A BRIDGE TO OBLIVION

CHAPTER NINE

GREEN BUILDING

MIT

77 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE

CAMBRIDGE

NEXT DAY

THEY WEREN’T ABOUT TO BE ARRESTED, BUT THERE WERE OTHER SNAGS. The MIT students lined up in front of the Green Building wearing their new t-shirts. Friends helped them unfurl, spread out and hold up the banner. Other students took positions on all sides. Professors emerging from the building stopped momentarily and smiled or shook their heads before moving on. Vicki stood slightly off to a side. She wore a long-sleeved, high necked green dress with tiny buttons up the front. Maybe the gray suit would have been more appropriate, but she felt very uncomfortable in it. The fabric was so itchy it left a rash around her neck. No wonder someone got rid of it.

Sam Cho and Jessica Schwartz arrived and prepared to film the protest. 

“What’s going on?” Jessica asked Vicki as she held out her mic.

Vicki took a deep breath. At least this time her knees weren’t knocking. Maybe she could get used to facing the camera. “Our Governor and ISO-New England have pushed for pipeline expansion as a short-term solution to meet energy needs. He and ISO have dismissed arguments against it. Whether the Governor was influenced by money is an open question. Data for the 2018 cycle shows his campaign received $111,910 from oil and gas interests and over $84,800 from electric utilities.” She paused to let that sink in. “On top of that, the House co-chair of a key committee might buy their argument.” She paused again and took another deep breath. “But here’s the thing. If all the proposed new pipelines were built, capacity here would increase by 73 percent. Massachusetts is legally required to reduce climate pollutants 25 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. That won’t be possible if we keep building pipelines and banking on gas.”  

While she was speaking, Carson was in his office reading the report he’d left behind about the problematic reaction of fish and clams to rising levels of ocean acidity. Tuyen knocked on the door frame and entered the room. “Have you seen what’s going on in front of us?” she asked.

The dog opened his eyes, shut them, and went back to sleep.

Carson looked up from the report. “No.”

“Your students are down there with a huge banner, similar to the one that was hung in .”

“Good grief!” Carson dropped the report, slapped his laptop shut and dashed out of the room, down the stairs and out of the building. He saw Vicki and rushed over to her, grabbing her arm.

“What on earth are…” he started to say when she pulled his other arm toward her, kicked out at his legs and dropped him to the ground. She scowled down at him. “No one touches me without my permission.”

Sally Douglas let go of the edge of the banner she was holding and ran over. “Are you okay, Professor Hunter?” she asked anxiously.

Carson got to his feet. “Except for my ego, yes.” He looked down from his 6’,3” at Vicki who was close to a foot shorter. She stared back defiantly.

“We need to talk,” he said. “But first, I think you’ve made your point,” he told the students. “How about packing up before the Administration weighs in?”

The students looked from Carson to Vicki and back again. They weren’t sure what to do.

“That’s fine,” she said. “The TV crew has gotten what it needs.”

“I have a few minutes before I meet with one of my grad students,” he told Vicki. “I’d appreciate it if you would join me in my office.”

She frowned but followed him back into the building and up the stairs.

“What’s your problem?” she asked angrily when they were inside, and he had closed the door. The dog was lying on his pillow. She walked over, bent down and held out her hand. He sniffed and then licked it. She stroked his ears, and he wagged his tail. “Forsaken likes you,” Carson said, raising his eyebrows. “He doesn’t like most people.”

“Animals usually do like me.” She remembered she had even been able to get the red squirrel to take acorns from her hand. And a tiny Carolina wren would perch on her fingers, waiting for crumbs from her energy bar. “But apparently not you. Why on earth is he called Forsaken?”

“Leroy found him huddled up behind the garbage cans. He was probably about two months old and starving. Obviously, someone didn’t want him possibly because his right front leg was twisted. That makes it hard for him to walk. I think he’d been abused since he was frightened when anyone came near him.”

She ran her hand gently over the top of his head. “Poor dog.” She stood up, went over to the nearest chair and sat down. Forsaken followed her and flopped at her feet.

Carson rubbed his shoulder. “Apart my loss of dignity and a slight bruise, I’d say it’s probably a good thing you can take care of yourself. These days activists are constantly jailed, assaulted or worse.”

“It was a reflex action,” she said, surprised at his support. “And I have dealt with attacks.” She didn’t think there was any way he could have known about Garon. “So?”

He answered her question with a question. “Did you know that Leroy Nelson is here on a student visa that could be revoked if he gets into trouble?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“What about Diego Ramirez? Did you know that he’s only seventeen even though he’s a junior? He hasn’t even stopped growing yet.”

She leaned forward. “That’s amazing! I could tell he’s very young and really smart, but that smart and that young?”

“His I.Q. is so far off the charts they can’t measure it. He skipped two grades in grammar school. His parents are very protective. If he has any problems here, they’ll yank him out and send him to Yale or some other topnotch university. I’d hate to lose him. More important, Leroy and Sally have taken him under their wing which is helpful since emotionally he’s pretty immature. You might think Leroy doesn’t like him, but that would be a mistake. He just likes to kid him, and Diego knows it’s well intentioned.”

“I did notice that.”

“I don’t suppose there’s any way you could have realized that Sally Douglas has a heart murmur. We have to be very careful about exposing her to any real stress.”

Vicki shook her head. “I’m truly sorry. I had no idea about any of this. Your students are a great group. I certainly wouldn’t want to cause problems for them. They asked me for help. What do you want me to do?” 

So that was what they had been up to. He picked up the basketball, rolled it around in his palms and put it down. “You might include me in whatever future plans you make with them. You don’t have to like me to do that, and I certainly have the impression I don’t sit well with you. Why is that anyhow?”

“Most academics aren’t taking a strong enough public stand about the climate crisis. Some aren’t taking any stand at all even if they know it’s the most serious problem the world faces.” She leaned back and folded her arms across her chest defiantly. “That would be you, right?”

“We risk being considered biased. If we lose our reputation for objectivity, we’re in serious trouble. The attacks on us are already bad enough and rapidly getting downright dangerous. Activists can make it worse.”

She shrugged. Danger was something all too familiar. She had never let it interfere with action. “Well, you don’t have to like me either.” She got up, went over to his desk, picked up the basketball and tossed it straight into the basket from across the room.

He raised his eyebrows again. “Nice shot.”

“You’re obviously surprised. I’d guess you’ve made all kinds of assumptions about me. Most people do.”

“I did assume it must have been very cold in that tree. It’s hard to imagine how you could have coped with that.”

“You read about it?”

“Yes. As a matter of fact, I did.” 

She was surprised again that he had picked up on the cold. No one else had. “The wind was worse. And when they put me in jail without my jacket and only one shoe, I caught pneumonia. I was out of commission for months. But I didn’t let that slow me down one bit. I did a lot of research while I was incapacitated about the situation with pipelines in Massachusetts. It mirrors what’s happening in other States.”

“How did you wind up in a tree?”

“It was a fluke in a way. I had decided to work on pipelines but hadn’t decided how. By chance my cousin Harry mentioned that he was helping some activists who were trying to block construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. He’s a science teacher in a town near the proposed site. When one of the tree sitters got sick and had to come down, he suggested that I take her spot. It seemed like a good place to take a stand.”

“Somehow your persistence hardly surprises me.”

Vicki shrugged again. “I’ll let you know what I come up with next.” She went back over to the chair where she had been sitting and fluffed Forsaken’s ears, then left the room. He followed her to the door and watched as she went down the hallway. It seemed that he was considering following her. 

“Stay,” Carson commanded. Good grief, he thought, she’s mesmerized him. 

A minute later one of Carson’s colleagues stuck his head around the corner. “Hey Carson,” he said. “Who was that gorgeous creature I nearly bumped into? Any chance you’d like to introduce us?”

Carson thought about it. Baxter was a good friend. He wouldn’t want him bewitched too. “Not really. I doubt that you could handle her.” Chances were he couldn’t either.