“Hey, you wanna see something?” Charles persisted.
“See what?” Liv wiped away the smears of mascara from under her eyes. She tried to remain casual, but the knot in her stomach continued to coil at the sound of his voice.
“When you’re done in there, we can go for a walk.”
“Sure!” Liv said, relieved to leave the house where I was hiding. “Are you treating me to dessert?”
He did not answer. They headed outside into the darkness of the night. Carlton Street was unusually quiet. Liv wished she had put on a pair of pants and boots instead of a skirt and sandals. It was the first night in a while without rain, and it was colder than one would expect in Toronto in May, so she folded her arms around her shivering torso, following Charles to god knows where. They walked north on Church Street, where the Others all used to party and march. Now many of the buildings were abandoned and mildewed at the base. The rainbow-coloured crosswalk had since been replaced with an ad for chewing gum: a blonde model breathing out mint leaves and snowflakes. “Icy fresh, minty cool!” the ad read.
They passed the spiderweb of a broken window. Liv peeked inside at what was once Glad Day Bookshop, which she remembered from the few times she had visited the LGBTQ2S store. The place had been ransacked. Books lay burned and torn along the floor. The bar and some tables remained. A pigeon walked aimlessly back and forth over a toppled bookshelf, which was covered in bird poop and fuzzy grey down.
“Liv. Come on.” Charles beckoned her to hurry. Liv stepped away, first seeing her own refracted reflection, then refocusing on the spray-painted words “DIE FAGGOTS!” on the broken glass.
They continued past what had been the 519 community centre to the park at its rear. The strings of rainbow lights had been removed, leaving the joists that once held them to resemble four barren crosses. The AIDS Memorial plaques were also dislodged, leaving a border of plain concrete slabs like unmarked graves. In the middle of this darkened void of erased history, a towering beech tree stood, daring to grow in an island of patio stones. They stopped.
Charles pivoted around and stood with his hands clasped behind his back, as if in a choreographed arrival, like the beginning of a dance.
Liv was confused. She looked around. “What? Why did you bring me here?” She twisted her arms tighter to stave off the cold wind. From the adjacent trees, four white men emerged, also with their hands clasped behind their backs. They looked rough in comparison to Charles’s upscale demeanour. In the dim light of distant streetlamps, Liv could barely see their faces but could make out fragments of their persons. One had a studded earlobe. Another had a blond ponytail pulled into a neat braid. A tattooed scalp. A wrist with a leather cuff. Liv smiled calmly, taking slow, deep breaths, the way she was trained to do. “Hello.” The men offered a silent nod.
“Look up.” Charles pointed towards the tree canopy. She saw a foot dangling above her. Her eyes followed the foot up, barely registering what she was seeing. Spit began to gather in her mouth. A human being was hanging in the tree. A human being was hanged. A human being was lynched. Her knees felt weak. Her hands were in fists. With all of her power she upturned her lips into a smile and laughed like it was a pleasant surprise.
“Wow!” she said, laughing like a jackal. Laughing like her life depended on it. “When did that happen?”
“I got the call about it just before I saw you tonight.”
“You’ve all been busy today,” Liv said to the men.
“They’ve been busy for a while, Liv.”
“How did this happen?” She smiled in simulated wonder at this amazing feat.
Charles looked at the man with the blond ponytail. “Care to tell Liv how this happened?”
The man stepped forward, voice raspy and dutiful. “The boys and I saw this one walking down the alley. He had propped up a bunch of skids so he could reach into a garbage bin. Probably looking for some free food like a rat. We tried to get him to safety, bring him to the workhouse for a meal, but he wouldn’t have it. He ran and we had to catch him. Teach him a lesson.” The man nonchalantly tapped the bare skin of the person’s heel. The tap made the body swing from side to side slightly.
Charles’s eyes caught the light of the streetlamp and Liv could see him assessing her. She laughed. She laughed. She laughed. She wiped snot off her nose. She laughed. She kept the tears in the corners of her eyes. She did not let them fall. She laughed. The men collectively took a step closer to her, watching her.
Scattered on the grass she saw two navy-blue leather flats that once belonged to this human being. This human who once had a name. Liv’s belly button felt like it was on fire. But she smiled.
The man continued, “I could tell from a mile away it wasn’t a girl. I could tell he was pretending. Like he was trying to fool us. You see them all over Church Street. They’re still around, even after the Renovation. We’re gonna leave this one out for a while. Make sure anyone who sees it knows whose neighbourhood this is.”
Liv breathed shallowly enough to stop the bile from rising in her throat. Charles took her by the waist, and suddenly they were slow dancing under this hanging person, this person who once had dreams. They were dancing to what song? She hadn’t a clue. She could hear only her heart beating frantically.
She looked up at this human being, this human being who once had a favourite movie, a favourite food. This person’s hair had been cut. Their* brown hands were once graceful. On their wrist was a thin gold bangle.
Charles whispered something into Liv’s ear, and she couldn’t understand what he was saying. She couldn’t understand this moment. She wanted to scream. Instead she whispered back. “I can’t . . . What did you say? I can’t hear you.”
“Tonight is a celebration, Liv.”
She smiled back as if her life depended on the quality of her smile. “What for?”
“The Boots’ budget has been quadrupled.”
“But you’ve already done the Renovation. What else is there to do?” Charles grabbed her by the arm and she started. The men around her stepped forward.
“That was just a pilot project. Our investors wanted to test things out in Toronto first, see how the general public would respond to the changes. Now that we’ve proven the success of the workhouses and the benefits to all of us, it’s officially going to become a national initiative. I’m leading the deployment. The Boots are going to clean house across the country. Thousands of jobs for the Others. Millions of dollars back in the nation’s purse. It’s exactly what this country needs, Liv.” Charles looked around at the other men, knowingly. A pause. “But first, we need to clean house here.”
“You already did that.”
“No, Liv. A Summit of Nations is scheduled in Toronto. The entire world—dozens of delegates and international media—will be watching to see the glory of the Renovation’s national expansion. We need to lock it down. And if we’re to do that, we need to know everyone we’re associated with is ready and willing. Do you understand?”
“Are they ready and willing?” Liv pointed at the other men. They did not react.
“We’ve done our homework on each member of our team. And when things don’t add up, there are ways we can correct things. A process of elimination.” Charles looked at her expectantly.