The meeting with Amy ended quietly and she then headed out on her own. It was a teen drama scene that I did not want to be in, but it had gone better then I thought it would. Even still, I wished she'd turn to an actual counselor. They were better trained for these things and I wasn't sure about whether or not anything I'd done had helped or hurt.
"That was possibly the weirdest thing I've seen in all my years as a Law Enforcement Officer," Officer Barnes commented after a few moments.
"You showed remarkable restraint," I commented.
"I got no problem with who she's attracted to," Officer Barnes answered, "what's weird about this is that she came to us for advice on the subject."
I nodded, as I couldn't argue with that.
"Do you have any idea why she felt you'd make a better counselor then the woman they hired for the school about six years ago?" Officer Barnes wondered, "and, by the way, has degrees relating to counseling. Psychology and so forth."
"I've had a run in with Amy before," I sighed, "back while you were recovering, and Officer Jenkins was dealing the trial involving Megan's biological father. The call reported a teen throwing rocks into the street. So I went in to investigate. She was throwing rocks, but had no intent of hitting any vehicle. It was more like she was skipping them."
"Doesn't mean she'd do damage, even if she didn't intend to," Officer Barnes commented.
"And I told her as such," I nodded, "but something seemed to be depressing her and I figured that was what got her to be skipping rocks and not paying attention. She admitted that there was a boy who liked her and I mean really liked her, but..."
"Her orientation wasn't geared to like him in the same way," Officer Barnes commented.
I nodded again, "and she also said that most of the people who knew about it had rejected her. I tried to give her the best pep talk that I could manage... which has had mixed results. Amy learned that Marcel didn't reject her and did truly like her... but Marcel's solution was to become Marcella."
"Where did the cat part of that come from?" Officer Barnes wondered.
"Amy did make some mention about feeling that cats were supportive of her in ways that people weren't," I managed a shrug, "maybe Marcel knew about this too added the Maine Coon DNA to the Animatrix Serum order as a bonus... but that's entirely a guess on my part."
"Sad... not that this Marcel has done all this to gain Amy's attention," Officer Barnes commented, "but that people have reacted to her situation as they have..."
Officer Barnes then shook his head and sighed. He didn't say any more, as if he either didn't have anything more to say, or didn't fully know what to say. Before I could say anything, there was a knock on our door. A moment later the school's athletic director opened the door and stuck his head in.
"Ah... you're here," the athletic director spoke, "things going good?"
"Pretty much," Officer Barnes replied, "what can we do for you?"
"We have our first home football game this Friday," the athletic director announced, "we're going to need you two to pull double duty on that night."
"Provide security for the game?" I asked.
"Pretty much," the athletic director nodded, "one is to stand on the track to make sure no fans rush the field during the game and the other patrols the back end of the stands to keep an eye on the crowd."
"Things could get rough if something goes nuts in the crowd," I commented.
"They could, but we've never had an incident like that," the athletic director sighed, "and if something does go wrong... all we'll really be expecting from you is to try and guard the kids on the field and get as many of the fans that aren't causing trouble out. That should by time for the rest of the Police Department to get reinforcements here to gain control over the rabble rousers, if there ever are any."
Officer Barnes then nodded, "What about the Volleyball matches? I think they have a match on Thursday... don't they?"
"They do," the athletic director nodded, "but one of the officers on your station's night shift has a daughter on the team. Officer Howard has already called me to say that that officer will run security for the volleyball matches."
"So, we only have the football games?" Officer Barnes asked.
"For the time being, yes, all you have are the football games," the athletic director nodded.
"Okay, then," Officer Barnes replied, "we'll probably see you there then."
The athletic director nodded and then headed out. When the door shut again, I had a different question.
"So, how good is the team?" I asked.
"Not too bad," Officer Barnes shrugged, "We don't beat up on anybody, and we're pretty small... in terms of the size of the team... but the players we have play hard and we manage to get into the playoffs. Some parents always seem to want more, but for me, high school football should be about the fun of the game... so when I see parents grumbling in the newspaper about the team not being ranked higher or not going to the state title games played at the Montana State field in Bozeman, I tend to let that go in one ear and out the other."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The next couple of days went by rather quietly, work-wise. There were no major infractions of the rules and that allowed Officer Barnes and I be ready for the football game at the end of the week. A fair part of me was intrigued by watching the game. Molly and I had only occasionally been able to see our college team play, as students did have to pay to get in, and the tickets for college games seemed to match the tickets for professional games at times. The last time we had been to football games was when we were high schoolers ourselves, and that felt like a lifetime ago.
However, the football game wasn't the only thing still going on. Tabby campaign against Hireman for the School District's Superintendent's spot was still going on, and they had finally figured out a way to hold the next debate. They had wanted the high school gym because of its size to hold a large audience, but were continually running into things that couldn't be postponed or moved. Finally, the decision was made to move the debate that wouldn't conflict with the sports interests of the High School and Middle School. And that turned out to be the gym at the Elementary School.
It was a Thursday evening as Molly and I slowly walked toward the Elementary. As we went I caught up with the things that had been going on with her over course of the day.
"Things have been good," Molly answered, "mostly starting out with the basic alphabet so that they all know what the letters are... and they do seem to have all that down."
"Good to see Sesame Street hasn't died then," I chuckled.
Molly laughed back, which I understood. Didn't every kid watch Sesame Street when they were little?
"Some of the kids have lunch boxes with Bert and Ernie," Molly chuckled.
"Good for them," I nodded, "and you're still the "Tiger-Lady" to all the kids?"
Molly laughed again, "Oh, of course... it appears that the nickname is being passed down by the older kids to the younger ones."
"Do you know how the kids from last year are doing?" I wondered, "Do any of the other teachers talk to you about them?"
"One of the first grade teachers has," Molly commented, "Veronica and Timothy are his class... though it appears that the bureaucratic process has put Timothy in a different class from his brother... anyway, he did talk to me once during a lunch break. Apparently the two of them have come the conclusion that school would be cooler if all the teachers were Animal-People."
"He wasn't mad at you was he?" I wondered.
"No," Molly shook her head, "humored, I think would be more appropriate."
I only shook my head an continued on. As we arrived for the debate, we found a somewhat surprising activity. Because of the intensity of the campaign, we had expected a fairly large crowd to be there. What we found was much smaller. It was large enough to be too big for the area where the School Board met, but still too small for the size of the gym.
"This is what you get when you schedule a debate for the same night as a home volleyball match," came Patten's voice from behind us.
We turned to see him entering.
"A lot of people are parents of the girls on the volleyball team, and there are plenty of people that will support the team because they either went to school here, are big sports fans, or simply find sports to be a good escape from the pressures of life," Patten explained, "we're somewhat lucky the guys running the scheduling managed to avoid Friday night. No one would be here with a home football game to be played."
"So how have things been going for Tabby?" I asked him.
"Fairly well," Patten sighed, "the biggest issue is still the "Washerman" issue from the last debate. Thankfully though, most of the polls on that indicate that the people are "undecided" on Washerman's corruption charges. And so long no one is outright believing him, his charges become less and less of an issue."
"From what we've seen in the paper, it looks like Tabby is starting to open a lead," Molly commented.
And to that, Patten did nod, "Yes, a real lead. Not just a fraction of a percentage point but a real lead... though we're a long way away from the end of this race, and Hireman could find some opportunity to try and swing things back his way. He's smart... much of what you see in this that would seem "dumb" is more political posturing then anything else."
"Well... hopefully, he doesn't find anything that gives him any help," Molly told him.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A few more people did arrive as the time for the start of the debate approached, but there still was not as many people there as there had been in some of the earlier debates. Of course competition between the debate and the volleyball match was never intended. Molly and I stood quietly to a side as the debate began. The moderator opened the debate and announced both candidates. He then turned to Wayne Hireman.
"Superintendent Hireman," the moderator spoke, "the first question goes to you. Your campaign has continually repeated that you have been protecting the students... yet your campaign has mentioned very little in regard to security measures that could be taken outside of controlling Molly Rhoer-Wayne. What is your stance on other potential problems? The possibility of animals coming on to school grounds, as the Mountain Lion incident from last year showed? Securing safety at crosswalks? Insuring that no student brings weapons into the classrooms."
"The school board has already discussed raising the height of the fences around the middle school and elementary school areas to protect our children during their recess periods," Hireman answered, "and through my leadership, we will succeed in getting larger fences installed..."
"When?" Tabby challenged, "the best time to do that would have been over the summer. Unless, you've planned to have a lot of heavy equipment moving about on the school grounds when the kids are in school..."
"It takes time to do these things," Hireman answered, "regrettably, it took time figure out a way to allocate the funds for the project and our Buildings and Grounds Department has had to go through extensive searching for the proper contractors to hire to build these fences."
"So you don't know yet when you can do this..." Tabby charged.
"These things take time, and take experience," Hireman answered, "experience you do not have."
"Order!" the moderator cut in, "there will be order! Mr. Hireman, please return to the question asked."
"Of course," Hireman nodded, "as I said, we have already put a plan in motion that will construct a taller fence to give our children protection from the wildlife which could visit our grounds."
He then paused, "all the schools have metal detectors in the main door frames that will detect any weapon brought into the schools. The only reason the system failed in Bill Williams' attack on the Elementary School last spring was the fact that he had already cut all electrical power to the school. Outside of that situation, the metal detectors provide our DARE officers and our office staff to respond to any possible weapons infraction... and as for the crosswalks, they are safe already. The only thing that would make them safer would be to hire additional DARE officers to act as crossing guards, armed with the legal authority to arrest or ticket anyone who violates the laws in regards to those crosswalks."
That was a solution, though it would also depend on the city giving Officer Howard a much bigger budget. And that wasn't likely to happen.They might give him enough to hire a permanent replacement for the Dispatch Officer and the DARE Officer Pyre who were killed in Williams' attack on the station. Not hire a bunch of extra DARE officers.
"And Mrs. Choir, what would you advocate?" the moderator asked.
"With regards to crosswalks, the school might need to cooperate with Officer Howard and the Columbia Falls Police Department," Tabby spoke, "but not through demanding he hire additional officers to be permanent crossing guards. The city and the state will not give him the money to do that. The best we can do is ask him to assign on duty officers, not on other calls, to pause and take over the crossing guard duties. Certainly, we can all work together."
And the debate largely continued along those lines. A lot of things revolved around budget and other safety issues that could be dealt with. For the most part there were few if any references to Molly or I, and I'd begun to figure that this debate would get away from that issue. They would discuss things outside Molly's presence in the school. That hope was rapidly dashed.
"You continue to bring up the concept of using patrol officers to handle these duties before or after their patrols and provided they're not responding to some other call," Hireman spoke, responding to a question from the moderator, which cycled back to one of Tabby's earlier answers and one that the moderator seemed to like, "but that would only work with the proper officers on duty. Ones that do not have sinister and subversive plans for the people of Columbia Falls."
Hireman then motioned for a plugged in television to be brought forward. Thankfully because of the small size and the relatively large size of the screen. He then took a VHS tape and put into the VCR and played it. What came on was the security camera image from the DARE office at the end of Amy's visit. What Hireman played included both my and Officer Barnes' reasoning for Amy to take the Animatrix Serum, though he either cut out or went past the earlier parts of the discussion that would demonstrate that the issue was solely with Amy.
"As you can see the corruption in our Police Department continues, with Officer Wayne at its heart," Hireman announced, "not only is he a threat to eat us all... a threat to get his wife to eat the ones he doesn't... but he's corrupted a fellow officer and is urging people to forgo their humanity! He'd commit genocide without killing anyone!"
There were a couple of gasps, but the crowd seemed almost suspicious of this rather then anything else. When the people there finally got to ask questions, they did ask about how Hireman got the camera footage. Hireman largely sidestepped them that the School Board had the power and right to look over all security camera footage to insure that no one was breaking any laws or school policy. At that point, Patten stood up from where he was among the other School Board Members.
I feared there might be a sudden argument, but Patten only excused himself and walked out with a fairly frustrated manner. I slowly followed him out to where he was pacing one of the halls.
"I never urged people to forgo their humanity," I spoke, not sure of what to say, "the teen's situation is a bit more complicated then what he presented."
"I know," Patten answered, "the school board does review the security camera footage to make sure that everything is done on the up and up. The two of you did a decent job of talking with her..."
I didn't answer for a moment.
"The problem is the misrepresentation that he's using," Patten sighed, "and the actions he's taken. It isn't illegal to use the security camera footage, just as it wasn't illegal for him to record our meetings. But we generally tend to advise against using those images in cases such as this, unless there is a real reason for it. The entire school board saw it, and while he jumped at as some sign that you're out to destroy us, we told him the footage from your office presented a situation far more complicated then how he saw it and that he would never succeed in any legal prosecution."
"Doesn't stop the propaganda machine, I suppose," I commented.
"Yeah, but he just used it to implicate the entire board in helping him," Patten answered, "it's almost as if he knows he's starting to lose and will drug us down with him."
I only sighed. Hopefully, if that was Hireman's latest plan, he didn't drag anyone down with him.