"People of New York," I say into the phone and hear my voice come out commandingly through the loudspeaker. "Hear me out."
The protesters stop their chants and listen to me. NYPD officers are already paying attention.
The National Guardsmen with their scopes on my chest were always watching too, I guess.
Well, fuck. Here goes nothing. By the end of this, either Kate is gonna be done for, or I'm gonna be dead. We'll see.
"My name is Parker Trask, and I've had the honor of being the Mayor of New York City," I begin and I quickly begin to fall into my comfort zone. "I've lived in this city since birth. I love every damn block."
Some isolated cheers.
"All I ever wanted to do was serve the public," I say into the phone and hear myself through the microphone. "And I surrounded myself with people who loved the same things I did. One of those people was Susan Duran, who used to be my campaign manager."
Kate looks towards Susan and I continue.
"Sure, Susan left because at first she thought I was fucking my stepdaughter and she wasn't okay with it," I say and I can see more protesters coming towards the scene. Everyone is listening. This is the most drama they've had since the last author thing that happened on Facebook.
"And I can even understand that, folks," I say into the phone. "I can understand that she didn't feel comfortable. I can't fault her for leaving."
Kate starts to look sick.
The protesters are now joined I can see by more people.
Young and old. Black and white. Rich and poor.
People that have been been and always will be New Yorkers. They come form uptown, downtown, Midtown, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and yes, even the Bronx.
They've found whatever method of transportation (since the state's shut down most of the subway lines) to get to Times Square.
They've crossed the barricades through sheer force of numbers.
All to get their voices heard.
"The fact of the matter is, people of New York," I say through booming words. "If you want Kinky Amy's to go, I'll be the first to shut it down. But only after the people vote on it. Only after the people get a say."
There's widespread murmurs of assent.
"There is no way in fucking hell that I'm ever, ever going to let the government come in and impose morality on this city," I say and for the first time there are cheers.
"I will fight to my last fucking breath to prevent that from happening because the moment someone else starts telling us whats right and wrong, that's the moment we start to lose our New York City values!" I shout.
The crowd is with me. They're eating this shit up. Because I fucking mean it.
But it's not over yet.
Because while Kate is looking at the maybe 1000 people now surrounding the National Guardsmen and NYPD near the entrance to Kinky Amy's, I'm not done with her.
I'm not done with her for torturing Amy.
For being a bad mother.
A horrible human being.
Trying to ruin the woman I love.
"I'd do all that, but in this instance, we're not here suffering as a city because of our values and morality, folks," I say into the phone and boom out of the speaker. The news helicopters are flying and the tv crews are filming this. I've gone international.
The eyes of the world are on New York City again. To see what we say. What we do.