“Ryan? Call that doctor in the morning first thing, OK? You’ve got to be in top form. I have a bad feeling about all this,” she said.
He didn’t nod. He knew from experience that nodding would produce nausea when he got like this, and he’d be vomiting in the street. She sighed. She turned the car off and got out. She put her arm around his waist and helped him up the door. Rev. Washington opened it.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. Concern but no anxiety.
Ryan relaxed. Someone stronger than himself to lean on? He needed that right now. “Migraine,” he mumbled.
“Ah.” Rev. Washington said while giving Ryan support, then wished Emily a safe drive home. “I’ve got some Excedrin for migraines, will that do? What else?”
“Someone here gets migraines?” Ryan asked.
“Martha,” the Reverend said. “Not much anymore, but we keep some medication around. She won’t mind if we raid them.”
Ryan attempted a smile and winced instead. “Just the Excedrin will be fine for now,” he said. “Is Rafael asleep? Because if he is, I’m going to do the same.”
“He is, and you should too,” Rev. Washington said. He handed him the tablets and a full glass of water. “Drink it all.”
Ryan did, then he found his way up the stairs, and into his room. He needed to have some thinking time, but obviously it wasn’t going to be tonight.
Chapter 8
11 p.m. Wednesday, Newsroom — Cage was troubled when he came back to the newsroom, Emily saw, as he walked up the stairs. She’d come back from taking Ryan out to the Washingtons, saw that Sarah was also flagging and called Cage’s brother Corey to come get her. Sarah didn’t protest, but let Corey take her home to the apartment Corey and Cage shared. And now Sarah. Although that was temporary, Sarah had said, until the doctor took her off the meds that caused the worrisome side effects. Emily wondered about that. She knew some sleep meds made people sleepwalk or even sleep drive. She wondered what Sarah was taking and what side effects. But she wondered about lots of things. And as she’d warned Sarah on her first day, she asked questions. Too many questions, her mother used to say.
“Cage?” she asked now.
He shook his head as he put away his equipment, except for his camera. That he brought over to the video-editing station and set it up to upload. “We should have been over there more,” he said. “That protest is equally important.”
Emily raised her eyebrows. “What happened?”
“It started there; did you know that?” Cage said. “The protests. At the Portland ICE facility in 2018.”
“Yesss,” Emily said, trailing off. She had known about it when it was happening, but two years ago was a long time for a college student. She’d been, what 20, 21? Finishing her junior year. She’d discovered journalism and the newsroom her sophomore year, but even in 2018 she was still learning politics. She had not been politically active, or even informed, beyond the basics of Trump was an asshole.
“Remind me,” she said finally. “I remember they closed it down. That’s about it.”
Joe Castro wandered over. Lam was still working, but she could tell he was listening. Ben Waters was wrapping up the news broadcast. He glanced over and set the show to repeat so Cage would have time to upload his footage. Miguel was gone, the downtown protests already uploaded, and a clip made for the end of the broadcast. The sports crew was gearing up in the corner, a chatter of female voices. It made Emily smile every time she was reminded that the EWN had an all-female sports staff. And Ryan had done it deliberately, she knew, although he’d never admit it.
“Sarah?” Cage asked.
“I had Corey come get her. She was hurting,” she answered patiently, knowing he’d get to his story when he was ready.
Cage fiddled with his video-camera cords and started the upload. He leaned back to let it work.
“June 2018. We’d just learned about kids in cages,” he said. “A bunch of protesters were at the ICE facility, and they managed to chase out the agents and occupy it. They shut the fucker down.”
He grinned at that.
Emily laughed. Cage didn’t pretend to be balanced. There were good guys and bad guys — that was objectively true to him. He saw no reason to give bad guys the benefit of the doubt.
“It began Occupy ICE all over the country. Just as the Portland BLM protests have shown how to do sustained protests. Portland knows protesting.”
That was true, Emily agreed. Portland had a long history of civil disobedience and protests from the left. Unfortunately, of late they had unwelcome protesters from the right as well. Proud Boys and the like were driving trucks through the protesters. Holding counter protests in suburban parks.
And the cops did fist bumps with them. And teargassed BLM protesters.
Portland had a white supremacy infestation in its police bureau.
Emily refocused.
“So, it’s been two years, and more. And other protests have gotten more play,” Cage was continuing his story. “But there is still this core group that shows up down there. They said they show up because there are still kids in cages.”
Cage fell silent for a moment. “So, the elementary school down there...”
Lam interrupted, “There’s a school down there? I didn’t know there was even a neighborhood nearby.”
Cage nodded. “It backs up against that hillside? Old South Portland that got sliced by the freeway. Along Macadam. Funky old Victorians and such. Anyway, Cottonwood School is right there. Students have been making posters protesting ICE locking up kids and putting them on the school fence. Today, agents came out and tore them off the fence.”
“What?” Emily exclaimed. There were angry murmurs from others in the crowd.
Cage nodded. “I’ve got some interviews with the protesters to run in the nightly feed,” he said. Cage
