Excerpt from 2063: Project Weedpatch, Chapter 3.
“Yeah, so about that. How’s it going.” Julietta was quiet. “The Sludge thing is a little intense. You doing ok?”
“Oh, you know.” She stared out the window. “Fuck that guy, seriously. But I do keep thinking about it. What he said, not so much. But the death threats and the bullshit tidal wave we are getting online has been rough at times. The staff is doing a great job insulating me from it and cleaning it up, but I’ve looked at the raw feeds myself a couple of times. I’ve even been in this situation before, and I still don’t get it.”
“I do,” said Ayala.
“You do? What do you think is going on?”
“I think you’re a bigger threat to the order of things than you realize. Or at least you’re perceived that way.”
Julietta considered this. “It’s so strange to me. We’re hardly proposing anything radical. Probably the most challenging thing we are doing is defending the role of government at all, in terms of our message.”
“It’s not about your message, it’s about your identity, and your family. Me, to some degree.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to see that. But I still don’t get it. I can understand why the 1% types are funding Sludge, or Fox or whatever. It’s a bottom line thing for them: if we defend government that can only mean their taxes going up. But deep down I just don’t get how easy it is for them to whip up everyone else. Including a lot of people who really depend on government.”
She grabbed her love’s hand that felt so at home resting on her thigh. “Anyway. I’m sorry for dragging you into it. And for going on about it.”
Ayala said, “Hardly! We all made the decision for you to run together. I was on board then and I still am. We all are.”
Julietta looked over at her again, “I could just not possibly be more grateful for you. So where the heck are we going?”
Ayala grinned, trying not to give away her secret but wondering if she had a tell. “Just for a hike! Up in Redwood.”
They talked campaign details for the rest of the drive, parked and headed up into the canyon. Ayala managed to casually guide them towards Dakota’s set up. When they got to the cairn, Ayala said, “What a sweet little cairn, I wonder what’s up this path?”
Now Julietta was finally a bit suspicious, “What are you up to here?” But Ayayla just smiled and took her hand and pulled her gently up the hill.
Unfortunately there was no old growth forest in this part of the Bay. It had all been logged in the 19th century. But this must have been second growth; Dakota had managed to find some of the tallest redwoods around, and built a tiny camp. The mattress was on the ground in the center of the ring and covered with a down comforter and a bunch of pillows, leaning up against one of the trees. The deep red cloth draped between the trees gave it almost a sense of it being an outside room or a little private temple. It was ethereally silent, the only noise being a slight rustle of leaves in the breeze far above them, sunlight filtering down and dappling the ground.
Julietta gasped. “You! And Dakota, I’m guessing.”
“Yup!”
“You two! Unreal.” A worried look clouded her face. “I don’t know what you have in mind here, but you know I’m running for Congress, right? We’re not going to do anything that would make Ami’s life difficult or end up on another icky website, right?”
Ayala got a slightly fiendish look. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. Don’t worry, we’re not going to get caught,” then took Julietta’s hand over her protests about being only a mile from a bunch of houses, then led her over to next to the mattress and stood in front of her. Eyes meeting, then both of them looking down, then Ayala kissing her slowly, backing away and running her hands over Julietta’s shoulders and her chest and her heart, slowly, and down along her sides to under her tank top…
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