Chapter 1: Bree
“Please, everyone. Make sure that you grab fruits and vegetables. There are breads and cured meats for free as well. The only thing that you have to actually pay for are the baked goods, because they are for the Girl and Boy Scouts to go on a trip to Old New York. They are more than three quarters of the way to their goal, let’s help them make it today!” Lee says into the microphone to cheers and clapping from the people in front of the stage.
“And now it is my great honor and distinct privilege to introduce the leader of our organization and one of my very best friends, Brianna Murphy!”
The crowd literally goes wild as I make my way to the microphone. I have my usually unruly hair pulled back and away from my face and I’m wearing jeans and a nice shirt with a blazer. Dressed down enough for the occasion, but differently enough from everyone else here that I’m easily picked out from the crowd.
Because today is an extremely important day, not just for me, but also for The Safe Space as an organization.
“How is everyone doing?” I say into the microphone, a huge smile plastered on my face. I actually don’t really have to fake it at all. I love being out here. I love helping these people. My people. And I’m actually pretty decent at this public speaking thing.
It’s why I was voted to be the one to do this.
The crowd exploded. Cheers of “We love Bree!” and “Thank you!” and “Savior!” are called out as I smile and wave to everyone.
“Thank you all for coming! You always make our events so successful and full of love, joy, and just good ole fashioned camaraderie. I love our weekly get-togethers and I’m so happy to have you all here,” I say.
The crowd goes absolutely insane again, cheering, whistling, clapping, and stomping their feet.
“I want to thank everyone that has helped get this together. Especially my team at The Safe Space, The Mountain’s Edge, and The Forest Home. Every one of you have made my dreams come true and are always helping me and pushing me to be better. I love you and I can’t wait to celebrate with you all this weekend!
“I want you all to think back to how this all started. I would go door to door with my team, bringing fresh food to anyone who wanted it. So many people turned me away, thinking that I was trying to poison them or drug them or something.”
There’s loud laughter from the audience and Mrs. Crowley cries out, “Girl, I done told you I was sorry about that.”
That kicks up even more laughter.
“And I’m thankful for that Mrs. Crowley. And for your help in spreading the word to the good people in our neighborhood that needed help.”
“Girl, you know it do what it do,” Mrs. Crowley says, primping under the attention.
“Over the past two years, we’ve grown astronomically. From going door to door, to opening a market once per month, to now having our market every weekend. And not only are we providing free foods, clothing, and staples for the home, but we’re also providing jobs. We’re also helping this community develop and become self-sufficient. It took two years, but look at what we have done. Look at what you have done!”
Applause fills the air again. I think that politicians must really need the praise. All the clapping must really boost their ego. I can’t say that I’m totally immune to it, but that’s not what this is about for me. There’s so much more that this is about. And they’re all about to find out exactly what it is I’m here for.
“And as proud as I am of all of us and how we’ve turned this corner of the town around…I have a question for you. Has anyone ever wondered where the food came from?”
The crowd instantly quiets, puzzled glances going around everywhere.
Of course, Mrs. Crowley is the one to answer. “From your farms, of course.”
“That’s true, Mrs. Crowley. The food that we’re currently giving you is from our farms. From the greenhouses that we’ve put in thanks to Lily McPhee’s designs that were discovered several years ago in the home of her adoptive family. But where did the foods come from at the beginning? When we didn’t have any farms, just gardens. Has anyone ever thought to ask?”
That seems to stun the crowd. And I get it. I bet that once they got food, they didn’t care where it came from. They needed too much and couldn’t afford to look a gift horse in the mouth.
But now that I’ve brought it up?
“I know that all of us have been told by the politicians and the governments of the world that we don’t have food enough for us all. That there are shortages of everything that we need. And yes, I believe at one time that was true. But it’s not true anymore.”
So many confused faces. So many people who can’t believe, who can’t understand what it is that I’m telling them. Because if they did, if they knew that something was different than what we had been told, then what else have they been lied to about?
If only they knew everything that I do.
But now’s not the time for that. I can’t tell them about the adoption centers yet. Too much information at once will make them reject everything. So, I’ll give them a little bit at a time.
“Every bit of that food that we brought to you in that first year, before we had the ground tilled and the seed sown and the greenhouses had been fully built, that food was bought and brought here. Because of the money I inherited from my adoptive father, I was able to continuously buy fresh food to give to you.”
And now the crowd is getting restless.
“What do you mean?”
“Where did it come from?”
“Why would they lie to us?”
“How are they still doing this?”
The questions are yelled out in loud, angry voices. And I’m glad. I need the people to be angry. But I need to control that anger. I need to make sure that they don’t use it to riot, but to bring change. Because that is what I will help them do.
“The government is keeping farms, food, clothing, hell, even soap, from you. As a way to control the population. They are making it so that the poor get hungrier, sicker, and weaker. So that those without money can’t fight back. And so that the rich can continue to thrive. This is just a more definitive means to an end than anything that they’ve ever been able to do in human history.”
I had told them that the government was controlling their food. What I hadn’t done is shown it to them. So while I was giving this last part of my speech, Benjamin was working with our AV people and played video of some of the secret locations on the large screens on either side of my podium. They saw various kinds of foods that they’d never eaten, livestock that most had never seen the real animal, and large containers make their way from those farms to restaurants and private homes.
There was no denying what they saw.
“I have told you that I am running for city mayor in this new term. What I haven’t done is tell you why. Why you should vote for me. Why I think I can make a difference.”
Pointing all around to the market that I have brought to them, to the place that I have created for them, I say, “This is why you should vote for me. Because I will work tirelessly to make sure that all of the people in our city have everything that they need. Not just the rich and powerful. Everyone.”
The screams and cheers are even louder now as people chant my name.
What they don’t know is the bigger plan. Because I won’t just stop in this city. No one should live the way that they are making us live.
No. I plan on going all the way to the top. I plan on putting someone in The Safe Space in the role of President.
