Tiva briskly walked the other way. The noise of crowds and shots got still louder. As she rounded the corner, no clue where she was or where she was going, she was met by another crowd being pushed back into the street. She turned back around.
The noises raised to a roar and Tiva found herself in the middle of a warzone. Indiscriminate shouts filled her ears.
“Hi! I’m Concordia! What’s your name?” A bright-faced young woman with an asymmetrical haircut hidden beneath a loosely tied handkerchief reached out her hand in greeting.
“Umm… what is this? I’m just trying to get home. They just let me out of prison…. Oh, uh my name is Tiva. What’s yours? I mean, nice to meet you.”
Corcordia laughed. “First time? Welcome to the movement. Just stick with me and you’ll be alright.”
Concordia handed Tiva a ziploc bag with a neatly folded handkerchief in it. “Put this on next time they shoot tear gas. It’ll smell bad, but it will help you breathe,” Concordia urged. She took Tiva’s hand and pulled her toward the police line.
“What are you protesting?”
“It’s not a protest. It’s civil disobedience. There’s a curfew, and we’re out past the curfew. We were just watching movies together. Then these guys showed up and ruined it all.”
“Why are you staying out late like this? Isn’t it dangerous? Don’t you value these people’s lives?”
“Have you ever been out on a date late at night, getting ice cream from a street vendor, and laughing while you breathe the crisp night air? Have you ever gone to a concert? Like a real one, in person? Have you felt the breath and the skin of two hundred people around you all united to enjoy the art of one person? What you do isn’t life. What you do is wait.”
“Isn’t waiting a part of life?” Tiva retorted in attempt at humor, stumbling briefly over a curb.
“Waiting is almost none of life. If your life is waiting, then you aren’t alive. You’re a bag of organs.”
Tiva tried hard not to dwell back upon the encounter a few days before. Before then it was like a human’s touch was a memory long-forgotten.
“Fair enough. You’ll have to teach me how to really live…”
*Crack!*
Tiva looked over to see Concordia at her knees, blood pouring from her brow.
“Somebody help!” She shrieked.
Bryan Appley 