Chapter 21

                                    

                                          
Joshua had known relations between them and the town were getting difficult, but he hadn’t expected to arrive back to the Omega House to find a group of people with placards standing outside. The signs had various messages written on them, but the general theme seemed to be ‘not in our town.’
Grumbling under his breath, he got out and walked toward the door, watching as the eyes of the protesters focused on him.
“Good morning,” he said brightly.
“Not in our backyard,” a woman shouted at him. “We won’t have these delinquent omegas influencing our children.”
The urge to shout back at her was almost overwhelming, but instead, he calmly addressed the crowd.
“Who’s in charge here?”
Another woman pushed forward. “I am.”
“You are aware that there are only three omegas in this house, and all are under the age of five, yes? That while you’re out here shouting, those toddlers are inside, probably terrified from all the noise?”
She faltered briefly. “We have the right to protest.”
“This right here,” he said, pointing to the ground they were standing on, “is private property. If you want to protest, you can do so from the sidewalk. And quietly. The kids are scared of loud noises.”
He could see that he wasn’t going to get much traction as she opened her mouth to start arguing with him, but a police car, lights flashing, chose that moment to pull up outside. Joshua used that distraction to slip past the crowd and inside, meeting Rita at the door as she unlocked it to let him in.
“Did you call them?” he asked.
She nodded, looking worried. “I was afraid they were going to force their way inside.”
“Keep the doors locked and the blinds shut. Tell the police that this House has the same legal protections as a school. Protestors must be at least fifty feet from the door. It’s statute nine-nine-seven, section C, point twelve, if they need to look it up.”
“I’ll tell them,” she promised, scribbling it down. “The others are waiting inside.”
“The kids?” he asked.
“Eunbi has them in the quiet room, she’s reading them stories. But they can’t stay in there forever.”
“No,” he agreed. “They can’t.”
He hurried to join the others, slipping off his jacket as he stepped into the room. He could see the bad news written all over Nathan and Yuna’s faces. Even his uncle looked a little gray.
“Is this about the protest, or is there something else I don’t know?”
“This came this morning,” Nathan said, handing over a letter.
“It’s an injunction from the District Court,” his uncle explained woodenly. “The town council is claiming we’re in breach of our permit and want us to vacate the premises by the end of the week.”
Joshua scanned the letter quickly.
“Are we in breach of the permit?”
He couldn’t see how, but the letter didn’t go into specifics.
“It doesn’t matter,” his uncle said. “The district court judge is the brother-in-law of the head of our town council. The chances of him ruling against the council are slim to none, regardless of what case they make.”