84
Wednesday, March 31, 2021, 8:00 PM Central Daylight Time
Jane followed her parents and Joe from their seats toward a door in the back that was heavily guarded by men with rifles. Joe nodded to each of the security men and displayed their passes as he ushered them through the door.
Joe had not said anything about the purpose of this unexpected detour, but her father already seemed almost giddy as they continued past a waiter and turned down a cinderblock hallway.
“If this is what I think it is…” Jeff said.
Joe simply smiled and stopped at a door on which was taped a piece of paper with the letters “XO” printed on it, which had two more armed and masked security men on either side of it.
Joe nodded to the others and knocked twice. The door opened, and Joe turned to usher his cousins in.
“There better be a full arena out there this time, or your ass will be on a bus back to Texas or wherever you are from,” a familiar voice yelled.
A masked female aide, eyes heavily made up, as if for a TV appearance, hurried up to them.
“This might not be the best time,” she said.
“God damn it,” the President yelled. “I want bodies up to the rafters, you hear me?” He hung up on whoever he had been talking to and turned toward Joe and his family.
“Who’s this?” he asked imperiously. “Just minutes before I go on?”
“Sir,” Joe said, “I apologize, but my cousins here are huge fans.”
“Who are you?” the President said.
“I work for Max. My name’s Joe Durcan, Mr. President. Terry told me he was going to talk to you about this. I’ve worked security for you for the last couple of months. These are my cousins, and they are big fans of yours…”
The President bared his teeth and narrowed his eyes.
“Who let you in here?”
“Sir?”
“Who let you in here?” He turned to his female aide. “Who are these people? Why aren’t they wearing masks?”
“Uh, I don’t know,” she said.
“Sir, I assure you…” Joe said. At that moment, Jeff stepped forward, but kept a discreet distance.
“Mr. President, it is the honor of my life to meet you.”
The President looked at Jeff, his face softening a bit.
“Okay,” the President said.
“I have supported you from the beginning, and so has my wife Mary here.”
“That’s great, that’s great,” the President said.
“Mr. President, under Okomo we had no hope and too much change, but you gave us hope again.”
“I’m starting to like this guy,” the President said. “But put a mask on around me.”
Joe flipped the mask he had around his neck on. Jeff and Mary began fumbling with their “souvenir” masks.
“Now gel up,” the President said. “Get some gel over here,” he said to the aide, who had already had a mask on.
Jane, looking with a bit of disbelief at her parents, had begun the process of “masking up.” The aide squirted gel on her hands last; Jane rubbed her hands together.
“All right, that’s more like it,” the President said.
“Sir,” Jeff said, “as I said, we had no hope under Okomo. Your campaign gave me hope, and I have recovered from opioid addiction and jail and returned to my family.”
The President’s eyes narrowed again.
“So,” Jeff barreled on, “I was hoping that you might find it in your heart to pardon me for my crimes and restore my voting rights, so I can keep voting for you in the future.”
The President stared at Jeff in disbelief. Mary, Joe, and Jane looked at Jeff with wide eyes, open mouths invisible behind their masks.
There was a beat, then the President said to Joe, “You’re my security? And you’re bringing drug addict criminals in here?”
“Sir…”
“Don’t ‘Sir’ me. What are you, some kind of baby?”
“He’s a Delta Force commander,” Jeff said, inadvertently promoting Joe by several ranks.
“Then he should know what to do,” the President said, his fury rising.
He addressed the female aide again. “Anne, get these fucking people out of here. They could be spies for all I know.”
“Yes, sir.” The aide looked pleadingly at Joe.
“Okay, Mr. President,” Joe said. “We’re going. Good luck out there.”
“It’s ‘Break a leg,’ you idiot,” the President said. “Anne, I don’t want people who don’t know show business around me.”
“Yes, sir,” the aide said, grabbing Joe by the arm and pushing him toward the door.
It was Jeff’s turn to stare open-mouthed. Joe shepherded him and Mary and Jane toward the door.
As they exited, Jane could hear the President say, “I don’t have time for some fat drug addict and his fat wife and his…his skinny pale daughter, right before I’m supposed to go on stage. This is ridiculous.”
As the door closed, Joe whispered to his cousins, “I’m so sorry. I was told it would be okay.”
Jeff waved him off. “Don’t worry, Joe. Thanks, anyway.”
Mary said to Jeff, “What was that about a pardon?”
Jeff said, “A guy like me, meeting a guy like him, I can’t pass up a chance like that.”
Mary and Jane both looked at Jeff as if he were crazy. Jeff did not notice.
“Anyway,” Jeff said slowly, looking down toward the ground as they walked back toward their seats, “I don’t blame him. He’s got liberals out to get him all the time. He has to be suspicious or he wouldn’t survive. I just wish he could relax and enjoy his success. But they won’t let him.”
But Jane’s attention had been taken by someone else they were passing in the hallway, going in the opposite direction.
It was Jake, with that Ban guy. She had seen his eyes fall on her, uncomprehending for a second. Then he had realized who she was, and he gave a wild look of terror and accelerated away from her.
Jane whipped her head around and could not restrain a snorting laugh. Jake was practically sprinting down the hallway away from her.
“What’s so funny?” her mother asked.
“Everything,” Jane said, and turned her gaze back forward, giggling.
She suddenly remembered a quote from a movie she had seen. “History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind – with a bucket.”
My history surely has been, she thought, laughing again. First her father, then Danny, then Jake, then the President, and now even Joe. Good, solid, quiet Joe.
Well, maybe Joe would still come through for her with those tickets. But if not, Jane decided, she would find a way. She still liked Joe. She loved her father. She missed her brother.
But as her laughter subsided, she made herself a promise.
She would never put her fate or her happiness in the hands of a man, ever again.
© 2020 Nolan O’Brian