Tree Symphony
Page 9
He smiled at the newsman.
“Are you making a statement, Mr. Mayor?”
The mayor seemed to think that was funny. “It wasn’t clear enough for you?” The mayor walked over to one of the policemen. “Can I borrow a set of cuffs?”
Bemused, the policeman gave the man who was his ultimate boss a set of silver bracelets. The mayor walked over to one of the bulldozers and turned to face the cameras.
“Politically, I’m conservative. My base would hate it if I hugged a tree. On the other hand, the unions will positively salivate when I hug a bulldozer.” With that he snapped the handcuffs around the ring on the front of bulldozer and then around his wrist.
The newsman looked confused. “Are you going to make a statement, Mr. Mayor?”
The mayor looked at the newsman sadly, shaking his head. “Miss Kinkaid is a very polite, a very well brought up, young lady. She’d never call someone an ‘abject idiot’ to their face. A politician like myself would never use a word like ‘abject’ either.”
The mayor shook the handcuffs. “I think this counts as a statement. Perhaps you should contemplate the old saw about a picture being worth a thousand words before you speak again.”
I looked around at all of the people watching us. The trees were safe; the trees would be safe! I felt a warm glow inside of me and I could hear the music swelling around me.
I glanced at the policeman who'd helped me. His eyes were on me and I had no idea what he was thinking. Maybe, I thought, in a couple of months when I'd be thirteen, I'd understand these things better when I was a teenager. I smiled inwardly and went back to listening to the music. That was something I had no trouble understanding!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gina Marie was born in Texas, raised in Arizona and worked in IT consulting until she retired after the Y2K kerfluffle. Then, being footloose and fancy free, she opted to try her luck in film school. She gave that a whirl and afterwards returned to her beloved desert. Now she thinks she's a writer. Most of her English teachers despaired of her, but she has finally learned where periods go, sprinkles commas profusely through her work; although semicolon usage still eludes her.