Entering the room where the debate would be held, I was quickly able to see that the results of the first debate had really energized a lot of people. From what I had learned is that Hireman never really faced an opponent that was worth campaigning against. So, Hireman had never felt the need to campaign all that much, as he would be voted in as the “lesser” of two evils. But Tabby wasn’t like the previous people who had run against him, and mine and Molly’s presence had brought a hot button issue that the present race revolved around. That meant that more people would be energized by the race itself and would take a more vested interest in it.
And that fact was obvious as Molly and I made our way in. There were many more people there for the second debate then there had been for the first. Many looked back as Molly and I entered, but for once, the “knee-jerk” response was not aimed at Molly and I.
“SNAKE!” a woman screamed and jumped up on her chair, not that doing so really helped her.
I noticed Clemens sigh and glance his unblinking eyes to Patten, who I could hear sighing.
“Thisssssss isssssssss part of what you told me isssssssssssss going on?” Clemens asked.
“Yes,” Patten answered, “Beauregard got his underwear in a bunch when Molly Wayne here, wouldn’t be some obedient slave to him and began slandering her on very racially skewed arguments… and ignoring the obvious facts that Molly and George Wayne are not mindless animals.”
“Neither am I,” Clemens added, “though I mussssssssst admit, my insssssssstinctsssssssssss hold sssssssssssome fear of them…”
Patten nodded, “that doesn’t change how Beauregard twisted things and how Hireman is manipulating things now.”
Clemens nodded and moved slightly forward, “I mean no harm to anyone. I am here to give moral… aid… to Tabitha Choir. Do not be afraid.”
Many of the people who had jumped up in alarm seemed to sit back down, though among many, it seemed fairly hesitant. Tabby, however, managed to come down the isle to where we were at the moment.
“You’ve come here to support me?” Tabby asked, “are you new? Or did you just take the serum?”
“He is with me, Mrs. Choir,” Patten said politely, “this is my cousin Clemens Patten.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Tabby spoke and shook Clemens’ hand, “where are you from originally? My family moved here from California and the Waynes came here from Illinois.”
“Originally, I am from here,” Clemens answered, “my work hasssssssss ssssssssssinccccccccce taken me to Florida.”
“Oh…”
By this time, though, the moderator for the second debate seemed to be ready and made a coughing noise to get Tabby’s attention.
“We are ready to begin Mrs. Choir, if you can stop playing with animals for a few moments,” the moderator spoke in a tone that was deliberately insulting.
“Okay, then,” Tabby replied and moved back toward her assigned position, “we can begin when ready.”
Molly and I quietly remained in the back of the room while Patten moved toward the seats given to the School Board Members. After a moment, he paused to see that Clemens had settled into a more coiled position near Molly and I.
“Thingsssssssss sssssssseem tensssssssse here cousssssssssssin,” Clemens spoke, “I may have fun with thisssssss form… but that will not help here.”
Patten sighed and nodded and continued on to where his seat was. The moderator had remained quiet for the brief exchange, but once Patten had sat down, she turned to her own work.
“Welcome to the second debate for the Columbia Falls School District Superintendent’s post between the challenger Tabitha Queer…”
“Choir,” Tabby spoke, “it is pronounced Choir.”
“And the incumbent, Wayne Hireman, who holds a commanding lead in the polls of 55% in favor of him and 45% against,” the moderator finished, not even bothering to correct her mispronunciation of Tabby’s last name, “the first question goes to you Mrs. Choir, where do you stand on the truth? How would you hold our teachers accountable for what they do in their classrooms?”
“I’d like to believe that everyone believes in being truthful,” Tabby answered, “honesty, they say, is the best policy… though that lasted until the first debate.”
“Please explain.”
“You ask me how I stand on truth?” Tabby retorted, “In the first debate, the Superintendent took a person to person argument, based off of incomplete facts and used it as a racial attack on Molly Wayne… George Wayne as well, but in regards to school matters he is unimportant. The police do not run our school system… yet the Superintendent’s attack would make one think they do. I would ask him, how is that truthful?”
“Superintendent, your rebuttal?”
“I would say I was truthful,” Hireman answered, “like it or not, George Wayne is a threat to this town and his wife is surely part of his plans. They aren’t mundane animals… but that makes them all the more dangerous. Because you’re combining great strength and natural weaponry with a sentient mind. I do not know what their exact plans are, but to actually answer your question… I would maintain firm security measures that would insure that Molly Wayne is under constant supervision and is made sure to know perverting our children’s minds will not be tolerated.”
“That’s nothing more then racist hogwash!” Tabby accused him.
“It’s the truth,” Hireman replied, “which as they say is a bitter pill to swallow.”
“You’re distorting things to fit your worldview!” Tabby challenged.
“Madam, if it weren’t for me and my regulations of Molly Wayne, that tigress would have eaten your precious daughter at the first opportunity,” Hireman replied, “you need to realize that some things have to be done.”
“Veronica has been to Bandhavgarh Cabin,” Tabby answered, “outside of your authority… and was never in any danger. Molly Wayne is not that different from us, and that IS the truth. That is what I stand for. Not using someone else’s words out of context and ignoring what should be obvious to everyone, to make an attack that is essentially nothing but lies.”
“We will have order!” the moderator spoke, “the Superintendent has answered the question in how he would hold the district’s teachers accountable. Mrs. Choir, you have gone off on a tangent that was not relevant to the question.”
It took a lot to keep from growling at the moderator, but I did. She had asked a two sided question about truth and accountability. One couldn’t answer the second without also answering the first. However, the moderator was operating under the same lines as Hireman. The “truth” as far as she was concerned was proved in the first debate, so to her, only the accountability portion of the question had to be answered. When Tabby essentially told her that Hireman’s attack had no truthful basis, Tabby had discredited the second portion of the question. The moderator, however, wasn’t going to allow that and disqualified Tabby’s answer.
I did however notice that many in the crowd of people had stopped to think a bit when Tabby mentioned that Veronica had been to Bandhavgarh. Many had likely assumed that Molly didn’t have any interactions with kids outside of school, which would have given credit to Hireman’s charge that his actions and regulations were the only things controlling Molly. The revelation that Molly didn’t need some oppressive overseer to keep her from attacking someone had to have been a shock to that viewpoint.
The moderator, however, was not about to let the momentum that Hireman had won in the first debate slip away. Sensing that the room wasn’t going to back a barrage of anti-Animal-People questioning, the moderator took the questions into a different set of school related questions. Most of them were related to the budget and how the budget could be trimmed. Tabby did get a particularly good answer in to that.
“You’ve asked me how I’d fix potential budget problems in the schools?” Tabby asked, “I’d end the war or regulations and other things that Hireman has forced on the people of Columbia Falls School District… all of which are intended to punish one individual on very racist lines. No one will want to see our sports programs cut. We can not cut English, Math, Science, and the Social Sciences for they help prepare the children. We can not cut the Arts and Music as they will bring culture to our children... but we can cut the racism that Mr. Hireman endorses. Particularly because it also endorses lying.”
Hireman countered that Art and Music weren’t all that important and could be easily taught at home. Largely citing that Mozart and Beethoven were largely educated at home with private tutors. But that was a standard BS answer in my opinion that a lot of people used in terms of dealing with school budget problems. It made me thankful that such things weren’t as much of a problem for Molly and I when we were in high school and middle school.
Toward the end of the allotted time for the debate the moderator opened up the floor to questions from those in attendance. Sort of like a “town hall meeting”. Molly and I stayed quiet. I had to bite my tongue, as if I did ask Hireman anything, I was sure it would come across as too aggressive or angry. And this debate wasn’t the place for it.
However, the first person to ask a question was someone Molly and I knew. Officers Jenkins and Barnes were there and had been listening to everything. It was Officer Jenkins who asked the question.
“Mr. Hireman,” Danielle Jenkins began, “throughout this and the first debate you’ve made little effort to hide your hatred for Molly Wayne… and used incomplete evidence to attack her and her husband. My question to you is that do you fully understand the effects of the Animatrix Serum on the human mind?”
“It transforms them,” Hireman answered, “grants them animal instincts.”
“One could say WE have animal instincts without the serum,” Danielle clarified, “we simply don’t recognize them as such because they’re human in nature.”
“I’m not here for a scientific debate,” Hireman answered.
“Then I’ll simplify my question, how do you know the Animatrix Serum makes people evil?” Danielle Jenkins demanded, “George and Molly are selfless. My daughter Megan’s biological father tried to kidnap her during the school year. George Wayne dropped his own personal business and helped save her from being kidnapped. And Molly Wayne stopped the Mountain Lion that would have killed Megan if Molly hadn’t killed the mundane wildcat…and gave her blood to Megan to save her life. The laws forbade it at the time, but the situation was such that had Molly not given Megan some of her blood, my daughter would be dead… the person who helped me turn my life around would be dead. So in light of these selfless acts... How can you say that the Animatrix Serum makes people evil?”
“I never said they were evil because of the serum,” Hireman answered, “their behavior was probably there before they took the serum.”
Both Molly and I had to keep from growling at that. Molly was a victim of Changes’ money making scheme and I transformed because we didn’t know the serum would get into my system when Molly and I made love for the first time. We were not part of the lawsuit to get the Animatrix Serum on the market and we had in fact been against it. But Hireman was trying to likely use some resentment of the people who had sued for it to become available to make it look like Molly and I were nothing more then social deviants who weren’t to be trusted.
And after Danielle’s question, a lot of people seemed to have the same response. One of the school board members, ironically one who had been very supportive of Hireman when Molly and I first moved to Columbia Falls, asked the next question.
“Sir,” he spoke, “you say you’re not here for a scientific debate… but given that you have continually brought up the issue of firing Mrs. Wayne at every possible opportunity and citing the supposed facts that R.A.M. used… wouldn’t it be prudent to understand the scientific facts behind things like the Animatrix Serum before making semi-religious pronouncements on those affected by it?”
“Going completely into the theories of Leona Washburn and various animal instincts would be a waste of valuable time and resources,” Hireman dismissed it. He evidently didn’t know that Leona had become Leon, and Jackson became Jacki before the two had married.
“And mindlessly fighting to fire Mrs. Wayne week after week is not?” the school board member asked back, “especially when you’re using data used by people who have been convicted of violent and racist crimes?”
“I’m doing this to protect the students,” Hireman answered.
“If anything, YOU are a threat to them,” Patten grumbled from his seat.
“Order! There will be order!” the moderator then interjected, “and we have reached the end of the allotted time. I would like to thank everyone who came in support of our School District Superintendent Wayne Hireman.”
And with that the tide seemed to turn as people filed out of their seats. It ended with a much more favorable result for Tabby as Hireman was on the defensive once they got past the moderator’s picked questions. That wasn’t much of a surprise as portions of Tabby’s answers revealed that Hireman’s attacks had no real factual basis beyond the racist attitudes that Hireman catered to.
“Thisssssssssssssss one went better then the firsssssssssst,” Clemens commented quietly as people began to file out.
The woman who had originally screamed snake slowly made her way up to him.
“I’m sorry if I did anything that seemed too out of place,” she said weakly, “I’ve never really liked snakes…”
“I’ve loved them,” Clemens answered, “among mundane sssssssssssssssnakessssssssssssss it issssssssssss amazzzzzzzzing how they can move with no legssssssssss.”
“So what do you do?” she asked.
“I am employed by the sssssssssstate of Florida to help combat the invasssssssssive Burmessssssssssse Python,” Clemens answered, “thisssssssssss… I sssssssssuppossssse wasssssssssssss an idea to try and get a bit inssssssssssssside their head more.”
“You’re a… Burmese Python?” she asked.
“I am an African Rock Python,” Clemens answered, “sssssssssmaller then the Burmesssssse but highly aggressssssssive. Inssssssstinctively anyway. I am not controlled by them.”
She slowly and hesitantly shook Clemens’ hand. She then gasped in surprise.
“Your hand isn’t slimy,” she gasped.
“Technically it would probably be mucusssssss that you’re thinking of,” Clemens clarified, “but no reptile does that. Even aquatic specccccccciessssss like the Anaconda, the Alligator, or Crocodile have dry ssssssssskin.”
Molly and I stood quietly by watching as Clemens talked with her. Officers Barnes and Jenkins waved to us politely as they left, and we waived back. Patten meanwhile made his way back toward his cousin to finding the woman getting more curious.
“You’re wearing shoes…”
“I am lucky to have kept my armsssssss and legsssssss,” Clemens explained, “ssssssssso with feet that ssssssssstill fit human ssssssssshoesssssssssss, I sssssssshould wear them.”
The woman nodded, “again, I’m sorry for screaming earlier.”
“It’sssssssssssssss okay,” Clemens replied and shook her hand again before she moved off.
“Thinking on settling down, Clemens?” Patten asked him in an almost teasing voice.
“You know I thought it got too cold up here, even before I took the ssssssssssserum,” Clemens replied.
“It’s not cold now,” Molly told him.
“And that isssssssssssssss why I am visssssssssssssssiting now,” Clemens nodded.