Page 50 of Midnightsong
Two evenings, mornings, and afternoons came and went in a blur, and before Angie knew it, she was standing outside her school with Reesa, Leo, and six other classmates, all flitting back and forth from the table in the center of the main lawn. Dr. Williams had called out sick, leaving the students to hold their rally and information session on their own.
Cloudy skies loomed above with no sign of the sun. At least it wasn’t forecasted to rain today.
The plastic table the school lent them was flimsy, but fortunately, they only needed it for pamphlets and flyers they organized last night with merfolk facts, the general location of where they lived in the seas, and a section at the end withMer are not animals for us to use!And brief facts of mer studies in the lab, leaving Dr. Williams’ and SMOSA’s names out of it at his request. And to lure students in, there were stacks of homemade snickerdoodles and chocolate chunk cookies that were on either end of the long table made by another classmate. It was holding its own on the damp grass beneath its legs.
Reesa was behind her with two other students on their phones, circulating and creating social media posts and managing comments and shares.
“Excuse me, can I take one of these?” A student asked at the opposite end of the table where Angie stood, and she craned her neck. That was Leo’s responsibility—to hand out pamphlets, and he appeared entirely uninterested, hanging back from the table, a faraway look in his eyes. “Um, hello?” The student waved at Leo.
Angie furrowed her brow. Leo was acting like he didn’t want to be there; he hadn’t spoken more than two words during their rally planning session with their classmates, and he halfheartedly organized their pamphlets yesterday, moving like his arms and legs were made of lead. Something must have been going on, and after this was over, she planned to figure it out.
“Hi, are you Angie Song?” A woman dressed in a crisp, gray jacket approached, holding a microphone. “I’m Isabela Rodriguez from the Pacific Pulse. Your professor and one of your classmates reached out to me last week and I’d love to interview you if you have the time?”
Angie stood at attention. “Yes, I’d love to speak.”
Isabela waved over her news crew and they gathered around her and Angie and spoke her introduction into the camera. “Angie, I think I speak for a lot of us when I say we’re equally fascinated and scared of what the mer can do. You were in Alaska two years ago when the mer war started and now you’re trying to protect them. Tell me. What happened?”
She took a breath, gathering her thoughts, resolving to keep Kaden out of it, to protect him, his identity, and his station. “I nearly killed one myself when our war started with the mer, before we took the time to understand each other. I became friendly with a few of them and I learned the mer were not animals, but human-like.”
A ghost of a smile tugged at her lips, remembering her first contentious meeting with Kaden. “They have their own language, their own hierarchies and societies. They are complex thinkers; they have feelings of pain and love and hate; they have relationships with each other and the sea. They’re not so different from us. They should be treated with the dignity and respect.”
“How do we do that? Some of our viewers and I live inland, and might never see mer.”
“Even if you live inland you could help by spreading awareness, getting the word out there about the mer. Should you wind up at a beach, you never know if you’ll see one.” Angie took in another breath of frosty air with a shaky inhale.
“It’s still hard to believe that they actually exist.” Isabela looked awestruck.
“Believe me, I felt the same way before I saw them myself. Although if you ask my niece, she’d say ‘I told you so’.”
Isabela broke into a broad grin and the last of Angie’s nervousness fled. “And we had a longstanding peace with the mer until their queen was assassinated.”
“You worked so hard to gain peace with the mer war in Alaska just to have that come to an end. When the news spread, I know there were a few of us who worried what would happen next,” Isabela said with a sympathetic nod after moving the microphone back to herself. “Do you have an idea of who might have wanted to hurt her? Any leads? You don’t have to say any names, of course.”
The microphone went back to Angie.
“We don’t. So please, if you’re listening to this.” Angie looked into the camera. “If anyone has information on Mer-Queen Serapha’s murder, please let me know or inform the authorities so we can be at peace again. The mer have a right to be angry and betrayed about their queen being killed, but we all must do our part to promote harmony.” She gave out her school email to Isabela who wrote it down on her tablet.
“Thank you so much, Angie. You’ve made a passionate case, and I can see your and your peers’ efforts are paying off.” Isabela nodded at her cameraman who panned over the students and staff.
When Isabela and her crew moved on to speak with another student about what they were doing there, Angie let out a long, purposeful exhale, closing her eyes and tilting her head toward the skies. That went much better than she thought.
Pacific Pulse had confirmed their presence with Reesa last night and Angie had been practicing what she would say over and over, until she no longer thought about what to say and how to say it.
After another hour, most of their pamphlets and flyers were gone, and both cookie plates were dotted with crumbs. Reesa and her classmates came around as they were cleaning up.
“That wentsomuch better than I thought,” Reesa said.
“Hell yeah, I’m texting my family to tell them I was in the news.” Another student cheered.
Adrenaline still pulsed through Angie’s veins as she took the rest of the pamphlets and flyers and slipped them into a three-ring binder. She looked around. “Where’s Leo?”
Reesa motioned with a hand toward the back entrance of the school. “He left about twenty minutes ago. Said something about how he had to head out.”
Angie arched an eyebrow. “Something’s going on with him?”
Reesa shrugged. “Maybe. Let’s text him later and see if he wants to talk.”
“Yeah, good idea,” Angie replied. She addressed the rest of her classmates as they approached her, leaving their area on the lawn as empty as they found it. “Everyone free for dinner tomorrow? You all let me know where and I’ll make a reservation.”
