The entire riot was a mess. Born out the raised levels of hatred that Beauregard had originally raised against Molly and myself mixed with the lingering hatreds that the culture warriors had long had against gays, abortionists, and adulterers. Amy Vin, a young woman of a homosexual sexuality had been attacked and beaten for making a statement that essentially brought her out of the closet. Her girlfriend, Marcella, was assaulted for being in the same area and likely for having taken the Animatrix Serum.
And because they had come to me earlier, and because I felt that I had urged them to make the statement, I felt somewhat guilty about the situation. It was as if it was my fault that they were attacked. And for the rest of the day I wrestled with that in the back of my mind. I wondered over things I could have done to prevent the attack, that I should have been there quicker... something different that could have prevented the worst of what had happened.
"There isn't much that could have been done," Officer Barnes commented from his seat in the DARE office that we were assigned to operate out of, "those on patrol will bring in the ones you couldn't catch in the attack, and the school has already decided to suspend them from school for the rest of the year. All of them were rather stupid in pulling this stunt."
I sighed and nodded to him. Once we'd gotten the student center put back together and talked with a couple of the other students who had fled the scene when the fight started, we returned to our office to settle into what was "normal" for DARE work. The reporters had left the school to cover whatever Officer Howard would be saying in response to all this. And they'd probably draw some connection between the riot and Hireman's campaign.
"What do you suppose will happen with them?" I asked Officer Barnes, "Donnie was the only one who was eighteen. He'll likely be looking at true criminal charges... but what about the others?"
"Given the severity," Officer Barnes sighed, "it would depend on what the prosecutor decides to do. He could very well have them all charged as adults. And if accepted by the judge, they could be looking at some jail time."
Officer Barnes looked up from the desk where he had a paper plate with a half eaten sandwich on it and sighed.
"If charged as minors, they'll still potentially face some jail time, or extensive community service, fines, and probation to some degree. And Ms. Tin won't be able to finish out her volleyball career here at the school... though that will more likely come from the principal or the volleyball coach then from anything the law could do."
I slowly sighed and looked down at the plate of meat that was my lunch. After all of this, I was finding it hard to actually eat the lunch I had brought with me. Guilt did that.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The rest of the day lacked the high "excitement" that had gone on during lunch. It was a good thing in that there were no problems, but sequestered in the DARE office, I had no way of knowing what had gone on in response to all of that. Had the back up officers caught the four that got away? What was the response by Officer Howard to all of this? Those were things I didn't know, and on top of it, the guilt over not being able to protect Amy and Marcella continued to eat at me.
And that guilt fed what I did when the school day ended. Although it was in a sort of gray area in terms of the school policy, I'd asked Officer Barnes to check the files we had access to to get Marcella's home address. He did so, and wrote it down.
"Going to apologize?" Officer Barnes asked as he handed me the slip of paper.
"I feel like I have to," I sighed, "I urged her to make the statement and she made it... and got attacked because of it. I need to apologize."
"This isn't your fault, George," Officer Barnes told me as he shut down the computer and we made our way out, "the only people responsible for this attack are the stupid kids that decided to take their "morality" or lack thereof into their own hands."
"I know," I sighed, "but I still have to do this."
I then made my way through town and looking at the slip of paper that held the Tyeree's address written on it. I found myself at a small but well kept home and lawn. I noticed some movement going on behind a window, so I assumed someone was home, and went to the front door. I rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer. A middle aged woman opened the door and gave one look at me.
"Officer Wayne," she spoke, "Is something wrong? I mean... beyond everything?"
"I do not think so," I commented, "I trust you know what's happened today?"
"That some thugs attacked my baby girl and her friend?" the woman asked back, with the venom that only an angered mother could possess, "Yes. And my husband and I intend to sue. Bad enough Mr. Vin disowns his own daughter... his own flesh and blood... but to allow such a thing to happen..."
"The school had my partner and I babysitting the reporters covering the things related to the current school board elections," I spoke, "and from what I could see... the leading perpetrators did their best to make sure that no one would hear until after the real attack started. The..."
"We don't blame you or the school," the woman cut me off, "my baby girl admires you and your wife. And the school itself probably did all that it could. My beef is with the lunatics that decided to try and rape my little girl."
I slowly nodded. The woman appeared to be very easy with Marcel's change to Marcella, but then, Marcella had told me that her parents had not only given their consent, but helped her pick out the specific animal species to use. I didn't know how well trying to get some sort of civil lawsuit filed against the attackers in addition to the criminal one that would come anyway would play out, but I wasn't an attorney. If Mrs. Tyeree wished to try, I had no expertise to advise against it.
"Has Amy been released from the hospital?" I asked after a moment.
"Yes," Mrs. Tyeree nodded, "Marcella is with her. If you'll come with me."
She lead me into a living room where I found Amy and Marcella seated on the couch and watching television. Amy looked a bit better, but I could tell she was still in a fair amount of pain.
"Officer Wayne," Marcella spoke first, "what brings you here?"
"Mostly to see how you two were doing," I commented.
"Three broken ribs," Amy said weakly, "not too bad, but will still take about six weeks to heal completely..."
"Anything punctured?" I asked.
"No, thankfully," Marcella answered for Amy, "though, the doctor also said that Amy can't take the Animatrix Serum until after her ribs heal."
That made me look down.
"What is it?" Amy asked.
"Can you forgive me?" I asked back.
"Forgive you?" Mrs. Tyeree, Marcella, and Amy all asked at almost the same time.
"They did this because of the statement you gave to the press," I answered, "I urged you to make the statement because it would help Tabby politically and give some ease to my wife..."
"And me," Marcella answered, "Hireman's attack was just as much an attack on me as it was on you and your wife."
"Maybe...," I sighed, "still... I feel like I urged you to do this, Ms. Amy and as a result... you've been thrown out of your home and attacked."
"You said that something like this could happen," Amy said weakly, trying to smile, "and the choice was mine to make. You may have wanted me to make the statement but the choice to do so was mine."
"Still... I'm sorry I couldn't do more to protect you," I spoke.
"You did a lot," Marcella answered, "You drove them off..."
"And it has helped me make my decision," Amy answered, "When I'm recovered from all of this, I will be taking the Animatrix Serum... I can take the three weeks time to do the proper study while I'm recovering... and in six weeks I'll become a tomcat... though we haven't gone over the exact breed yet. They won't be able to call me "queer" anymore and because Marcella and I will both be cats, they can't find any fault in our relationship."
I looked on as Marcella rubbed her head to Amy's shoulder and gave a purr that sounded as if she was trying to reassure Amy.
"If only people could use the Animatrix Serum in more inventive ways," Mrs. Tyeree commented, "sort of like a "just deserts" sort of thing. Turn all the R.A.M. members into Animal-People, all the homophobic people into their opposite gender and retaining their humanity so that they'd become homosexuals themselves and they'd then learn what it's truly like to what they hate... who knows, maybe there'd be some way to turn them back into children. A sort of "do over" button."
That almost made me chuckle.
"Most of that would be blocked by laws regarding cruel and unusual punishment," I told her, "and other things."
"Other things?" Mrs. Tyeree wondered.
"Leon Washburn didn't want to have the Animatrix Serum go on the market for various reasons... reasons I'm sure Marcella can tell you that Molly and I have given to her when she was Marcel," I answered, "if someone tried to use it at a sort of "just deserts" punishment, she would likely fight it tooth and nail. And some of it also what can realistically be changed."
"Realistically be changed?" this time it was Amy who spoke, and she sounded curious.
"My wife and I know Leon Washburn and his wife Jacki," I explained, "and on occasion we talk with them on various things... and he has explained some things on his research and... there are also other obvious facts related to what can and can not be changed with the Animatrix Serum. While the changing of gender seems to go at a one hundred percent change through the flood of hormonal changes and the replacing or introduction of the Y chromosome... but the animal change, for example is not one hundred percent."
"Not one hundred percent?" Mrs. Tyeree wondered, "You look like a tiger to me, sir, Marcella is a Maine Coon with a tabby's coat pattern."
I nodded, "Yes, but tigers and house cats are both strict quadrupeds. They can not stand or walk on two legs. They are incapable of human vocalizations, and while female cats have nipples, they do not have human like breasts. Yet, my wife and your daughter have those human like features. And all of us here can function as bipeds OR quadrupeds. It's why the formal term for those who have taken the the Animatrix Serum are "Animal-People". We exhibit physical traits related to both the animal species and humans."
"And what would that have to do with age?" Mrs. Tyeree wondered.
"Well... remember that the Animatrix Serum can not make someone shrink to the size of the animal... Marcella is not the size of a female Maine Coon, which is 10 to 15 pounds. Molly and I grew to the size of tigers, yes, but we also ate an awful lot to replace the energy we burned through growing new muscle tissue and the enlarging of already existing muscle tissue. But it couldn't shrink Marcella to the size of a mundane Maine Coon. She is a human sized Maine Coon as a result... and now remember that all things get BIGGER as they grow up."
"So no one would shrink to the size of an infant, toddler, or even a younger kid..." Mrs. Tyeree slowly nodded, "but wouldn't that mean we'd just get adult sized children or infants?"
"Maybe in theory," I answered, "but theory and practice are two different things, and not all theories work in practice. For example, the widening of a man's shoulders, the deepening of his voice during puberty relates to the natural production of testosterone."
"And a woman's breasts and widening of her hips in puberty relate to to the production of estrogen," Amy spoke up.
Again I nodded, "and these hormones are at much lower levels at younger ages... so in theory the way to make someone younger would be to lower that hormone production... but then what about male and female menopause? When people get old enough to reach that point, that hormone production either stops altogether or is cut back dramatically. Are elderly women totally flat chested with no breasts or signs that they'ed ever had them? Are elderly men built the same way they were built when they were kids?"
"No," Mrs. Tyeree sighed, "but the serum seems to do so much..."
"But it can not change that which is incapable of changing," I answered, "reversing the aging process is impossible. In theory they might find a way to slow the aging process... but even there, that is something that Leon would not decide to research on his own..."
"I see," Mrs. Tyeree nodded, "and Mr. Washburn has told you these things."
I nodded again, "and even if it were possible, what purpose would it serve? The Animatrix Serum doesn't re-write minds, as evidenced by the fact that Molly and I haven't mauled or attacked anyone the way Bengal Tigers kill monkeys in India... and Marcella has clung to her love for Amy and not simply gone looking for any available man... so IF Leon or one of the people working with him came up with some sort of change to the formula that could actually reverse one's age, how would that realistically work? You'd have a giant infant or toddler with the mind of a teenager or an adult, depending on the age of the person who takes the serum. And if it was done in terms of some sort of off the wall disciplinary measure, any sort of teenage rebelliousness would still be there and unchanged. A person would destroy their family that way."
Mrs. Tyeree slowly nodded. She did seem to get what I was explaining to her.
"I still think it'd be a just desert, though," she commented after a moment.
"Maybe," I shrugged, "but there again, there is the issue of cruel and unusual punishment."
They nodded again. I then turned back to Marcella and Amy.
"And again, I'm sorry this happened," I spoke to them.
"It wasn't your fault," Marcella answered and nuzzled Amy's cheek.
"All the same..."
"If you really feel that guilty, you're forgiven," Amy said slowly, "and don't worry about it."
"Thank you," I answered, feeling some of the guilt I had felt throughout the day go away.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I made my quietly back to Bandhavgarh Cabin where Molly was preparing dinner as I came in.
"You okay, George?" she called from the kitchen after I shut the door, "considering everything..."
"I suppose," I sighed, "though, I'll tell you that today was not easy..."
"I could see that from what the local news covered," Molly answered, "I can't believe that something like that happened..."
"Some people just can't let things go," I sighed as I walked to the doorway between our dinning room and our kitchen.
"So where were you after school?" Molly asked, "I ran a little bit late as I ran into Mr. Patten on my way out... the High School had to notify him as a member of the school board as to what happened and what their disciplinary action would be... and he told me about it... I think to give the sort of reminder that he is there to help if you need something to roar at, I suppose."
I nodded. Patten had done a good job in helping me with my temper. It wasn't like we'd be "best friends" but if it helped us be "good acquaintances" that would be fine. And I did have to thank him for the help he had provided with those sorts of things.
"It wasn't entirely anger, today," I sighed, "It was more like guilt... I went to Marcelle's home to apologize to Amy for putting her in the position where she would be attacked."
"I see," Molly said simply and was then quiet for a moment.
"Both Amy and Marcella insisted it wasn't my fault, and Marcella's mother seemed to agree," I continued, "but until I heard that from them, I felt very guilty about it all..."
"I could see that on the news," Molly said nervously.
"The news...?" I wondered.
"The local news channel I was watching included a partial interview and which they made some slight reference to you, the riot, and the election," Molly explained nervously, "including the line, "how can one show such emotion over an innocent, and not be worthy of all rights and privileges we call human". Essentially gave you good press."
I sighed, as I hadn't wanted them to display that. But the judgment that it was "good press" was not something I do myself any good by arguing.
"Hopefully things will be set to right," I sighed, "Hopefully..."