"𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙗𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙚
𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙮𝙨
𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙪𝙧."
1974, a year of progression for the feminist movement in santa monica and all because of one evette green, daughter to the city's f...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Saturday 1oth August 1974 - 7:54pm
— EVETTE WAS CONFUSED. "You can't remember anything?" The soldier simply shook his head at her question, his face was solemn after eating for the first time in days. His eating habits were awful, often he would go the entire length of time he was on a mission without food and instead of actual dinner they'd give him an IV drip and he'd be on his way back into the cryo-chamber. "No." He muttered and Evette could only try her best to piece it all together. "This is insane." She muttered standing up and scratching her hair in disbelief, she stared at his arm once more and was hesitant to ask before blurting it out. "Your arm?" He flickered his eyes to her own and he clenched his fist, he knew she would ask about it eventually. "I don't know." He said, not having any answers as to how his arm was man made. Perhaps it was a birth defect and they made him a new one. "May I?" She asked, holding out her hand and he stared at the metal accoutrement that paired poorly with his flesh, before nodding to her unusual request.
Her finger tips were uncertain of their movement but she came to the conclusion that despite his hesitant expression, she was free to touch the prosthetic. They grazed over gently, unsure of how sensitive or receptive it was to touch and the scale-like layers shuffled and she almost smiled in marvel of the most advanced prosthetic she had ever laid eyes on. "I took a job in a hospital as a cleaner when I was younger, I spent most of my time cleaning up vomit, blood, piss and the awful hospital jello they made that people would throw to the floor in disgust - but one day I met this guy. His name was Aaron, he was a war vet from Vietnam and had been sent home because his arm had been completely taken off by a stray land mine and had to be amputated right up to the shoulder." She ran her finger over one of the plates, marvelling at the mirrored effect and seeing her fingerprints lay on top of the metal. "I'm sure he would've killed anyone or anything to have this arm because all he wanted to do was be able to protect his country."
"Are you telling me to be thankful?"
"No that's not what I mean at all because that's frankly insensitive, but I'm telling you to look at things from a different angle..." she sighed "Why can't you get out of this?" She asked, honestly wondering why the hell he hadn't gotten out yet because he sure as hell could. He was trained to disappear, blend in and to look like no one and everyone. Why hadn't he taken a chance like this and vanished?
"Because they would find me." He was certain, that showed itself in his voice, but it wavered by the fear of it all. He had lost all hope in freedom. "Let them then..." he immediately looks to her at the statement "because surely a week of freedom is better then years more of torment and having your liberty stripped from you." He looked away, unsure of how to answer that. "I'm a pansexual black woman living in a world made for straight white men, my liberty has limits because of who I was born as, but I fight against the oppression and I take every moment of freedom as a gift."
Somehow her hand, whilst her fingertips had been grazing his arm, had found its way in top of his own, no doubt with the intention of comforting him. But without a second thought, Evette tore it away as it felt things were growing far too intimate between them. She couldn't be friends with him, he was her kidnapper, but not by his own choice she had learnt. Her heart weeped at the injustice the man had been served in a silver palm and no doubt in her mind had she believed this man had done wrong, all men had, but no one deserves this. This complete and utter loss of choice, this skinning down of his volition whilst living and breathing, taking away the most valid right that everyone deserved but some took advantage of. Freedom of speech, freedom of action, this had never meant freedom of consequence.
In Eve's toiling mind, she began to think so solemnly of the man sat in front of her, barely able to stomach a slice of toast that he didn't believe he could say yes to when asked. He was taunted by freedom, it was dangling in front of his face like a curtain hangs to cover a window from allowing you to look in or to see out. This soldier couldn't look out and Evette could barely get a look in, but she felt he had begun to open up. Awfully, Eve still felt like smashing another lamp over the mans head, perhaps her escape would be successful, but when there was injustice such as this within her reach, then she wouldn't pull the wool over her eyes and ignore it.
She wasn't built that way.
"Have you slept?" She asked, suddenly changing the subject before yawning loudly at the very mention of sleep despite having just over 14 hours of sleep. "No, I don't sleep." He monotonously replied and she rolled her eyes. "Don't? Or can't?" The soldier looked away and decided not to answer, attempting to ignore the question but the expressive captive was persistent; however, he was in charge. "Stop asking questions." He said before standing up and pulling out his gun, Evette stumbled back and looked up at him in confusion.
"Are you-... what are you-..." the soldier simply ignored her before striding toward her, her back against the table in such a unpredictable situation. He placed the gun on the table beside her and looked her in the eye, an uncertain and fearful expression in the cold, metallic look of his eye. "Shoot me and go... I won't stop you."
Evette took a look at the gun lain on the table and reached her hand out to it, she ran her palms over it's shape as she picked it up before meeting eyes with the very man who handed it to her. Eve took one step and suddenly the gap between them was almost non existent. She pulled the gun up higher to be in between their chests before gently placing it back into his holster. "They'll just come for me again, I'm almost certain of it." Evette said, actually not believing they would come for her again, but truly, she couldn't shoot him. She couldn't shoot anyone, let alone him. "I'm giving you a chance to get out of here, to run and be free... take it." He forced the weapon back into her hands but the she pushed it away and back toward the soldier. "No." She said before walking back upstairs into the bathroom.
