Page 29 of Due At The Same Time
It was that cultured, condescending voice that pissed me off.
“I supposeyoumust be the corporate bootlicker who doesn’t care about the park at all! They’re proposing to ruin important habitats here!”
“Pardon, but you don’t have to tellmeabout the importance of habitats. I’m Professor Ambrose Hargreaves, from Smith & Cockburn College,” he said, as if that was supposed to mean something to me. “Who are you?”
“I’venever heard of you,” I retorted, ignoring his question. “But think about all the species you’d be killing here! Think of all the people who use this park!”
“Look at it!” he countered, pointing down at the ground, where the Shy Coral-Hued Worm, most unlike its name, was wriggling about in grimy pink glory. “It’s just a worm, madam. There is absolutely nothing special about it. If you get out of the way of these bulldozers I will personally order you a dozen new worms.”
I glared at him, heat and anger pulsing in my temples.
Professor Hargreaves had his sleeves neatly rolled up, just one prim and proper little lieutenant general roll of his powder blue collared shirt, but it was enough to show the way his tendons flexed.
Ugh
What a waste of good arms on a spineless corporate lackey.
“It’s not just about the worm, asshole,” I hissed. “The Eastern bluebirds eat this worm. Without the worm, no bluebirds. The whole interdependent web of life is threatened if we don’t do a proper environmental study.”
His eyes narrowed at me, the big stack of papers stilled in his hands.
“What’s this about the bluebirds? That wasn’t in the preliminary report I got.”
“There aren’t bluebirds around here!” one of the developers shouted, but Ambrose ignored him.
“Yes, there are!” I insisted. “They’re rare but I’ve seen them.”
His eyes raked almost painfully down my body, and I felt one thing instantly under my skin.
Iwantedhim.
"I saw nothing about that in the preliminary report,” he repeated, and I saw some of the corporate guys shuffle around.
There was silence for a moment, the sound of a large dog loudly eating an ice-cream cone the only thing I could hear in the park.
“Not verymanysightings of the bluebird,” one of the other suit guys finally said resentfully, and I sucked in my breath with hope.
And without another word, Dr. Hargreaves dropped his papers and twisted around, striding from his place with the other suits to stand beside me.
“What are you doing?” I hissed.
“The Shy Coral-Hued Worm will not be harmed on my watch!” he boomed out as my jaw dropped with shock.
I watched as the developers’ faces puckered angrily, and they began to argue with the professor, shaking their fists and the development plans at him. One of the truck drivers revved his engine.
But the professor didn’t back down. Without the slightest sign of effort, he immediately launched into a passionate legal and constitutional defense of the park.
When the truck driver revved his engine, Dr. Hargreaves grabbed my arm and pulled me behind him, keeping his strong fingers encircled around my elbow, and my skin fuckingburnedwhere he touched me, my skin heating up with the raw intensity I felt rolling off him.
Once he had decided something was right, he was like a granite rock, shouting down the opposition and quoting lengthy passages of the state constitution until they all gave up and rolled out of there.
I watched in astonishment, the sweat rolling down my back and soaking my tank top, as they all left, the TV cameras, the bulldozers, and the trucks.
Everybody but the two of us.
“Youdid that, Professor Hargreaves,” I said, hardly believing it. “I didn’t think you would.”
“I suppose I did,” he said, looking a little surprised himself. “That was most unlike me. Call me Ambrose, by the way.”
