Jivana's Memoirs 55

Back at my house, I reflected on the feeling I got when we had entered the warehouse again to grab our stashed computers.  We had decided in the spur of the moment to get them in case the warehouse might get compromised.  Running in there had given me a temporary but instant sense of not just relief but revival. I felt like my energy recharged instantly- I was certain this was distinguishable from just adrenaline.

Zephr was pacing.  Zoe sat next to me and we alternated in sighing somewhat frequently.

“We haven’t heard from the other teams yet”.  She was very upset.

“Well” Zoe said, “we haven’t even heard from our own”.

I decided to contribute. “You know, it might not be time yet.  We had made that rule.  Phone silence for 3 hours.  I mean we were all most likely raided if we haven’t heard from anybody else”.

And then all of our phones dinged within incoming text messages.  Then, Zephr’s phone rang.

“Yeah?  Uh huh … alright fine ... K … Yeah that’s smart … Yeah I don’t know, I’m worried about that too … Yes yes okay.  You too, stay safe”.

“Who was that?” Zoe asked sweetly. I just looked at Zephr with a wrinkled brow.

“It was Cutter.  He said that his crew is fine.  They had people alternating on watch duty. They saw it before it happened.  In a nut shell, he thinks we were framed.  He’s worried about all the crap we left behind for finger prints and the rest of the tribe is starting to report in although not everyone is accounted for”.

We looked at our phones.  Zento, Paris, Shakra, Marty, Raven, were all fine but we were missing some people still, namely some of the people on our team like Mykey.

“Should we go back?  It’s been long enough right?  Maybe we can pick up the cans?” I asked.

“I dont’ think so.  Those were real cops.  That was the city.  They were allowed to be there, we were doing something illegal, they probably took everything as evidence” said Zephr as she continued to pace.

"Are you asking the floor for answers sister?" Zoe said cutely and half joking.

Zephr stopped, shot her laser beam intensity glance, and then softened up. Zoe, always providing a little comic relief.

“Was everyone wearing gloves?” she asked.

“Well we were all supposed to …” I said and then slowly turned and looked in horror at Zoe.

Zephr grabbed Zoe's wrists to expose her neon painted hands.

“Oh I know … no no I was wearing gloves up until I painted them”

Zephr now looked at her sister furiously.  “Zoe! What!?!”

“No look!”  and out she pulled latex gloves covered in paint.  “I was careful I promise”

“Not a single print?!” She stopped pacing to lunge forward, leaning into Zoe’s face with her hands on her hips.

“Well gosh, Zeph … I mean I hope not but how would I know not a single print.  I mean I’m sure there was plenty of potential especially during the fight … oh ffuuuuudruggers!!!!!!!!!!”

It was not a funny moment but I couldn’t help but laugh and look at Zephr.  Fudruggers?! At least it broke a little bit of the tension of that moment.  Zephr was able to take a breath, calm down and chuckle.  

“Alright sis.  What’s done is done”.

“Hey I always say that!”

“I don’t care what you always say” and she said back to me curtly then turned back around and started pacing again.

Another text came in to all of us.  Zephr was the first to look at her phone.

“It’s 5am, turn on the news” she said.

And there we were … different Technorati teams scrambling.  It was helicopter footage. Nothing up close.  Nothing of us three.  Nothing that would hopefully identify anyone but you could see what we had done.

The news spin was interesting.

“Strange groups of people are painting Democracity … well, colorful” and the three newscasters chuckled amongst themselves “as we can’t say what color they are actually painting since it’s quite varied between street murals, rainbows, and checkerboard print … We don’t have any information on who these groups are but we do know that they also seem to be cleaning up trash in the local areas and possibly creating gardens”.

One of the other newscasters added “Some of the roads are gold.  We can say that they are painting the roads gold. Currently these strange outdoor exhibits seem to be only on the Outskirts border.  Although this may appear positive or look beautiful, depending on your perspective, this is considered a crime.  This work does seem to be permitted and many of the paintings are on city or private property". She showed several billboards and benches that had been painted over.  "The police have taken in witnesses and have a couple of suspects in custody for questioning”.

I think all of our jaws were clenched, all of our eyes wide, all of our chests expanding to take in more breath to process this newscast.

“They didn’t say anything about Koch” was Zephr’s first reaction to the newscast and looked at us deploringly.

Zoe and I sighed and responded simultaneously “they wouldn’t”.

“You know, you’re right though Zephr.  We didn’t see it either.  Not a single time of what they shot.  We should have seen it at least once.  They blurred it out”.

And that’s when I knew it was not the only thing that would be erased.