Compromise

Sarah and her friend Lauren sat in the backseat giggling while showing each other funny memes and fashion dos and don’ts on their phones. Sarah’s, brother Lucas sat next to them with his earbuds tuned to his favorite music, trying to avoid boredom on this long ride. Their moms, Chloe and Elise were perched in the front discussing the latest PTA meeting, a movie they saw and everything else to pass the time as the BMW SUV ticked down mile markers heading south on the highway.
Ironically, none of them wanted to be on this trip. Elise wanted her daughter Sarah to go to college closer to home. Sarah desperately wanted to break out of her family nest and go away to school, but she preferred an art school two states away.
Lauren didn’t even want to go to college. With dreams of becoming an actress, she wanted to move to New York and try her luck on the great white way. Chloe amplified Elise’s fear of losing her daughter to adulthood. As a young single parent, she and Lauren grew up together as a duo. Now she would be left alone. For the last 17 years living her life for her daughter and had no idea what her life would be solo.
And poor Lucas was stuck in the backseat, a reluctant hostage forced to accompany them. As a freshman, he barely tried on high school and college seemed miles away from him.
For quintet of passengers, Southern State University was a compromise none wanted to make.
In the hour and a half drive, the car traversed the suburban landscapes of shopping stop malls and chain theme restaurants with manicured intersections to the never-ending farm fields. But no one looked out the window to notice. This was not a pleasure cruise, but a destination.
The University campus was a modern oasis amid the vast plains of the area. The shining glass dormitory buildings stood tall amongst the variety of other buildings, academic buildings, and stadiums, at odd with their surroundings, just as the bland Dorothy did in the quirky and the colorful land of Oz.

The group arrive just in time to check in and begin the tour. The guides were two students and a university public relations person. The all-to-chipper trio instantly annoyed the frowned sullen faces of the compromising BMW passengers. They strode the halls of one pristine, modern building after another with arms crossed, barely acknowledging much, but each noticing one thing to fuel the conversation during their lunch break at the student union.
At their scheduled lunch, Elise broke the tension with her discovery.

“I liked the dormitories. They were larger than I thought.”

Chloe nodded in agreement.

“The campus is beautiful with all the trees,” Sarah said.

And the benign compromising conversation went on for a few minutes, until with his earbuds still in Lucas shouted,

“The stadium was off the hook.”

The moms turned to him glaring at his loud outburst, as Lauren cracked laugh at the absurdity, and the others joined. It was a relief valve that allowed them to enjoy their lunch.

“Mom, there’s an ice cream machine over there. Can I go get some?” Lucas asked and Elise gladly agreed.

Shortly after he left, the four heard a loud crash muffled in the distance. Everyone in the room was quiet, looking at each other puzzled.

A few students rush to the sound by the glass union doors and an enormous thud reverberated throughout the room, startling everyone to concern. Immediately afterward a man ran into the room and stood in the middle of the student union.

“I need everyone to remain calm. We’ve had a disturbance in the courtyard between two student groups, but the campus security is dispersing everyone. Please stay seated until we can rectify the problem. Thank you.”

A look of concern fired in Elise’s eyes. “Where is Lucas?”

“I think I see him over at those ice cream machines I’ll go get him,” Sarah said in the annoyed big sister voice she donned anytime she had to corral her little chick.

The trio sat in complete stillness, actively listening to the growing conflict well up outside, increasing the volume of the crowd, noise, police whistles and shouting. Everyone in their sphere of sight looked on in fear.

“Where did those kids go?” Elise tapped her fingernails on the table nervously. “I have to go find them.”

When Elise left, Chloe and Lauren looked at each other telepathically communicating their alarm as the outside noise rose to sound-breaking proportions.

As a student ran by their table, Chloe grabbed her arm.

“What’s going on?” Chloe asked.

“There were some students demonstrating over at the liberal arts building about the supreme court, affirmative, action case. I guess it got out of hand,” the student said and moved to the glass doors.

The duo glanced at each other in terror.

“We have to go after them,” Lauren said. “They could get hurt.”

“What can we do?” Chloe warned. “Best to hear and let the police handle it.”

“Mom,” Lauren whispered with urgency, “if this turns into a race riot. They’re in trouble. We need to help.”

Chloe looked at her daughter knowing she was right, admiring her bravery but grabbed her hand to hold her when she began to rise from the table and shook her head side to side.

Frustrated, Lauren desperately looked around, toggling her head back-and-forth, trying to find her friends.

Most of the students were standing inside the glass doors and windows, peering out the escalating unrest, trying to see what’s going on and shouting what they saw.

“The two groups are fighting.”

“They’re arresting some of the students.”

“Hey, they’re releasing teargas.”

Chloe closed her eyes touching her daughter’s hand, desperate to stay glued to their chairs when a girl thrust through the doors screaming.

“They’re beating a young kid.”

With that, Lauren struggled out of her mother’s grip and ran out the doors.

Chloe could no longer hope the incident away and ran after Lauren.

She stood outside, blinded by the billowing black smoke, waving her way in a masked premature night to see anything or anyone, terrified at the cries, screams, and shouts she heard in the blankness. She was helpless.

In the darkened path, she floundered through the crowd, frantic to find her friends in the chaotic revelry, but only saw shades of police with shields, trying to hold back students and police with nightsticks separating students clashing with each other. The sound was deafening and the screams and shouts indiscernible.

And then a loud metal clang clearly filled her ears like a Carillon and she heard a waning melody. “We shall overcome, we shall overcome.” As her legs fell under her, she crashed to the ground screaming “Why” into the abyss. Then everything went black.

(c) Copyright Suzanne Rudd Hamilton, 2023

Part II coming soon!