WIP Clip Wednesday: No Politics at the Table

So our heroine, Colby, sailed into town to recruit our hero, Mac, into the organization for which she works.  Since Mac’s coworkers had just been talking about his long-time girlfriend, Grace, whom none of them have ever met, they assumed Colby was Grace.  To fill in the gap where Mac should have stepped in and corrected them but didn’t, Colby slipped into the role.  For some reason, Mac has chosen to let that go.  So now Colby is posing as Grace.  She still hasn’t had a chance to get Mac alone and explain why she’s here.  She’s prepared him a lovely dinner, but his friend, Curtis aka Moochy, has shown up and joined them.  We’re in Mac’s head.

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            The moment seemed to go on between the two of them.  Colby’s dark eyes held his, and Moochy’s voice was just an annoying drone in the background that he barely noticed.  Then suddenly Colby changed.  She frowned, scowled even, and a little crease formed above the bridge of her nose.  Her eyes took on a hard glint, and everything about her suddenly seemed edgy. 

            “I’m sorry, Curtis.  I missed that.  Where did this happen?”

            “Just outside San Antonio.  Rounded them all up and took them away just yesterday.  It was in the paper.  It must have been big talk; I’m surprised you didn’t hear about it.”

            “I guess I was too busy getting ready to come out here to see Mac.  I’m afraid I don’t pay much attention to what’s in the news if I can help it.”

            “Well, I think the paper said there were five of them living there together.  Just think Grace, that close to you.  You might even have met them.  You might have even been serving terrorists in that restaurant you work at.”

            “And what makes you say they were terrorists?”

            Moochy didn’t seem to notice the brittle tone Colby’s voice had taken on, but Moochy was an imbecile. 

            “Well, it’s obvious isn’t it?  Freaks like that, holed up together, hiding out from the authorities.  Who knows what they might have been cooking up.”

            “Maybe they just wanted to, you know, live?  Like everybody else?”

            “Can’t live like everybody else if you’re not like everybody else, can you?”

            Surely seems to be the case.

            “You’re not one of the terrorist sympathizers, are you Grace?”

            “Can we talk about something else, please?” Mac cut in.  He was surprised that Colby looked ready to pound Moochy into the ground.  He would have bet nothing ever got to her.  Moochy was looking back at Colby with a calculation that was making Mac even more nervous.  Any time Moochy started thinking too much, no good came of it for anyone. 

            “Well I don’t know, Mac,” Grace began, “it’s an interesting discussion, and I don’t think we’ve ever had it.  Do you think the differently-abled-”

            “Differently-abled,” Moochy snorted.

            “-have an obligation to turn themselves in to the federal government?

            “Well… I think-”

            “Why wouldn’t they turn themselves in?” Moochy interrupted.  “It’s for everyone’s protection.  NIAC teaches them how to use their abilities so they don’t hurt us ordinary citizens.  Or themselves, for that matter.” 

            “The National Institute for Ability Control.”  Colby gave an unladylike snort.  “They turn those people into slaves.  Sure they teach them how to control their abilities.  So they can use them as unpaid soldiers doing God knows what.”

            “Ho ho!  Now there’s a rumor!”  Moochy took another swig from his bottle.

            “Have you ever heard of any of those people coming back from NIAC?  They pull little kids away from their families and they’re never seen again.  How long do you think it takes to teach them control?  What do you think NIAC is training them for?”

            “Mac, you never told me your girlfriend was one of those bleeding-heart libertarians.  And a conspiracy theorist too, huh?  We’re not at war anymore, sweetheart.”

            “Not as far as you know.”

            “Ok, that’s enough.  Both of you.”  Mac’s head was swimming.  Colby might as well get Freak Sympathizer tattooed on her forehead and turn herself in right now.  And if Mac couldn’t find a way to gloss over this with Moochy, it would be all over town by tomorrow.

            He wanted to put his head down on the table until it all went away.  He hated these conversations, because he never really knew where he stood on the issues.  On the one hand, if everyone who manifested abilities turned themselves in the way they were supposed to, everyone would probably be a lot safer.  Certainly his parents’ lives would have been a lot easier if they had just turned him in rather than trying to hide him and keep the family together all those years.  He thought about all the moves, the loss of his father’s business, how his mother had to go to work to help support them, and how everything had changed.  Maybe if the laws weren’t so strict, maybe if they allowed little kids to stay with their parents, maybe there wouldn’t be so many cases like his, of people growing up hiding what they were from the government and everyone else.  If the government had had control of the group that did the Templeton Wagner Bombing, hundreds of lives could have been saved, thousands if you counted everyone who died in the riots afterward.  If you counted his parents.

            “You both know how much I hate to talk about this crap.  Can’t we just enjoy this nice meal that Grace prepared and leave the politics to the politicians?”

            “Maybe I’ll just leave the politics and the meal,” Colby said as she pushed back her chair.  “I’ve suddenly lost my appetite.”

            She sailed out of the room and disappeared down the hallway to the two bedrooms.  Great.  Apparently he would have to deal with her later.  But right now he had serious damage control to manage with Mooch.  Mac got up and moved to the fridge to get more beer while trying to think of a story to cover “Grace’s” sympathies.  He had a feeling it was going to take a lot of beer to get Moochy to forget Colby’s “unpatriotic” attitude.

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