A last minute decision whisks us out of Atlanta and lands us in Asheville North Carolina in September. It's the beginning of the colors changing, a prime time for tourists, in a city known for buskers, and we're there to try to offer some tarot readings and earn some money.
The gas gauge keeps catching my eye as we inched closer and closer to the city, working our way through traffic. I tried to push the anxiety of no gas, and no cash out of the back of my mind. It was Asheville after all. Of course we'd earn money busking. Asheville is full of spiritual enlightened people who are more than willing to get tarot readings.
As we get into the city we started noticing something strange. On every common corner for busking there was no one to be found. As we drove around a more crowded downtown than usual we kept looking for other buskers, and kept seeing none. Finally we pulled up to a red light and noticed someone off to the side selling hats, and everything began clicking into place. No buskers, busy downtown, rebel flags everywhere, people yelling, and there on the front of the hat was the word "Trump". We had arrived during a trump rally.
So we did the only thing our gas tank would allow us to do, we parked. We got out in the midst of all of this anger and frustration and took a deep breath and set up a blanket to do tarot readings.
It was in this first spot we were set up that we met a fellow busker, out playing didgeridoo. We watched as he tried to reason with one of the supporters of the rally, and then walk back defeated with shoulders shrugged.
Not long after we moved to another spot closer to the rally, and right in the heart of all the traffic. Many people came and went around this spot, shouting love, or hate, or hate of the hate, or fear, and the entire time we sat on the ground, intense burning, smiling at the sound of the flute player set up beside us.
An old woman passed by with a "Fuck Trump" shirt on, smiling and waving. Two girls stopped and gave us a dollar for not being trump supporters. A man came out of the rally smiling and said "It was a good rally, but we did it better in the 60's." And quite a few people stopped just to be around happy smiling people.
The city was alive with sign flyers, and every sign was anti trump.
And somehow in the midst of it, we earned the money we needed for gas and food. Even in a trump rally, Asheville provides.
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