Chapter One
The large mass of marching teachers moved together like a formidable sea of red in their matching scarlet T-shirts as they headed for the capitol in downtown Phoenix. They were united in purpose and in voice, and Carla Sims was right there in the middle of the march, holding her homemade sign high and doing her best to continue to chant along with her fellow educators. But her voice was strained from days of protesting, and now her throat was beginning to hurt as well.
She lowered her sign and pushed up her visor to wipe the sweat from her brow. The smell of sunscreen was strong, not just from her own skin, but from the numerous others crammed in next to her. It was early afternoon and the sun was bright, baking them all in ninety-five-degree heat, an unfortunate consequence of protesting outdoors in May. Carla plucked at her shirt, trying to cool herself by pulling it away from her moist body. It did little to help. In addition to her sore throat and feeling overheated, her feet ached, and she was exhausted. But still, she wanted to press on. When she forced down a swallow to lubricate her throat, however, the stabbing pain put a stop to that immediately.
She nudged her friend Nadine, who, like her, was wearing a red visor and sunglasses. Other than those two similarities, they couldn’t look more different.
“I need a break.”
Nadine leaned in and cupped her ear, apparently not having heard her.
“I need a break.” Carla pointed to her throat and Nadine nodded and they wove their way out of the group and crossed to Wesley Bolin Memorial Park. They found shade under a tree and sat amongst other resting protestors. Carla noticed that they too, appeared to be exhausted and overheated. She touched her own cheek, wondering if she was as pink as others were. Her face felt hot and it stung slightly beneath her fingertips, suggesting she was a little burned, despite her generous slathering of sunscreen.
She settled into the warm grass next to Nadine, crossed her bare legs, and relaxed. It felt wonderful to be still, if only for a few minutes. She shrugged off her backpack and retrieved two bottles of chilled water, thanks to her frozen cool pack, and gave one to Nadine along with a chocolate peanut butter Cliff bar.
“Ah, gracias,” Nadine said, hurriedly opening both.
“De nada.”
Carla unscrewed the cap on her own bottle and drank heartily, wincing as she swallowed. Then she removed her mirrored aviator sunglasses and visor and tilted her head back to douse herself with what was left of her bottle. The sensation was breathtaking as the water soaked into her hair and scalp and instantly cooled her face. She ran her fingers through her short hair, happy that she’d decided to cut it. It hadn’t been an easy decision, going from shoulder length locks to a short, stylish pixie cut, but she’d finally decided she might as well go for it seeing as how she was now embarking on a new phase in her life. A thirty-seven-year-old, newly single lesbian phase, that is.
It had been seven months since she and Megan had split, but she’d done little else to forge ahead courageously into the next chapter of her life. Her friends tried relentlessly to get her to date, but she kept refusing, knowing she wasn’t ready and fighting like hell to avoid the grueling process of serial dating. She believed, at this point in her life, that if love did ever find her again, it would be something that happened spontaneously and unexpectedly, not from swiping through dozens of dating app selfies on a cell phone. Needless to say, though, she wasn’t holding out hope for love to find her that way anymore than she was with the process of dating.
She heard Nadine’s breath hitch as she also soaked her head and face.
“Whoo! That feels so good.” She dabbed herself with a hand towel she’d retrieved from her own bag, but she’d created dark smudges beneath her eyes.
Carla laughed. “Here.” She took the towel and wiped her face. “Your eye makeup.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, you look very Alice Cooper.”
Nadine chuckled. “Not a good look for me?”
“Yeah, not so much.”
“Did you know he’s an avid golfer?” Nadine asked and it took Carla a second to understand to whom she was referring. Keeping up with Nadine and her random change of topics was sometimes difficult. She was chock full of useless facts about all sorts of things, especially people, and she’d blurt out something and Carla would just begin to make sense of it, only to have to jump to another topic two seconds later.
How Nadine came across such things, Carla had no clue. But she was always eagerly anticipating what little gem of useless but nonetheless entertaining trivia Nadine would share next. And she was a treasure trove.
Carla finished cleaning off the makeup and returned the towel.
“Alice Cooper a golfer? Really? No, I didn’t know that.”
“Max played in a tournament with him a few weeks ago.”
Carla tore open her Cliff bar and took a bite.
“I knew he lived here in Phoenix, but no, I didn’t know about the golf thing.”
“Somehow Max still manages to play eighteen holes two or three times a week despite that job at the dealership.”
Carla quickly shifted her mind to Max, Nadine’s husband. “I figured he would. He really loved being a golf pro.”
“I know he did, but we needed actual food on the table, and as slow as things were for him and my low income, we didn’t have a choice.”
“No, you didn’t.” Carla often had to work an additional part-time job bartending for a friend’s catering company just so she could make her ends meet. Her summers and occasional weekends during the school year weren’t always used for her much-needed leisure time. She cleared her throat, but it didn’t seem to help with the pain or the strength of her voice.
Nadine pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them.
“Your voice is really shot. Maybe we should call it a day.”
“No, not yet.”
“We’ve been here for hours.”
Carla wanted to be there to show her support just as she’d been doing for the past several days. They were all on a mission and she wasn’t about to back down because her throat hurt. No way. Teachers needed better pay. Deserved better pay. And education needed more funding.
“Let’s just rest a while,” she said. She thought about her students and how each and every one of them was special to her. Some loud and boisterous, others quieter and more reserved. Some overachievers, others just average. And a couple, well, sometimes she was lucky if they ever turned in a completed assignment at all. But all of them were young and vibrant with healthy, open minds just waiting for someone to care enough to reach inside and tap into them. She happened to be one of those people. She was someone who cared. And she absolutely loved it when she found a new way in and lit up their interest in science. If she were being honest, there weren’t very many things in her life that gave her that kind of satisfaction.
“Think the governor’s going give in and end this any time soon?” Nadine asked.
Carla shook her head. “No, I don’t.”
“School’s almost out. Are we really going to have to strike that long? God, I hate this.”
“Who knows at this point? I really didn’t think we’d have to go as long as we have.” Thousands of Arizona teachers had walked out on strike and schools had closed. And still, no word from the governor.