Chapter XII
Mattie hummed Henry Mancini's theme from Zefferelli's movie, Romeo and Juliet as she rinsed the suds off the plate and set it on the wooden dishrack next to the sink, and replayed their conversation from the previous week in her mind. She glanced at her watch - one o'clock. She needed to finish composing her exams. She wiped her hand on the dishtowel and headed for her desk when she heard distant singing and sirens...lots of sirens, and she hurried into the living room and called Fran.
"Hello?"
"Fran, do you know what's going on?"
"No, Mattie, but Jerry and I were thinking of walking to the quad. I don't like the sound of so many sirens," she paused. "It's so close to the end of the school year, I can't imagine anything going on."
"I'll meet you at the gate as soon as I can."
"See you there."
Mattie hung up the phone and headed for the front door, grabbing her cane on the way. Two weeks until her last class and then she would be on her way to Cape Breton. It seemed like a dream to her, and she was counting down the days to her departure. She locked the door behind her and walked down the steps and onto the walkway, breathing in the warm spring air, and she frowned at the troubling, discordant sounds from the quad. She was able to move more quickly with her new prosthetic and use her cane less, but she felt dragged down as she tried to hurry to the gate, and her filmy flowered skirt swirled around her legs and cane as she increased her pace. The chanting and sirens were getting louder as she neared the gate, and she waved to the couple as she saw them walking as fast as they could toward her, both dressed casually in jeans and tee-shirts on their day off.
Jerry pushed open the black iron gate, and she and Fran rushed through. They didn't speak, but walked together quickly toward the quad, where loud chanting could be heard. "END THE WAR!....NO MORE WAR!....NO MORE WAR!" The sounds were deafening, and they walked past the black iron bench and entered the quad, aghast at the sights before them.
Mattie was dumbstruck at the number of protesters, easily two times the number of students at the school. There were demonstrators of all ages, and they were gathered in front of the Administration Building, now singing anti-war ballads and holding signs high. Reporters and camera crews seemed to be everywhere. But, what struck her as strange was that the police were leaving, getting into their squad cars and backing up and actually leaving the quad. She and Fran and Jerry looked at each other in confusion.
Every protester on the quad fell completely silent, and their signs were lowered as they stared collectively toward the south end of the quad. Mattie's eyes followed their gaze and she felt a coldness that she'd never felt before overtake her as she scanned the lawn leading to the main street in front of Brooksford's quad. What had they seen? The waiting was excruciating, and she was aware of the quiet, the absolute stillness, yet her heart felt as if it were pounding and would burst out of her chest at any moment.
And then, it began......the low, deep rolling sounds. The rumbling of heavy equipment in the distance...of what sounded like heavy trucks and who knew what else. Then silence again, and that was even worse. Mattie thought her head would burst from the waiting, as she stood with her friends, midway between the students and the awful silence. She crossed her arms as chills ran up her body, and the hair on her arms stood on end. It was hard to breathe in the thick silence. And then she heard the deep, loud, crisp command in the distance to her right.
Mattie eyes widened in horror, and she thought she was going to be sick as she saw lines of green-uniformed, helmeted National Guardsmen wearing gas masks march onto the quad, holding rifles topped with bayonets that sparkled like costume jewelry in the bright sunshine.
"Oh, my God." Jerry said under his breath.
Mattie tried to whisper back, but found that she couldn't speak. Her throat had constricted from the fear that was like none she had ever known. The Moratorium in D.C. in November had had some skirmishes near the end, but she hadn't felt like this. The fear now came from knowing that whatever happened from this point on at her tiny college in the peaceful valley near the White Mountains in New Hampshire would be frightening to behold, and she watched as the front row of Guardsmen knelt and held up their rifles. The silence continued, save for a few stilted commands and the chirping of birds in the green trees. How could this be happening? It had to be a dream. This couldn't be real. But, it was, and she stared at the Guardsmen in the front row, not fifty feet from her. They couldn't be much older than the students they faced. They were meant to be protectors, but the callous shootings and deaths at several colleges had put a different face to them and now it was not if they would shoot again, it was when. Her breathing quickened and she sucked in her breath as she saw a couple of Guardsmen turn their heads toward the three of them, the masks making them appear grotesque in the beautiful setting, and the three friends froze, not knowing what to do. The Guardsmen evidently decided that they were not a threat and returned their gaze to the crowd, and now, all they could do was watch the scene unfold.
"END THE WAR!" someone yelled from the crowd.
"NIXON, STOP THE KILLING!" another called out.
Silence. Mattie's heart began to race as time seemed to stand still. Her eyes skittered from the protesters to the guardsmen and back again. She heard a deep, crisp command and the front row of Guardsmen stood up, and waited, and at the sound of another sharp command, proceeded forward slowly in line. Mattie couldn't believe her eyes, and her breathing quickened in fear. Soldiers with rifles and bayonets and gas masks advancing with such precision on un-armed protesters. As the Guardsmen advanced excruitiatingly slowly toward the Administration Building, she found herself whispering to the protesters. "Stay there...stay there, please....oh please...stay there."
Instead, the crowd to her left linked arms and moved slowly as one, as if sleep-walking, forward on the grassy area of the quad, and she and Fran and Jerry stood there, helpless, as the protesters held their signs up and walked together toward their perceived enemy, who did the same. She wanted to scream in the silence and tell them to stop...to stop this insanity, but she knew that she had no voice. Row upon row of uniformed men passed her as they advanced on the protesters, until, the two groups were thirty feet apart, with the beautiful, blue sky above them, and the flowering spring trees, and the green grass and the masses of daffodils between them.
And then one young man began to sing "Blowin' in The Wind,"and the rest of the protesters' voices rang out as they joined in and walked forward. As the lyrics of the second line rang out, the tear gas cannister exploded in the middle of the protesters, and some started to scream and scatter as they ran toward the west, toward them, others fell to the ground, while others tried to stay together and press on. Mattie looked around her in horror as the quad erupted into chaos, and she could see Jerry shouting something to her but she couldn't hear him and the gas cloud hovered in the air as it drifted toward them. Another cannister exploded on the east side of the quad, and now the blue-clad police were back, gas masks on their faces, scouring the perimeter, handcuffing whoever they could grab. The Guardsmen seemed to be thankfully holding their weapons at bay, as some protesters ran, and others dropped to the ground, and were immediately handcuffed and pulled away. Mattie's eyes skittered from one horrific scene to another.
"We need to leave...NOW." Jerry shouted at her, and she turned and saw that Fran had the top of her tee shirt pulled over her mouth and nose. She nodded, then turned back, as if drawn toward the melee before her. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw an officer hit someone on the ground with his baton.
"SAMUEL! SAMUEL!" Mattie screamed as she recognized the small, thin young man as one of her students. He was curled up on the ground in the middle of the quad, and she stared in horror as she saw the officer raise his baton again and bring it down hard on the young man's face. "SAMUEL!" She dropped her cane and threw her splayed hands out in front of her and somehow ran toward him, despite hearing Fran and Jerry's frantic
shouts for her to come back.
"STOP IT! YOU'RE HURTING HIM!" She grabbed the officer's arm and pleaded with him. "STOP! STOP!" She was screaming, crying now, feeling close to hysteria. "PLEASE STOP!" And as he raised his arm again, she grabbed the officer's sleeve with both hands. "LET GO OF HIM!" She found her strength and pulled toward her as hard as she could to keep the baton from striking the young man again. She glanced down and saw blood running down her student's cheek as he lay prone on the grass, and she pulled with all that was in her on the officer's arm. "LET GO OF HIM!" And then the eyes in the grotesque-looking green mask shifted and focused on her, and she stared into the man's eyes, and felt true terror. His gaze was blank, steady, as if he were looking past her - as if she meant nothing to him. She continued to pull on his arm, and he let go of her student and turned to her. She felt him grab her arm and she winced as she was swung around and she fell hard to the ground, her left cheek hitting something hard. Her arm was yanked up roughly and she staggered up, her skirt twisting around her legs, and she felt the sting of acid in her eyes, and nose, and throat as another tear gas cannister went off near her. She couldn't see and couldn't get her breath and she coughed and whirled around as she felt the officer's tight grip on her arm. She lost her balance and fell to the ground again, and this time her prosthetic twisted beneath her, and she felt her face pushed into the damp ground, as her arms were pulled behind her and metal cuffs clamped down on her wrists, and she was lifted and dragged by her arms along the grass.