The Parenthood Drabbles

Silent Protests

Silent Protests

In the style of Ms. La Rue and Ares

Tape across their mouths, and signs at their feet, Leah and her group settled themselves in for a long day of nothing on Capitol Hill. Well, not nothing. They were sitting near the white house with tape across their mouths to protest the Gulf War and all the child victims who didn't get any attention or have any voices. The tape was symbolic. Plus there had been a lot of fundraising to get everybody from the university's campus in Arizona to DC, to join the massive protests that were going to occur this whole week. Her group was starting early for the hell of it.

People –tourists, workers, students- all passed by, looking curiously at them. Some of them stopped to read their signs and those were Leah's favourite people of the day. Some glanced and walked on, which was okay too she supposed.

A motorcycle was splitting the crowd. The biker paused right in front of them, the ugly black smoke from his exhaust tank making the air nauseating and unhealthy. He looked at them, reading the signs and threw his head back laughing. Downright laughing. Right in front of them!

Leah got up and as soon as she was on the pavement and not on the grass she took the tape off her mouth.

"Do you mind?" She asked. "Some of us have traveled a long way to be here, and we've put some effort into the signs and coordination. Just because you're a jerk –and I know this because you laughed and because you're idling in a huge crowd- doesn't mean you get to ridicule that and all these people who have better intentions than you can ever hope to have, thank you very much."

The man lifted his sunglasses, somewhat taken back, but grinning. His smile wasn't that bad when his eyes -fiery eyes- were set on you.

"You know, for a pacifist you're pretty fierce." He said. He held out his hand. "My name's Ares."