Lives Matter

The Senator stood in the front office listening to the chants outside his office. He was tall, lean and muscular, a rare college athlete who hadn’t gone to seed in his 40s. He had rich blue eyes and a shaved head.

“Black Lives Matter!”

“Black Lives Matter!”

“Black Lives Matter!”

He looked over to his chief of staff. She looked nervous.

“You called the capitol police?”

She nodded, “They are all throwing down at the whip’s office.”

“Not love for a junior senator eh?”

The Senator looked over at his chief. She had been highly recommended. She was a local, a mover and a shaker. He had seen her unflappable in the face of a hostile press, opposition leadership, and captains of industry. She was tending the head wound of a young male staffer.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing. This protestor just clobbered me.”

The Senator furrowed his brows at the staffer.

“Okay. I shouted at him ‘All Lives Matter’”

“That’s not nothing. You took a bad situation and made it worse.”

The staffer looked indignant. “Are you saying it’s my fault?”

The Senator looked at his receptionist’s screen. She had the security feed up. He picked up her desk phone but before he dialed he said to the staffer, “If I leave my car unlocked and running and it gets stolen it’s not my fault, but I shouldn’t have known better.” The Senator hit 0 for the switchboard.

“Hi, I need an ambulance immediately in my office, Dirkson 321. One of my staff fell and hit his head. It bled a little bit but then he started acting funny and passed out.”

He hung up. “5 minutes. That gets you two out of here.” He pointed to his chief and the injured staffer.

“But I didn’t pass out.”

“The possibility of a brain bleed with get everyone rattled enough to get you out.”

The Senator rubbed his shaved head and counted his staff, “Two down, eight to go”

The chief looked at him, “Nine Senator. You count too.” He could love her, but she already loved someone else.

“I have a cot and nowhere to be.”

An attractive blonde intern strode up to him and wrapped her arm around him. “I have nowhere to be. I can keep you company.”

“Maybe some other time Mary Sue.” The Senator shook his head. She had a body that would make a vegan crave steak, but you don’t shit where you eat. If she was someone else’s intern maybe.

“Lori, start calling the Democratic senators, the ones with the mostly minority staff.” He said to his receptionist.

While the wheels were in motion the Senator looked around the room. “What did our young Dakota here do wrong.”

“He said, ‘All Lives Matter.’” said a young man in the back.

“And…” prompted the chief who was rearranging the head bandage to make it look worse.

“They do don’t they? Doesn’t every life matter?” asked the injured staffer.

Mary Sue looked at him and then scrunched her sculpted brows together. “They do, but when you say ‘All Lives Matter’ you ignore the disproportionate burden the black community has borne. How blacks are more likely to be stopped by police and arrested for no reason other than the de***********ion was ‘some black guy.’”

“But more crime is committed by black…”

The Senator stepped in. “Cold comfort to people who truly didn’t do anything. Sorry statistically you are likely to be a racist asshole. No job for you. We need to start treating people as individuals. To show that we understand they have pain. People who are hurting don’t need to hear everyone hurts.”

There was a knock on the door and the injured staffed closed his eyes and went limp. Mary Sue opened the door and two medics ran in with a stretcher. They quickly checked the injured staffers eyes and gave him the once over.

They quickly and methodically loaded him up and took him out with the chief of staff in tow. All it took to spread the crowd was a statement from the EMT, “If he dies this becomes murder.” The crowd cleared enough to let them through and then crowded the door again.

The chant of “Black Lives Matter” was even louder than before.

“No one is picking up or just laughing when I say who you are.” The receptionist said.

“Try the House.”

The staff looked worriedly at each other and fiddled with their phones trying to kill time. They were there well past five already and the crowd showed no sign of abating.

“I have Her.” the receptionist said with menace in her voice.

“Congresswoman” The Senator said with a warm smile that carried through in his voice.

“I seem to have a bit of a problem. Some of my staff need friends to help them find their way home.”

The Senator laughed. “Well, you know how it is. I just need a favor, perhaps I could do a favor for you.”

There was a pause. “We all want what’s best for the country, right now though I am concerned about my staff. Perhaps there is something legislative that I can help you with?”

He paused again. “I have 8 staffers who seem to have lost their way. I know you are looking for a community center to be built on a certain property.”

“Yes the property with the relevant seller. I don’t control HUD or NEH funding but I can get 5 mill for a community park.”

“4 of that Is for land acquisition. I just need to get 8 staffers out of the office. Send over some people. Let them leave as friends.”

“I can do 10. I just want my people safe. The amendments on the bill as we speak.”

The called over a legislative aide.