Free What Strange Creatures by Emily Arsenault

Clearly she’s passionate, but . . . but it’s an odd situation.”
    Zach screwed his bottle closed and plunked it on his desk. I waited for him to elaborate, watching the bottle form a wet ring on the student paper beneath it.
    “It’s sad to me, frankly,” Zach continued. “Obviously Kim has a serious issue with Wallace’s ethics. And good for her, calling that into question, if that’s what she really believes. But this idea she had for how to go about getting attention for the issue? Making a video? It struck me as wrongheaded.”
    Wrongheaded. That word never sits well with me. It always makes me think of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Zach seemed to notice my face twitch when he said it.
    “I mean, it felt like a wasted effort. How about writing a letter to the editor and leaving it at that?”
    “Did you suggest that to Kim?”
    “Yes. Of course. She said she’d do that once she had the video online.”
    “And she thought this video of hers was simply gonna take off? And stall Wallace’s progress in the election?”
    Zach shrugged and put his palms out. “That was the general idea.”
    “And how were you supposed to help?”
    “She wanted me to give it some press in the Chronicle —and in Waltham’s, even. Once she had it loaded up. That was part of it. The other part was . . . well, in my book, one of the kids I’d featured had a brush with Donald Wallace. She was sort of caught up on that, too. The kid’s story interested her. This kid named Dustin. Plus she thought that connection would raise my interest in her project, I guess.”
    “Kim read your book?” I was impressed to hear this. She hadn’t struck me as much of a reader.
    “Well. Part of it. My sense was that someone had shown that one section to her because of the vague connection to Wallace. But that may have been what brought her to my class originally. Reading part of the book.”
    “Do you think there’s any chance this could’ve worked? Her project, I mean? With your help?”
    “I doubt it. Surely Wallace could’ve countered with something from the other guy’s past. He’s not exactly an angel either.” Zach hesitated. “Now, I don’t know what your politics are. . . .”
    “I don’t really have politics,” I admitted.
    “Okay. Well. I recognize that Wallace is a career politician. With all career politicians, you’re gonna find some shady shit if you dig a little. It’s a cliché to say it, but I imagine that’s true of both candidates. I’d just as soon have Wallace win. We need that employment bill to pass.”
    I was quiet. I didn’t know much about the employment bill. I wonder sometimes how these people can keep up with current affairs and their academics. Smart people exhaust me.
    “Is that a terrible thing to say?”
    “No, no,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t ask me to elaborate.
    “I mean, the Jenny Spicer case is troubling, I understand . . . but I don’t think that’s entirely Wallace’s fault, by any means. And damn it, a Republican in that seat . . . oy.”
    Zach rubbed the side of his face, then mushed his palm over his mouth and down his clean-shaven chin. “You should stop me. I’m digging myself into a hole. Ethics are ethics, and I should care. I do care. But I’m trying to explain why I didn’t want to get involved.”
    “Do you think, for Kim, it was about the . . . uh . . . employment bill? About wanting a different outcome than you do? Wanting a Republican in that seat?”
    Zach sighed and shook his head. He grabbed his water again, unscrewed the top, then screwed it closed without drinking. The metal made a soft eek-eek-eek sound.
    “No. She mentioned to me that she usually votes Democrat, when she votes. Which I had a feeling was not all that often. She didn’t even seem to know what the employment bill was. But she was angry, regardless, that no one was giving the Spicer business much press in the election. For her it was very much about Wallace, and it was