I'VE BEEN A FOREST FIRE.

‘  dude.  dude.  ’  HE’S MURMURING UNDERBREATH  as  AUBREY LITTLE  catches his attention first,  feet skidding to a halt nearby.  ‘  aubrey.  aubrey,  hey!  ’  a long inhale.  before words spill rapidfire:  ‘  —so i just slipped in the shower,  right,  and my life???  oh man.  hey.  ‘course jake caught himself.  my life flashed before my eyes.  it isn’t just movies.  how long do you think it would have taken for someone to find me??  ’

@fireslung.

     ‘ Uhhhh. I don’t know. Used to be over there — ’ He gestures vaguely, fingers splayed. ‘ — but I guess it’ll turn up again eventually. I wouldn’t say she’s very flammable at all but, well, stranger things have happened, I suppose. — Why? ’ 

         “   .  .  .   oooh-kay.   ”         not   the   strangest   thing   she’s   ever   heard.   not  even   the   strangest   thing   she’s   heard   this   week.         “   what   if   it’s   raining,   thought   ??   ”

“ … it isn’t. your subjective definition of ‘real’ is only based on the distinction between the explained and the unexplained — if you really think about it. ”

@fireslung

The elevator doors slide open and a girl with some sign he doesn’t care to read rushes past him. He’ll have to fire whatever unpaid intern let her sneak through the lobby. He steps around her into the elevator and presses the button for the tenth floor. She throws an arm in front of the doors, stopping them from closing.

He huffs out an annoyed sigh. Exasperated:

          “Okay. Alright. Okay. What is this? What are you doing here? Is this a protest? Are you protesting me?”

He pulls out his best de niro impression (it’s not bad, it’s pretty good; it better be, he practices it every day–during slow phone conferences or when he’s hiding in his office letting constituent calls go to his secretary and interns–and he holds his conscience hostage while he does it):

          “Are you protesting me?”

Back to the point.

          “Listen. Get in ‘ere.”  He gestures curtly for them to join him in the elevator.  “Listen. You think some teenage girl with a homemade sign is going to change my mind?”

He makes a come on face.

He’s made his point. He can stop. But he’s on a role. He’s got one more good line in him.

          “I’m not a flip flop. You’re not wearing me out on no beach, kid.”

AUBREY CARES ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT   ,   but in that vague way she thinks most everyone probably does   —   like   ,   she’ll recycle when there’s a bin nearby   ,   and she tries to think about her carbon footprint n’ all that jazz   ,   but it doesn’t go very far beyond that.   (   duck would be appalled.   she’s pretty sure he cares about the forest more than the rest of west virginia combined.   )

point being   :   she isn’t usually the protest - y type for stuff like this?   she protests other things.   she’s protest - y in general   ,   she goes to marches and stuff   ,   but storming into a politician’s office is beyond her usual purview.   but   —   well.   the issue here isn’t really the individual trees themselves   ,   it’s what hides within that patch of the monongahela forest.   namely   ,   a certain gate to another world.   aubrey’s not too sure what’d happen to the gate if it got bulldozed   ,   since the everyday run - of - the - mill person can’t see it   ,   but she figures someone’s gotta act to get this stopped   ,   and quick.

so fast forward to now.   right now   ,   she’s in an elevator holding a sign   (   declaring a rather unoriginal SAVE THE TREES in an equally unoriginal blocky font   —   she hadn’t had much time for showmanship   ,   okay?   )   and a politician is doing a de niro impression.   she puts one hand on her hip   ,   the other trying hard not to let the sign fall   ,   sensing that that may be disastrous for proving her point.

‘   so   —   not that this is   ,   like   ,   a pressing concern or anything   ,   but just so i know   —   where d’you keep the fire extinguishers on your spaceship?   and  ,   uh   ,   how flammable is the whole thing?   just in case.   ’