11

Wednesday, January 20, 2021, 12:30 PM Eastern Standard Time

The President had just finished the opening part of his speech, calling for unity, and lauding his own recovery from the virus, and now had gone into the real theme of the address, which was about something like the opposite.

“Four years ago, I called on all Americans to put America First, America always first,” he said. “Most of you heeded that call. But some Americans – I shouldn’t really even call them Americans, they hate America, and they hate you, and they hate me – these people, they did not heed that call. They spent the entire last four years trying everything they could think of to destroy me and to destroy America.They stole my first term…”

Vaneida, Jenna, Janice and Joe, all maskless, and wearing red baseball hats and red sweatshirts with various of the President’s mottos on them, stood together inside the ticketed area of the National Mall, near a north entrance, as far to the rear as possible, with no one behind them. They had applauded the President dutifully, but less enthusiastically than their neighbors in the crowd, who as a result seemed to regard them with a bit of suspicion. Vaneida could tell that much of the suspicion was focused on her, and she did not have to guess for very long why.

“What’s she doin’ here?”

“I told you, lots of black people love the President. It’s only the Fake News that says they don’t.”

“I bet she got the virus. You think that guy is her husband?”

“Nah, he’s white.”

“A lot of them marry white people. My cousin’s kid did. Marry one of them. Didn’t work out, course.”

Vaneida tried to keep a straight face while listening to all this speculation under the blare of the President’s speech, which was projected from speakers and a huge screen close to them. When he said, “In this, my first real term, I intend to use all the power of my office and all our legal and law enforcement might to fight against these un-American socialist sore losers…” she turned to Joe and nodded.

Quickly, but not too quickly, so as not to alert the President’s fans all around them, Vaneida took her coat and back brace off. The other two women undid the tape on the banner. Vaneida raised her arms and Jenna and Janice passed the banner around her, unfurling it as they did so.

When they had gotten it completely off her, Joe grabbed the left end and Vaneida the right end. They walked away from each other behind the crowd and then held the banner up. It read “BLM – REIMPEACH THE PRESIDENT – RESTORE DEMOCRACY.” Jenna and Janice held it up in the middle, as Joe and Vaneida stretched it out to its full length.

Vaneida began to count down from 30.

After about 15 seconds, a large white man turned around and tried to read the banner, which was difficult from close range. He looked at the four of them, in their pro-President gear, and said, “What the f –”

This caused several others to turn around. The four protesters still held the banner high. Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen… Vaneida looked over toward the exit. No movement from security yet.

The large white man said, louder, “These are fucking protesters. Human scum!”

Others now turned around as the President continued his speech: “We have made America great again, and now we will make her even greater than she is now.”

The large white man was yelling, but the cheer that followed dampened the localized reaction to the banner, and allowed them to continue holding it up.

“They’re dissing the President, y’all! Come on, let’s get them out!”

Finally, as the cheer for the President faded, the crowd in the area of the banner began to focus its attention on what was going on behind them. A woman in front of Joe started pulling at his arm. He kept holding the banner up.

Someone at the far end was tugging on Vaneida, but she was able to resist their attempts to dislodge her. Eight, seven, six… She felt a tug from the banner itself and saw that someone was trying to grab it away from Jenna or Janice in the middle. Three, two, one… Still the banner was held high. Vaneida decided they could go a little longer. Zero, one, two, three… Now there was a generalized shaking of the banner, as numerous members of the crowd put hands on it, and a few tried to put hands on the protesters.

Suddenly she heard a cry from Jenna. The large white man seemed to have punched her. Now Janice let go of the banner and went to her aid. She pulled Jenna up. The banner began to bow inward from the ends. Vaneida tried to catch Joe’s eye. Eventually she succeeded, nodded, and yelled, “Let’s go.”

She and Joe simultaneously dropped their ends of the banner. They both went toward the middle, where Janice and Jenna were being pummeled by people around them. Joe knifed his way through the crowd, put his arms around the two women, and said, “Let’s go.” Vaneida was right behind them in a second. Joe guided them toward the exit, where two security men seemed to have finally noticed what was going on.

As they moved toward the exit, a number of the attendees took the chance to cough on them, spit on them, punch them, and kick them. Vaneida yelled “Dr. King Rules!” to the others. One of their attackers yelled back, “Not here he don’t!” and punched her in the stomach. Vaneida took the blow and pressed on.

As they were approaching the exit, security men of some vague sort (police? Secret Service? U.S. Marshals? Joe could not be certain) were approaching them. After a few seconds, they met up, with Joe in the lead. “She’s bleeding,” Joe said, pointing to Jenna. “Just get us out of here. Then you can arrest us.”

The first security man looked a bit confused, but nodded, and he and the other formed a phalanx in front of Joe and the other three, who had still been being pummeled and spat upon as they came forward. Vaneida seemed to notice a glint of recognition between one of the security officers and Joe. Almost immediately, as the officers flanked them and they all started moving toward the exit, the beating stopped, and they were whisked out of the storm with no further damage.

The security men brought them to a tree and had them sit down under it. The four of them pulled masks out of their pockets and put them on.

“That’s a pretty bad cut above your eye,” Joe said to Jenna. He turned to the security men. “You guys have any first aid?” One of the security men went off, presumably to get some.

Vaneida finally exhaled. “Good work,” she said to her three colleagues. “We did what we came to do. I hope the TV cameras picked it up. But at least we can say we were here, representing.”

She looked over at Joe. “You know those guys?”

“Huh?” Joe replied.

“The security guys. You know them or something?”

“No,” Joe said. “Maybe they sensed I was one of them, sort of.”

“Huh.”

Joe got up and went over to the remaining security man. They talked for a minute. Then he came back and sat down.

“I guess we’re going to be arrested. They’re staying with us until the D.C. cops get here. They may cuff us, they may not. He said probably we’re going to the D.C. lockup in Southeast. We’ll probably be booked and then released.”

The second security man came back with disinfectant and some tape and gauze. He walked up to Jenna, knelt down, and put latex gloves on.

“Let me put it on,” Janice said.

“You’re under arrest,” he said. “We have to do it. Liability and stuff.”

The man disinfected his hands, then wiped the cut off and applied a topical disinfectant ointment. Jenna cringed. Then he got out the gauze and tape and covered the wound.

“That should do till you get to the jail,” he said. Jenna leaned back on the tree.

Vaneida suddenly began to shiver uncontrollably as the initial adrenaline hit passed. She remembered that she had left her coat and sweatshirt and back brace in the ticketed area. And it was January.

“Take my coat,” said Joe aid.

“No,” she said.

“I’ve still got a sweatshirt. Take it.”

“I’ll take your coat if you turn that damn sweatshirt inside out,” she said. 

Joe grinned and complied. The four of them waited for the police.

 

© 2020 Nolan O’Brian