"Better."
She hugged him.
Daniel looked at the volunteers.
Some were angry.
One wanted to cancel canvassing and go directly to police headquarters.
Daniel shook his head.
"No."
"Daniel, they detained you."
"I know."
"They treated you like a criminal."
"I know."
"So what are we doing?"
Daniel looked toward the boxes of flyers.
"The same thing we came here to do."
He picked up a stack.
"We knock doors."
One volunteer stared at him.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
"Why?"
Daniel thought about the question.
"Because if we stop doing ordinary things every time somebody treats them like they're suspicious, eventually ordinary space belongs only to whoever gets questioned least."
Renee watched him.
She did not record that sentence.
Some moments did not need cameras.
For the next two hours, Daniel canvassed.
Door after door.
Some residents had already heard.
One man said, "You're the guy police stopped this morning."
Daniel answered, "I'm also the guy asking for your vote."
The man laughed.
Then listened.
At another house, a retired teacher hugged him before he said anything.
Daniel did not mention the officers unless residents asked.
He talked about health care.
Small business lending.
Public transit.
Criminal justice.
Housing.
The reason he had been on Harmon Avenue in the first place.
At noon, Renee finally forced him into the campaign van.
"You need food."
"I have almonds."
"If you say almonds again, I'm quitting."
Daniel looked at her.
"You wouldn't."
"Try me."
He laughed for the first time since the stop.
Then Renee became serious.
"I have the video."
Daniel looked toward her camera.
"All of it?"
"Four minutes seventeen seconds from when I arrived."
"And the phone call."
"Most of it."
Daniel leaned back.
"What are you thinking?"
Renee hesitated.
The journalist in her wanted publication.
The campaign manager in her understood political consequences.
The friend in her wanted to protect Daniel.
"We do nothing without deciding why we're doing it."
"Agreed."
"If we release it purely because it helps the campaign, that's wrong."
"Agreed."
"If we hide it because we're afraid people will say we're politicizing something that happened to you, that's also wrong."
Daniel looked out the window.
"What do you think?"
"I think the public should see it."
"Not today."
"Why?"
"I have a City Hall briefing at two about hospital funding."
Renee stared.
"You're serious."
"Completely."
"You were detained this morning."
"And the hospital issue still exists."
"Daniel."
"I'm not turning every policy conversation into a conversation about me."
Renee sighed.
"This is why you're exhausting."
"You've mentioned that."
The two o'clock briefing continued as scheduled.
Reporters knew nothing yet.
Daniel stood beside Mayor Sutton's deputy and discussed a proposed federal grant partnership involving neighborhood clinics.
He was calm.
Prepared.
No one watching television would have guessed that five hours earlier three officers surrounded him on a sidewalk.
That night, Daniel went to his parents' house.
He had not planned to.
Carolyn called three times.
On the fourth, he answered.
"Come here."
"Mom."
"Now."
"I'm forty-one."
"Congratulations. Come here."
He went.
James opened the door before Daniel knocked.
His father said nothing.