CHAPTER 17

The knocking was not what Nate had hoped for. It turned out to be real. He groaned, refused to open his eyes, and mumbled under his breath, “please be a dream, please be a dream.” When he heard his name being called from a distance, he knew it was not. Nate slid out of the bed, rapped the covers around his hips, and stumbled to the door of his hotel room. He had to rub his eyes before the person on the other side came into focus, then Nate panicked, “Sara!” He slammed the door in her face, “one minute!”

With some pants on now, and still trying to pull his shirt right side out, he opened the door again and told the teenager, “sorry about that. You kind of caught me at a bad moment.”

Sara wandered into the room and looked around, almost like she was expecting to find somebody, then she asked, “I didn’t interrupt you, did I?”

“No,” Nate replied as he slid his shirt on, “I was just…you know, doing that thing called sleep.”

That seemed to amuse the teenager and she stepped up to Nate, flicked a finger down his chest and said, “well time to go to work sleepy head. Unless,” she paused as she almost skipped over to the dresser, “of course, if you got something more pressing to do right now?”

Nate could not figure out, for the life of him, what in the hell was it with the women in this family! He blushed for a second and then he said, “uhh, well, not really. Course I didn’t know your Mom had anything planned for today ether so, I was just laying around, um, sleeping.”

That made the seventeen year old giggle a little more and then she said, “well get dressed. We need to get on the road.”

Was it just Nate or did she really sound like she was saying, “can I watch?’ He was so busy thinking about that as he walked to the bathroom, locked the door behind him, and realized that he barely understood the meaning of her actual words. When he looked back out of the bathroom door he definitely had an expression of surprise and confusion, “we’re going somewhere?”

Sara seemed rather excited about it, “uh-huh, Gainesville.”

Finally dressed, Nate walked out of the bathroom and began looking for his shoes. He then asked, “and that is where exactly? Do I need to plan for a long trip?”

Sara waived it off, “on no. It’s just a couple of hours up seventy-five. That’s where I’m going to college next year.”

None of it really made any sense and the more brain cells that Nate had come on line, the less sense that it actually made. He was definitely missing something here, “so are we going to look over your campus or something? I, um, I’m lost.”

Sara seemed to take it with a grain of salt. She pointed to her phone, “well Mom didn’t get a chance to tell you cause it all happened so fast. We weren’t even sure we could pull it off at such short notice but, Clancy came through for us. So, off we go!”

“I’m still lost,” Nate said with a blank look on his face.

“Silly,” Sara slapped him on the arm and then giggled. “We had to take advantage of the situation and it isn’t going to last long.”

Nate kept his blank look, “and that’s Clancy talking. Is Sara in there somewhere?”

She rolled her eyes and said, “the thing in London? They’re protesting over there so we have to do it here.” Sara looked mighty proud of herself.

Nate blinked, “that’s great, protesting what?”

“The war silly,” Sara developed the ‘duh’ look, complete with hand on hip.

“Well I guess that’s better than Disney,” Nate said scratching his head. Then he asked, “any particular reason we’re doing that today?” Before the girl could make like he was stupid again, Nate told her, “and don’t tell me London unless you tell me what’s going on in London first.”

Sara sounded perky when she said, “oh they’re burning the place down. I’ve been watching it on my phone all morning.”

“That’s nice,” Nate replied, paused, and then said, “to know.”

As they walked through the lobby of the hotel, Nate peeled off to the front desk even though Sara protested. He sent her for the car and then looked back at the clerk, “Debbie, you wouldn’t happen to have my mail would you? My mother said she was sending me something.”

The girl looked under the desk and grew a smile as she pulled out an oversized envelop. It had a return address of from Lancaster and it was most definitely his mother’s handwriting. Nate paid it no more attention and shoved it in his pocket. It was at times like that when he really missed home. He might still be wearing a jacket right now and would have some place to put his mail!

Before Nate walked out, he did ask Debbie one more question, “um, what’s going on in London?” The girl looked confused so he said, “England?”

“Oh,” her face lit up, “yeah I heard some people talking about that earlier. Something about a Muslim uprising? I didn’t figure it could have been all that important, I guess. Could it?”

Nate’s eyes got big and then he forced a smile and said, “you’re probably right. I wouldn‘t worry.”

As Sara drove up Interstate Seventy-five, Nate sat in the passenger seat and read articles, off the internet, with his phone. About the time he saw a sign that said they were near some place called Ocala, and wondered if every name down here was weirder than the ones in Feyland, Nate found that he was wondering about something else as well. That’s why he asked, “we’re not going to burn anything down today, are we?”

The first bad sign was that Sara had to think about it before answering, “I don’t think so. I mean, nobody said anything to me about it.”

“Comforting,” Nate replied with an edge of sarcasm. He then asked, “what is it your Mom wants to do?”

Sara deflated right then and said, “if you want me to tell you that I don’t understand all this, then, ok, fine, I don’t. Happy?”

“Wait a minute Sara,” Nate asked sincerely, “now I know your Mom has been doing a lot of stuff. She’s told me about some of it. I just kind of figured you always knew.” When Sara didn’t answer, Nate asked, “if you don’t know what’s going on, why are you doing this?”

“You already know that Nate,” Sara told her. “I want my sister back. I want to make the people who took her from me, pay for what they did.”

That sounded like pure emotion and a few other pure things as well. Still, Nate did not figure he could argue with the girl. What you felt is what you felt. Rationality didn’t enter into it. Nate could sure testify to that because his emotions were on a constant roller coaster ride these days. Still, Nate had to bring up one thing, “Sara, we don’t know who took Angie from us.”

“Yeah we do,” Sara said with an edge of bitterness, “the fucking elves. The damn government isn’t innocent ether. They sent you two over there. You can’t tell me you don’t hold that against them?”

Did he? Nate had never really thought about it. The way he always saw it, he had joined the army voluntarily. What did he have to bitch about? Well, he did his share in the army and, while his life after had not been some dream world, it was still a far sight better than all those three thirty wake up calls. As for the rest, what both he and Angie had gone through, Nate was not sure he blamed anybody. Bad things happened, you just had to deal with it. Nate suspected that Sara wasn’t coping quite as well as he was.

Of course, Nate did not say any of that to her. What was the point? She was most definitely not going to listen. What he did say was, “I miss her.”

“Me too,” Sara told him. “That’s one reason why I like spending time with you Nate. You’re the only person I can say that too.”

That sounded odd to Nate, “what about your Mom?”

“Mom?” Sara looked at him funny, “have you ever tried to talk to your mother?”

“Um,” Nate scratched the back of his head and mulled that one over before he said, “tried yes, succeeded, um, not really.”

Sara didn’t laugh, she stayed serious, “Mom’s all caught up in her plans. I mean, I believe in what she’s doing but, she doesn’t have much time for me these days. Sometimes, I think she wants too. I kind of see it in her eyes when she’s looking at me, you know, when she doesn’t know I know? She’s just got Clancy so far up her ass right now…”

There were no tears. Nate wondered about that. Had Sara already exhausted hers as well? He wasn’t sure. He knew he had tapped reserves he didn’t know he had. The bad part was, Nate was not even sure why he was doing it back then. For some strange reason though, something else was happening in him now. He thought he had found someone that actually needed him. It gave him some kind of purpose and, for a long time, Nate never thought that would happen again. He liked it.

“Don’t worry about Clancy,” Nate told Sara. “Your Mom knows all about him.”

“I know,” Sara replied in an almost snotty kind of tone. “I don’t much like him ether but, he has come through for us. He’s the one that forced the Pentagon to admit she was in trouble. It wasn’t quick enough though.”

That last part came off as very bitter and it was something that Nate could understand. What he didn’t was, “what do you mean not fast enough? What trouble?”

“You know,” Sara said, “when you guys were trapped in that elf city? The place where she got killed.”

Why was it that this did not sound exactly like what Nate remembered? It was basically correct but way too general to really get at the truth of the matter. Nate sighed and told Sara, “we don’t know that she’s really dead Sara. It wasn’t as simple as we got trapped. There was a lot that led up to that. A lot that happened after.”

“Oh believe me,” Sara was definitely venting now, “I know. We had all those media people mobbing our house. Mom was having a nervous breakdown and they kept coming up to the windows, trying to peek in. We had to call the Sheriff’s department! Then we had those people from the army, and the suit guys from, I don’t what they called themselves, State?”

“The State Department,” Nate told her but she didn’t care.

“They did all these investigation things,” Sara complained. “Didn’t look to me like they were really doing anything at all. What? Did they think they were going to find her in our house? Then it all just went away, like somebody snapped their fingers. Then that elf guy showed up.”

Nate was not sure what surprised him more, that an elf showed up at their house or the fact that Sara was so bitter about it? Dana had never bothered to mention it and Nate soon found out why. Sara told him, “she kicked his ass out. He was covered in robes and furs. It was like he was making the whole thing into a sick joke.”

“Olyan-Notae,” Nate mumbled under his breath.

Sara’s head snapped around when she heard that word. Nate had to remind the kid to look back at the road. She almost ran right up the bumper of the car in front of them. When Sara recovered from her near wreck, she sighed, “thank you. Sorry. I was just.. That was who that guy said he was. I couldn’t really pronounce it but…”

“That wasn’t his name,” Nate said. “That was his clan. When you said furs, that tipped me off.”

Sara saw the strange kind of reflection that she had just set off, “what? I don’t get it?”

“I just realized, Sara,” Nate told her seriously, “that maybe I didn’t get it ether. I didn’t know about the elf. I always thought the Notae’s were ass holes but, that guy came a long way to pay homage to your sister.”

“No,” Sara replied, “he was…”

“They don’t wear that stuff unless it’s for something very serious, very official, and very deep felt,” Nate told her. “If he had furs on then he was probably military. So I have to figure they were honoring your sister as a warrior.”

Now Sara shrunk, “I didn’t realize that. Oh god, now I feel bad. Mom, she blew up at him.”

“Don’t worry kiddo,” Nate told her, “we’re humans, they’re used to it.”

As it turned out, there were also elves at the campus of the big university that they were going too. Nate saw them a good distance away from the little gathering of people he was with. Nate wondered if they were students here and he was willing to bet that was the case since one of them, a female, had the right mascot on her sweater. He did not really wonder if those three were concerned that much about the demonstration. They were actually holding up their cameras like they were taking pictures of it. Nate got the impression that they were more curious and entertained than anything else.

The way Nate had it figured, why should they be concerned? The crowd that had gathered here might have been waving more than a few derogatory signs about the elves but, you could probably fit the entire crew in less than one good sized restaurant, and still have room for a wedding party rehearsal dinner. If they had come here to send someone a message, they most certainly had. The way Nate read the e-mail was, “our cause is not really popular.” If these guys were supposed to encourage peace then anyone who saw it would think the door was wide open for a US invasion of everywhere else and the moon.

That’s why Nate had to wonder why Clancy was smiling. He had been loitering around behind the little stage that a moving crew had brought out. The guy had rented it, the sound equipment, had a lot of banners and signs made up, and the crew who brought it was all sitting over on the tailgate of their truck, not really interested in why they were here. Sara had actually gone over and tried to get them to join in and they were more interested in watching the grass grow. They were polite enough with their answer but, Sara still came back empty handed.

Clancy met her on the way back, and acted cheerful enough as he handed her a bullhorn and said to the teenager, “not everybody gets it kiddo, shake it off and go to work.” Sara did just that as her mother came down off the stage after giving her long rant. The Teenager went out and began shouting in the bullhorn. She seemed to get more attention than her mother did and before long, at least their ‘protestors’ were making a little bit of noise. When Dana approached Clancy, she seemed apprehensive about the turn out but, again, Clancy looked like a man who had things under control. He told the mother, “we got this. It’s almost time, so, go get ready.”

As Dana walked off, Clancy wandered over to Nate and offered him a stick of gum. Nate took it and then went back to watching the crowd while Clancy was watching news video’s with his phone. Apparently they were clips off of Youtube, and from what Nate could tell, Clancy’s sexual tastes tended toward guys on the street, throwing flaming bottles into a cloud of smoke. It was an interesting fetish.

Nate decided to ask the guy about their crowd, and he decided not to mention it’s size, or lack thereof. Instead he asked more about the quality as opposed to quantity. Nate pointed to the signs they were holding up, “what does burning elves at the stake have to do with give peace a chance? I thought this was supposed to be a peace rally?”

Clancy was quite chipper about it, or just maybe, he was enthralled by his video’s. That was very possible seeing as how he never took his eyes off the screen, “nothing. Just think of it as a marketing angle. I thought I’d see if we could get some traction there. You have to understand, it’s a race weekend down here. You’d have a hard time getting people to show up for free beer, let alone anything important.”

“Ok,” Nate really didn’t get the gist of that despite how he sounded to Clancy. Anything important? Race weekend? Wouldn’t people be more inclined to show up for something important which, would be anything but a car race? He shook it off and noted, “seems to me that people would be a little more interested in joining if they didn’t think you were trying to start the next chapter of the human brotherhood of the Klu Klux Klan?”

“You know I actually tried to hire some of those guys to come down here,” Clancy said in an almost whimsical way. “Course you know what the dirty little secret of the Klan Club is? There is no Klan Club. It’s nothing more than some isolated red necks drinking beer in their mother’s basements, and wishing they were somebody.”

Nate did not believe the guy, “I’ve seen them on the news. I know they’re real.”

“Speaking of which,” Clancy switched over his phone to the time and that was really the only nervous look he had made all day. He scanned the campus and only looked satisfied when he noticed a small van parked over between some buildings. Then the guy squared up with Nate and sounded quite superior as he held up a video that was running on his phone and said, “know where this is?”

It was a video of some guy running away from a line of police that were marching up a street. Nate just took the obvious choice, “um, taking a guess here but, London maybe?”

“Wrong,” Clancy replied, “this is Seattle. It was uploaded about two hours ago. Probably taken earlier today.”

“Ok,” Nate crossed his arms and did not sound very impressed, “they’re rioting in Seattle. What are they mad about? Did Fairy Dust step on their religion too?”

“Oh hell no,” Clancy almost laughed, “they’re probably all big consumers of it. Not the point…”

Sara called out from the crowd where she had them all singing. She asked Clancy, “they’re coming, Do you see them?”

“Yeah,” Clancy yelled back before telling the teen, “you know what to do! Get ‘em lined up!” He then looked back to Nate, “how many protestors did you see in that video?”

Nate just shrugged, “I guess there was a whole bunch. That was a lot of police coming down that street.”

“Listen to what you just said,” Clancy told him, “a lot of police. I’ll give you the answer, there was one guy throwing rocks. He probably wasn’t even a protestor. In fact, you didn’t even see any protestors.”

That struck Nate like a bolt of lightening. He and Clancy had watched the exact same video and, now Nate wondered, why had they not seen the same thing? Nate hated to admit that the smug bastard was right but, he was. Nate, obviously, gave away his thoughts because the former congressman went on, “yeah and I’m not in everybody’s living room to point that out. I’d even be willing to bet the guy that was causing the police to march forward, well, what do you want bet, he was paid to do that by somebody like me. Well not exactly like me, obviously the guy that paid him had more money. That’s what we’re working for here.”

That left Nate thinking as Clancy walked off to join Sara. He had a lot more luck getting the crowd organized and, when Dana got back, the despondent mother had a lot more luck getting them worked up into a frenzy. The two women got people packed in tight as Clancy headed off to meet a news crew that was walking across the big open grounds of the campus. When Clancy met them, Nate watched him haggle. They were pointing, discussing, holding their hands up and looking through their fingers like it was the lens of a camera. They finally parted company and the news people went to a certain spot to set up. Clancy came back and passed off some instructions to the girls, who then led their little procession to what was probably a more photogenic spot.

As Clancy walked back up to Nate, he was still yelling to the Thompson’s, “give ‘em about twenty, they want to do a few promo’s first!” The guy was more than happy when he stopped next to Nate and relaxed. He then told the former soldier, “you see, I knew they’d come.”

Nate was still bewildered, “did you pay the reporter to come out here too?”

That drew a look that made Nate feel as if he had just committed heresy. From the sound of Clancy’s response, he supposed that he probably did. Clancy told him, “oh hell no. You don’t pay those guys. That’s the really good part. Their sponsors, you know the guys who buy advertising, they do it for you. What you pay all your money for is to sell enough of the idea that you got something that will up their ratings. Then they show up for free, well sort of free. Sometimes I think it would be cheaper if we actually could just up and bribe them.” Clancy shrugged the idea off and added, “oh well, not how the game is played even if it would make things a lot easier.”

Because Nate seemed amused by this, Clancy told him, “you see all those people out there bunching up in front of the camera’s yelling?”

Nate chuckled and sarcastically replied, “oh yeah, I’m scared of being trampled.”

Clancy ignored the sarcastic remark and continued, “by my estimates, they cost us about three hundred dollars a head.”

Nate’s eyes opened wide, “you paid them to be here?”

Clancy thought nothing of it, “some of them. Most of them aren’t smart enough to ask for that. Doesn’t matter anyway, cause all the time, money, energy, website bills, lunch meetings, all that crap, divided by that number of people, and that’s about what we spent.”

When it was clear the soldier was flabbergasted, Clancy shook it off and said, “Nate, this is America. Nobody does anything for free and I’m pretty sure it works that way in other countries too. You want people to show up for something, you need organization and, that my friend, requires money. It’s not something we have a hell of a lot of at the moment.”

Again, Nate chuckled and pointed to the little crowd that was marching in circles around the cameras. He supposed that it made it look like a continuous line of many more people. Of course, Nate figured, who knew what it would look like on television, after it was edited. Watching it actually happen was almost comical and, more to the point, from the looks of the people doing the marching, Nate surmised, “well you aren’t going to get much money out of that crew.”

Clancy rolled his eyes at Nate and told him, “course not. If you’re making a movie, do you hit up the actors to pay for the production costs? No, you find your money guy to do that. That’s what all those people over there are, Nate, they’re the actors.”

“Don’t tell them that,” Nate mumbled. Then he remarked more audibly, “here’s an idea, how about trying to get a demonstration together, the old fashioned way. You know, find people who actually believe in your cause?”

“This is the old fashioned way,” Clancy snickered. “What? You thought all those old films of the sixties wasn’t a theatrical production? You know the old give peace a chance, Vietnam stuff? They were done just like this and that’s how good they were, Nate. To this day, most people still don’t even know that. The people that do, they don’t care because they just love doing shit like this. It makes them feel special, important, all that crap.”

“Ok fine,” Nate was still skeptical but, it wasn’t what was most on his mind right now, “you’re paying me a hell of a lot more than three hundred dollars a day for this. So far, I haven’t done anything. What’s my part in this?”

Clancy looked like he had just heard the stupidest thing ever. He was quite animated and excited when he answered, “you’re the star Nate! You’re the hero! Those guys over there,” he pointed to the marching, “they’re just extras.” Then Clancy became a bit more serious when he said, “look Nate, you have an incredible opportunity here. If we can make this fly, and it’s looking pretty good right now…”

That made Nate wonder. This rally did not particularly impress him, even with all the tricks that Clancy was pulling. How did he figure that? Who was he going to impress with this? Nate really did not figure it was going to convince mom and pop to get off their couch and hit the streets in anger. They couldn’t even get any students in the middle of a college campus!

Clancy’s response to that line was simple, “I don’t care about impressing any of them. Right now, all we need to do is impress one man.” Clancy flipped through his screens and found an article with a picture of an old white guy with an even whiter beard. He held it up for Nate to see and told him, “that’s who we need to impress.”

Nate actually recognized the guy. He was on television enough, “the Reverend Emmet Shoals? Um, pardon me for saying so Clancy, but isn’t that guys politics just a little right wing for you?”

“Oh come on Nate,” again Clancy was not impressed, “right wing, left wing, that’s just what we pay the pundits to keep saying because it keeps our rank and file in line. This guy is the money guy. He’s got what comes with cash, an organization, people, real communications, access to the media but, he needs things to keep that together so he can still get calls to show up for talk shows.”

Nate arched a brow at that, “you’re telling me, this guy is running a protest movement so he can do TV interviews?”

“For fifty to sixty grand a pop,” Clancy said while salivating, “wouldn’t you? I mean, look, the guy has incredible overhead but, yeesh, he’s on the tube everyday and those fees that he makes, well, they add up.”

“Why is it Clancy,” Nate asked suspiciously, “that you sound more like you’re running a business here?”

“That’s exactly what it is Nate,” the ex congressman replied, “it’s a business. I mean don’t get me wrong, sure we’re doing something important here but, who says we can’t make a living while doing it? That’s how this stuff has always been done.”

That led Nate to another question, “what about London?”

“Same thing,” Clancy replied, “only with a lot more money involved. I mean, I don’t know who’s behind all that or why they’re doing it but, somebody is. Things like that, like this, they don’t happen just because Nate. That’s a fools pipe dream.”

“And,” Nate filled in, “that still doesn’t answer my question, while bringing up another one, am I the fool? Cause I still don’t know why you’d spend all that money for me to sit in a hotel room drinking beer all day.”

“I told you,” Clancy replied, “you’re the star.” When it was clear that the former soldier still didn’t get it, Clancy explained, “Do you know what Shoals needs to keep his business going? It’s what he sells to the media. Stories Nate, good stories, he’s basically a story teller. They don’t just come to him, he has to find them.”

Nate looked back out at the marching which, at this point, had broken down into lines of people standing in front of the cameras, shoving their faces right in the lenses, and yelling angrily at the top of their lungs. Nate realized that what that Reverend mostly said was more anti elf than anti war. That’s when it occurred to Nate, “that’s why you passed out those particular signs. They’re more Shoals style?”

“His style,” Clancy made quotations with his fingers as he said the last word. Then he continued, “is whatever gets him stories. Right now, the war is a bust. It’s boring. The media doesn’t want it. So he harps on elves because they look better on camera, you know, more so than a bunch of guys marching around in greenish tan with guns on their shoulders.”

“Don’t you see,” Clancy continued, “we have a story Nate. It’s a good one. It’s a romantic love story and it’s, like, almost custom made for all this. People eat that stuff up.”

“I thought,” Nate pointed out, “that Angie had kind of played out on the news, a long time ago.”

“Oh yeah, sure,” Clancy replied, “Angie did. You know I’m the one who made her a story, course, it was a good thing Dana had all those video’s of her. I’m the guy who gave them to the press, oh yeah, and by the way, she was smoking hot in that cheerleader outfit. Way to go big guy.” Then Clancy shook that off and got back to his original point, “but in all that, nobody ever really told the story of you guys. Play your cards right and, in a few years, you’ll be picking the teenage cover boy who plays you in the movie version.”

Nate was not so sure how he felt about this. He was not even sure he believed it. The one thing he did know, he remarked to Clancy about, “you sound pretty confident.”

“Oh yeah,” Clancy replied. “I am. All we have to do is keep waiving the flag long enough and, sooner or later, the good Reverend Shoals is bound to notice. Then we do as they say in Hollywood, pitch him our script.”