“I’ll be twenty-five in a couple months,” I whispered.
Lance grinned. “Okay, college may not betotallyaccurate. I guess I should say the first time ImetAlex was at college. She was being arrested for not having a permit to protest.”
I gave Chase a sheepish smile. “It was my first protest on my own. I was only sixteen.”
Chase’s mouth dropped open.
“Luckily,” I continued, “that one is sealed since I was a minor.”
“Just how long have you been leading a life of crime?” he asked.
I threw back my shoulders and lifted my chin. “I’ve been an advocate for those who can’t speak up for themselves and for bringing awareness to environmental issues in our great state of Oregon since I was a little girl.”
Chase frowned. “So basically—”
“I had just taken the bar exam and was waiting on results,” Lance interrupted. “I decided to hang out at the university for the day since I didn’t have anything pressing. That’s when I first saw her. There was just something about Alex that caught my attention as she was being hauled away, looking all fierce and regal, shouting about the rights of the short-tailed albatross. I was instantly smitten and knew I had to help her.”
I blinked back the tears that suddenly welled in my eyes. It was touching to hear someone I liked and respected talk about me so nicely. Usually people dismissed me before they got to know me. They’d whisper “hippie” or “tree hugger” like that was reason enough to reject me and what I stood for.
“So I volunteered my services to help her,” Lance continued, “and I called in a favor from Judge. That was nine years ago, and I’ve been helping Alex ever since.”
Clifford chuckled. “I wouldn’t exactly call Alexa and I friends, but I’ve known her for about five years now. I met her when she was twenty. She’d just been released for…what was it again?”
I smiled. “Freeing the turkeys right before Thanksgiving at that farm over in Willamina.”
“That’s right,” Clifford said. “It was right before the holiday. You’d been in jail for about two days, right?”
I nodded.
“When I read over her rather extensive file,” Clifford said, “I realized she was a non-violent repeat offender, and I couldn’t help but admire her tenacity. So I called the Portland Parole Office and a couple other counties where Alexa had been arrested over the years, and I asked to be assigned her case from here on out. Unusual, yes, but most of the parole officers were happy to oblige.”
Chase looked down at the file he held and then back at me. “I see you’ve also been arrested for chaining yourself to a tree when a land developer started building an outlet mall, received a citation for organizing a sit-in at a farmer’s market because some farmers were knowingly using pesticides, received another citation for standing in a grocery store aisle and demonstrating alternative ways to shampoo hair using environmentally-friendly ingredients, another arrest for breaking into a lab and letting lab rats escape.” He looked up from the file. “And please explain to me what lobster releasing is?”
I cleared my throat. “I may or may not have knowingly let all the lobsters out of their holding tanks during the annual Lobster Festival last year in Portland.” I couldn’t help the grin that spread over my face. It still made me laugh remembering the way the chefs scrambled around trying to capture the lobsters as they scampered away. “Tell me, Officer Cryer, would you want to be boiled alive?”
“No, I wouldn’t. But I wouldn’t let lobsters free, either. Last year you were given a citation because you covered yourself in store-bought shrimp, then sat outside the capitol building in protest of the…” he peered down at the file again, “vernal pool fairy shrimp. Which just so happens to be how you came to my house last night—wearing that same shirt and smelling of shrimp.”
I sighed. “The vernal pool fairy shrimp have been on the endangered list in Oregon now for years. No one seems to want to do anything about it. So I thought if I covered myself in store-bought shrimp and sat out in the hot sun, someone in the capitol building would have to listen to me soon or later.”
“So you thought covering yourself in shrimp was the way to go?” he asked. “Isn’t that a little like feeding Thanksgiving turkey to a turkey?”
I shrugged. “The shrimp in the store were already dead. Plus I got recognition for the vernal pool fairy shrimp. That’s all I cared about.”
Chase looked down at the file again, and I saw a slow flush creep up his neck. He looked at me and cleared his throat. “And the arrest for public nudity?”
Lance and Clifford laughed and fist-bumped.
“That was one of my favorites,” Lance said.
I pursed my lips and gave Lance a warning glare. “That was because a local college wanted to introduce a new dress code policy to their students. Only when you really dissected it, you could see it was more of a punishment for women than anything. There was a long list of clothing women could no longer wear, while not reciprocating the same standards for men.”
“So you thought getting naked on campus would prove your point?” Chase asked.
I grinned. “It worked. When me and twenty other women were hauled away in front of cameras naked as the day we were born, the board of trustees decided to revisit their new policy. In the end, they went back to no standardized dress code.”
He closed his eyes. “So you’re a…”
My cheeks flushed. I knew what he was about to say. He was going to call me a “tree hugger,” a “hippie,” an “enviro girl,” or countless other words I’d had thrown at me over the years. Usually as a sneer. “A person who honestly believes in making our planet a better place to live? Yes, I am. I understand it may not be for everyone, but I take what I do very seriously. I believe in fair treatment for everyone, and I love this planet. I want to make sure I do whatever I can to keep it around for my kids, grandkids, and far beyond that.”
