Girls in White Dresses - JENNIFER CLOSE [67]
The boy began to back away. “Okay, then,” he said. “I didn’t mean to—”
“You didn’t mean to what? Interrupt my walk? Stop me on a cold night and make me listen to you tell me how amazing this Candidate is? Yes, you did. And I’ve heard it. I hear it all the time. From my boyfriend, from everyone. I get it. He’s amazing.”
“Yes, he is,” the boy said quietly. Shannon narrowed her eyes. Lauren tried to pull her arm and make her walk away, but Shannon stayed right where she was.
“Why are you even here?” she asked.
“To inform people about the change we want to see in the world,” he said.
“No,” Shannon said. “Why are you here?” she pointed to the sidewalk. “Why are you in New York? You think you need to convince people here to vote for him? Let me give you a heads-up, buddy. He’s got New York, okay? We got it. We’re Democrats here. And you’re on the Upper West Side, of all places. For God’s sake. Don’t waste your time. Go somewhere else! It doesn’t even matter if I vote. I might not even bother. Did you hear that? I might not vote!”
The boy kept walking backward and then turned and ran down the street, clutching his clipboard to his chest. He kept glancing back to see if Shannon was chasing after him. A few people stood on the sidewalk and stared, and Lauren took five steps to the right, trying to pretend that she didn’t know Shannon.
“Every vote counts,” an old lady said to Shannon. “Don’t be stupid.”
“Oh, fuck you,” she said. The dog hung his head. He looked embarrassed. Shannon started to walk down the sidewalk toward her apartment. She walked quickly, and Lauren had to jog to keep up.
“Are you okay?” Lauren asked.
Shannon stopped. “Yeah. I guess maybe I’m not handling this whole thing as well as I thought.”
“Really?” Lauren said. “Do you think?”
“Whatever,” Shannon said.
“Hey, I get it,” Lauren said. “If you want to go back and push down that old lady, I’m all for it.”
“Maybe later,” Shannon said. “Drinks first.”
On Election Day, Shannon slept in. She got coffee and took her time walking to the public school where she would vote. Everyone at work would be late because of voting, and she might as well take advantage of it. She at least deserved that much.
Shannon had butterflies in her stomach as she walked, but they weren’t from excitement. She’d been counting down to this day for months, and now that it was here she didn’t quite know how she felt about it.
As Shannon turned on Ninetieth, she saw that the line stretched all the way down the block. People were laughing and waving to their neighbors. Moms from the school were selling baked goods and hot chocolate. “All the proceeds are going to the school,” they kept saying. The group at the front was rowdy and slaphappy from standing in line for so long, and they started cheering as people came out of the building. “Whoo!” they yelled. “You made a difference! Good for you!”
Everyone was acting like this was some strange election-themed street fair. Shannon debated going back to bed and not voting at all. She could just tell everyone she had. What was the difference? In the end, she stayed put, but she put on her sunglasses and refused to smile at anyone around her.
Shannon saw a guy she knew from work walking down the line. “Hey!” he said to her. He held up his hand for a high five and Shannon gave him a weak slap. “What a day, huh?” he asked. He turned his face to the sun and smiled. Like it was Christmas. Like there was a miracle to observe.
“Yep,” Shannon said. “What a day. Where did you come from? Were you in the front of the line?”
“Yeah,” he said. “But I gave my place to an elderly lady. I told her I’d go to the back of the line, you know? It’s the least I can do.”
This wasn’t the New York that Shannon loved. These weren’t the people who normally lived here. Everyone had gone crazy. Dan was gone and maybe he was never coming back. Shannon thought, as she waited in line, that she was crazy too, that she should have never waited for Dan in the first place. She should have made him choose: “Me or the Candidate,” she should