( – 80 – )

She knew her director was right, and looking at everyone in the bar who was nodding she realized it even more. Now she really couldn’t swallow even the last drop of saliva she had in her mouth. She looked at everyone with wide eyes and in her mind she thought back to that service from a few days ago as if an eternity had passed. She should have only read an article and then should have done the same as in the previous service. But now it was totally different. She was aware of what she would face. Of who would listen to her and see her.

In the service from a few days ago, how much share could she have made? 3%, now they were talking about speaking to a city divided between television and radio, and Glenn’s idea was an excellent idea. Dan’s story would shake the entire population to its core and Margareth’s voice would spread like an oil stain. Slow but inexorable. These were the thousand thoughts buzzing in Ruby’s head who was now staring at Glenn who was preparing a brief but concise speech to send on the radio to announce a new voice with an incredible story.

Ruby, like all of Humphy’s guests, was waiting for the phone call from the newsroom to hear the piece that her colleagues had prepared. The phone was placed in the middle of the place on an empty table with a chair ready for Ruby and a recorder placed by Volt for any eventuality. In Ruby’s head she had already decided where to ‘go on air’, but she would announce it to the director when he called her.

She approached Volt and told him that she would prefer to broadcast the piece from there and not from another place. Volt understood her point of view well and began to rummage in the large bag he had brought with him. “But first let me hear Humphy,” Volt nodded.

Ruby approached the counter, while Humphy was cleaning glasses, and sitting on the wooden stool made sure no one else could hear her and give an opinion that could influence the final word of the great rhinoceros. “I know these are really important hours that are about to arrive. The unified networks announcement, our piece right after. Dan’s story could really give a turning point to all this and going to the newsroom would be easier for me, but I would prefer to go on air from here. From where everything was born. Is that okay with you?” Humphy looked her straight in the eyes. He didn’t respond immediately. Ruby knew she had posed an uncomfortable question to him. Humphy was examining all the pros and cons. And like all the questions posed in those hours, there was the I.P.G. unknown which was perhaps the biggest of all, but in the end Humphy looked her straight in the eyes and that doubt that had been stamped on his big face vanished and he said: “So be it!” And in their faces was born a determined look, and to seal this tacit agreement Ruby squeezed Humphy’s paw, who like a ship’s captain, called everyone to attention, and announced the agreement he had made with the journalist.

“The I.P.G. won’t be able to do anything more after Ruby has told about Margareth and documented what Volt saw in the street!” said Humphy supporting his decision. Everyone looked at him proud of what they had heard and their gaze went to Ruby, who went to Volt and gave him the go-ahead to set up for a live broadcast.

Meanwhile Glenn threw down a draft to announce on the radio the arrival of a ‘story that would give a turning point to this Awakening so far mute and silent’ He would never incite to arms, but to a sudden and total shutdown of the only means of communication that the Elite still possessed. Even that megascreen at the city hall turned off, after all the citizens, even those from the center, had heard Ruby. The total shutdown of televisions meant no more control, no more Elite, more critical thinking and more open-mindedness and Margareth’s vision would be that of everyone, and her rainbow would be the symbol of their freedom.

AI Generated Image

⬅( – 79 – )

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( – 67 – )

Ruby remained for a second at the door, but immediately after gathered her courage and went toward that desk, where a big werewolf with a big cigar in hand was reading papers he had on the desk. The room had no windows and the only source of light was a Churchill model lamp on the desk that illuminated that small environment. And even if there had been no need on the desk there was the nameplate ‘Director’ that gave to that room, the only note of importance to that small newsroom.

Ruby sat on the only chair in front of the desk and waited for that creature to stare at her straight in the eyes, and without uttering a word, asked her what she had in her hands, staring at that file she had in hand. Ruby knew that look very well and extending the folder explained to him without frills what she had ‘discovered’. The director opened the little folder and read the first lines of what she had written and took the photocopy of that little piece of paper. He looked at it with dubious interest, and immediately after looked at Ruby.

A story born from a little piece of paper that had stuck under the heel of one of her shoes. “But are we joking? Ruby you are my diamond tip and you want to tarnish ‘your’ reputation… ‘our’ reputation like this?” The director looked at her for a couple of seconds after that question, in which he made her feel the weight of the whole newsroom, even if small, on her shoulders. He thought he would put her in difficulty, but the gaze of his employee, didn’t change one bit. Ruby was certain that under that strange sheet under the shoe, something more was hidden. The Great Awakening, somehow, had made her open her eyes. But she still didn’t know it yet.

In the notes she had taken, there was something that told her to investigate the thing and that would lead her to something bigger, and that perhaps would make happen ‘that leap’ that the director had always been waiting for. She didn’t speak, but had the director read the entire file, and remained silent, until the big face of the werewolf stared at her again. She was about to tell him something, but without knocking one of Ruby’s colleagues entered and invited them to go see the television on in the adjacent room.

They all remained speechless. The director with the cigar in his mouth took a couple of puffs and when he blew out the smoke, that cloud flooded the entire room, and finally stared at Ruby straight in the eyes and told her only “Begin”. On Ruby’s face was born that smile she was waiting to show off. She returned to the director’s room and took the file, and ran to her desk and began to draft a piece for a report.

What they had seen on television was Buster’s sabotage at the station, and when they saw all those televisions turned off, in everyone’s eyes terror was painted, but especially in the director’s eyes and in Ruby’s gaze a spark that this time too she had seen far. The director, returning to his office, passed near Ruby’s desk and took back the photocopy of that little piece of paper, looked at it one more time and reread that fragment. He put it back on the desk and looking at Ruby, said: “When you finish writing, I’m sending you to the street. You must see with your own eyes” and ordered another of his employees to take ‘that dusty radio’ at the back of the closet and ‘see if it still worked’.

At that order from the director, Ruby remained speechless and watched her colleague go toward that room full of junk, and when that door opened, she stretched her neck to see better what it contained, but unfortunately distinguished nothing, apart from a big tangle of technical equipment, which in her opinion were no longer useful for anything, and continued to work. But when, from that closet, a crackling voice was heard, everyone stopped, and the director flung open the door shouting: “Bring it here! We must hear!” Ruby’s colleague obeyed immediately and brought the turned-on device into the newsroom. He placed it on the first available desk and all the journalists of that small television station listened for the first time to Glenn’s voice talking about The Great Awakening. Ruby was the first who recognized certain verses she had memorized, and when she heard them for the first time through that radio, without even realizing it, she repeated them aloud, and all her colleagues, including the director, looked at her amazed, and immediately after the director ordered her to finish writing that piece and when finished ordered her to take all the equipment and go to the street.
Her instinct hadn’t let her down, not even this time.

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⬅( – 66 – )

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