a picket line! Dad would kill me!”
“Uh,” said Ochre. Of all the things he’d thought might stop her that really hadn’t been on his list. Not that she was actually stuck. He was fairly certain that given two seconds, she would come up with something. “Well, let’s go see what they’re picketing first and talk to the organizers. Maybe we can picket for an hour in compensation for going into the building.”
“Oh,” she said, looking startled. “Does that work?”
“Sure. We already know they think Encana are dicks. That one sign seems pretty explicit on the topic,” he said, pointing to the one with actual dicks drawn on it. He thought the glitter was a nice touch. “So if we tell them what we’re doing and do some sign waving for an hour, it’ll be cool. It’s like carbon off-sets for protesting.”
“I didn’t know you could do that.” Anna looked personally affronted that no one had told her about the social niceties of picketing. Then her head cocked suspiciously as if she was questioning whether he was putting her on.
“My sisters do a lot of protesting,” he said. “Come on. Let’s go see who’s running the show.”
He walked down the block and scrutinized the crowd. The signs were pretty evenly divided between a local union and environmentalists, but both were upset about illegal dumping in the local aquifer. Ochre finally found what he was looking for—the card table. There was always a folding table with literature, extra signs, and coffee, usually staffed by an elderly woman with a sign-in sheet for the mailing list. This protest was no exception. This table had a banner taped to the edge.
“Give me a sec,” he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. Maybe if he could prove he was useful, Anna would ease down a fraction. He dialed Azure and waited for her to pick up.
“Yo, bro,” Azure said, picking up after one ring.
“Yo?” he repeated in disbelief.
“What ho, my brother. How art thee on this fine day? Is that better?”
“No,” he replied. “No, it isn’t.”
“I try to be creative, and this is what I get. Hey. What’s up?”
“I’m in Pennsylvania at a protest of an Encana Oil and Gas building.”
“Cool. I hate those dicks.”
“What do you know about People for the Trees?”
Azure groaned. “This is your sister’s fault.”
“Now she’s justmysister?”
