People in Season Read Online Free PDF

quietly in response. Embarrassed by the women’s reaction, he rubs the length of his tie and stops when he notices himself doing it. ‘The conversations that take place during work hours are completely within my purview and open for...’
    Growling, Joanne rolls her eyes and pulls her assistant editor toward their building. With the social agent abandoned to an empty car space, Ava scrunches up her face in sympathy, but makes no effort to help him in any way.
    ‘Don’t waste my time on this Ava, tell me you’ve got a spin on it.’
    The security guard taps their shoulders for a head count as he passes by.
    ‘Of course I do, I was there.’
    Cigarette a stub between her fingers, Joanne spins her hand around impatiently.
    ‘On Grafton street, late night shopping, you know what Thursday’s are like.’ Ava paints a picture of it, the preoccupied people jostling between lines of crammed buildings, then the next moment, ‘Somebody flicked a switch. This school of picketers came through like they were trying to escape a net, passing some horrible fit of anger from one face to the next, and in a heartbeat they were looting. I was knocked to the ground, as much from the shock of it as anything else. Really, I don’t remember being pushed or even the fall, just finding myself on the concrete looking at peoples’ filthy shoes go by. Then I saw it. A button must have ripped off my coat. I was crawling to pick it up when somebody pulled me into an alcove. It was like waiting under a tree for a storm to pass. I suppose it was silly of me to be so caught up in finding a button, but I’d have been pulled along with the current if only for it. It was monstrous. All those people flared up and acting like they only had one mind between them. A savage one at that. I felt like the only sane person for miles.’
    ‘Bollocks,’ Barry points his camera at Ava as they push into the building. ‘You’ve made all that up.’
    ‘Get that out of my face,’ Ava sighs, ‘you were probably caught up in it too, egging it all on, I bet.’
    ‘Her coat isn’t ripped and it’s got all the buttons.’
    ‘Tell him to put the camera away, I’m not working on a reality show.’
    Barry catches a stern look from Joanne and flicks his phone shut, ‘Go on then.’
    ‘Let’s take the lift.’ Ignoring a protest from the security guard, Joanne nudges her way through the crowd while Francis, following in their wake, is tugged back by the sleeve and stops to talk his way past security rather than just pushing. The elevator is long shut before he can.
    ‘I picked up a new coat after.’
    ‘I saw you wearing that one yesterday.’
    ‘I bought the same one again,’ she says as if to a child. ‘Wool’s in fashion. Some of us make an effort for work, right Joanne? Though I do hate the stink of it when it rains.’
    ‘The riot, Ava, the riot.’
    ‘A car parked down the way was a charred skeleton of itself. It must have exploded. I didn’t even notice that my hearing was gone until it came back, you know, it sounded like an alarm at first and then real alarms were ringing and the sound of somebody crying out. The ground was covered in tiny pieces of smashed glass like sweets from a piñata. When I tried to walk my heel was loose on my left foot, and well, you should see the cut I got.’
    ‘Oh do show us your little scratch.’
    ‘Did anybody die?’ asks Joanne.
    ‘No, I don’t think so,’ Ava admits the fault in her sales pitch. By way of making up for it she adds, ‘The guy who helped me might have took a hit to the head. I hope he was alright.’
    ‘This isn’t a story,’ Barry snorts. ‘This is a blog entry.’
    ‘Do you know how many flash riots we’ve ignored the past six months, Ava?’
    ‘Not really,’ she mutters.
    ‘Neither do I,’ Joanne Victoria arches her eyebrows, ‘because nobody cares. You said it yourself, they’re like spots of rain, best left to the weather pages.’
    Stepping ahead of them, Barry’s long