Presidents' Day
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This is the story of the country's first transsexual president, and her struggle to be accepted by her people. It wasn't something she sought out, but now that she was in the White House, she had to do her best for the country, though it was hard going when one was transgender, not to mention a transsexual, and many were still not accepting even if it was the middle of the 21st century already.
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note: pictures used are publicly-accessible pictures from the net. No i.p. or copyright infringement is intended.
It was February 14, the Friday before Presidents' Day. It was also Valentine's Day.
Three-day weekends are always great, and people usually celebrate them with some kind of trip or vacation, and some would leave early Friday afternoon or evening, or on Saturday morning at the latest.
Of course, Presidents' Day (or, officially, "Washington's Birthday") was only a holiday for federal government employees. However, on this particular Friday, most of the people that worked in government weren't leaving early in the afternoon as one usually would to maximize a three-day weekend. Many were going out on long "weekend dates," of course – it was Valentine's Day after all - but there weren't as many as one would have expected: most were actually inside in front of their TVs at home that night, waiting for the State of The Union speech of the President, as were a lot of the regular folks.
Between 1934 and the present, the speech has been scheduled as early as January 3 and as late as February 12. But President Xander broke tradition and pushed it back further this year, to Friday, February 14, so that it would coincide with Valentine's Day (obviously) and with Presidents' Day Weekend (probably).
But then, this was President Xander - the most unconventional President in the history of the Union: the first woman president (though many homophobes and gay-bashers would say that she's not really a woman, as many of their kind would say of any trans-woman), the youngest president (she was confirmed as VP at age thirty-five - by law, literally the youngest anyone could be president or VP), the president with the most new legislation passed in a two-year period, the most decorated world leader, and one of the few presidents who was responsible for averting a imminent stock market crash (this particular one precipitated by legislation sponsored by the previous administration). Indeed, she has done a lot of tradition-breaking things already in her short two-plus years in office, and this State of the Union speech was expected to be another tradition-breaker.
The scheduling of the speech generated a lot of speculation in the press, and a lot of bad feelings in the country's two Houses of Congress - after all, who would want to cancel dates on Valentine's Day, or mess up vacation plans just to listen to the President's speech, especially a speech from this particular president.
But President Xander, by making brilliant use of the congressional grapevine, let it be known that there was going to be a BIG announcement that she privately assured all of the country's leaders they wouldnt want to miss.
The press heard of this, too, but, like everyone, they didn't hear what the announcement itself was about - very, very unusual and, for the pessimists and conspiracy theorists, very scary: after all, what could this mean?
This was because, amazingly, there were no leaks, which many considered unusual to say the least – impossible, actually. But President Xander's people were very loyal and extremely competent, as were Vice President Reynolds and his staff. There were no leaks.
Ever since New Year's, there had been feverish activity inside the West Wing, and several high-powered political operatives and figures were always going in and coming out of the West Wing and the OEOB for interviews with the President's or the Vice President's staff. The news media felt like these people were being vetted, but for what, no one knew. Whatever the announcement, it was most probably connected to these activities.
- - - - -
It was nearing 8:30PM, so the President started preparing to leave for the Capitol Building in order to make the 9PM schedule. The Designated Survivor - it was the Secretary of Education this time - was in place, as was the junior senator from Alaska, and the congressman from California's 13th district: these two were selected by the two houses of congress for their rump legislature, to take over in case the Senate's president pro tempore or the Speaker of the House were lost along with the president and the vice president - this was the congress's version of a designated survivor.
Upon the President's arrival at the House chamber, the Congress's House Sergeant at Arms announced the president of the United States, and President Xander then walked the short distance to the Speaker's Rostrum, stopping often to shake hands, to exchange greetings or to exchange politically-safe hugs and/or kisses. There were multiple photo ops and the press took advantage. The current president was the most photogenic politician in the history of modern US politics, after all. And the hottest, too, even considering the fact that she was a transgender woman.
As usual, she was dressed and made up very fashionably and tastefully, and not overdone nor exotic in the least. Early in her term, many of her detractors and a lot of homophobes warned that her dress style will be very embarrassing for the country (after all, gay people were known for their flamboyant and outré styles and tastes). However, these sartorially-challenged lawmakers were chagrined to find out the new president had a style appropriate to the office, and never made any fashion faux pas nor wore any questionable ensembles. In fact, she became the most photographed head of state ever, and the one head of state that was as featured in fashion and celebrity magazines as any Victoria's Secret model, and was hailed as the country's sexiest conservatively-dressed fashion icon. In fact, Vogue said that sexy and conservative weren't mutually exclusive anymore, as attested by the fact that they and Vanity Fair had made her part of their International Best Dressed List several years running (covering the last few years of her tenure as Wyoming's AG, and her tenure as VP and, eventually, President).
In addition, because of her example, her staff made more of an effort to be better groomed and fashion-conscious themselves, and, soon, the rest of the government followed suit, or at least a lot more than those that did before. Government employees became the fashionistas for once - in parties, in bars, and in any place where people gathered socially, the well dressed ones were now the government employees.
She did make waves in fashion circles, though, when it was quickly discovered that almost her entire fashionable wardrobe was actually from places like, gasp! Target, Wal-Mart, Khols, Ross and Payless! Fashion hawks also quickly unearthed the fact that the President's favorite places to shop included Joe Fresh, Nordstrom Rack, J. Crew Factory, Express, and unpopularly, Uniqlo (since Uniqlo was known to be more as an Asian retailer instead of an American one).
Because of which, these businesses, as well as other openly low-cost retail stores, became more socially acceptable instead of being guilty pleasures for the cash-strapped majority.
Unsurprisingly, the first special interest group to rear its ugly head and openly put down the President was not the conservative groups but the fashion industry, where high-end and designer brand retailers, and the celebrity fashionistas that shilled for them, openly mocked her so-called dollar store style.
She didn't need to dress down, the people from the fashion industry said - she was independently wealthy, and could more than afford to buy their exclusive brands. But she didn't, and she didn't hide that fact, either. She didn't openly announce it either, however, since doing so would openly alienate her from her status-conscious fellow politicians.
But far from hurting her or being belittled for this, it actually endeared her to the public more, and from that point, the fashion industry spin doctors decided to drop the attack ads and slanted articles lest the country turn on them. One good thing did happen, though: most of the high-end fashion retailers dropped their prices, in deference to the popular new president. Not by much, to be sure, but enough that it would be noticed. Their prices were still outrageously overpriced, but at least they weren't obscenely overpriced, deluding the middle class into thinking that they could now afford these clothes. In the end, this actually increased the sales of high-end fashion items because of the token price reductions. Which improved the economy, and made the fashion industry a lot more supportive to the president.
Besides, the President wasn't really against haute couture and high-fashion clothes: she just espoused the idea that one should live within ones means, and had striven to be an example.
In fact, she actually did wear high-fashion stuff during special occasions when it was warranted, as seen in the gala events that she attended, the most visible one was when she attended the wedding of the British flyer she rescued during the war, and where she was selected by the groom to be his best woman.
In North America and the UK, the guy the groom picks as the one to help him in his wedding is usually called the best man, although it doesn't necessarily have to be a man. In those few instances when the groom gives this honor to a woman, that person is called the best woman or the best person. You can look it up.
And in that particular occassion, the president wore a fitted woman's tuxedo-style suit with large black buttons and a black ribbon necktie or women's necktie, instead of a man's formal bow tie. Under it was a crisp, white, long-sleeved blouse. To make it less butch-like, instead of wearing slacks, she paired it with an above-the-knee pleated fitted black skirt with smoky nylons underneath, and pair of patent-leather stiletto pumps. What she picked actually went well with the black Armani-style tuxedos that the groom and the groomsmen wore - sort of like the women's equivalent of their suits, and paired well with the pastel dresses of the bridesmaids.
She looked beautiful and radiant, in a formal sort of way, and almost stole the bride's thunder (but didn't quite do so - a fact that elevated her in the eyes of many women - after all, a woman's wedding day is her big moment to shine, and the president showed incredible class by not stealing that moment when she could have easily done so).
For a while, that particular style became somewhat in vogue for female fashionistas at formal events, all because of her.
But even there, what she wore were not one-off pieces but from catalogs - it was one of the three requirements she insisted on with her sister: that her clothes not be one-off pieces or a bespoke outfit but pret-a-porter, that they match what the groomsmen were wearing, and, above all, that they be absolutely feminine-looking. That made it triply difficult for her sister to select the outfit.
The President never wore one-off designer stuff – ever: she always picked stuff off-the-shelf, ready-to-wear or from catalogs, in order not to show any kind of favoritism to any one designer and avoid the ridiculous pricetags of bespoke clothes, and, ironically, that included her sister's designs.
The president's twenty-five year old sister was a sought-after haute couture fashion designer. Kelly-Ann Theodora Olofsdotter Xander (because of her initials, she was just simply called Kat by her friends) has been a fixture in Italy's Fashion Week and in most major fashion events for the past five years or so, ever since she was discovered while studying fashion design in Institute Francais de la Mode in Paris. However, if ever the President would go haute couture, everyone knew she'd surely wear Kat's designs instead of others - the president never hid her sense of loyalty for family and friends.
Even so, Kat was, in fact, the one who picks all of the President's clothes for her (she was sort of the President's unofficial stylist and buyer), so though the President's wardrobe was almost all low-cost or discount off-the-shelf clothes, they were all very tasteful, and most fashion critics were usually hard-put to identify if what the President was wearing was actually a high-street fashion brand or just something from Target.
With the two thousand-dollar a month budget Kat was allowed, given the low pricetags of her sister's wardrobe, Kat was able to dress the President in something new almost everyday, and except from some favorites that the president wanted to keep, her clothes were always new, and after being worn a few times, they were anonymously and untracably donated to various charitable organizations in DC, thereby preventing any accumulation of stuff in the presidential residence.
Kat soon became well known among the various malls and stores in DC since she regularly trawled the shelves and displays of Wal-Mart or Khols for skirts, blouses or blazers, or picked up a couple of pumps from Payless.
They all knew it was for the President, so the retail stores' bosses knew to stock their DC branches with their best lines and products, making sure to keep their price points within what they knew Kat preferred.
Kat was quick to pick up on their strategies, though - as soon as she found something she liked and the price was suspiciously too good to be true, she'd call back to her office in the East Wing of the White House, and ask one of her people to check the store's online catalogs for their prices, or have someone actually go out to one of their stores in a different city and check the prices. Because of the frequency of these kinds of things, the Federal Trade Commission actually had a person or two in Kat's staff just to help her do this, and then to initiate steps in addressing this unfair business practice.
Those that Kat found to be artificially changing their DC stores’ prices on the off-chance that she'd be shopping there would be reported immediately to the FTC as well as to the Better Business Bureau, and a lengthy investigation would ensue. Typically, there would be a small penalty or fine, which was not a big deal, but the investigations would drag on and disrupt business, and the news would eventually leak out and damage the chain's reputation.
In any case, the hullabaloo about the President's attire died a quick death, quickly killed off by the same sartorial conspirators who were now the President's fast friends. And they went on charging the public exorbitant amounts of money for their creations, and the celebrity fashionistas went back to parading themselves in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Entertainment Today on TV, and other places wearing the shiny, expensive fashions they loved so much. But now, in an ironic twist, it was these expensive fashion houses who were copying designs from the low-cost chains, at least for the styles that Kat and the president preferred.
"If only my being transgender could be as easily dealt with," she would tell Kat with melancholy wistfulness.
In any case, the State of the Union event was one occasion where the President wore something high-fashion (though catalog). Her outfit was tasteful and conservative, but in colors and cuts and fabrics that were uniquely (but conservatively) in the President's signature style. As a real redhead, her complexion and hair color definitely made her fashion palette a little more unique than the average politician, especially with her to-die-for figure (even though it was, in small part due to hormones and some minor liposuction and feminization surgery).
She was thirty-seven now but, even so, she was still five years younger than President Teddy Roosevelt when he became president: Roosevelt was the youngest-ever president before she came along, and her style and demeanor spoke of a younger generation, unlike President Roosevelt, who tried to take on the image of an elder statesman.
The State of the Union event was intended to be typical of other State of the Union events, but typical really wasn't what people expected, given what President Xander was - the country's first transgender leader - and given the unusual manner of her taking office, who can blame them?
to be continued...
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Presidents' Day, Chapter 1
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"You would think Howard would know better," President Walsh complained to his chief of Staff, Sam Banner. They were discussing the latest issue of the day, the Century Savings and Loan scandal, and the fact that the Vice President was central to the scandal.
"I suppose youre right, sir," Sam said, "but I never really had that high an opinion of the Vice President, frankly speaking."
"Let's still show some respect, Sam," the President said. "Whatever he is, Howard Spencer is still our vice president."
Most of the President's staff felt the sameas Sam, but when they were running in the primary, the President needed a running mate that the party could accept, and who would be willing to follow the campaign's agenda. And that person came ready-made in Congressman Howard Spencer, a legislator known to be a pliant shill for special interest groups and lobbyists, and whose convictions were so paper-thin, he barely had his own opinions about any issue, and would flip-flop as necessary to be more in-line with the party's position or to forward the agenda of whatever interest group he was currently in bed with. He voted the way he was told to vote and was reliable as a warm body to fill the party's quota of votes to pass or block legislation.
The President-To-Be's campaign team thought a person who essentially had no scruples would be good for the campaign, and he was. Congressman Howard Spencer was a good boy - to have the opportunity to be vice president was something he would do anything for, and he did exactly that, and did it well and with passion. He acted as the candidate's attack dog, fighting and arguing openly with anyone that was contrarian to the campaign, and defended the candidate's points and positions with verve and passion, even if he did it with less wit and knowledge than a grade-school student.
It was actually a very savvy campaign strategy - one which allowed them to capture more than sixty percent of the vote, and it was only possible with Congressman Spencer - other professional politicians wouldn't be as open to prostituting themselves because of worry about repercussions to their careers and they burned bridges the way Spencer was so free in doing. And during the campaign, Spencer did indeed alienate all of the other candidates during the primaries, and was not hesitant to be less than gentlemanly when debating with the other party's people during the actual campaign period.
As such, everyone wanted to get back at him - thankfully not at President Walsh: just him. But as a loyal runing mate, the President would make a show of loyally defending his vice president, which gave him great face and a good reputation among the public. He role was the loyal friend defending his bufoon of a vice president, whereas Spencer's role was the bufoon. Needless to say, that bolstered the President's reputation. His approval rating regularly polled in the seventy percent range, whereas the VP barely hit thirty.
However, even so, with the Century Savings and Loan scandal that involved the Vice President, President Walsh now had no choice.
"Has Ellen typed up the letter, Sam?" he said to his chief of staff.
"Yes, sir," Sam replied, and handed over a piece of paper.
Walsh read the short letter his First Secretary had typed up on the VP's stationery.
- - - - -
Dear Mr. President,
As you are aware, whatever the outcome of the accusations being leveled against me regarding the Century Savings and Loan matter, whether in the end it be positive or negative, it shall, regardless, disrupt the business of government, damage the country's financial institutions and erode the confidence of the people in our administration. It is therefore in the best interest of the nation that I relinquish the vice presidency.
Accordingly, I have today resigned the office of Vice President of the United States.
It has been a privilege to serve with you.
Sincerely yours,
Howard H. Spencer
Vice President of the United States
- - - - -
The President nodded. "Looks good. Short, simple and classy."
"Actually, sir," Sam said, "we didnt really need to push him to resign. He passed by earlier while you were meeting with the Japanese ambassador, and dropped this off." He handed the President a letter envelope.
The President accepted it. It had "Jack" written on it in Howard's big, spikey handwriting.
He opened it. Inside was a typed-up letter made up of three lines:
- - - - -
Jack,
This Century Savings and Loan crap is total bullshit.
Im not sticking around for any of it. So I'm resigning, and this is my official resignation letter. Effective today.
It was fun while it lasted.
Howard
The VP
- - - - -
Classic Howard Spencer. The President laughed long and heartily. But this definitely cannot be his official letter of resignation, he thought. In fact, it cannot even be shown to the public, or at least not yet maybe when it's had twenty years to gestate in some dusty drawer in the presidential archives. He was sure future historians will have a good laugh when they read it.
"Give Howard what Ellen typed up," he said, "wait for him to sign it, and then bring it back here. Where is he, anyway?"
"I'm not sure," Sam said. "Probably on his way to play golf. Don't worry, sir, I'll find him myself, and get his signature."
President Walsh nodded as Sam left, and called in his First Secretary to find out what's scheduled for the day.
As he got stuck into the day's business, he thought things over. It was actually easy to get rid of the Vice President given how almost everyone in government hated his guts.
There wouldn"t be any hue and cry from anyone in the media, too, nor practically anyone else. It was only Howard himself who didn't know how universally disked he was.
The only reason he had survived for this long, politically speaking, was that he was useful to the party. Since the Vice President was also the Senate President, he provided the tie-breaker vote while the Senate was in session, and he could also be counted on to be the administration's bad cop to the President's good cop.
Truth be told, Walsh's hands, as well as many in his administration's, were not clean. They were just less visibly dirty than the Vice President's.
Jack Walsh didn't know if he was ready to give the VP up, because he was a hell of a big convenience. That was the main reason that everyone in the party turned a blind eye to all of his shenanigans. This emboldened him, and over a period of nine months, he did more and more patently outrageous and clearly illegal activities, thinking he was immune. But no one is ever immune. It was just a matter of time. And time had inevitably caught up with him.
But the void that Howard's resignation will make will need to be filled, and filled up quickly, especially at this time when congress was as close to being equally split between the parties as possible, with only one senator and one congressman tipping the balance away from the President's party. The Vice President's tiebreaker vote was therefore critical, and his position in the presidential line of succession equally important given that the Speaker and the Senate President Pro Tempore were both from the other party.
After Sam brought back the VPs' signed resignation letter, Sam, the President, the Secretary of State, the White House Press Secretary and several key staffers met at the Oval Office to discuss the imminent departure of their vice president.
"The thing is, son," Darrin 'Dunce' Talbot, the ex-navy admiral who was now Walsh's secretary of state, said to Sam, "there is a perception of the Office of the Vice President now. When we replace Howard, it has to be with his direct opposite."
"What do you mean, Darrin?" the President asked.
"What we need, Mr. President," Talbot said, "is an anti-Howard."
"You mean..." Sam said.
"I mean we need someone like Tom Hanks as VP."
"Who, sir?" Jamie Summers, the White House press secretary asked. "Tom Hanks the actor?"
"Yes, the actor. Also, the most trusted man in the country."
"God," Sam said. "Do you know any politician who's that squeaky clean?"
They thought a bit.
"Well, there are a few that may be clean enough," Sam eventually said, answering his own question.
"Like who," Talbot asked.
"Sugarbaker, from Wisconsin," Sam said, "or maybe Hafley from Alaska, or Arrapayo from Hawaii."
"How about McLeesh, Vermont's State Police Commissioner?"
"That guy's a little too crazy, don't you think?" the President said.
Sam shrugged. "You may be right, sir. But he's well thought of in Vermont even if not in the rest of the country. How about Al Perez from Houston? He's the state surgeon general, has a good record in the party and has a good rep."
"What does a doctor know about politics?"
“Doesn't matter," Jamie said. "I don't know if they'll want to play ball with us. Besides, idealists aren't what we need."
“Youre right, darlin,'" Talbot agreed. "Politics is a game of compromises. We need someone who is willing to compromise."
"But isn't that what got us in hot water?" Sam said. "Too much compromise?"
"What Spencer did wasn't compromise," John Casey, the Presidents senior political adviser, said. "What he did was to sell out to anyone selling. Do you call that compromise? Coz I don't.”
Sam shrugged. "Then what?"
"What we need is an idealist who's also a pragmatist," the president said, "someone who tries to shoot for the moon but keeps himself grounded."
"That's a tall order, Mr. President. Those traits never appear together."
"I know."
They thought about things for a while.
"I have a suggestion, sir..." Jamie said hesitantly.
"Yes, Jamie?" the President said.
"Well..."
"Oh, for God's sake, honey," Talbot said in exasperation, "go on ahead and tell us already!"
Walsh waved the ex-navy man down.
"Go ahead, my dear," Walsh said to Jamie. "All ideas are welcome."
"Well, how about Freja Xander, the attorney-general of Wyoming?"
"What!" Sam exclaimed. "The gay guy?"
"Girl, actually, sir...”
"He's still a guy, even though he's had his dick cut off."
"Sam," Walsh said. "Let's keep it civil."
"Mr. President, do you know the... person Jamie's referring to? I know we're in a little bit of a hurry, but, Mr. President, do we really want to have a queer on staff?"
"Settle down, Sam. Lets hear her out."
"Well, Mr. President," Jamie said, "I've had dealings with some of the coal mining companies in the past, and it seems they don't like her too much."
"See what I mean?" Sam said.
"Sam, for the last time..." the President said.
Sam nodded. "Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."
"Continue, Jamie."
"Yes, sir. As I was saying, they don't like her but they respect her. Seems the attorney general is very keen on prosecuting any of them for any violation of state statutes or laws, like illegal use of state land and territories, land grabbing, pollution or labor violations, violation of State safety and EPA rules, or tax and employee compensation issues. So they did a lot of spin campaigns, harping on her sexual orientation and such, to discredit her and get her kicked out. One would think those would work easily, especially in conservative Wyoming. But they didn't. Her well-earned reputation for openness, fairness and for winning cases kept her in the good graces of the citizens she went to bat for, and earned her a large group of advocates that defended her and made her a kind of grassroots hero, which just adds to her very famous war record. Which explains why the companies weren't successful in kicking her out, even when they were willing to apply... unconventional inducements."
Talbot laughed. "I like that: unconventional inducements." He laughed again.
"Sounds like this queer guy, I mean, transgender person, might not be willing to play ball either," Walsh said.
"Thing is," Jamie said, ignoring the President's comment, "even the conservatives I talked with said they preferred dealing with her than with any of her predecesors or other officials in Wyoming's Justice Department, even if she is transgender."
"Why is that?"
"Well, for one thing, Xander enforces state law impartially - when its the coal or mining companies that're in trouble, she goes to bat for them as strongly as when she's prosecuting them. She defends the law regardless who is accusing, and who is being accused - she is super-tough but super-duper fair. Plus, no one can seem to beat her and her people. Over the six years she's been there, conviction rates have gone up, and corporate and industrial crime has gone down, and EPA reports show Wyoming is coming up fast in the national stats for the cleanest or most environmentally-friendly. And this is Wyoming - a state known for coal and mining.”
"'Super-duper fair,' huh?" Walsh smiled. "That's way up there with 'unconventional inducements'. How old are you, anway, Jamie?"
"I'm twenty-six, sir. I apologize if I'm a little too flippant..."
"Not at all. Its refreshing. What else? How about pollution, soil management, clean fuels, global warming and all that shit? I would think that she would be against coal. How about regular run-of-the-mill crimes?"
Jamie nodded. "She's actually for clean fuels and believes in conservation, protection against soil erosion, and is against global warming. Coming from a state whose main source of income is coal and mining, it's quite ironic and actually unbelievable. As for, ummm, 'regular crime,' her administration has had the highest yearly conviction rate in the history of the state.
"What you said, sir, about us needing an idealist who's also a pragmatist - Attorney General Xander defends the rights of Wyoming's people regardless of who they are, and does not compromise, but, on the side, is one of the quiet proponents for finding better, less-polluting processing methods and usages of coal, and is encouraging the diversification of Wyoming's economic portfolio into other industries. For example, two point-five percent of the state's yearly GDP now comes from the farming and processing of new non-GMO strains of soybeans, sunflowers and wheat as substitute crops, which started from state legislation that AG Xander championed. As you know these are both food crops and biofuel crops. And, yes, two point-five percent is small, but it's not insignificant, and it's projected to grow a percent per year. In a decade, it would be a major component of the state's economy.
"I think, sir, AG Xander could be one of those pragmatic idealists you were talking about."
"But she's a he, right?" Talbot asked.
"Ummm, no, sir. She's a she. If you mean, is she transsexual - yes, she is."
"Whatever. Why would we want a transgender man in the administration? Or is it woman?"
“Darrin, let's be civil," the President said, and turned to his young press secretary. "Jamie, unfortunately, Secretary Talbot has brought up an important point. Wouldn't having a transgender person in the White House attract unwelcome attenton?"
Jamie shrugged. "I don't know about that, sir. She did well in Wyoming, a quite conservative state. She is, in fact, the most popular government official there. Also, did you know over seven percent of the nation's adult population is actually LGBTQ, and almost all of them are voting age? She might actually be an asset.”
Talbot looked at her, surprised, to say the least. "Seven percent? Really?"
She nodded. "Yes, sir, Mr. Secretary. And almost all of them are registered voters or at least politically active. You can look it up."
"God. That's an amazing number." He looked at the President, laughing. "Mr. President, we may have missed a major demographic."
"Indeed. Jamie, you seem to know a lot about Ms Xander."
She shrugged nervously. "Not really, Mr. President. I just hear a lot in the press room."
She conveniently neglected to tell him that she was actually a close friend of AG Xander's sister, Kat. She and Kat were both taking pre-law in Columbia University when they first met, and became best friends. Jamie eventually moved to DC when she had an opportunity to start working for the White House and passed up studying for the bar, while Kat switched majors and went to Paris to study fashion (Kat told her that she decided to be a lawyer in the first place because she idolized her older brother-sister, but found that her heart wasn't really into law, but fashion instead. So, upon the insistence of her older... sibling, she decided to switch careers).
Despite this, however, Jamie and Kat kept in touch and have remained close - something that no one apparently knew about, and something she and Kat deliberately tried to keep hidden for the sake of Kat's sibling - it would't go well for Effie to be perceived as being a pro-administration politician, an impression which would have become inevitable if Kat's connection to Jamie became general knowledge.
President Walsh nodded to Jamie. "Well, I'll need you to know more," he said. "Put together some information and set up a briefing within the week. Lets see if Attorney General Xander can be a credible part of my administration."
"Are we vetting her already, sir?" Jamie asked. She tried to mask any kind of enthusiasm that she was feeling at the thought of Effie becoming the VP.
"Oh, no," the president said. "Not just yet. I just need to know a bit more about this... lady. In the meantime, please prepare for the announcement of the Vice President's resignation."
"Yes, sir, Mr. President."
to be continued...
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Presidents' Day, Chapter 2
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During the regular White House press briefing the following day, the atmosphere was very casual - something which used to be unusual for one of this administration's briefings. The atmosphere used to be very combative and adversarial, and harkened back to the White House briefings of the late 2010s. At least the press weren't being called the Enemy of the People this time, or Fake News or any similar rhetoric.
The adversarial nature of the briefings were mostly because of the shenanigans of the VP, and the administration having to cover up for him or having to issue denials. The press had been growing more and more frustrated by the White House press secretary's non-answer answers or demonstrable, out-and-out lies regarding the VP. In fact, it got so bad that the press secretary was forced to resign. That meant Jamie Summers, the best person in the Office of the Press Secretary to take over despite being only twenty-six, was promoted.
Her style was refreshingly different from her predecessor, to say the least. From the beginning, the White House Press Corps found that the new press secretary had a problem dissembling, and though she tried to answer everyone's questions, inevitably there would be some she couldn't, and during those times, she'd just answer the question with a standard "I have no information," or just move on to another topic altogether.
The press corps learned this very quickly, and picked up on a winning strategy of extracting information: they would take what Jamie said at face value, and for those that she didn't want to speak about, this was considered as good as a confirmation (or a denial, depending on how the question was phrased and responded to).
This, of course, damaged Jamie's reputation early on. In one of her regular Skype calls with Kat, she told her best friend about it.
Kat then told her big sister, "Effie,” and Effie gave Jamie some advice, which the neophyte press secretary followed.
Prior to her transition, Freja Martina Olofsdotter Xander used to be Frei Martin Olofsdotter Xander. When she changed her name, she went for the closest female version of her birth-name, in deference to her parents, and to stem any accusations of her trying to confuse or hide who she formally was - as a lawyer, a government official and an ex-military officer, this was more important than it normally would have been.
As to the unusual-ness of the name itself, it was because she was a first-generation Danish-American (as was her sister, of course) - both of her parents were naturalized Americans who had legally immigrated from Denmark as teenagers (her father was from Copenhagen while her mother was from the town of Helsingor, the home of historical Kronborg Castle, which Shakespeare used as the basis for the castle in his play, Hamlet).
And, because of the Scandinavian practice of women using the mother's maiden surname as their middle name and taking the husband's family name when they got married, and then passing it on to their offspring, Effie and Kat inherited the middle name "Olofsdotter" from their mother Felicia, and the family name "Xander" from their father, Sigmund.
"Olofsdotter" was an old, storied and very common Scandinavian family name, which literally meant "Olaf's Daughter," while her father's family name, though not as storied and common, had an equally cool meaning - "Xander" meant "Defender of Men," which implied they were descended from warrior Vikings.
The only concession of their parents, insofar as American naming conventions went, was in giving her and her sister second names - Martin for her (or him at the time) and Theodora for her sister, Kat.
Her original, male, given name was a very traditional Scandinavian name - "Frei" meant "man of choice." Her new female name, "Freja," though it sounded similar, meant something altogether different - "queen of beauty" (it was actually the name of a legendary Norse goddess who was known for her beauty). And much was made of that in the press. Freja Martina, or Effie to her friends, was a very, very attractive redheaded beauty, whereas the old Frei Martin, or Marty to his friends, was just a skinny, lanky carrot-top.
- - - - -
Following Effie's advice, Jamie bided her time, and waited for when there was a perfect storm of breaking news items.
Upon such a day, Jamie masterfully leaked to the press (via channels which were totally untraceable to her or to the White House) several pieces of news, leaking them piecemeal so that she could stretch them to cover the entire week. There was one common thing about them, however, - they were all incomplete pieces of news.
On that Monday, the press got wind of a news item that said the president's daughter was pregnant and was due to give birth soon. They brought it up during the daily press briefing. Jamie didn't add more information, nor even acknowledge the item. Which, to the press, was as good as a confirmation. So even the major news outlets had articles that said things like, "the White House's non-denial denial indicates that..." or that the news item was "confirmed by the White House.” The president was livid but Lindsay explained the basis for this rumor to her father, and he just had to laugh. Jamie said she had a plan, and the President and Lindsay agreed to sit on it for now, though they reserved the right to file libel cases later.
The following day, the press corps heard that massive tariffs were going to be applied to Chinese fish exports that will cause a massive shift in global fish prices for the next ten years. They asked Jamie, but she declined to comment. So they printed the stories they liked and, though market figures remained unchanged, it was only a matter of time, the said.
And then, the day after that, they got wind of the development of a new videogame that will be the next new thing coming from Silicon Valley. That was actually fine, but the reporters' beef was more about why was the government getting involved with something as pidley as a videogame.
And then, the day after that, there was the big one - they got wind of rumors of the imminent shutdown of several large American manufacturing companies due to a lack of support from the government.
Jamie said that she had no information about it for them, and kept her expression stonily blank.
Of course, the press had a field day with this, and printed the little that they knew - that several US companies would be shutting down because of the lack of government financial support or aid. They also did the same thing they did with the rest of the items they heard about that week, and said that the White House confirmed it. This, of course, caused national panic but since it was already after the close of the stock markets, there was no reaction from business yet.
The following day, Jamie scheduled an early morning press briefing, even before the stock markets opened, and the White House Press Corps was chomping at the bit. This was going to be something juicy, the reporters thought. Which it was, but not in the way they thought it would be.
They arrived at the White House press room in dribs and drabs, as usual. But they were surprised to see Jamie already there ahead of them, standing at her podium. And quite angry, judging by her expression. She wasn't talking to anyone.
At the appointed hour, Jamie started the briefing.
"Good morning," she began, and without the customary smile, preambles and small talk, she got into it right away.
"I'd like to direct your attention to a new person among your ranks - that is Mr. Jonathan Smith from the Voice of America." She pointed to an African-American at the front row. "He is here upon my invitation, to provide verbatim reporting on today's briefing.
"Also, I bring your attention to our friends from C-SPAN. I have asked them to begin their coverage ten minutes before we began the briefing, and to extend the coverage to ten minutes after, in a continuous non-breaking manner. They have two cameras here now instead of the customary one.
"I am not curtailing your coverage at all. However, I am making sure that everything is captured from beginning to end. A running time-stamp will be in the corner of the C-SPAN video so any editing of their coverage will be noticed."
There was a slow murmuring spreading in their ranks, wondering what was happening, but Jamie wasn't having any of it, and rapped her hand on the podium to get the their attention.
"At the beginning of my tenure," she said in a vaguely angry tone, "I made a pledge to you, and the nation, that I will be not dissemble or lie, that all that you will hear from me will be the truth, as I know it to be.
"But many among you have taken advantage of my pledge.
"Naturally, I am unable to give you answers to all your questions, but it seems that many of you use my not denying nor averring your questions to make your own conclusions. Far be it for me to tell you how to write your pieces. Who am I to tell you veterans how to do your job? But you take a risk every time you do that." She sighed and sadly shook her head.
"All right," she said. "Let's get to the news items of the day.
"First item. The Uruguay government contacted the White House last week, asking for assistance. It seems many members of the Uruguay State Industries group, or US Industries, face imminent shutdown of their factories. The Uruguay government has not provided them any assistance or subsidies for several years now, owing to their current financial difficulties, and because of it, these businesses are failing.
"President Walsh is therefore allotting a significant portion of the government's discretionary foreign aid budget to the Uruguay State Industries, or 'US Industries.' This is being announced now, ahead of its scheduled formal announcement next week: Due to the erroneous reportage in the American press and media that said many of our country's manufacturing facilities are about to shut down, the government has moved forward this announcement to today, to head off any kind of stock market downturn in the face of this very inaccurate, very damaging and extremely, extremely irresponsible reportage."
Jamie gave the press corps a few moments to get over their shock, and then held her hand up.
"No need to rush out to report - C-SPAN is covering this live, and the heads of the top five networks' news departments have been alerted to watch. Several foreign press and news agencies have also been similarly alerted. Any live reports that they file should stave off any kind of crisis in the stock market.
"To continue with the second item - we'd like to let the country know the good news: Buttons, the pet tabby of the First Daughter, Lindsay, is having babies. The news is only being released now, only after the veterinarians were able to give us an update on Buttons' health. I am pleased to report that Buttons is in one hundred percent good health, and she will be giving birth to her first litter very, very soon."
The reporters looked at Jamie in shock.
"Third item - this is not a White House news item, really, but I have to coverit to head off some trouble: tariffs amounting to three times the current levels are being applied to imports of dried and processed krill, which is used as part of the feedstock for approximately zero-point-one percent of the total artificially-grown, or cultured, fish in the country, as a response to similar tariffs many countries in the far east have applied to similar American products. The expected reduction in krill imports will definitely have an effect to fish production. The Fish and Wildlife Service expects imports to be halved in about ten years, causing a, hmmm... massive loss of income amounting to fifty thousand dollars spread over a ten-year period.
"For your information, I did some math. This will mean that the country will lose about five hundred dollars every month, for a period of ten years, if no action is taken to correct this."
Some of the reporters seemed to be on the verge of crying.
"Continuing on," Jamie said, "for the fourth item - the President has met with several representatives from our computer industry to talk about a new breakthrough in computers: scientists from a handful of companies in Silicon Valley have come up with a new chip design that has the potential of jumping our computing capability by several magnitudes. This makes the possibility of true artificial intelligence and other as-yet imagined breakthroughs in computer technology a distinct possibility within the next twenty years. The president will be meeting with leaders in congress to approve the funding for further research into this new, potentially Nobel Prize winning technology.
"Needless to say, as the President joked during their meeting, this will also result in better video games." Jamie chuckled.
In the silence, one of the reporters said, "Oh my god..." while a few fainted. Many looked like they wanted to faint as well, but just couldn't manage it.
"As the fifth and final item for the day," Jamie continued, "I'd like to let you know that the Office of the Press Secretary, with the full consent and support of the President, will, in behalf of the American people, be filing suit against selected news agencies. We are working with the Solicitor General's Office to identify the particulars of the cases to be filed. Even the nature of the cases - whether they are to be civil or criminal cases - has not yet been determined, as this has not happened yet in the history of American jurisprudence."
"A case!" someone exclaimed.
Jamie nodded. "Yes. If they are to be civil cases, given the possible impact that your articles would have had to the nation's economy, it's bound to be a big number - somewhere in the order of several hundred million per agency involved."
"Oh, no..."
"This is, of course, separate from the libel suit that the President and the First Daughter will be filing with several news outlets regarding the erroneous articles they published about the First Daughter." After which, a few of them actually made the sign of the cross. Jamie grinned a little. She didn't realize that there were so many Catholics in the press corps.
"Are there any questions?" she asked innocently.
Jamie waited for a minute. But since there were none, she ended the press briefing.
“I guess that's a full lid. Thank you all for your attention. I will ask that, before you leave, please check beside the logbook at the door. Most of you will have letters that are addressed to your editors. We will check this afternoon if they have been properly delivered or communicated."
Almost all of them were looking at Jamie with a kind of dread in their eyes as they filed out in a very eerie silence - eerie in that this was never how her press briefings ended.
After all the reporters had left, as well as the C-SPAN crew, she stepped down from the podium.
Jamie looked at her watch. "That's amazing, she said to one of her people. "Not even fifteen minutes and we're done for the day. Must be some kind of record."
- - - - -
The letters that the reporters brought back to their editors was an open rebuke of their reportage. The reporters signed receiving copies of the letters, and the envelopes were not sealed, so they were able to read them.
The reporters undoubtedly compared their letters to each other, and they would have noticed that they were actually standardized letters - that the wording was the same.
The set that was sent to the editors of media outlets who made the erroneous articles said that they "willfully twisted the information you received, or made unwarranted assumptions that clearly showed you did not follow normal journalistic standards to insure the veracity of your material, nor did you consider your responsibility to the public at large."
Further on, the standardized letters also said, "in order to observe due process, you are hereby formally informed that the White House press credentials of your reporters are in the process of being revoked: they were instrumental in the publication of your news agency's extremely erroneous, maliciously fictitious and demonstrably incorrect news articles this past week that were damaging to our country and economy, hence we do not want them in the White House press room."
For the small handful that didn't publish similar articles, they also received letters. The key section in these letters said the following: "You are formally informed that the White House press credentials of your reporter are hereby confirmed. We congratulate your company and your reporter for maintaining a high level of journalistic integrity and professionalism by insuring accurate reportage this past week. Your reporter and your agency are a credit to the Fourth Estate."
Over the weekend, there was a lot of posturing and blustering from the various agencies that received the negative letters, but with the repeated broadcast of the C-SPAN video on public TV or over the internet, its spread through the various social media sites (it was only a little under fifteen minutes, so it wasn't chopped up. It was one of the longest news videos to go viral in recent years), their tweets and articles were all just ridiculed. Corroborating information that came out later prevented them from spinning their erroneous coverage.
And in that short forty-eight hour weekend, Jamie acquired the reputation of a sort-of hero, and the various media outlets as outright villains.
And despite any effort of the news people to spin the story in their favor, the denizens of the web were not having any of it, especially since the media's faulty articles were all out and on record (some tried to delete their articles but that was futile - once they were out in the web, they couldn't be taken back anymore), while other sources confirmed Jamie's information (such as the First Family's vet, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Bill Gates, and the Uruguay Embassy).
Outlets like TYT and VICE didn't help either when they displayed the media's tweets and articles side by side with quotes from Jamie, lambasting the White House Press Corps, or other follow-on articles by others that showed how laughably off the mark the media were, or the funny videos that the late night comics started inundating the airwaves with. US Industries had become as iconic as other sound bites of other administrations, like "ich bin ein Berliner," "I am not a crook," "tear down that wall," "read my lips," or even "covfefe" and "smocking gun."
The following work-week saw many of these agencies scoffing (or trying to scoff) at the government's intention of filing court cases, bringing up phrases like "curtailing the freedom of the press" or making comparisons to older administrations. What they didn't count on was the twitter-verse giving Jamie support, as well as advice on how to file their case, which included a string of retired federal judges, a few ex-presidents and one still-living, ex-supreme court associate justice.
The final straw that made the news agencies capitulate was the new scandal about certain reporters not sending their letters in. Some even altered or replaced their letters. Those that didn't send their letters in claimed that they lost the letters somehow, or forgot to send them in. As for those that replaced or altered their letters, these reporters were immediately fired. Tampering with federal documents was a criminal act, after all, and the agencies couldn't defend against that.
The first one to capitulate was CNN - to CNN, the writing was on the wall, and it was best to cut their losses as soon as possible and start rebuilding their reputation. So on Wednesday, they apologized to the nation, personally to the President and his daughter, and, publicly and personally, to Jamie, for their faulty reporting, and that they shall do better in the future. They also said that there was no need to cancel their reporters' credentials as they would be surrendering them voluntarily, and that CNN will be replacing them with new staff.
Later that day, the BBC caught up to Jamie and she told them in an interview that aired that evening that she and the President were more inclined to give CNN another chance if they were sincere about doing better.
The major networks and news agencies soon followed CNN's lead, apologizing on air, and there were both major and minor changes to their organizations, mostly some reorganization and some firings.
The upshot of it all was that the White House Press Corps had changed for the better - almost all the jaded veterans were replaced with fresh faces, and Jamie's announcements were never misquoted from then on. And although her announcements, opinions and other pronouncements were now fact-checked to ridiculous lengths, her facts were never found wanting.
And after a few more weeks with her "new" press corps, she managed to establish a rapport that was rare in the history of the White House, and Jamie was on her way to becoming one of the most respected people to ever run the Press Office.
to be continued...
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Presidents' Day, Chapter 3
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It was in the Press Room's new collegial atmosphere that everyone came into that morning. They already knew a little bit about the day's biggest story - there were rumors the VP had resigned. But, with the experience of what the Press Corps now calls "Letter Day" (the day when many of them got letters regarding the cancellation of their press credentials), they didn't speculate and, rather, waited for Jamie to tell them all about it.
"Good morning," Jamie said cheerily, and had a few minutes of chit-chat and small talk with the reporters, but she soon knuckled down with the day's big news.
"So let's beegin today's announcements," Jamie began. "Vice President Howard Spencer has resigned the office of the Vice Presidency yesterday afternoon. The President received his letter of resignation shortly after twelve noon, and has regretfully accepted the VP's resignation."
"Finally!" someone exclaimed.
Several people raised their hands, and Jamie pointed at one of the people in the front row. "Yes, Pete."
"Jamie, does the VP's resignation have anything to do with the Century Savings and Loan case?"
Jamie nodded her acknowledgement of the question. "Yes, the VP did resign because of Century Savings. It was his position that, whatever happens from this point on - whether he's exonerated or not, his connection with the issue would just be detrimental to the administration, and therefore it could affect the economy and the nation as a whole. He therefore voluntarily offered his resignation so that President Walsh can continue on with running the country without this issue complicating things."
"Has the VP admitted to any culpability in the case?"
"No - he only resigned to distance the administration from this issue so that the President can continue to run the government without this... distraction."
"Has President Walsh or anyone else from his administration admitted to being part of the scandal?"
"Of course not! As far as I know, no one in the administration has anything to do with this matter, especially the president."
Someone else asked the next question - one of the older, more senior reporters. "Jamie," the reporter said, "what do you think? Is Spencer really involved?"
"Surely, Tom," she said, "whatever I think is irrelevant to the matter." Though she was very flattered. Before Letter Day, these same people would just ignore her, never mind ask her opinion.
"You must have some idea?"
"Well, everyone has an opinion," she said, "but it is inappropriate, not to mention irrelevant, for me, the White House Press Secretary, to express my personal opinion."
"Has there been any thought about appointing a new vice president?"
"I believe it's a bit too early for that," she said. "The Vice President has just resigned. But, yes, the President is already thinking about it. The VP position is an important position, after all, especially at this time.
"And, after appointment, the Senate has to confirm the appointment. It will not be a quick process, in any case."
"Come on, Jamie," Tom said. "Even if its off the record?" He smiled and winked. Everyone laughed.
Jamie sighed theatrically. "You really like to put me on the spot, Tom," Jamie replied. "And if it's off the record, I would hardly tell you in front of everyone here in the Press Room."
It was a thin joke, but everyone laughed again, including Tom.
"How about if I take you to lunch?" Tom said.
Everyone went, "oooh!" Tom Flaherty had a reputation with the women.
Jamie laughed, too. "Well, I doubt if it would be okay to have lunch with you somewhere that you probably have bugged, or Pete and some of these guys are just a couple of tables away, listening, with note pads and recorders."
"I wouldn't do that to you," Tom protested humorously. "So, what do you say? Please?"
Tom's reputation was well known in the capital's political circles. Jamie knew that Tom won't quit asking, so she had to find a way to give him his scoop, but yet not break any confidences on her part.
"Hold on a second..." She waved one of her staff over and whispered in his ear. The guy nodded, stepped out of the room and called someone. His voice could be heard through the open door as he talked to someone, but it was indistinct.
After a few moments, he came back in and gave Jamie a thumbs-up. Jamie smiled her thanks.
"Okay - if you're game for a late lunch, I just got us a table at the White House Mess, so meet me in my office at one thirty. You're welcome to try and pump me for information. Just information!" (Everyone laughed) "But I guarantee you, you won't get anything. But, regardless, you'll owe me... And even if you don't get anything, you drop it. What do you say to that?" Jamie looked at him smilingly, but with an expression that also said, "I dare you - it's your ball now."
But Tom comically nodded his head excitedly, like an old Loony Tunes cartoon character.
Jamie's lunch invitation was unusual but wasn't unprecedented. When senior White House staff needed to leak information to the public and they didn't want the White House to be the source, they'd meet people in some nondescript out-of-the-way restaurant (and there were lots of restaurants like that in DC).
This wasn't a leak, though - it was totally above-board even if it was a confidential meeting. The word oxymoron comes to mind, but that's the way it was in the capital.
Everyone groaned, wishing they were invited, too, and some laughingly called out "favoritism!" or something similar.
Though the menu of the White House Mess wasn't that fancy (the dishes were, in fact, typical navy ward room breakfast and lunch entrees), the food was cooked superbly, and elevated to cordon bleu standards, and was legendary amongst the Press Corps (the Panko Fried Chicken and the West Wing Burger were considered the press room favorites), even though only a few among them have had the opportunity to dine there, as it was by reservation, and only open to senior White House staff and their guests.
Glad that they were able to move on from the VP story, Jamie then proceeded to cover a handful of other items, and though the reporters dutifully wrote down stuff and made notes, Jamie was pretty sure those news items wouldn't make the headlines. At best these news items would be in the middle of their evening news programs or maybe used as filler articles in their papers. No, it was the VP thing that was the news of the day.
The briefing finished normally, and everyone filed out.
Gil, her assistant, came up.
"That was a smart move, Jamie," Gil said, "inviting Tom to lunch, and in the West Wing, too."
Jamie nodded. "Yes. Tom's one of the old guard from the old Press Corps. He's sort of their leader. It'd be good to get him on our side."
"Good luck on that, by the way. He has a reputation."
"Really?"
"He's made some politicians actually break down and cry. And the mayor of DC took a swing at him once. Lots of politicians try to avoid him. He's also called out other reporters for pandering to special interests. People are scared of him."
"Really? He's been nice to me so far."
He grinned at her with a humorously lecherous expression. "I think someone likes someone," he said in sing-song.
"Nahhh. Probably not."
"He was awfully insistent on the lunch thing."
"He's just after a news item."
"Well, you're probably right, but don't let him get you on the record."
"Hey, who're you talking to," she joked.
"Absolutely, Boss," he said, and they high-fived.
Later, just a little after one PM, Tom Flaherty came through security and went directly to Jamie's office. He was an old hand in this, and knew enough not to dawdle or change his direction, otherwise, security will be on his tail very quickly.
"Knock, knock!" he said as he knocked on the doorjamb of Jamie's office door.
"Tom!" Jamie said with a smile. "Right on time. Lets go!" She closed her laptop and stood up. "I heard they have chocolate pudding for dessert today."
"Sounds good."
In a few minutes, they were at the West Wing Navy Mess, or "the White House Mess."
The president has his own dining room next to the Oval Office, but for the others, there was a restaurant in the West Wing's ground floor, run by the US Navy and therefore referred to in military terms as a "mess hall," or a ward room - a navy term that refers to an officers' dining room.
The menu only had items from the regular menu in a Navy ward room. But, of course, since this was the White House, these dishes were upgraded, not perhaps to Michelin Star-level but at least to county fair blue ribbon-level.
Jamie nodded in appreciation at her assistant Gil's usual thoroughness. By scheduling their lunch at one thirty instead of noon, there were very few people in the place, and the table that they were ushered to was well away from any other diners. Not that it would be an issue, since all of these people were people from Communications (her people) or from the East Wing: the White House people she was avoiding were all absent from the Mess.
"Ahhh!" Tom said. "Thank you," he said politely to the Navy messboy dressed in a formal-looking Navy mess hall uniform who brought them their menus. "I already know what I want – can I have the Panko Fried Chicken and a Ceasar Salad, please."
"Anything to drink?"
"Would a beer be possible?"
"Not a problem, sir." He leaned down and mock whispered. "There's an unofficial one-glass limit, however, sir. So would you like me to make it a double?"
Tom laughed. "Yes, please, sir."
"I'm a seaman, sir - I'm not an officer."
"Oh! Im sorry, seaman. Didn't mean anything by it..."
The messboy laughed and waved it away. "Aye, aye, sir. Just kidding. And you, Miss Jamie?"
"I'll have the Penne with Zucchini and Fresh Basil, please, George," Jamie said, and a big glass of ice water. And can you also get us chocolate pudding later? And be sure to give Tom the special."
"Aye, aye, miss."
"Thanks, George."
Tom returned his menu. George stopped him. "Guests are allowed to keep the menu as a souvenir, sir would you like to keep yours?"
"I can? Sure!"
George nodded, but he still took it away when he went back to the kitchen.
"I thought I could keep it..."
Jamie laughed. "Oh, you can! He's just going to put it in an envelope and everything."
"Oh... And what's the special?"
"Some people get to bring home a box of presidential M&Ms..."
"Presidential M&Ms?"
"Just regular M&Ms, but with the presidential seal printed on them instead of an 'M&M.'"
"Ahhh! So that's the special?"
"Special means you get a dozen boxes instead of just one. You can give them to friends or something."
"What? Nooo! Theyll all be for me!" They both laughed.
But in a moment, George was back with their food.
"Wow!" Tom said. "That was quick! Thank you, George."
Goerge smiled. People were rarely this polite to him and his crew. He started putting their food on the table.
"This looks good! Compliments to the chef, George."
"Thats 'cook,' Tom, not 'chef,'" Jamie said. "Cook's a navy man."
"Ahhh! I will remember."
"So," Jamie said as she started twirling some pasta onto her fork after George left, "what did you want to talk about, Tom? Tom... Tom!"
"Oh! Sorry, Jamie, I was just taken aback by this chicken. It's very good!"
Jamie giggled.
"Well," Tom said after finishing a bite, "I just wanted to see if I can get ahead of the pack, and see if you're willing to give me a sneak peek at who you guys have in mind to replace the VP."
"Tom," Jamie said sternly, "like I said earlier, there's no decision yet. Vice President Spencer just resigned yesterday!"
"Well, the writing's been on the wall for a long, long time. It was inevitable. So I'm sure the president's made plans."
"Tom..."
"I promise it'll be completely off the record. I can let you tell me when I'm supposed to pull the trigger."
"Pull the trigger?"
"When I can let the cat out of the bag. You know?"
She looked at him appraisingly. He noted the look.
"You can trust me, Jamie. But if you want, there's a form that we have, and I can sign it, guaranteeing I won't spill the beans prematurely."
She looked incredulous. "Oh, my good god! There's an actual form!"
Tom had to smile at her expression. Jamie had already been getting a reputation for her, well, unusual idioms and expressions. He, of course, won't be the one to tell that to her face. "Well, yes," Tom said, "it was developed by my paper's lawyers years ago as a tool to keep our reporters straight, and to help our sources to feel comfortable to give interviews. Totally bulletproof and one thousand percent legal."
"Do the other papers and the networks have the same kind of form?"
"Actually, I don't really know. As far as I know, its only my publication that has an actual form for this." He brought out one of them and handed it over to Jamie.
As Jamie read it, Tom dug into his chicken, and dipped it into the excellent honey mustard this time.
Jamie thought it was actually a simple form, and just made up of a couple of paragraphs.
Essentially, it said that anonymous sources would provide confidential information to the undersigned reporter, but only if the reporter commits not to release the information that would be provided to any third party, including the reporter's relatives, friends, coworkers, superiors and editors earlier than a specified date, otherwise, the reporter and his publication will be held fully liable under the law, with the appropriate penalties as deemed by a duly-recognized legal authority, such as a judge and/or jury.
"That has been refined and boiled down to its most binding but simplest verbiage possible," Tom said after finishing another bite. "And you won't be mentioned at all, guaranteeing your anonymity. Feel free to have your legal people check it."
Jamie nodded.
"Okay," she said, after thinking about it for a bit. She got a pen and scribbled on the form. She handed it back to Tom, and he read what she wrote.
Jamie had filled in the blanks for the information being disclosed, specifically the plans of the Walsh Administration in replacing the vice president, who has just resigned, and the date being a two weeks from now.
Tom looked up. "Two weeks, Jamie?" he asked. "That long? Why?"
"Sign first," she said, and Tom signed. He then looked at Jamie expectantly.
"Because, Tom," Jamie explained, "I don't have any hard schedule at the moment. But how about this - if the timetable gets pushed forward in any way, I'll let you know, and I'll tear up the form, and you can publish. My word."
Tom looked at her. This girl has balls, he thought. He nodded, added his name, position and company to his signature, and returned it to the girl.
"Done!" he said. "Now, give!"
So Jamie told him, that, so far, there was only one person that the president was considering - Attorney General Freja Martina Olofsdotter Xander of Wyoming.
"You're kidding," Tom said. "Doesn't the president know Xander's transgender? I know shes a babe but..."
"Yes, he does. But I think he feels that AG Xander is the only one that he can trust that has what it takes. I think its the president's intent to find an antidote to the reputation that the VP has built - that Ms Xander has to be the good cop to the VP's bad cop. And, if that's his intention, can you think of any better person that can take out the stink that the VP left?"
Tom thought it through. "Ahhh, no," he said. "At least I can't think of anyone else at the moment, but, no offense, Jamie, she's transgender. Do you really think that wont affect the reputation of the administration?"
Jamie shrugged. "I'm sure you're correct. The president will undoubtedly consider other people, after all. Ms Xander just happens to be the first name to be suggested."
"There are no others?"
"No. Not yet. No one serious, at least."
"Surely some other names must have come up."
"Well, yes, but they aren't seriously being considered, at least not yet."
"Such as?"
"Well, there was talk about Senator Sugarbaker from Wisconsin, Congressman Hafley from Alaska, Congresswoman Arrapayo from Hawaii."
Tom nodded. "You guys are being serious, I see. Anyone else?"
"State Police Commissioner McLeesh from Vermont was also mentioned..."
Tom was incredulous. "Oh, no! Sure, he's very popular with your party now, and Vermont loves him. But he's... I don't know. I think that guy's crazy as a bat. Anyone else?"
"Al Perez from Houston."
"Huh? The surgeon general of Texas? I don't get it - what does a doctor know about running a country?"
Jamie waved him down.
"I know that, Tom! Like I said, this is just talk right now. But the president is open to suggestions."
"Well, it's not as if he has a lot of options. Truth be told, Sugarbaker, Hafley and Arrapayo are good middle-of-the-road options, if the president is just looking for a safe politician that won't rock the boat and go along with his agenda, and help him cast tiebreaker votes for his party in the Senate..."
"I can hear a 'but' lurking in that declaration..."
"But!" Tom said, accommodating her, and chuckled, "for my own taste, as a citizen, I want someone who's a cutting edge politician that thinks out of the box yet plays by the rules, and truly is a patriot - gutsy and has people's welfare really in her mind."
"I take it you know her background?"
"I was a mid-east correspondent during the Six Day War. So I know her history."
- - - - -
Over the years, AG Xander had won several awards and accolades but among the most important awards: she had won the Nobel, UNESCO Human Rights and Magsaysay Awards for her "Magna Carta for Non-Cisgender Citizens," a Pulitzer for her article as a contributing writer for the Wyoming Gazette entitled "Defining the Human Condition," the American Bar Association Medal for her tenure as Wyoming's Attorney General, A Bronze Star, an honorary OBE, a Star of Palestine and The Order of The Nile for her exploits as a young marine helicopter pilot (when she was still a "he") in the so-called Six Day War in the Sinai (not the Six Day War that happened in 1967, but the new one that happened a little over a decade ago), for rescuing two downed pilots - one British and one Egyptian (the British flyer she rescued actually made her his Best Man during his wedding, but she was a "she" by then), the Times Woman of the Year, and the BFFs Award which she received from the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards a few years ago - an award that she shared with her sister Kelly-Ann, or Kat.
- - - - -
"So," Jamie said, "if you know her backgound, then you know how awesome she is."
"Indeed I do. In fact, I had an editorial in my paper several years ago when she was appointed Wyoming's Attoney General - my position was that Xander's the most qualified politician in the history of our country, but is unfortunately doomed to oblivion given the fact that she's transgender."
Jamie looked at Tom. "You don't like transgender...?"
Tom vigorously shook his head no. "Absolutely not! I have nothing against LGBTQ people. I was just making a point that LGBTQ people have less of a chance winning public office than cisgender people."
"What about all the LGBTQ people who've become congressmen or mayors or...?"
"Yes, yes," Tom said, "but these are exceptions rather than business as usual."
"Then..."
Tom waved Jamie down. "Don't get me wrong, kid," he said, "I'm all for diversity. I was just making a point that, given the choice, the common registered voter is more likely to vote for a cisgender candidate than an LGBTQ candidate."
Jamie was about to argue the point, but Tom waved her down again.
"I'm not against transgender or LGBTQ people running for office. I'm not even expressing an opinon. Statistics and surveys are what's saying it. I can unearth the docs I used for my article, and give you the link. But I'm sure there would be more up-to-date stats out there, and if my info is out-of-date, I'll be happy to eat my words."
Jamie grinned at that. "Well... let me ask you a personal question - would you vote for Ms Xander if she ever ran for office?"
"In a second. I'm already on record saying that AG Xander is totally qualified. Over the years, she's been instrumental in reducing crime rates in Wyoming by about eighty percent, boosted their economy to the tune of about half a billion a year, has been instrumental in increasing job rates by about forty pecent, and has added about one hundred miles of new roadways and bridges and five new schools to the state's civil infrastructure, and sponsored five scholars to Columbia, her alma mater. And she's just the AG!
"Thing is, Jamie - above and beyond all that, for me, one's sexual orientation should be immaterial. What counts are a person's qualifications, skills and character."
"That's unusually enlightened of you," she giggled.
"Not at all. I guess my point of view comes from the fact that I grew up with a little sister that's transgender."
"You're close?"
"Yes. we were close even when she was still a he, and things didn't change when she came out when she turned twelve. I was her big brother, and would always defend her against bullies, and it only got worse when she transitioned. It makes me sad when I think about it. Many people don't see the great kid underneath, and just get stuck with labels."
"How's your sister now?"
He brought out his phone and swiped at the screen to show pictures of a pleasant-looking girl in a doctor's coat. In one picture, she was with a man, his arm around her waist, both of them smiling broadly. The girl was about half a foot taller, but they didn't seem to mind. He showed them to Jamie. His pride in his sister was fairly obvious.
"She's doing great. She's a doctor now, and got married a couple of years ago. Her husband's a good sort of fella. But I think she could have done better. Sorry. Stereotype big brother. That's the guy with his arm around her, by the way. They're looking into adopting a baby within the year."
Jamie giggled. "Yep - spoken like a stereotypical older brother."
He smiled wanly. "I guess."
He showed Jamie a few more pictures, one with him standing beside his sister. That picture seemed to be his favorite.
"So...," he continued, "yes, I'd vote for Ms Xander if ever she ran for a national public office, or if she ran in my district."
Jamie nodded.
"And besides, she's also pretty hot."
Jamie made a face.
to be continued...
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Presidents' Day, Chapter 4
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Tom let it be known, through his friends and associates in his paper and the other White House correspondents, that he got nothing out of Jamie, and everyone just shrugged. After all, the consensus was that Jamie wouldn't have cracked. The word got back to her staff and the White House, and her reputation remained intact. In fact, there was some uptick to her reputation, especially with the president.
Over several days, a shortlist was made up, and it indeed included AG Xander from Wyoming. And, as expected, the list also included Senator Sugarbaker from Wisconsin, Congressman Hafley from Alaska, and Congresswoman Arrapayo from Hawaii. At the last moment, Matt Reynolds, the very popular ex-governor of California, was added to the list. In Jamie's mind, if they couldn't get AG Xander, Governor Reynolds would be the second choice - a far second, but still second. Reynolds' integrity and fidelity to oaths were legendary.
In any case, President Walsh had scheduled several meetings to discuss the shortlisted people, and to prioritize the list.
So, the president's Chief of Staff, Sam Banner, put the Deputy Chief of Staff, the Deputy Director for Communications, the Deputy Director of Planning and Strategy, and, at the insistence of the president, Jamie, the White House Press Secretary, in charge of the vetting.
The root word, "vet," means to make a careful and critical examination of something. But none of the senior people wanted to do the necessary work to properly vet the shortlisted canidates for VP nominees.
So it fell to Jamie, by far the most junior of the four assigned to the project, to do the bulk of the research. (As usual, the lowest person in the totem pole was given the crap job.)
To be fair, Jamie did a thorough job of it, and used her staff to do the research. And in terms of qualifications, their research showed the five candidates stacked up as follows:
#1 - Attorney General Freja Xander, Wyoming;
#2 - Former Governor Matt Reynolds, California;
#3 - Senator William Sugarbaker, Wisconsin;
#4 - Congresswoman Maria Arrapayo, Hawaii;
#5 - Congressman Alex Hafley, Alaska.
By far, the one with the most qualifications and credentials was AG Xander. Governor Reynolds was second, and the others were a distant third, fourth and fifth.
Anticipating the president's question, Jamie also had her people research the five for popularity, which necessitated a thorough blind survey where the people polled didn't know they were looking at potential vice presidents, so as to get an unbiased survey.
In the end, the poll showed the five candidates rated in popularity as follows:
74% - Attorney General Freja Xander;
10% - Former Governor Matt Reynolds;
3% - Congresswoman Maria Arrapayo, Hawaii;
1% - Senator William Sugarbaker, Wisconsin;
1% - Congressman Alex Hafley, Alaska; and
11% - Undecided.
Clearly, Jamie's "Aunt Effie" was in the lead again.
So, with the stats from her research and the survey, Jamie was fairly sure it would be Effie Xander that would be selected by the president, and then would be sent to congress for confirmation as the country's new vice president.
Jamie was therefore confident when she leaked the information to Tom.
As for Tom, he wasn't sitting around waiting on Jamie, but had been doing some background research on the people Jamie mentioned earlier, and had been working on articles that he'd be submitting to his publisher when Jamie said, "go." He was relieved that the shortlist ended up with most of the people he had been researching, and was happy his work wouldn't go to waste."
In a final meeting with the president and his staff, the final prioritized lists were revealed and were discussed at length.
Incredibly, after everything, the President decided on Governor Reynolds.
Jamie couldn't believe it. Sure, she knew that the president wasn't really as progressive as she'd have preferred, but given how far ahead of the pack AG Xander was, Jamie thought he'd pick her.
But she was wrong.
She met Tom in some nondescript out-of-the-way restaurant, and she told him the result of their deliberations - that it was Reynolds who would be nominated.
Tom looked at Jamie.
"Wait a minute," he said, "per your research, by far the most qualified and most capable, not to mention the most popular, was Effie Xander."
"Yes," Jamie said glumly. "In fact I'm supposed to give Governor Reynolds a call tonight, and invite him to a meeting with the president tomorrow, where he'll be told of his nomination."
Tom looked at her.
"You said, per your poll, Xander got an incredible fifty-plus percent of the surveyed..."
"seventy-four, actually..." She didn't look happy at all. "I guess the president really doesn't like transgender people, and he'd prefer to hold onto his prejudices, even if they weren't to his best interest."
"That is more than just surprising. I'm feeling a bit angry. I would think that Walsh would have picked the person that would have given him the best advantage, politically speaking, and the most help, regardless of his prejudices."
Jamie shrugged helplessly.
Tom looked at her, and, after a minute of staring at each other...
"Jamie," Tom said to her, "would you allow me to show this material to some people?"
"Tom..."
Tom put his hand over hers. "Trust me, Jamie - you won't get in trouble."
She shrugged. "I guess..."
He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Thanks!" he said, and rushed out of the restaurant.
Jamie touched her cheek.
"Gee," she said to herself.
- - - - -
There were very few people that knew Governor Reynolds was in DC at the moment, and was staying with his in-laws in their house in Chevy Chase. He was attending the wedding of his wife's sister, which was happening in a week's time, and he and his wife decided to come early so his wife could visit with her family and help with the wedding preparations.
Matt Reynolds didn't mind - he was fairly close to his in-laws, and looked forward to reconnecting with them. At the moment, he was enjoying his vacation from politics, although he knew that it wouldn't last.
It was unfortunate that Tom Flaherty knew Reynolds was in town, and was actually at Reynolds' in-laws' front door in less than thirty minutes, signalling the end of Reynolds' vacation.
The Bensons' housekeeper answered the door, and Tom introduced himself and asked if he could see the governor.
The nice Filipina domestic asked him to wait, and he patiently walked around in the Bensons' front garden while she presumably asked Mrs. Benson, and then, probably, the governor.
In about twenty minutes, Reynolds himself came out. He knew Tom from his time as California's governor.
"I'm impressed that you were able to track me down, Mr. Flaherty," Reynolds said.
"Good afternoon, your honor," Tom said.
"Enough of that," he said as they shook hands. "Call me Matt."
"I'm Tom."
"So, Tom - to what do I owe the pleasure..."
"Well, sir," Tom said, "I come bearing news - important news."
"I can't imagine it being too important, Tom. I've been out of politics for almost a year now."
"Well, sir, if I tell you something, can you promise me that it'd be confidential? I mean, if push comes to shove, I'm gonna deny telling you anything, and... you know..."
Reynolds looked at him appraisingly. Everyone in national politics had heard of Thomas Flaherty, and knew of his reputation. On the one hand, he was known as a hard drinker and a rough-and-tough brawler. But on the other hand, he was known to be one of the most capable and ethical among the nationally-recognized journalists. In fact, his ethics had famously cost him a job once, all because he refused to disclose the identity of a woman he spent the night with in order to preserve her reputation, even though reveling her identity could have cleared him of a libel case with a congressman that he was running an expose' on regarding kickbacks and campaign anomalies.
In the end, though his paper fired him, this just bolstered his reputation as an ethical reporter, and actually allowed him to land a better position as a senior correspondent for another national newspaper-slash-online magazine and as a regular contributor and commentator at the nightly news program of one of the country's TV networks (he actually turned down a position at one of the twenty-four hour news networks since it was his opinion that being forced to churn out news twenty-four/seven made for less than relevant news programs).
In any case, Reynolds felt he could trust Tom, and he was a hundred percent sure Tom would nail him to the wall if he were to break his word.
"All right," he said. "I promise." He stuck out his hand and they shook on it. "So, what's the news that made you travel all the way to Maryland, Tom?" he asked.
"Well," Tom said, smiling, "it's not that far to drive." He pulled out the documents Jamie gave him. "As you know, sir, Vice President Spencer resigned, and President Walsh has made it a priority to appoint a new vice president right away."
Reynolds looked at him. "You're not saying..."
"I was able to get my hands on the president's shortlist." Tom gave him Jamie's printouts.
With the papers in his hands, Reynolds turned to walk back into the house but Tom stopped him.
"I'm sorry, Governor - I can't let you bring those papers in the house..."
"I just thought we could sit down inside and get comfortable while I read through these..."
Tom firmly shook his head.
"Well... okay." So Reynolds led Tom to the front sidewalk beyond the house's gate, and they sat on the curb as Reynolds read through the papers. As he did, Tom took the opportunity to visit with the ex-governor, and talk with him about the upcoming nuptials of his sister-in-law. Tom even snapped a few pictures, and, though he did a thorough job with the "interview," it was acually just a cover for the real reason for his visit - if someone discovered that he came over, he'll just say he came over to interview the governor about the wedding.
After Reynolds looked the papers over very thoroughly (Tom suspected that Reynolds memorized them, too), he returned them without comment. Tom indicated that he'd continue recording their conversation, and Reynolds nodded agreement.
"Hmmm..." Reynolds said, apparently still thinking about what he just read, "maybe I should give Effie a call tonight and congratulate her. Can't say I'm surprised. I quite agree - she is the most qualified person around. In fact, if she ran for president, I'd vote for her in a second. In fact, I'd campaign for her."
"You called her 'Effie' - is she a friend of yours?"
"Yes. She recorded a bunch of campaign commercials for both my first and second runs for governor, and went out on a couple of campaign rallies with me. As I recall, those rallies were where we had the biggest turnouts. I credit her for my current points of view when it comes to equal opportunity and equal rights, and the LGBTQ community."
"How did you meet?"
"Well, I knew of her, of course. I mean, who didn't? I am a believer of equal rights and equal opportunity for all, including LGBTQ rights. California has a large and vocal LGBTQ community, and my views helped me a lot during my campaign. So when we were brainstorming during my first campaign, we thought of approaching Effie, and, from there, we became friends."
"What do you think of her?"
"She's a formidable lady, isn't she?" Reynolds said. "She's the most intelligent person I know, and knowledgeable about any topic you can think of. Very opinionated, too. I'm in awe of her. I'm also very intimidated by her. Actually, I'm scared of her!" They both laughed.
"I've only met her once, myself," Tom said. "I interviewed her about a project she was sponsoring in Wyoming a couple of years ago. I have to agree with you. Brilliant lady. Also, very attractive, don't you think?"
Reynolds, being the experienced politician that he was, sensed some danger in the seemingly-innocuous question.
"Off the record?" He asked.
Tom nodded, and turned off his recorder.
"Off the record, Tom," Reynolds said, "I think Effie is a stone cold babe!"
After a short moment of surprise, or, more accurately, shock, Tom looked at Reynolds. And then, as if synchronized, they laughed.
"Sorry! Sorry!" Reynolds said. "I know that's part of what we're fighting against - that people shouldn't be objectified - but can you blame me? In fact, Anna, my wife, became terribly jealous, so I tried not to hang around Effie much when Anna was around."
Back on the record, Tom turned on his recorder again and continued his interview, asking him things like what were his plans, what would he do if he did become the VP, and what he thought of President Walsh and his administration.
His answers were fairly typical - do his best for the country though no definite plans yet, et cetera et cetera - but when he was asked about what he thought of Walsh, Reynolds got quiet.
"Would it help if we go off the record again?" Tom said. He made a show of turning off his recorder.
Reynolds sighed.
"Well, Tom," Reynolds said, "truth is, I'm glad I won't get the VP job. I don't know if I could handle working with Walsh and his people. Don't get me wrong - I'd be committed to working with them, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I'd be resigning fairly quickly."
"Why?"
"A team player backs his team as best he can. If he has problems with the team play, he takes his problems to the coach and not to the the team, and after he does, he follows what the coach says. Otherwise, he quits the team."
Tom nodded. "Well, you don't have to accept the VP position."
Reynolds nodded. "That's right. But, truth be told, I don't know if I could turn it down if it was offered. It's too much of a temptation for a politician like me who has dreams of making a difference, even if I have to work with Walsh and Spencer and their bunch."
"Are you saying Walsh is as dirty as the VP?"
Reynolds shook his head no. "I have no proof, no, but do you really believe that good cop-bad cop act Walsh does with Spencer? The Vice President couldn't have done any of the things that he's supposed to have done if he wasn't aided and abetted by the President or his people."
"There's no proof..."
"That's what I said. But it's just a matter of time before things come out."
"Well..."
Reynolds gestured to Tom's recorder.
"So, Tom, what do you say - let's get back on the record?"
Tom looked a little ill-at-ease. "Well, sir... I don't know if you'll get mad at me, but..."
Reynolds looked at him, eyebrow raised. "What do you mean? Was what you showed me not real?"
"Yes, sir, it's real."
"There's got to be a 'but' in there somewhere..."
Tom took a deep breath. "Sir, the president already decided on who his nominee is... it's you..."
Reynolds looked at him, confused.
"But based on the lists you showed me..."
"Yes, sir. You were chosen despite them."
Reynolds still looked confused. "But... the list..."
"Yes, sir. Apparently," he said, "the president doesn't like transgender people, and he'd prefer to hold onto his prejudices, even if they weren't to his best interest." He anonymously quoted Jamie.
He looked at Tom. "What the fuck..."
"In fact, sir, you can expect a call tonight, and you'll be invited to a meeting with the President, where he will tell you the good news personally."
"That's..."
"Of course, I can't tell you where I'm getting my information, but you can count on it. My guarantee."
"Tom..."
Tom shrugged. "What can I say, sir? The president's not exactly the most open-minded person in government. But we knew that when we elected him. I suppose, compared to Senator Claymore, Walsh was the only choice. I guess this is the time when we have to pay the consequence for our choice, even if the lesser of two evils won."
Reynolds looked at him. "No."
"What do you mean, 'no,' Governor?"
"Just no. I know I would have liked to be the vice president, but there is someone in the wings that would be the better choice for the country."
"Governor..."
"No, Tom. We can't let this slip away. I have always told people that I'm a patriot, that I am willing to put the interests of my country ahead of my own, that I am willing to sacrifice almost anything for my country... short of my family, of course," he laughed. "Guess I'm half a patriot."
"What are you saying, Governor?"
"The country needs someone like Effie. I think she can do great things for us. And we can't let bigotry and prejudice win out. If I get that call from the president..."
"When you get the call."
Reynolds nodded. "Okay - 'when' I get that call - I'm gonna meet with him, of course, but I'm going to turn down the VP position when it's offered. And I'll do my best to change the president's mind about AG Xander. Prejudice is a bad thing, even during the best of times. And, in this one moment in our country's history, we can't afford it, not when we have a chance at having Effie Xander as our VP."
Tom looked at him. There were very few times when he saw something like this, when a politician wasn't just paying lip service.
"What can I do to help, Governor," he found himself saying. Well, what do you know, he laughed to himself. I guess I'm a half patriot, too, he chuckled.
- - - - -
Later, as he promised Governor Reynolds, he went to his news bureau and asked his people to get together all the material they could put together about AG Xander.
He then went to a cafe and anonymously logged on to the net. He then emailed the material he and his staff gathered, using anonymous plain-text files, to the governor. He did this to make sure there would be no trace going back to him.
As to how that would help, he didn't really know. But that was what Reynolds asked for.
As for him, he went back to the office to finish off his "camouflage" article about Governor Reynolds being in town to help his family prepare for his sister-in-law's wedding. He handed his phone to his assistant so that they could get the pictures that he took and clean them up.
Tom then locked himself in his office and skipped dinner to meet his editor's nine PM deadline.
He made the deadline, as usual, and sent the article about the weddinf off to his boss on time, along with a dozen pictures that he took. An hour later, after lots of judicious cuts and a little bit of a grammar fix, the editor approved it, and sent it back, already laid out, with the pictures, and a handful of ads.
Seeing the ads already incorporated in the copy, he knew that the article was going out in the morning with the next content update of the online magazine, as well as to the morning edition of the newspaper. That also meant that it would be part of the week's printed issue of the magazine.
His company was one of the few publishing companies that was still printing old-fashioned printed magazines and a printed daily newspaper along with their online versions, and the novelty of a printed magazine and newspaper seemed to be catching on again, such that each copy was almost always immediately snapped up, especially in the "boutique" newsstands that were starting to pop up.
He made sure to include some lines about Reynolds not wanting the VP job and his support for Effie, though it took some creative phrasing to make that an organic part of the article. In any case, he sent the text of the final magazine version of the article to the Governor, saying that it would be out in the next magazine issue:
"A Short Afternoon Chat with Governor Matt Reynolds, by Tom Flaherty
"Yesterday afternoon, this writer had a short but pleasant chat with the popular ex-governor of California, Matthew, 'Matt,' Reynolds, and talked about his plans for the future.
"Most people knew about the charismatic Reynolds - he has been very visible on the national stage for a while now, having been the governor of California for the maximum eight years. During that time, he created and passed lots of state legislation that has been responsible for lifting his state's finances from red to black, and creating an automobile industry based around green technology featuring zero-emission engines and alternative fuels.
"California has always been known for its love affair with the Green Movement, and for being staunchly against Global Warming, but Governor Reynolds has brought this to a totally new level by taking California's fledgeling green-car industry from what was largely a cottage industry into a state-wide industry that rivaled Detroit during the heyday of Ford and the Big Three, and cutting its air pollution levels to one of the lowest in the world.
"California parlayed this newly-found automotive expertise into twenty globally-affiliated motor companies, whose production runs are eighty percent for export, lifting the state out of the red and into complete solvency, and Californians openly gave Reynolds the credit for this near-miracle.
"California has also always been at the forefront of the Equal Rights Movement, and the LGBTQ community continues to look to California for leadership. Many innovative and far-reaching state legislation has given California a new perspective on equal rights taking from the so-called 'Magna Carta for Non-Cisgender Citizens,' and the rest of the nation is starting to follow suit.
"It is largely for these things that the Governor is mostly known for, but he has also done several other things to make California, the most populous state in the union, one of the leading communities in the world - in terms of technology, education and, of course, in entertainment: the Governor, as people know, is the husband to Anna Benson, the beautiful, glamorous ex-beauty queen, actress and model who has starred in more than a dozen of the decade's most popular cinema-based and streaming movies. Governor Reynolds has been featured with Anna in more than a hundred fashion magazine covers and has had interviews will all the major TV talk shows.
"This week, this writer was able to catch up with the Governor at his in-laws' DC-Maryland home. He and his wife are currently in town to be part of the wedding of Anna's equally glamorous younger sister, Natalie, which is shaping up to be the event of the year.
"But for all of his accomplishments, the Governor really has no immediate plans after his tenure as governor of the most populous state in the nation. It is expected, however, that, in some way or another, he would contiue to champion equal pay, universal healthcare, tax reform and equal rights - not surprising, after all: in the most populous state, these are, naturally, the most important issues.
"The Governor credits much of his opinions and points of view to the influence of his good friend, Ms Freja, "Effie," Xander, the Attorney General of Wyoming - the least populous state in the union, and the author of the 'Magna Carta for Non-Cisgender Citizens.' AG Xander also happens to be the most decorated still-living war hero, and the most high-profile transgender politician in recent history - something both the governor and the Attorney General do not really give much importance to - they give more importance to their being friends.
"There has been talk this past week, after the recent resignation of Vice President Spencer, that the Governor was one of the people to potentially replace the VP, but he has not given much weight to that. He told this writer that he would probably turn down the nomination if it ever was offered to him. He did not offer any specific reasons for this other than he felt he was not ready for such a responsibility. Asked who he thought should be the next VP, he did mention that he would gladly support AG Xander to be the country's next Vice President. He believes she is the most qualified, and is, in fact, one of the most capable government figures around, not to mention the most popular person in the country currently active in politics.
"But his main concern for the moment is to be there to support his sister-in-law, Natalie, as she prepares to marry Jacob Blumenfeld, son of Ambrose Blumenfeld, the owner of BMC - the largest of the twenty car manufacturing companies that helped California usher in what is now being called the American Automotive Renaissance, and nephew of Edward Blumenfeld, the fashion scion of the world-famous Blumenfeld House Fashions."
Tom's article then talked at length about Natalie and Jacob and how close Matt felt to his father- and mother-in-law. The long piece finally ended on a note about Matt Reynolds being a family man, and that he and his wife, Anna, were seriously contemplating having a baby now that he has more-or-less left California politics.
Tom noted in his emailbox that his email was almost immediately opened by the recipient. In Tom's business, this constituted clearance from the governor. But he didn't really worry - human interest articles normally aren't too big a deal, but nowadays, journalists try to be thorough, and it was important to him that Reynolds signed off on it.
He sighed, and finally thought of going out for dinner.
By now, Jamie has probably already called the Governor, and he thought Jamie was probably fidgeting herself to death. He chuckled at that image, and, to ease her mind, as he ate his late supper at his favorite greasy-spoon diner, he sent Jame the same version of his article that he sent to the governer via the same anonymous channel. Hopefully, that'll make her feel a little more at ease, he thought.
- - - - -
The following morning, as he had his morning coffee with his breakfast, President Walsh looked over his agenda for the day that his first secretary had prepared.
He noted that Governor Reynolds was scheduled for an after-lunch meeting, and this meant Walsh would finally be able to officially announce his pick for VP. He sighed. At least this whole Century Savings and Loan fiasco would soon be over, he thought, and they could all move on to other things.
As he was finishing his hash browns, bacon, biscuits and OJ, Sam Banner, his chief of staff, came over.
"Good morning, sir. Sorry to bother you at breakfast..."
"Not at all, Sam. Sit, sit! Coffee?"
"Thank you, sir," Sam said, and sat down. The president's valet came and poured him a cup of coffee, and he had a sip.
"You just missed Marilyn," the president said, referring to his wife. "She left about ten minutes ago."
"Yes, sir," Sam said. "The Women's Rights Movement, isn't it?"
"I think so," he said "or one of those women things. Nothing important. So. What's so important that we couldn't talk about at the office?"
"Well, sir, nothing, really, but someone from my staff brought this to my attention, and it could throw a monkey wrench in our plans." He handed over his tablet.
"That's worrying." Walsh looked at the article that was on its screen. "Hmmm. So Reynolds' sister-in-law is getting married. Not surprising. That girl is quite beautiful. Although I think his wife Anna is loads more attractive. Is that it, Sam? Should I congratulate him or something? Send flowers? Or, wait, am I invited to the wedding?"
"Ummm, no, sir, not that... Page down to the second page, and look at the second paragraph."
Walsh did so. "'He told this writer that he would probably turn down the nomination if it ever was offered to him,'" he quoted. "What!" He looked at Sam in shock, and then went back to the article.
"'He did not offer any specific reasons for this,'" he continued quoting, "'other than he felt he was not ready for such a responsibility, but he did mention that he would gladly support AG Xander to be the country's next Vice President.'"
He looked at Sam again. "So what does this mean?"
"I don't know, sir," Sam said, "but I think we need to look at alternatives."
"You think this is serious? That Reynolds would actually turn down the VP position?"
Sam shrugged. "I don't know, sir. But the article is by Tom Flaherty, and we know that Flaherty rarely gets his facts wrong."
"Dammit! ... Who's on the shortlist again?"
"Well, sir, aside from Matt Reynolds, there Maria Arrapayo from Hawaii..."
"Arrapayo... talk about liberal..."
"... Senator Bill Sugarbaker from Wisconsin..."
"That hick..."
"... there's Congressman Hafley.."
"I don't really know him..."
"And then there's Freja Xander..."
"Dammit, that gay guy again. That's it?"
"I'm afraid so, sir."
He finished off the article, and got quiet. Sam took back his tablet, and had a sip of his coffee. He waited.
"Ask Ellen to have a gift ready for later this afternoon," Walsh said. "Something for Reynolds' sister-in-law. Nothing too over-the-top so they don't think I'm fishing for an invitation."
"Yes, sir."
"Call everybody in, Sam. We need to brainstorm about this."
"Yes, sir."
- - - - -
Instead of their usual ten AM meeting like they usually did, Walsh and his immediate staff were gathered at the oval by eight AM. Chief of Staff Sam Banner, Secretary of State Talbot, the Deputy Chief of Staff, the Deputy Director for Communications, the Deputy Director of Planning and Strategy, several of Walsh's advisers, and Jamie, was there.
"I have to say, Mr. President," Secretary Talbot said, "the timing of this article seems a bit suspicious. Just when we were picking Reynolds to replace Howard."
"I don't know about that, Darrin," Walsh said. "His sister in-law is getting married this weekend. The writer obviously wanted to have the article come out before the wedding. So I don't think there's anything sinister about the timing of the article."
Talbot shrugged.
"Besides," Sam said, "I doubt there have been any leaks. Who else knows about about the shortlist besides us? Shaun, Michael - who in your staff know about the list?"
The two looked at each other sheepishly. "Well, Sam," Shaun, the Deputy Director for Communications said sheepishly, "I haven't really kept it confidential from my team..."
"Who among them have been working on the vetting?"
Shaun looked a litle chagrined. It was obvious that he and his people haven't been working on it.
"How about you, Michael?"
The Deputy Director of Planning and Strategy looked a bit embarassed as well. "Well, Sam," Micheal responded, "I did give the list to my guys to get some input from them..."
"... to get some input..." The president sighed. "So, the list wasn't really kept confidential... All right, who really worked on the list?" Michael shrugged. "Jamie?"
"Mr. President," Jamie said, "I'm sorry that I wasn't able to keep the list to just within the staff. I needed the help of my people to do proper research - I couldn't do it on my own. The list came from my team. And, of course, I had to contract out the survey. But the polling company is under an NDA, so I don't think they leaked the information."
"How about your people?"
"I trust my guys completely, sir."
Walsh nodded at that. "Good for you, Jamie." He turned to the rest. "So, I suppose you've all read the article. According to the article, Reynolds would probably not accept his nomination. Thoughts?"
"I think, sir," one of the junior people, Kelly, the White House Deputy Director for Outreach Affairs, said, "that Jamie and her people's research shows who the proper nominee should be."
"That transgender person?" Talbot said. "You have got to be kidding!"
"Well, sir," Shaun said, "according to the survey, AG Xander seems to be very popular. Plus she's a bona fide war hero, and her record is pristine. She would be a good antidote to what the VP left us."
"Survey," Talbot scoffed. "Who did that survey, anyway?"
"It's the same company that we've always subcontracted our polling to since before the start of the campaign, sir," Jamie said.
"Well..."
"There really is nothing to complain about regarding Ms Xander, I think," Jamie said.
"Except for the fact that he, or she, is transgender," Michael said.
"Well, there is that," Shaun replied.
"That seems to be a big exception, Jamie," the President said.
"Well... I suppose so, sir."
"I don't see a problem, Mr. President," Talbot said. "All we really need is for a VP that would follow our agenda and not rock the boat, and go with the party when there's a vote on the floor."
"I don't know about that, Mr. Secretary," Jamie said. "Vice President Spencer really did a number on the administration. Our latest job approval rating shows a thirty percent drop. Several people in the party are having problems, and they're having some issues with their constituents. We really need something to help improve our numbers right away, otherwise we'll be killed in the midterms, and our slim majority will be a thing of the past."
"You're saying, Jamie" Walsh said, "that, if Governor Reynolds turns us down, then the only real option we have is AG Xander."
Jamie shrugged.
"Jack," Darrin Talbot said, "don't tell me you're really considering a gay guy for VP!"
The room suddenly became quiet.
"Seventy-four percent in the survey is hard to ignore, Darrin."
"I think Alex Hafley or Bill Sugarbaker would make for fine vice presidents."
"One percent, Darrin. Even Howard Spencer polls higher than that."
"Then I guess we go with Arrapayo!"
"Three percent, Darrin. And talk about liberal! She's..."
"Then I don't know what I can do for you anymore, Mr. President." He stood up and stormed out of the room.
The president sighed. He turned to his Chief of Staff. "Sam," he said, "I want you to start doing a quiet poll among the party - see how they feel about Xander being vice president."
"Right away, sir," he replied.
"Also, Jamie..."
"Yes, Mr. President?"
"Give me a copy of that vetting document again, and all the background data you have on Xander."
"Yes, sir."
"All right, gentlemen," he said, "let's adjourn and get back to work. I'll let you know my decision after I've talked with Reynolds later."
Sam stood up. "Yes, sir. Come, friends, let us away. Thank you, Mr. President."
Everyone got up and filed out of the room.
"Sam," Walsh waved Banner over before he left.
"Yes, sir," he said.
"Find Darrin," Walsh said, "and ask him to come over. I have to talk with him."
Sam nodded and left the Oval.
Walsh had an early lunch to give him some time to go over the material Jamie gave him before Reynolds came over. Just as well, since Jamie had added a big pile of new stuff about Xander. According to her, most of this material was provided by her friends from the White House press corps, but these people were clueless as to why she asked for them, so there'd be no chance that there'd be any kind of leak.
After looking through the material, Walsh was quite impressed. It was like he had read a good adventure novel and, reading through the lines, he was given a better understanding of what it meant to be transgendered.
His one belief - the one thing that was stopping him from feeling sympathetic to Effie and other transgenders - was an innate belief that being transgendered was a matter of choice instead of something that they had no control over, but he was given the idea that, maybe, they didn't really have a choice - Freja Martina, when she was still Frei Martin, struggled against his inner nature, and fought to remain true to what he thought a man ought to be.
And it seemed to him that Frei Martin only gave up, and gave in to his true nature, when he couldn't fight it anymore.
Whatever the reason, Jack Walsh couldn't really question that Frei Martin, or Marty, was one of the bravest and most honorable men around, and was unquestionably a true patriot and hero.
It confused him, that such a... "man's man" (a term that his father used often) would turn out to be gay.
But Walsh suspected that his gender vocabulary might actually be limited, because he couldn't polarize his definitions to strict delineations of man or woman anymore, or heterosexual or homosexual. It might be, he suspected, that Frei, now Freja, might not be gay at all - that she was something else. He struggled to understand what it was to be "transgendered," and struggled with his lifelong assumption that "transgendered" was not a true thing.
Putting that aside for the moment, he turned to the matter at hand, which was to decide if this... person could be his vice president.
At the moment, his administration was starting to be buffeted by the issues that they had been able to skirt or outright ignore before. But these issues had now come back to haunt them.
In the back of his mind, he was thinking of their old plan of using Howard Spencer as their buffer to hide from the country the shenanigans that his administration had been indulging in. With Spencer to absorb everything, he and his people had thought themselves invincible, and did things that they would probably not have otherwise.
But now, they found themselves in this current predicament. And if they had Freja Xander, or "Effie" to his friends... "her" friends... as their new VP, might that turn all of this around? Assuming, of course, that she would be willing to play ball.
He had finally come to a decision.
If Matt Reynolds does decide to turn him down, he decided that he'd nominate the transgender AG of Wyoming.
Ellen buzzed to say that Governor Reynolds was already here. Walsh buzzed back and said to send him through in five.
Walsh tidied up a bit, and hid the folder he was perusing underneath other papers. He stood and put a smile on his face and in a moment, Ellen ushered the ex-governor of California into the Oval Office.
"Good afternoon, Mr. President," Reynolds said as he approached, and held his hand out.
Walsh moved from behind his desk and warmly shook his hand.
"Welcome to the White House, Governor. It's a pleasure to meet you finally."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, too, sir. Thank you for the invitation."
Walsh gestured to the sofa, and Reynolds sat and tried to get comfortable. However, that was something that was difficult to do, especially if one was in the Oval, and was in front of the president, about to tell him no, he can't have what he wanted.
But he was a very experienced politician, and was good at it. He was able to hide his misgivings in the easy and casual manner that he was famous for.
After a bit of small talk, the president went directly to business.
"I'm sure, Governor..."
"Please call me Matt, sir," Reynolds said.
"Thank you, Matt." He smiled. Reynolds nodded.
"As I was saying, I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you here, Matt."
Reynolds smiled. "Yes, sir - it has crossed my mind."
"Do you have an idea why?"
"Well, sir, I can't help but think of the rumors floating around the capital, that you are looking for a new VP."
Walsh smiled. If the guy was feigning ignorance, he thought, he's a better politician than I am.
"Would you be willing to accept the nomination? If ever it was offered to you?"
Reynolds frowned in disappointment. "I'm sorry, sir. I'm afraid I'd have to say no."
"Why, for heaven's sake? the Vice Presidency is an important position, and it makes a difference in the government on a daily basis, especially now, where the difference of the numbers in the houses is razor thin. The Senate President's tie-breaker vote is critical."
Reynolds nodded. "Yes, sir. I know. It's not that. It would be an honor to be the vice president. But I guess I'm still not done helping my home state. California's doing well at the moment, but she's still not completely out of the woods."
"Well, to be frank, Matt, we need some help here."
Reynolds smiled sadly and shook his head. "I'm sorry, sir."
Walsh looked at him appraisingly, but he took it well. "That's unfortunate," he said. "Well, all I can say is, I hope you're successful. All the best, Matt."
"Thank you, sir."
Walsh reached over to the side table and picked up a phone. "Ellen," he said, "can you come in please, and can you please bring in that package?"
"Yes, sir, Mr. President."
After a minute, Ellen, the president's First Secretary, came in carrying a big, beautiful bouquet of red roses and a box wrapped in silver tissue and a white ribbon.
She smiled to Walsh and Reynolds, and handed over the bouquet and gift to Walsh, as well as a small, square envelope.
"Thank you, Ellen," Walsh said, and waited for her to leave the room.
"Well, the reason I asked you here was to be able to give this to you, to give to your sister-in-law, Natalie." He handed over the big bouquet and wedding gift, as well as the little envelope.
"We know, of course, that your beautiful sister, Natalie, is getting married this weekend. I wanted to send my felicitations directly, but the First Lady reminded me these last few days just before the magic day would be ridiculously hectic. So I'm hoping that you'd give this little token to Natalie." He handed the bouquet over.
"These are beautiful, Mr. President. I'm sure Natalie will be very happy."
"Those are actually from the Rose Garden, and Ted, the White House groundskeeper, said you can actually grow flowers from the bouquet." Walsh handed him a note hand-written on a small piece of notebook paper. "Natalie might want to do that, and here are the instructions."
"Thank you, sir. That's awfully gracious of you."
"You're very welcome. Please extend to Natalie and Jacob my sincere congratulations." He stood up, signalling the end of their little tete-a-tete, and shook Reynolds' hand.
"Mr. President," Reynolds said hesitantly, "if I may - if you are really looking for someone to be of assistance to the White House in this time of trouble and transition, I think Ms Freja Xander, the attorney general of Wyoming, may be your girl. She's very, very popular with the public at the moment, and she is more than qualified to be part of your administration. I'm sure that, if you ask our colleagues in the party, they will be more than supportive. I know I will support her."
Walsh looked at Reynolds. He nodded at his words and gave his hand a final friendly shake.
After the ex-governor left the oval, Walsh went to the intercom on his desk. Reynolds' final words decided it for him.
"Ellen, can you please ask Jamie to come in?"
"Right away, Mr. President."
In a minute, Jamie knocked and came into the office.
"Yes, sir, Mr. President - you asked for me?"
Walsh nodded. "Reynolds said no."
"Oh..."
"I suppose we have to go with Plan B."
"Ummm, Plan B, sir?"
"Contact Attorney General Xander, and ask her to come over. Make it happen by tomorrow."
Jamie gulped. "Ahhh, yes, sir."
"Thank you, Jamie."
"Thank you, Mr. President."
Jamie backed out of the office and tried not to smile too broadly. Yes! she said to herself. She hurried to her office to contact the White House Travel Office, and then got out the old-fashioned rolodex from her desk, and looked for her Aunt Effie's office number.
- - - - -
Effie Xander put her phone down. When she heard Jamie on the other end of the line, she was all set to bawl her out for bothering her at the office. She loved her almost as much as she did her sister, Kat, but, just like Kat, Jamie can be a bit of a pest, as kid sisters are apt to be.
But then it was actually an official call.
"Hmmm..." she said to herself as she put the phone down. "The White House."
She thumbed the intercom on her desk. "Max!" she called. "Are you there?"
Max, Effie's all-around assistant, someone she's had with her since before transition, rushed over to her desk.
"Yeah, boss?"
"I want you to arrange for a ride to the airport for tomorrow morning. I need to get to Jerry Olson by seven AM."
"Huh?"
"The White House is sending a plane for me. Seems the President wants to see me," she giggled.
"Wait, wait! What?"
"Send word to the governor that I won't be available. Can you also check the schedule? All of my meetings for the whole day tomorrow has to be cancelled or rescheduled. Move what you can to Monday. "
"Effie..."
"Also, make sure your schedule is clear, too, 'coz you're coming with."
"Effie, wait!"
"Get in touch with Kat as well, and ask her if she wants to join us in our trip to DC. Tell her we're staying for the weekend, and should be back by Sunday evening. She might want to do some shopping. You know Kat."
"But, but..."
"Oh, and tell Pete, as well. He'll be going with us, or course."
"Dammit, Effie!"
Effie burst out laughing.
- - - - -
Apparently, that was Jamie on the phone, and she told Effie that the president wanted to meet her for lunch tomorrow. A plane would be sent for her, and would bring her straight to DC, where a car would bring her and her party straight to the White House just in time for lunch.
Because DC was two hours ahead of Wyoming, and the flight to DC would be at least three hours, the plane would be at Jerry Olson Field, the regional airport in Cheyenne, Wyoming, real early.
Jerry Olson was listed as a historical landmark, and has been used by many of the aircraft manufacturers, including Boeing and Airbus, to test their new aircraft there, simply because of the airport's altitude.
Half of the planes that use the airport were military, but there's about sixty civilian flights that take off and land at Jerry Olson weekly. It's not too many, but then it wasn't Ronald Reagan or Dulles - it's just Wyoming.
So, the four of them stood by the auxillary gate as they waited for the plane that Jamie had chartered to finish taxiing. Effie and Kat, wearing what looked like designer outfits (they would have stood out in any case, since both of them had long, bright-red hair and were drop-dead gorgeous, especially the taller Effie) stood with Maxine Freeman, Effie's short, blonde executive assistant. If the president and the governor had their chiefs of staff, Effie had Max. Max had started out as Effie's assistant at her small law office, and as Effie became more politically active, Max's role had grown to what it was now - Effie's all around super assistant, sidekick and best friend.
The three girls were surrounded by their baggage, and seemed a bit impatient. Jamie had specifically said to be at the gate by seven, and it was already ten after. It was pretty cold, and they were doing something that people knew not to do around these parts - stand around shivering in the cold.
Behind them stood Peter Stone, who was Effie's personal security. He was a Marine that was originally assigned to Effie as her one-man security detail when she was still a major with the US Air Force, a year before she resigned her commission and eventually starting her transition. At the time, her superiors were worried that she might be targetted, given that she had rescued an Egyptian as well as a British pilot during that short air border war over the Sinai.
There were actually a couple of tries, and Pete was able to foil one, and Effie was able to foil the other. They had saved each other's lives. And that was the beginning of their friendship.
And after Effie, as Martin, resigned her commission in order to supposedly pursue a career in law (secretly, though, it was to also start her transition), surprisingly, Pete also resigned, and asked her if there was some kind of opening that she knew about. And that was how Pete became her ever-dependable bodyguard and sidekick.
A couple of years after her transition, Pete had been able to fend off a few death threats, but, more recently, he had been fending off mostly too-enthusiastic fans (not a few of them being sexually-obsessed fans - and those were actually the scarier, more dangerous ones).
The plane eventually landed AND stopped a few yards from them, and when the cabin door swung open, a fire team of four Marines and their squad leader in dress uniforms popped out. The lead Marine came up and saluted Effie.
Effie casually returned the salute.
"Good morning, Major," the Marine said to Effie. "Your transport to Washington DC is here. May we take your bags?"
Without waiting for a response, his fellow Marines, swarmed over their bags, and in minutes, all their bags had been whisked away and stored in the plane's cargo area.
The Marine came back and saluted again. "Ma'am, if your party would care to board the plane."
Effie nodded, and the four of them started walking to the plane.
One of the Marines interposed himself between Pete and the girls.
"Excuse me, sir," the Marine said to Pete. "I need you to disarm, and for you to give me your sidearm."
Kat and Max were surprised that he was able to actually spot Pete's gun, but Effie and Pete weren't.
"No," Pete said.
"I'm sorry, sir," the clean cut Marine said, "I need you to disarm."
"No."
"Sir," he said, his hand going to the holster on his belt.
"Private," Effie interposed, "let me introduce you to Marine Sergeant Major Peter Stone. He has been expressly assigned as my military security detail, and he is expressly authorized to be armed. Especially around me." The other girls giggled.
The Marine's eyes widened. Clearly, he recognized the name. He cleared his throat nervously. "Nevertheless, sir, the sergeant needs to disarm."
Without being asked again, Pete sighed and opened his jacket, and, slowly, with hands and arms visible, Pete reached into a jacket pocket and brought out his wallet. As he did, his jacket opened a little wider and his holster was easily visible.
Pete took out his military ID and his special permit card, and handed them to the Marine.
The Marine examined them, and after a short moment, he handed both cards back, stepped back and saluted Pete.
"Sir!" he said. Normally, a non-com isn't addressed as "sir," but Pete didn't correct him.
Instead of saluting back, Pete stuck his hand out and shook the young Marine's hand.
"Thank you, Marine," he said.
The Marine shook his hand. "Thank you, sir. Oorah!"
Pete nodded. From there, the four stepped into the plane
- - - - -
On the plane, a uniformed female cabin attendant made sure that Effie and her friends, as well as the five Marines that came with them, were comfortable. Not having had breakfast, the four demolished the meals that she provided.
"How about the guys," Kat said, and gestured to five Marines who were seated behind them.
"They had their breakfast on the trip over, ma'am."
"Maybe snacks or something?"
"Of course, ma'am," the girl said. "I'll be serving them after you and your party, actually."
"Ahhh. Sorry about that, Miss." The flight attendant smiled indulgently, and, after she had gotten them their meals, disappeared into the cabin right behind the cockpit.
"I may have put my foot in my mouth, Effie," Kat said, and explained.
She gave her sister a hug. "That's okay. Maybe, what you can do is to help her serve the Marines or something. Show the girl you made a mistake."
Kat nodded. "Good idea."
When the girl came out with a bunch of sandwiches for the Marines, Kat apologized again and offered to help her. The flight attendant thanked her and accepted the assistance.
Pete also offered to help, and grabbed the big thermos of coffee.
He poured each of the kids a cup and chatted them up. After a while, Pete was regaling them with what amounted to war stories, and the young soldiers listened with rapt attention. Seems Pete was known among these Marines. Effie wasn't surprised, and she had always thought that Pete was a great storyteller and always liked an audience, and he has apparently found a new one.
And, while everyone had a good visit, Effie and Max were deep in conversation - apparently they were working. Max signaled the flight attendant and asked if there was a satellite phone they could use.
The girl seemed to have been ready for that, and provided them two phones.
And the three hours just flew by. Effie was able to make a big dent in the work she assumed she wouldn't have time to do, and Max just did what Effie needed, as usual.
But as soon as the pilot called into the cabin that they were ten minutes from landing in Dulles, Pete gave the Marines handshakes, and walked back to take the seat behind Effie.
Like it was a cue, the Marines started straightening their uniforms and became stand-offish once again.
Stepping down from the plane, a couple of the Marines led them to a stretch limousine that was standing by, along with police escort, while their baggage were put in a van by the other Marines. Effie was told that their luggage would be taken to the hotel that was booked for them. Meanwhile, they would be taken to the White House, just in time for Effie's meeting with the President.
Effie took a few minutes to shake the hands of her escorts.
- - - - -
Whatever the reason, when one steps into the White House, especially if it was their first time, there's a kind of visceral effect. And it wasn't any different for the four of them. It was the first time for Effie, Kat, Max and Pete to be in the White House, and their reaction was expected.
Effie was ushered into the Oval Office, and regardless who was the president at the time, the powerful effect of the Oval was rarely diminished.
"Good morning, Effie," President Walsh called through the door. "Come in, come in! Welcome to the White House."
Effie stepped into the office, and the president closed the door.
Max and the others weren't ushered in, so they found themselves standing right outside the door, in the president's secretary's area.
"Now what?" Kat said.
Ellen, the president's First Secretary, cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, but that meeting may run for a while. Perhaps I can bring you to the Palm Room, where you can wait until the Attorney General and the President are done with their meeting?"
As they looked at each other, they heard someone clear her throat. Kat turned and saw Jamie. And as she did, the two screamed, and rushed to hug each other.
"Jamie!" Ellen exclaimed in a semi-serious rebuke. "Remember where you are!"
"Ooops! Sorry, Mrs. Lippencott," Jamie said contritely, but as soon as Kat and Jamie looked at each other, they giggled.
Kat introduced Max and Pete, and Jamie said hi. And then she spirited Kat away to have a gab-fest.
Max looked at Ellen and shrugged. For a lack of something to do, Max allowed herself to be ushered to the Palm Room. She asked if she could use her cellphone, and Ellen said it was fine. Max felt relieved since that meant she can do some work.
"Coming, Pete?" she asked, but Pete shook his head.
"Thanks," he said, "but I'm staying here."
She nodded, understanding. "Okay. Call me for whatever." Pete nodded, and Max went with her escort to the Palm Room, wherever that was.
"Sir?" Ellen said.
"Sorry, Ma'am," Pete said, "but I'm staying here."
"Ummm..."
"I'm with the attorney general's security detail. I need to be here."
She glanced down and saw the sidearm under his jacket. But then, Pete wasn't really hiding it. "I understand," she said.
"Thank you, ma'am."
"But I hope it's okay if I call the Secret Service?"
Pete nodded. "I understand, ma'am."
"If you want, you can sit over there," she gestured to a couple of visitors' chairs leaning against the wall. "And there are a couple of magazines there if you're interested."
"Thank you, ma'am." And Pete went to the chairs.
After about an hour, Kat and Max were back by Ellen's desk. But it seemed that Effie's meeting with the President wasn't done yet.
Kat introduced Jamie to Max, explaining that they knew each other from their time in Columbia.
"Do you know why they're taking such a long time, Jamie?" Max asked.
Jamie shrugged. "I don't know. But I know that the president is giving Aunt Effie some good news."
Max looked at Jamie incredulously. "You mean..."
"Absolutely!" Jamie said. The door to the Oval Office opened. "Here they come!"
The president ushered Effie out.
"Let's hope everything goes smoothly," he was saying to Effie. "I guess we just keep our fingers crossed."
"Of course," Effie said. "Thank you for this great opportunity sir. Rest assured I will do my best."
They shook hands warmly.
I'm sure you will, my dear," he said. The famed Walsh Charm was in full evidence.
He then asked to meet Max and Kat, and he was equally charming. Tough-as-nails Max was blushing non-stop and Kat was short of giggling.
Effie and the President's meeting had gone overlong, and there was no time for lunch - the president's time was scheduled down to the minute - so the four ended up having lunch out, with Jamie taking them to her favorite place for a late meal.
"You don't have to take us out for lunch, Jamie," Effie said, giving her a hug. "I'm sure you have some work."
"What do you mean? The boss instructed me to." They all laughed.
"The president was so embarrassed," Jamie explained, "that he couldn't have lunch with you, so he asked me to take you guys out."
"Ahhhh."
The place she took them to was in Columbia Heights, and was called Bad Saint. It featured contemporary interpretations of Filipino dishes that the four had never heard of, but Jamie just loved it.
There were no reservations, but since it was after the lunch-hour rush, their party easily found a table.
Jamie ordered for everyone, and ordered tall glasses of some kind of drink with little tapioca balls at the bottom.
Pete left the four on their own, though, and found a spot at the bar. As Effie's bodyguard, he needed to be at a vantage point where he could properly survey the patrons in the restaurant, and sipped at a tall glass of club soda.
The main topic of discussion over lunch was, of course, the meeting Effie had with the president, and the big news was that Walsh was nominating Effie for Vice President.
Kat and Max were gobsmacked. They couldn't believe it - a conservative like Walsh actually nominating an LGBTQ civil servant like Effie, but Effie explained the president's point of view.
"The president explained that the situation with the vice presidency was very tricky," Effie said in her low but sexy feminine contralto.
"The government needs to get some goodwill back from the people, and shore up the government's credentials. Seems Vice President Spencer has really affected the administration's reputation, and he's looking to me as the 'antidote' for that."
"What do you mean, sis," Kat asked.
She shrugged. "Apparently, I have a reputation in the party for being the squeaky-clean politician, and was well known despite coming from such a small state as Wyoming." (She was, of course, referring to its population.)
"So," Max said, "despite being LGBTQ, the president decided to ask you to be vice president because of that?"
Effie nodded.
"I can't believe there weren't other takers in the party," Kat said. "Walsh is legendary for his not being cool towards the LGBTQ community."
"That's true," Jamie said, "but none of the other contenders have the same kind of reputation with the voters as Aunt Effie does. Polls show that Aunt Effie is by far the most trusted and most popular political figure around. I guess these things made the president change his mind."
"Who were the others in the running," Kat asked.
"Sorry, Kat, I can't..." Jamie shrugged.
"You and your political secrets," Kat said, and the two giggled at each other - apparently, it was a reference to a private joke between them.
"I did say to the president," Effie said, "that I didn't want to be a glorified trophy VP, and would only accept the position if I could have an active role in the government."
"What did he say?"
"It so happens that General Tomlin, the present Secretary for Veterans Affairs, submitted his letter of resignation last week, so the president will be calling for a cabinet meeting this afternoon to announce my nomination, and he'll see if he can get a consensus about me having a dual position of VP as well as the Secretary for Veterans Affairs."
"Wow..."
Max nodded at that. "Unusual but not unprecedented," she said. "And it's not as if you're not qualified for either or both positions."
"Thanks, Max."
As they enjoyed their adobo dishes with white rice, the four failed to notice the person at the table next to them - one of the city's most prolific gossip columnists.
As she sipped her tapioca drink, Mina Howard listened to the conversation at the table beside her. Seeing Jamie Summers bring her party to the table beside her, she couldn't believe her luck, and pricked up her ears.
She was hoping for some juicy White House gossip, but, seeing Freja Xander with her, she knew this would be epic. But what she got was something more! Apparently, Xander was being asked by the president to be the VP!
She tried to get more details but, apparently, Jamie spotted her, and the group changed to more innocuous topics of conversation.
Mina knew when the jig was up so she signaled for her bill, paid, and walked out of the restaurant.
When she was gone, Effie turned to Jamie. "Who was that?" Effie asked.
"That was Mina Howard," Jamie said. "She's a well-known gossip columnist."
"Oh-oh..."
"Do you think she heard us?" Max asked.
"I'm almost sure," Jamie answered. "Otherwise, why would she leave the restaurant so abruptly?"
"What can we do?" Kat asked.
Jamie shrugged. "Nothing, really. But it would have come out eventually, so I don't think we should worry about something we can't do anything about. Excuse me, please."
Jamie left the other three for a moment, and made a quick call, but in a few minutes, she was back.
"Who was that?" Kat asked.
"Oh, nothing," Jamie said. "Just confirming an hairdresser's appointment for next week."
"Really?" Kat giggled. "Maybe it's a date."
"No it's not a date," Jamie grumped, and playfully hit her best friend on top of her head.
Actually, she had called Tom Flaherty, to confirm Effie's appointment, and told him Mina Howard was about to break the story.
Tom said he'll take care of it, and hung up abruptly.
For Tom, Effie's news was actually good news. Even if Mina was the first to put out the news didn't worry him much. After all, a gossip writer wouldn't be paid too much attention since news like this would hardly be within Mina's wheelhouse, and would therefore not be given much credit.
But if Mina broke the news, that would pull the heat off him, and not implicate Jamie.
So his plan was simple - he would keep watching Mina's feeds and, after ten minutes or so after she posted her news, he'd put up his own piece.
His piece for his paper was ready to go - already pre-approved by his editor, and was just waiting for his go-ahead. He modified it, of course, so that it refered to Mina Howard as his source.
And as soon as Mina posted her little tweet, and posted a little blurb in her own website, Tom waited for about ten minutes and then he uploaded his article. He gave his editor the green light and his article was up in their news site and on-line magazine in less than ten seconds. He also knew that the same article would be included in the morning edition of the printed version of his paper.
- - - - -
Even as Effie, Jamie and the others finished their late lunch, the president called for an emergency meeting of the cabinet.
Luckily, most of the cabinet was free, and they were able to get everyone together in such a short time.
During the cabinet meeting an hour later, the president announced his selection of Attorney General Freja Martina Xander as his nominee for Vice President. The cabinet clapped in forced enthusiasm, and endorsed that nomination, except for Secretary of State Darrin Talbot, who sat stonily and unsmiling, and didn't clap with the rest.
The President also brought up the fact that Secretary Tomlin, the Secretary for Veterans Affairs, has tendered his resignation. Tomlin wasn't at the meeting, but he had sent word ahead that he was in support of Effie Xander's nomination as Vice President, and was also endorsing her to succeed him in his cabinet position.
"As you know," the President said, "General Tomlin is currently battling brain cancer, and he has tendered his resignation in order to concentrate on his health, and perhaps to get his affairs in order if ever he loses his battle with cancer.
"I'm sure all of us extends our good wishes to the General, and wish him well in his latest battle."
There were murmurs of agreement all around.
"The reason I bring this up is that I will also be nominating AG Xander as General Tomlin's successor, meaning, the Attorney General will have a dual role in the cabinet - that of the Vice President, and the Secretary for Veterans Affairs. Any thoughts?"
The silence was heavy, and no one dared to be the first to comment. But the President didn't mind waiting them out.
Eventually, the Secretary of Education, Helena Russell, cleared her throat.
"Well," she said, "we all serve at the pleasure of the President, sir, and, as such, we support you in this matter."
"Thank you, Helena," the President replied. "But surely, you have some thoughts? Speak freely, Doctor."
"Well... AG Xander is emminently qualified to be both the Secretary for Veterans Affairs as well as the Vice President. But I don't believe that there has been a vice president who was also concurrently serving in a cabinet secretary position in the history of the country..."
"But there is no rule or law that prohibits it..."
"That may be true, sir, but the Ineligibility Clause in the Constitution..."
"I am not familiar with that clause..."
"It's also called the emoluments clause or the cinesure clause, sir," Secretary Kinney interjected.
"Ahhh! I didn't know that. From Article One Section Six?"
"Yes, sir."
"Hmmm... But, Helena, that clause doesn't prohibit such an appointment. Mostly, it prohibits members of separate branches of government to be part of another."
"Yes, sir," Russell agreed. "However, it could be argued that such an appointment would be breaking the, ummm, spirit of the provision... sir."
Walsh frowned. "Sounds like a somewhat specious argument."
"I agree, sir," Secretary Kinney said, "but I see Helena's point. Concentration of reponsibilities, powers and perquisites is what she is talking about. And since such appointments will need to be confirmed by the Senate, it is likely that this will not be confirmed."
"I see."
The discussion continued but, after an hour, the president's legendary reputation for impatience reared its ugly head. The President summarily made the decision to not give AG Xander a concurrent cabinet position. Right there and then, he asked Ellen to give Secretary Tomlin a call, and to pipe the call into the conference room.
In a few minutes, The President's First Secretary ringed back.
"Secretary Tomlin is on line one, sir."
"Thank you, Ellen," Walsh said, and clicked the appropriate button.
"Good afternoon, General," Walsh said.
"Good afternoon, Mr. President," Tomlin said. "Good of you to call."
"I'm sorry to bother you - I know you are quite preoccupied at the moment..."
Tomlin laughed weakly. "Not at all, sir. I'm just here lying in bed and watching a tube of chemicals go into me. It's worse than watching paint dry."
Everyone laughed at his joke, although there was a bit of sadness in the laughter.
"Bill, you are such a card."
"Indeed, I am, sir," he said. Everyone imagined him smiling that patented wide smile that endeared him to the nation.
"I am calling to say that there has been a change of plans."
"Oh?"
"I'm actually here with the cabinet now, discussing what we talked of earlier today."
"Yes, sir?"
"I'm afraid they've convinced me that this is not the time to appoint AG Xander to Veterans Affairs."
Tomlin grew quiet.
"Sir," Tomlin said, "imagine a figure like Xander at the helm of Veterans Affairs. Imagine the kind of things she can do for our veterans. A bona fide national hero advocating for our fighting men and women. We need her at Veterans Affairs, sir."
"Sir, may I?" Russell said, and Walsh nodded.
She leaned closer to the phone. "Hey, Jimmy, it's Helena."
"Hey, Helena," Tomlin said. "What kind of nonsense are you filling the president's brain over there?"
Everyone laughed.
"Well, Jim..." and she explained the opinion of the majority in the cabinet, that, even with the best of intentions, no one in the senate would confirm the AG, and it would be detrimental to the chances of her being confirmed as the VP.
"But, Helena," Tomlin said, "we desperately need her at the VA! With her running things..."
"Jimmy, Jimmy! I know... but this is just not the way to do it. It won't work, my dear."
"But... but, Helena... we need her. Before I pass away, let me do this for my veterans... If I have a chance to leave any legacy, let it be this..."
Helena faced the phone, openly weeping.
"We'll find a way, Jim," she said, her voice breaking. "I promise you. On my soul, I promise you. Can I come by and discuss it later?"
Tomlin sighed. "If you want. Just come on over."
"Okay, Jim. Talk to you later then."
She sat back and quietly blew her nose.
"Thank you for your time, General," Walsh said. "See you in the cabinet soon."
"I am here to serve, sir," he said. "Good afternoon."
Walsh pushed the button and hung up.
- - - - -
Later in the day, Walsh received a visitor.
"Hello, Darrin," Walsh said. "What can I do for you?"
"Good afternoon, sir," Secretary Talbot said formally. His tone set alarm bells ringing in the President's head. He put down the folder he was reading and gestured for Talbot to sit.
Instead, Talbot stood in front of his desk, and held out a sealed envelope.
"What's this," the President said, accepting the envelope but not opening it.
"Mr. President," he said without preamble, "you know my loyalty to to you. I have done my best to support you and your policies, and I have pushed your agenda both here at home and abroad. But I find I will not be able to do this anymore. Therefore, sir, it is my great regret that I am forced to tender my resignation, effective immediately."
"Darrin, I can't believe you'd be doing this because -"
"Jack. You just hired a gay guy. How can you stand yourself?"
Walsh looked at him in the eye.
"Your resignation is accepted. Mr. Secretary," Walsh said coldly. He buzzed his secretary. Ellen came in after a moment.
"Yes, Mr. President," Ellen said.
"Please show Secretary Talbot out, Ellen. He has a lot to do."
"Of course, sir."
And with that, Talbot spun on his heel and walked out of the Oval.
Walsh opened the envelope in his hand and read the letter inside. Very plain. But, by the same token, it was very straight-to-the-point.
He'll have to find a way to break the news about Talbot... And then he'll need to let Xander know that he won't be appointing her as the concurrent VA Secretary.
He buzzed Ellen again.
"Yes, Mr. President," she said.
"Contact Jamie, and find out if she's still with the Attorney General. If she is, ask her to contact me immediately."
"Yes, sir."
In a couple of minutes, Jamie called back.
"Yes, Mr. President, it's Jamie."
"Jamie, I take it you're still with AG Xander and her party."
"Ahhh, yes, sir, I am."
"Oh, good. I have some news that I need you to tell her..."
- - - - -
They were presently in a limo going to the hotel Jamie booked them at, and she just hung up on the President.
"So," Kat said, "who was that?" Kat giggled.
"Aunt Effie," Jamie said, "that was the President. And He has some bad news."
And then she explained why the President called. After a minute or so, the three looked at each other.
"I'm afraid the president also gave me instructions to stay with you and wait for an answer..."
"So, Jamie," Max said, "the President is saying that he can't nominate Effie as a cabinet member, but he is hoping that she would still accept the nomination as vice president... Well, you know what we're gonna say to that -"
Effie gently took Max's hand.
"Jamie, we say 'yes.'"
"What! Effie, what're you say..."
"The President's right, Max. No matter what I say, and even if the President does nominate me, I won't get past the Senate selection committee. Getting me confirmed for the VP position is already a big ask..."
"What do you mean, Effie? You're a shoo-in! Medals up the kazoo, bona fide hero, near one hundred percent conviction rate, Nickelodeon awardee..."
"All that doesn't matter much, Max, in the face of my being transgender..."
"Well..."
"I told the President as much. He said he agreed but he had enough clout with the party that most of our party's senators will vote to confirm me, but the balance from the other party will have to be convinced with my testimony at the hearings."
"That means...?"
"That means I need to convince maybe ten or so senators from the other party to vote our way."
Kat shrugged. "Doesn't sound like such a big deal. You do it all the time."
"And, pray tell, where?" Effie smiled indulgently at her kid sister.
"Oh, I don't know?" Kat shrugged. "At the state senate? The state supreme and district courts? At the Governor's Office? With the Wyoming State Secretary? With channel two and twenty-seven? With your staff? With Max?"
Max laughed out loud. Even Pete, from the front, let out a loud snort.
"You got something to say, Pete?" Effie said mock-sternly.
"Me?" Pete said. "No! Ummm, I mean, nothing, Boss. Just a little sneeze..."
"Yeah, yeah - sure..."
"Kat's right, Effie," Max said. "You can run rings around these people with your hands tied behind your back."
Effie giggled. "I don't need hands to run, you know."
Everyone, even Jamie, laughed.
"My point is, Effie," Max said, "is that you can prepare for these hearings just like you prepare for a court case. It's not that difficult. Not for you."
"Another one of our specials, then, Max?"
Max smiled and shrugged. "Sure. Joey and the kid won't like it, though..."
"How about we do it at your house, then?"
Max nodded. "I think the kid would like that. He likes it when you visit."
"Excuse me," Jamie said, "what's a 'special?'"
"That's what sis calls one of their all-nighters, when she and Max cram for one of her Big Mining cases."
"'Big Mining?'"
Effie waved her down. "Later, Jamie. Max, contact the staff. Ask them to have everyone that can be spared to gather all the material that they can about all currently-serving senators."
"Fifty-one senators? that's a lot."
"No, Max - everyone. Even those from our party."
Max laughed. "Is that all?"
"Well, no. Get research to make a summary of all the relevant issues currently being discussed in Congress. Use social media. Prioritize the hot button stuff in the news."
"That's not going to be easy," she said.
"How's my schedule?"
"Unusually light."
Effie nodded. "Keep it that way. We're going to be doing this for a while." She turned to her sister. "Kat? How's your schedule."
"I only have two commissions pending," Kat replied. "After I finish them, I'm all yours."
"Good. In the meantime, though, we have the whole of tonight and Saturday to play tourist."
Kat clapped her hands. "Yayyy!"
"Ummm, Aunt Effie?"
"Yes, Jamie."
"I take it that you're saying yes to the nomination, then?"
Everyone laughed.
- - - - -
"Mr. President?" Ellen buzzed in.
"Yes, Ellen," the President replied.
"Jamie just called. She said that the Attorney General said yes. Whatever that meant..."
"Ahhh! Good news."
"Jamie says that she'll be on her way back as soon as she drops the AG and her party off at their hotel."
"Good. Have her go directly to the Oval, and have everyone come over as well. Except for Darrin."
"Yes, sir."
Walsh sighed and pushed away the papers in front of him. According to Sam, all of his appointments were done for the day, and he had seen all of the cabinet members and staff that had appointments with him. So he used that as his excuse to take a short break.
Going to the table by the door, he poured himself a large glass of bourbon and sat at his favorite recliner and grabbed a copy of the day's paper.
It was refreshing to be able to read the news himself rather than be briefed. But, after spending a few minutes scanning the front page, he jumped directly to the comic strips.
Of course, as soon as his people started streaming in, he quickly turned back to the front page.
"Hello, everyone," he said. "Sit, sit."
As everyone found their customary places, Jamie rushed in.
"Sorry I'm late, sir," she said, and sat in her usual place.
"Quite all right, Jamie. I trust the Attorney General is all right?"
"Quite fine, sir."
"Well, then. Since Jamie is here, I'd like to let everyone know that Attorney General Xander has accepted her nomination as our next Vice President."
This was greeted with polite clapping.
"I'd also like to let you know that Secretary of State Darrin Talbot filed his resignation this afternoon, and I accepted.
"In full disclosure, though the Secretary didn't explicitly say it, he resigned because of my nomination of the Attorney General. His loss is a great loss to the administration, but I am afraid Darrin put his own... preconcieved notions ahead of the welfare of the nation. I cannot have that. So I ask you all, that if you have the same preconceptions, that you let me know now. I will accept your resignation but I will make sure you will still have a place in my administration, and still continue on being an asset to the government and myself."
This was greeted with silence.
"My friends," Walsh said, "there will be no blame to you. Whatever your views on the matter, my nomination of Miss Xander was a hard pill for me to swallow, myself. But she is needed by the Republic. It is a time for us to put our points of view aside, for the good of the countrry.
"I will keep this option available until the end of the day. But starting tomorrow, we must all work together. 'All for one, and one for all,' ladies and gentlemen."
He clapped once and stood. "All right, to work. Jamie, I want you to prepare an announcement of Darrin's resignation and my nomination of the Attorney General for dissemination to all outlets tomorrow morning, and then to be prepared to answer queries at the usual press meeting on Monday.
"Under no circumstances will you tell anyone the reason for Darrin's resignation. Find a plausible reason. I would suggest you tell them that he has been given a better civilian position, which is true - there is a position at the War College that he has been turning down for a while. I'm sure Darrin's going to be taking them up on it."
"Mr. President, that may not be enough," Jamie said.
"Tell them that Darrin and I have come to several fundamental differences in policy that are irreconcileable. It has the virtue of being true, even if not too specific."
"Yes, sir."
"Sam," Walsh turned to his Chief of Staff, let the senate know that I am nominating the AG. Do the appropriate things, and phrase the announcement in the appropriate way."
Sam sighed. "This hasn't been done in over sixty years. I'll research it, and get it done before the end of the day."
"Good deal. Helena."
"Yes, Mr. President?" Secretary Russell replied.
Find a way to make what the General wants happen. If VP-to-be Xander can't concurrently be the Secretary for Veterans Affairs, you and the General see if it's possible to create a new presidential council or something that will allow Ms Xander to do what the General thinks she needs to do. I want a recommendation on my desk before Ms Xander is called in by the Senate for her appointment hearings."
"Yes, Mr. President."
"Good. Now, what's next?"
to be continued...
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Presidents' Day, Chapter 5
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One week after the announcement, the Senate had started preparations to hold confirmation hearings for President Walsh's nominee for Vice President, and by Wednesday of the following week, the first of these hearings were held.
The nominee herself had also been preparing. She had moved all of her appointments back, and made sure her entire workload was taken care of by her staff.
With the help of Kat and Max, Effie was able to go through the pile of data that her people had gathered for her. By the end of the week, she was completely conversant about all of the country's senators, including their histories, and their strengths and weaknesses.
She was now also fully conversant with all of the major issues that the country was interested in, even in the area of popular culture and other... less political spheres of interest.
Of course, this was only possible because of Kat's and Max's help in culling the material that they got, as well as selecting those particular topics and issues and interests that were likely to come up, most of all her status as a transgender person of high importance.
Her preparation was interrupted when she was asked by Secretary Tomlin to visit.
Effie, of course, immediately flew to Virginia, to the home of the legendary General Tomlin.
In the history of the Marines, Tomlin was known for being a brave and honorable warrior, and was famous for believing in the marine credo of not leaving anyone behind.
He once put his life in danger to rescue a platoon of marines stuck in a landing hovercraft, or LCAC, beached on a deserted island-atoll about to be bombed out of existence.
He was an inch from being court-martialled, but by the intervention of the armed forces' Chief of Staff, however, that didn't push through, and was awarded, instead, the Medal of Honor by the president.
A couple of years after that, however, Tomlin was, in a word, benched, due to a career's worth of war wounds and other injuries (in fact, his present cancer was suspected to be caused by exposure to chemicals used in the battlefield).
He therefore asked to be transferred to the US Marine Corps Training and Education Command, or TECOM, eventually becoming TECOM's commanding officer.
He had been in that position for years, and during that time, his legend in the Marine Corps and in the US Army had just grown, and has been credited for churning out the best crop of Marines in the history of the corps, refering to them as "Tomlin's Kids," one of his kids being Effie, or rather, Marty at the time.
Arriving at the general's home, Effie was greeted by Rose, the general's wife.
"Good morning, ma'am," Effie said, and held out her hand for a handshake, but the older woman ignored it and gave her a hug.
Effie was surprised, to say the least, but didn't spurn the hug.
"Thank you for coming," Rose said, "he's been hanging on for you." She let Effie go, and led her into the house.
"Hanging on, ma'am?" Effie asked.
"I'm afraid that the reported state of my husband's condition isn't completely correct. He only has weeks to live. Maybe not even that. And it's only through painkillers that he can even..."
Effie reached out for her hand.
"Well..." Rose said, grateful for Effie's sympathy, and cleared her throat. "Let's get you to the General, and maybe we can talk after."
Effie nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
- - - - -
Effie walked into the General's room while Rose remained outside - she said the general would prefer to talk to her alone.
The room was only half-illuminated but there was enough light to see things: She saw the general in his bed. Apparently, he was awakened by her arrival.
"Who's there?" an old man's voice said.
"Major Xander, sir. Fifteenth Marine Expeditionary Forces, Air Combat Wing. I was part of the tenth graduating batch during your tenure as Commander, TECOM."
"I hardly need you to tell me, Major," he laughed weakly. " Do you still go by Marty?"
"My friends call me Effie now, sir. It's from my new name. My new name is Freja. Freja Martina Xander. It's...
"I always found it interesting that when you had a chance to pick a new name, you just picked the closest female version."
Effie shrugged. "My name was given to me by my parents, sir. So I had no right to change..."
Yes. I read about that. I read 'Xander, Road to Salvation,' and 'Freja: The New Face of the Nation.'"
Effie laughed. "I suggest you skip that first one. The author is an... obsessed fan. Fifty percent of that book is based on wishful thinking on his part, and his... sexual fantasies involving me."
"That's fine. I only believed fifty percent of it, anyway."
Effie remained in the shadows.
"Oh, for god's sake, Marine. Come closer!"
"Sir!" A little shyly, she stepped up to Tomlin's bedside.
Tomlin reached out and held on to her hand. The general's skin felt dry but, oddly, very soft. An effect, she knew, of the steroids that were part of his medication. She returned the grip.
"It's good to see you, Marine."
"It's good to see you, sir. I'm surprised you've taken such an interest in me."
"I've been watching over you and your career for a while, as I've done with many of my kids."
"I'm... pleased to hear that I warranted such attention."
Tomlin chuckled. "Well, of all my kids, I was the most proud of you."
"I'm honored, sir."
"About the transgender thing..."
Effie closed her eyes. Even the man that she looked up to... Did she come just to be shamed by her hero? Tears she couldn't stop leaked from under her lashes.
"I am so sorry, Freja," Tomlin said, deliberately using her new name - a sign of acceptance - "that you had to go through what you did. I didn't know, and when I found out, you had resigned your commission. I know you didn't ask for this. Your struggles... I can't even imagine. But you did well, and gave credit to yourself, to the corps, and to all LGBTQ citizens. I'm proud to know you, and am proud to have played a part in the accomplished young woman that you are now. I only wish there were more Marines like you."
Effie listened to his words, with a kind of shock. She continued to cry, but not in sorrow anymore.
"Now stop crying," Tomlin said, smiling. "It's okay for pretty girls to cry, but you're a Marine, girl. Shape up!"
Effie laughed. "Yes, sir!"
- - - - -
"I asked you here, Effie," Tomlin said as they had lunch by his bedside, "because I wanted to say that I agreed with what the President did."
Rose was overjoyed that her husband had asked if he could have lunch today. She had her house's staff set up a table by his bedside so he needn't leave his bed.
She, Effie and her husband had a pleasant lunch, and she didn't care that he wanted to talk business with the tall, pretty redhead that had come to visit them. (She couldn't believe that the young woman used to be a man.)
But now, she turned to her husband. She only half listened to the conversation, and only gloried in his animated and excited aura, talking and smiling and laughing as he used to. And enjoying her deep-fried country chicken, home made gravy, green beans and his favorite iced tea. Who cares what they're talking about, she thought. All that she cared about was that she had her beloved husband back, even for just a day.
"What do you mean, General," Effie asked.
"Your... condition... makes it difficult, politically," General Tomlin answered. "And though we may protest how unfair it may all seem, the country has yet to catch up to its ideals, and I am too old... too old, too sick, and too near to dying to wait for that, and you can't afford to lose this opportunity to be our VP."
"Sir, I..."
"These lowbrows in the Senate, kid - you have to find a way to accomplish this despite their prejudice and their shortsightedness."
"Well, sir, not all of them are like that."
"Oh, don't get me wrong. I know we've made some progress in the forty or so years since the Millenium, but we're still far from where we want to be."
"Yes, sir."
"So, for now, you do what is necessary. Prepare."
"I am, sir. In fact, I was just doing that when I got your call..."
Tomlin laughed heartily and long.
"And here I am, a senile old man taking you away from your important work." He laughed again. "Is that it, Major?"
Effie shrugged, smiling sheepishly, her palms facing upward.
"Do you know that old nineteenth century proverb, Major - 'there is more than one way to skin a cat?'"
"Yes, sir, but, if I may? Ewww!"
Tomlin laughed. "I know it's not too used anymore, but the proverb applies to this situation."
"What situation is that, sir?"
"Of finding an appropriate successor - of finding a new Secretary for Veterans Affairs."
Effie paused. "Sir," she said hesitantly, "if you're worried about your legacy..."
"Legacy be damned!" he said. "It's about the veterans. It's about the armed forces, Effie. The priorites of the nation has changed, and I do not begrudge that. But the armed forces, and our veterans are losing their advocates. They are not being properly represented in society anymore."
"Sir, the constitution..."
Tomlin waved her argument away, seemingly anticipating her objection.
"Oh, I know about the pre-eminence of civilian authority over the military! I agree with that. It's necessary. The military is here to protect the civilians. But it's not that! It's more basic than that!
"We are here to protect the people. That is our reason for living. And it is a dangerous thing if the military oversteps this concept. Dictatorships can start, civil war... So we have things like honor, courage, code, rules and regulations to keep that from happening.
"But by the same token, when, and after we have done our duty, we must just not be thrown away. It's unfortunate that civilians don't have their own code...
"If a veteran finds trouble getting medical attention, or a soldier finds it difficult to re-integrate into society after a long deployment, or difficulty in finding a job after being furloughed, or is trying to manage PTSD - there is no one to be their advocate. There is no one to represent them. There is no one to fight for them!"
He looked her in the eye. "Legacy be damned, Effie. It's about looking for someone to help them - to help us!
"It falls to you, Effie. I'm sorry, but there's no other. I thought I'd be the one, but as you see..." he gestured to himself.
"What can I do?"
"We went about it wrong," he said. "We don't need a cabinet member to effect change. We just need to have someone to articulate things - to show the people. To explain! I believe in my heart, Effie, that the people will do the right thing, but they have to shown. As VP, you can be that. So I asked you here to be that. Please..."
"I'm a marine, sir. I have been called to service. A marine answers the call. It is my honor."
Tomlin reached for her hand.
"Ain't she a peach, Rosie," he said.
"That she is, and more," Rose replied.
"Do you know Secretary Helena Russell, Effie? She and I have cooked up something which we are going to be calling the National Council for Veterans Welfare - policy-making body that will be in charge of crafting the government's policy when it comes to Veterans' welfare, and will be an adjunct to the VA. Together, the VA and the VW will be able to create meaningful laws for the benefit of veterans, and I want you to chair this new council."
"Sir, I doubt if I..."
He waved her objections away. "I have put the wheels in motion, and my friends in the cabinet and, in the government and the military will make it happen, and they will pave the way for you."
"Sir..."
"Hush, Effie. It's all set already."
- - - - -
After a few hours, they adjourned. Their little tete-a-tete had tired Tomlin out, and his doctor gave him a sedative.
And after he was sleeping, Rose and Effie went downstairs and sat in Rose's cozy sitting room, and they exchanged stories about the general. Though much of Effie's stories were mostly about military training, Rose's was different - it was rich in history, and in love.
Effie's stories were paltry when compared to Rose's stories. Rose talked about her life with the General, when they was just starting out and struggling, and Rose learned to cope with the age-old burden of all military families. But she, trying to be a credit to her husband, bore it and waited for the times when he would return home to her.
She told stories of the general the way the general told them to her, warning Effie that his part in them was undoubtedly exaggerated.
But Effie didn't care, and listened avidly to Rose's stories.
Eventually, the sun set, and though she had more to tell, Rose said it's probably time for Effie to go home, and, reluctantly, Effie agreed, and Rose got their driver to bring their car to the front.
"You have lots of things to do," Rose agreed.
"I'd like to stay..."
"But duty calls," Rose said, completing her sentence for her, and chuckled. "So like a Marine." They both got up from the couch and started walking to the front door.
Effie shrugged. "I am what I am."
"Yes, you are. Effie - whatever happens, just do that you think is right. The country needs someone like you - someone that truly wants what's best for the people, not some glad-handing opportunist. Fight for that. Fight for all of us."
"I'm just just one person, Mrs. Tomlin-"
"Call me Rose, please."
Effie nodded. "- but, having said that, Rose, I will do my best. You have my word."
"I know. And a Marine's word is her bond." Rose reached up and pulled Effie's head down to give her a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you, Rose. Tell the General goodbye for me."
Rose nodded. "Oh, before you leave. I got this from the General's desk." She went to a side table and got a thick binder.
"He said that I should give this to you. I think this will interest you," she said, and handed Effie the binder.
Effie accepted the binder and walked to the car.
The chauffeur saluted.
"Your bag is already in the car, Major."
Effie saw the ribbon bar on his jacket. She answered him with with a crisp salute of her own.
"Thank you, Marine."
"Not at all, ma'am. The General and the missus gave us all instructions to take of you."
Effie smiled at that.
"Thank you."
It was a short drive to the airport where a plane was waiting for her. It was a special chartered private plane, and on the door was the logo of one of the larger conglomerates.
Her driver walked her to the plane, and the ramp was lowered by the uniformed pilot of the plane.
"Here you go, ma'am," her driver handed her bag to her.
"Thank you."
"Major," the driver said as she climbed up the ramp.
"Yes?"
"Give 'em hell, ma'am." He said, smiling. "Oorah!"
Effie grinned. "That, I will, brother. That, I will."
to be continued...
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Presidents' Day, Chapter 6
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The pilot came out of the pilot's cabin.
"You can unbuckle now, Ms Xander," the captain said. "Clear sailing ahead. After a short stopover to refuel in Kansas, we'll be in Cheyenne by this time tomorrow."
Effie nodded. "Thank you, captain. Any chance of a beer?" The captain grinned at that, as Ms Xander wasn't really known for drinking beer - she was more known for the occassional glass of wine or champagne at social public events, grabbed a bottle from the fridge behind him and handed it to her. Effie nodded her thanks. He got a bottle of water for himself.
"Spiffy little plane," Effie said. "Never saw one like this before." She twisted the cap from the bottle and took a swig. For whatever reason, the pilot thought that was pretty sexy.
"I like her," he said. "It's a HondaJet HA-420. Eight-passenger capacity, one thousand three hundred mile range, four hundred-fifty miles per hour cruising speed, and a ceiling of forty-five thousand feet. It's no F-22 but, like I said, I like her."
"I don't understand it," Effie said. "What's a PiperCorp corporate jet doing schlepping around a retired Marine pilot?"
"The General asked for assistance, and our boss volunteered to lend him the use of our jet. Ms Piper is a great admirer of the General."
She nodded. "Well, please tell her I appreciate it."
"I will."
Effie signed for him to join her, and they had a chat. Effie was charmed by the handsome pilot, and he was by her as well, even though he was very intimidated - this was Freja Xander, after all.
But it was a pleasant trip as the pilot and co-pilot spelled each other while Effie spent the time talking to Max, Kat and her staff (via videophone), and reading the material they sent her. After all, the confirmation hearings start on Wednesday.
And they did their best to prepare.
They arrived at Jerry Olsen Field without incident, but her pilot and co-pilot had to fly back right away. They were chauffeuring their boss's daughter and some of her friends to and from a fashion shoot or something - the pilot wasn't clear - so that meant her hope to have her own plane was dashed.
Oh, well, she thought. It wasn't like I can't afford commercial, and it wouldn't be right to be using Wyoming's limited budget to fund me flying around and such.
But that was the least of her problems.
There was a lot of talk about her nomination, and the discussions about it in the public media and on social sites were endless.
- - - - -
On Saturday, General Tomlin passed away. Rose called personally on Sunday to tell Effie, and said that he was to have a full State Funeral, and was asking her to speak at a private ceremony at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond on Wednesday.
Effie said yes, of course. Thank goodness the Senate hearings would start in the afternoon. Max confirmed the first one was at 2PM, and that gave her just enough time to attend the ceremony at 10 and then make the hearing.
Later, Kat found Effie in their living room, with a large bottle of bourbon on the coffee table, and Effie sipping at a glass while she cried.
And then Kat found out that the General just died.
- - - - -
Later that night, Jamie called them to ask them to tune in to Cheyenne's affiliate station of one of the major networks. Apparently, Effie's reporter friend, Tom Flaherty, interviewed the General the day before he died, and one of the topics of discussion was the General's feelings about the possibility of Effie's becoming the new VP.
Because of the General's passing away, the network expanded the interview into a full hour program about the General's life, using mostly file video, but leaving the last twenty minutes mostly for the interview.
As usual, Flaherty's copy was excellent and was sympathetic, giving a stirring recount of the general's life. In the part that had Tom's interview, the General said that he did not regret anything from his life, except that he would be leaving his family, especially Rose, the love of his life, and that he wasn't able to finish his mission.
"Mission, General?" Tom asked.
The general explained his view, that no one currently in government would be able to sufficiently represent and continue be an advocate for the country's veterans, servicemen and women. But with a war hero like Effie in the government, this might not be the case.
"If I have anything that I truly regret, Tom," he said, "it's that I have had to resign my cabinet position. Not because of anything as... prosaic or pedestrian as losing power or influence or anything like that..."
"Then, what, sir?"
The General paused.
"Our government has countless programs," he said, "addressing the needs of many of our fellow citizens. I am... or, rather I was, doing the same for my own demographic. Truth is that I can be very... narrow-minded sometimes, and the POV that everyone is important is the goal. Matthew 20:40 says, 'as you did it to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.'
"And that's what we all are trying - to do provide for the needs of the least of our brothers and sisters. Everyday. The Walsh Administration is known for addressing the... most visible and pressing concerns and issues of the day. But then, in the same bible passage, it also says, 'as you did not do it to the least of them, you did not do it to me.' That is the thing that we must equally attend to. It's not enough to give what's needed by our people. We must also not ignore them. I was trying to do that for our veterans. Veterans are one of the most ignored segments of our society. But I am unable to do that anymore. It's my fervent hope, with, hopefully, AG Xander's new, highly visible role in the administration, she will be able to continue doing that for me.
"I wholeheartedly support AG Xander for Vice President, and I encourage our military and veterans to do so as well. I also call out to our senators and to all my fellow citizens. The Attorney General is the smartest in the party, and is sincerely interested in the welfare of our country. And is very easy on the eyes, too." He laughed deprecatingly. "I apologize for that. Objectifying people is not what one should do. Forgive this old fool. I come from a different generation where such pronouncements of admiration for beautiful women are sincere and without predudice, malice or prurient overtones.
"But, speaking of which - check the polls - our country doesn't care about her sexuality. Those of you who give importance to that need to grow up. What they care about is that they trust their government to do what's right. And I'm telling you, Effie Xander is worthy of that trust.
"My friends, if she can do for the rest of the country what she has done for Wyoming..." But he was interrupted with a long bout of coughing, at which time Tom cut the interview.
"My interview with the general ended there, unfortunately," Tom said after the commercial, speaking from a recording they made from the TV station's control room. "The general was not a well man, as you know, and he needed to rest. Unfortunately, the General passed away that night, from stress and complications brought on by his chemotherapy. It seems our interview was the last that the great general would ever give.
"Even as he lay in his bed with life fading from his eyes, the General's thoughts were for the future, as it almost always was, pinning his hopes for the country that he loved on the attorney general of the smallest state in the union. Whether he was right about this transgender war hero, I don't know. But this reporter does believe that the country is better off with her than without."
Tom sighed and stood up. "The country has lost a great man. This reporter is honored to have been able to record the general's final thoughts. This is Tom Flaherty. Good night."
Tom theatrically walked out of the shot, and Effie Kat and at looked at each other as the credits rolled.
"What now," Kat asked her big sister, whose eyes were bright with still-unshed tears.
She brought out the leather binder that Rose had given her, and handed it to Kat.
"What's this?" Kat asked and accepted the thick folder, opening it and randomly paging throught its contents. Her eyes grew big.
"This is about you!" she said, amazed, as she paged through news clippings and articles cut out from magazines. There were even several cut out from fashion magazines and publications, or printouts from fashion sites showing Effie, and sometimes Kat, as she was featured in some fashion-related piece.
There were also lots of pieces from local Wyoming dailies, like the Rocker-Miner, Jackson Hole Daily, and the Northern Wyoming Daily News. There were even several pictures clipped from the Wyoming Lyfestyle Magazine.
There were also a lot of clippings from military magazines and newsletters - pieces about Effie when she was still Frei Xander, an active major in the Marines and still a man, including several about his harrowing ordeal as he brought that Egyptian pilot and British flyer back from the front lines, and what it meant for the armed services.
There were also a lot of student and cadet evaluation forms and field reports, and all of them about Frei when he was still in training.
But it went deeper than that.
Kat found photocopied pages from internal reports of the Wyoming Attorney General's Office, on stats for pending and closed cases, and case turnovers and employee hirings and firings.
There were even photocopies of confidential memos or printouts of private email exchanges from the Wyoming Governor's Office or his staff. Kat, in the back of her mind, thought, "is ths even legal? These are condifential documents and aren't part of the public record..."
There was one printout in particular which caught Kat's eye because of a big handwritten note at the bottom in red marker - It was a printout of an email trail, between Wyoming's Secretary of State and the Governor, from a few months ago.
"What the fuck!" the Secretary of State wrote in his email. "What's Effie doing now? Doesn't he know the Wyoming Mining Collective is one of our biggest supporters? I told you years ago to fire that queer."
"First off, he's a 'she,'" the Governor replied. "Secondly - she has no choice. They've been strong-arming a bunch of homeowners near the Black Hills area. Seems the miners were trying to steal the homeowners' water rights. It's her job. Okay?"
"What if the miners up and pull support? What about the mid-terms?"
"Trust Effie." That particular part was encircled in red by the General.
The next email in the trail was several days later. "Sorry, dude, I was wrong," the Secretary of State said. "Do you know what Effie did? She got the miners to back off by promising them tax and permit exemptions for them to build water pipelines from their current water supply to the Black Hills, provided they conform to EPA standards."
"What did I tell you," the Governor said. "And I've already signed the papers for the exemptions."
"I take back what I said," the Secretary of State said. "'SHE' is a genius. We have the miners supporting us, and the ranchers are happy. She's good for the party."
"AND for the people. Don't forget the people," the Governor sent back. The irony was inescapable.
"Sorry lol," the Secretary of State replied. "I take back everything I said. Effie is a godsend."
"What about her being transgender?" the Governor sent back.
"What? Why is that relevant?" The Secretary of State said. "And the first homophobe who says word one will find his ass out on the street."
"You're a fucking hypocrite." The Governor sent back.
"Hey, dude. It's just politics. lol."
Kat smiled at that. At the bottom, in the note that originally caught Kat's eye, the General wrote with a big red marker, "she is definitely the one. Gottta contact her soon. Got no more time."
"Have you read this?" Kat said, showing Effie the page.
"Yes."
"Well?"
"Seems the General's been keeping track of me for a while."
"He thought highly of you."
"I guess he did," she replied, and burst into tears.
- - - - -
Wednesday, Max, Pete and Kat joined Effie at the General's private ceremony, and Effie spoke eloquently of her admiration of the General and her all-too-short a time with him as she went through her Marine training, and said that, as one of the General's "kids," she was happy to do her part.
"One thing you have to realize," she said, as she spoke to the gathered audience in her Marine Dress Blues, the left side of the jacket heavy with the devices that represented the awards that she has won, and her Medal of Honor hanging from her neck, "is that the General believed in the inherent disposable nature of the military, a point of view shared by all of his, um 'kids,' but he made the distinction that, military men and women are citizens, as well, and as citizens, they are not disposable.
"I myself found that confusing, but over the years, I have come to understand the general's perplexing words. The military is meant to protect and defend our nation's citizens. Indeed, sercivemen and women must be ready to give their lives in order to defend her countrymen. If one were to make the impossible choice of protecting a civilian or a fellow serviceman, the choice that we needed to make was obvious.
"The Service requires people of unusual caliber and dedication to be able to make such distinctions and decisions, and it is, I suppose my wanting to be among these citizens of unusual distinction was what made me want to serve, and to be able to serve a higher calling - the same call to service that the General answered. I am no great scientist or doctor, or great inventor or thinker, but I believed I could be a passable soldier, so I postponed my plans to be a lawyer and chose to be a soldier.
"The General has been my mentor in my journey to be a best soldier I could be, and I hoped that I conducted myself in a way that the General would have approved.
"The General has been our inspiration, and we have always used the question, 'what would the General do,' to guide us, and, in fact, in my decision to transition, I used the same question.
"In everything that we do, he used to tell us, we must be true to ourselves, so I decided to proceed, knowing full well that it would make it difficult to continue being a soldier. But, as the General also said, once you have determined the proper action to take, do it, and do it right away.
"So I resigned my commission, was transferred to the Reserves, and I began my transition, as well as picked up my long-neglected plans to be a lawyer.
"But even in my new life, I still abided by the General's teachings, and it has been my mantra, to say to myself, 'what would the General do,' when I have to make an important decision when the right decision wasn't self-evident. And it has kept me constant and true.
"I am sad that the General has died, and mourn his passing. We may never see the likes of him again, and the world is darker for it."
She turned to the General's casket, saluted and walked from the podium.
to be continued...
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Presidents' Day, Chapter 7
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She stayed as long as she could, but had to eventually leave if she hoped to make the Senate hearings scheduled for two PM.
"Do we have time to pass by the hotel to change, Pete?" she asked.
"Not a chance, Boss," Pete replied from the front passenger seat.
"Well, I guess it's okay to be in my dress blues."
"I think it's fine, Boss."
"Kat, when we get there, you hurry on and find a spot in the gallery. Max, you'll be going with me, and you better hold on to this." She took off her Medal of Honor and handed it to her. "Pete, you find an unobtrusive spot somewhere. We don't want to give the senators more things to obsess on."
"Boss?"
"Senator Dixon has been obsessing about political blue bloods and white privilege for a while now. If they see me with my own bodyguard..."
"Gotcha."
Traffic was fairly bad on the way to the Capitol, and because of which, they were barely on time. Their car had barely stopped when they rushed out and started climbing the Capitol steps.
A few reporters who happened to be there saw them arrive.
"Joey!" one of the reporters said to his cameraman. "Come on!"
They hurried after the four. "Ms Xander!" he called. "Ms Xander!"
"I'm sorry," Effie replied, "I can't stop right now. I'm incredibly late."
"I know," the reporter said. "Why are you late?"
"I was at a memorial ceremony in Richmond."
"But ma'am, this is an important hearing, wouldn't it be..."
"I know it's an important hearing!"
"Effie!" Max said.
Effie took a deep breath and calmed down. "I apologize. But it was a ceremony for the General. I mean, Secretary Tomlin. I felt it my duty to be there."
"Oh... I understand now, ma'am. Is that why you're in uniform?"
"Yes. I was one of the speakers at the General's service." She shook the reporter's hand, and the reporter was a bit surprised by that small sign of apology and consideration.
"I'm sorry. I apologize for my temper. I'm a little harassed at the moment. If you'll excuse me..."
"Of course, ma'am. And good luck."
Effie smiled at the reporter. "Thanks!"
The three hurried, while Kat went in a different direction in search of the entrance for the gallery.
- - - - -
"Good of you to join us, Ms Xander," Senator McLaughlin said.
"Apologies, Mr. Chairman," Effie said as she sat down, with Max beside her.
"Did you have another more pressing matter to attend to?"
"There is no excuse for my tardiness, sir."
"Let's swear her in," one of the junior senators said.
"Wait," McLaughlin said, "before we do, I want to know first - what could be more important that the Attorney General would risk being late for a senate hearing?"
"I can't say, Senator."
"Wait - you can't say or you won't say?"
"I can't say, Senator."
"Mizz Xander - you cannot lie to the Senate."
"Well, firstly, Senator, I am not lying. I am simply not answering. Secondly, I haven't been sworn in yet, so I am not yet under any obligation."
That was a greeted with a smattering of applause.
"Dammit! All right, administer the oath."
Effie was sworn in and was briefed on what was expected of her, and the penalties that would be applicable to her - standard procedure.
After which, she submitted to questions. But it seemed McLaughlin didn't want to let go and again asked her why she was late.
This was greeted again with laughter from the observers, that the senator was so AR, he would not let go.
Again, Effie demurred, even at the threat of being held in contempt.
The framing of the senator's question implied that, if she couldn't be relied on for something as simple as being on time, what made her think that she could play a significant role in government? But Effie just refrained to comment.
No one spoke as McLaughlin stonily waited for a response from her, and the tableu became more and more awkward.
"Mr. Chairman!" one of the other senators finally spoke.
"Chair recognizes Senator Arrapayo from Hawaii."
"Mr. Chairman," the tiny Japanese-American senator said, "I spoke to my husband a few minutes before the hearing was convened..."
"Yes, Senator?"
"He is currently with Mrs. Rose Tomlin and her family in Virginia, attending a private memorial service for the General."
McLaughlin nodded, though a little puzzled. "Please ask Colonel Arrapayo to extend the Senate's and my personal condolences to Mrs. Tomlin and her family."
Arrapayo nodded. "I will. But the reason I mentioned this at all was that my husband told me that Major Xander, ummm, I mean Attorney General Xander, was also at the service - she was one of the speakers that Rose invited to speak at her husband's service..."
This was greeted with silence.
"Also, Mr. Chairman," Arrapayo continued, "according to my own reckoning, I believe Ms. Xander was not actually late, sir. She arrived a few minutes before she was required to appear."
The tittering in the crowd was very loud, but only because no one was speaking. "The senator is mistaken," McLaughlin said eventually. He instantly regretted saying that since it made him look small and petty, to be taking Effie to task for this small infraction, especially when many, if not most were late to committee meetings anyway.
"I believe the Committee's Sergeant-at-Arms would know?" Arrapayo said. There was a bit of commotion as some people at the back tried to check.
"Speak up, young man," Arrapayo said. "We can't hear you."
One of the pages ran over and gave the man a microphone. After a brief squeal from the feedback, the sergeant-at-arms said, "Ms Xander arrived in-committee at one fifty-one PM, ma'am."
Again, there was silence, and then loud and enthusiastic applause from the gallery, and from many of the senators, rolled in.
McLaughlin banged his gavel. "Order, ladies and gentlemen, order!"
"Tell that to yourself!" someone in the gallery heckled.
- - - - -
When everyone settled down, McLaughlin cleared his throat. "Well, now that that is cleared up, we can proceed with this important matter, of vetting the Attorney General for the important position of Vice President of our country.
"I must say, Madam Attorney General, we could have gotten past this misunderstanding much more quickly if you just told the committee where you had just come from."
"Yes, sir."
"That's all you have to say?"
"Sir, I do not shift blame onto others."
This was greeted with cheers and applause.
Clearly uneasy, McLaughlin cleared his throat. "We would hardly blame Mrs. Tomlin for your tardiness."
"Yes, sir."
Mclaughlin sighed. He then made his opening remarks, summarized the purpose of the hearing, and yielded the floor to the next senator, which happened to be Senator Arrapayo.
"Ms Xander, let me first thank you for answering our invitation to this hearing."
"Not at all, Senator. Thank you. I'm honored to be here."
"I noticed that you are wearing your military uniform. It's called your Dress Blues, right?"
"Yes, ma'am. Specifically, it's the Marines' Blue-White 'B' Uniform."
"I take it you wore this to the General's service this morning."
"Yes, ma'am. I had no time to change to less formal attire before coming over. However, it is allowable to wear the uniform while at the senate."
"But you are not in active service at the moment. How is it..."
"That's correct, ma'am - I am in the reserves. However, it is allowable for inactive reserve or retired officers to wear their uniforms during certain situations. This one applies."
Arrapayo smiled. "Well, it becomes you, Major. Or do I call you Attorney General?"
Effie chuckled. "Than you, ma'am. Your dress is very becoming, as well." The people laughed in delight. "Traditionally," Effie continued, "if in uniform, the person should be addressed by her rank, ma'am."
"I see, Major. I see by the devices you have on your uniform, your career was quite eventful. I also know this because my research on you was quite extensive."
"You make me blush ma'am. Thank you."
"But there is one decoration that is not represented, I believe."
"Ummm, Senator, what do you..."
"Are you wearing all your commendations and medals, Major? Is there one missing?"
"Ummm, yes - I'm not wearing my Medal of Valor, ma'am," she said hesitatingly, and blushed. And everyone clapped.
"I am wondering why, Major," the senator said.
"I am very proud of it, ma'am - it's my greatest singular honor to have been given the award by the President... but to wear it here seems... too austentatious, ma'am. People might say that I was showing off... ma'am."
"Oh, I don't think so, Major. But if I were in your shoes, I'd probably wear it all the time, and that would be showing off. But then, it'd be my Medal of Valor. Do you see the difference?" the spectators tittered.
Effie smiled and nodded at that. "I guess so, ma'am."
"In fact, Major, you are a bona fide war hero, and are also a Knight of the Realm, are you not?"
"It's an honorary OBE, ma'am - I am not a British citizen, after all."
"According to my research, you also have a Star of Palestine and the Order of the Nile. Is that corect?"
"Yes, ma'am, but they're Palestinian and Egyptian - so there..."
"I understand, Major. Anyway, my five minutes are up. Thank you."
The hearing was, for the most part, like that, and it continued on until five PM. Fifteen of the twenty-two members of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, or what most just call the Senate Judiciary Committee, got their licks in. And, for the most part, the senators were quite positive, a handful actually almost fawning, but there were three who were extremely hostile - the senators from Mississippi, North Dakota and the committee chair, McLaughlin.
After the hearing, at the capitol's steps, Senator Warren Oakes from North Dakota spoke with the reporters gathered.
"How did the hearing go, you ask?" he said. "It went as expected, when you're faced with wall-to-wall liberals."
"What are you saying, Senator?" one of the reporters asked.
"Look - I'm very LGBTQ-friendly. In fact, in the past, I have actually come to the defense, physically, of people I knew to be gay, from narrow-minded bigots. So it's not a transgender thing. I question the AG's motivations. I believe she has an agenda - an LGBTQ-centric agenda that she will be pushing, undermining the interests of us normal people. Pretty soon, we'll have soft laws favoring queers, schoolbooks touting gay achievements, advocating abnormal sexuality..."
"'Normal people?!'" someone in the crowd shouted in disbelief and indignation.
"Exactly!" Senator Elizabeth Birch from Mississippi, who was standing beside Oakes, said. "Yes, the LGBTQ community is a very relevant segment of our community. But do you seriously want to integrate their abnormal sexuality and their promiscuity into our national life?"
"Boo!" someone else shouted. "Homophobe!
"I'm not a homophobe, nore a gay-basher!" she said. "Some of my friends are LGBTQ! But we must stop this slow creep of the LGBTQ agenda into out society! We must..."
But the rest of her words were drowned out by yelling from the crowd.
Senator McLaughlin, seeing how it went for his two friends, stayed quiet, and slowly crept back, and then went back to his office in the capitol. From there, he made arrangements for his car to come by the back, allowing him to go home unnoticed and unbothered by questions similar to what Oakes and Birch faced.
That night, the impromptu interview with the two senators immediately went viral, and the major networks played the clip of that disastrous time on the capitol's steps during their nightly news programs.
Effie's popularity was such that most people found the behavior of the two senators quite... distasteful, regardless of whether they were pro-LGBTQ or anti. Condemnation of the two senators was mostly universal.
A significant number of the nation's non-LGBTQ citizens were not really accepting of LGBTQ behavior, or even actually understood LGBTQ people, even though they professed an understanding of them and being friendly to them. But in their hearts of hearts, many well-meaning straight people didn't really like them, though they try, even to the extent of defending them. And in their fear of being considered homophobes, or perhaps, in their mistaken belief that they actually understood gays or trans people, they just quietly professed their condemnation of these senators' behavior, not so much highlighting Effie's LGBTQ status but rather highlighting her major achievements - as a war hero, as an exemplary public servant and as an upstanding citizen.
And that was one of Effie's two advantages over other LGBTQ advocates - that her accomplishments, both as a man and as a transgender woman were over the top (comparatively speaking), beyond question, and totally undeniable. Inspiring, in fact. And her public and private records were spotless and blameless, except for that one blemish - of her being a transgendered woman.
And, even there, her living and being a woman, despite most of the world being against her, was exceptional. She had the advantage of not having to scrabble for a living, of just surviving, as many transgendered people had to, so she was able to live a normal, some will even say a privileged, life. But knowing what she knew, and the seemingly insurmountable prejudice she was faced with, she did not flaunt her transgenderism, nor buttonhole people about it, nor use every opportunity to lecture about transgenderism. That was her second advantage.
She knew how those street evangelists that lecture from street corners or on buses and other public spaces were thought of, and she could not afford for her own particular cause to be marginalized by such scene-causing tactics. So she started her own little movement of one, where "quiet advocacy" and "showing by doing," and "demonstrating instead of telling" was the mantra. And she would tell the same thing to the LGBTQ visitors and friends that "came by" the office and her house from time to time. (Seriously, though, who would "just happen to be passing by" Wyoming? Wyoming was never really "on the way" to any place, so these people made the effort to "casually" pass by, with the express purpose of meeting her.)
Many came, touting a copy of Effie's "Magna Carta for Non-cisgender Citizens," and Effie would dutifully sign them, but she'd also lecture them that they were going about their advocacy the wrong way, and espoused, instead, her own "showing by doing" policy. Sure, marching in the Pride Parade was good, but what was even better was showing people that LGBTQ folks were not weirdos, were respectable, and did not need to be feared or shunned or ridiculed by showing "normals" they were just like regular folks.
The more militant of these visitors came away from these impromptu chats with her disappointed. Instead of getting another soldier in their war to make the world more LGBTQ-friendly, they would say that Effie had been co-opted by the "normals." But many of these eventually understood, finally realizing that any real acceptance would only come with time. And when enough of them "showed by doing," the problems they had been encountering in daily life would start to become less frequent and less... virulent.
It was hard thing, this waiting game, but it was necessary.
The more militant part of the LGBTQ community denounced Effie, as did the more militant of the "normal" conservative folks, but most people just shouted them down, and in a twisted kind of way, this sympathy just bolstered Effie's image and reputation.
- - - - -
The following day, during the second and last day of the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearings, no one wanted to go through what the two senators went through, so a few of the remaining senators yielded their time, and for those who didn't, they didn't really have anything negative to say or espouse or ask about, and just delved into the minutia of Effie's history, hoping to find an anomaly or something objectionable, but Effie's life was totally open and above-board: nothing new was bought up.
Those who weren't really pro-LGBTQ were careful with their words, and did not give the media additional fodder, because they didn't want to commit political suicide, just like Senators Oakes and Birch did (the consensus was, barring some kind of miracle, their political careers were essentially over). Even Senator McLaughlin understood this and was very mellow during this last day.
A few, though, tried to use their time by using Effie's opinions as springboards to discuss their own pet issues. Thank goodness Effie was completely up-to-date, and wasn't completely caught unaware. And McLaughlin was very casual that day, and was willing to let the hearing meander, and lots of topics were brought up, and the hearing started to sound more like a regular session on the senate floor instead of a hearing for a prospective VP.
In any case, the upshot was that this last day was smooth sailing for Effie.
The following week, however, the United States House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, began their own hearings. It took longer, of course, since they had forty-one instead of twenty-two committee members, but Effie and Max were prepared for the worst.
However, with the hard lesson from the Senate learned, the House Committee members kept their talking points above-board, and since they did, the matter of Effie's transgenderism rarely came up, or some just didn't cross-examine Effie at all and passed on the opportunity to ask her questions. The committee scheduled the hearings for the afternoons, from Monday to Thursday, but since a lot of the members decided to yield their time, the hearings finished by Wendesday - a day earlier than was expected.
- - - - -
Instead of returning to Wyoming right away, since Effie's schedules had already been moved to the following week already, she, Kat and Max had nothing to do for Thursday and Friday, so Effie decided to take the entire Thursday off to go shopping or playing tourist, and to go home Friday, as originally scheduled. However, typical of Max, Max decided to go back home right away - she was desperate to reduce the office backlog. So she said, though Effie, Kat (and Pete) knew that she was really missing her family, and this was a convenient excuse. So Effie didn't force her to stay.
They weren't completely free on Thursday, though. Thursday evening, Kat had a party to go to - she was invited to a party for various celebrities, models and famous fashion designers being organized by Sarah Michelle Rhodes from Blumenfeld House. Sarah organized these yearly parties for partners, clients and supporters of Blumenfeld House, which included Kat - Kat had been creating designs for Blumenfeld's glamour lines for a while now, and over the last few years, she had become a fixture at Sarah's yearly shindig. Recently, Kat had even created several designs exclusive to Blumenfeld's fairly new Young Adult line (and though Kat's Blumenfeld designs were selling well enough, the rest of the Blumenfeld's new YA line wasn't doing as well).
In any case, Sarah was counting on Kat to come, and Kat had already RSVP'd: the turnout at such parties were usually high, but when Kat RSVP'd early this year, the confirmed invitees became particularly high this year.
- - - - -
Innocently, as Kat and Effie helped Max pack up and see her to the hotel car that would bring her to the airport, Kat had asked Effie to accompany her to the party, and after Max had left, she called Sarah to ask if Effie could come. Sarah was quick to say okay, of course. Normally, Kat didn't really need to ask, but since it was a strictly-by-invitation thing this year, she had to let her host know. And, of course it was totally okay. Kat did mention to Sarah that Effie would have a bodyguard with her, but Sarah said that was also okay, although she made some cryptic comments about it being a fashion event. Understanding right away, Kat giggled and said she would take care of it. (Sarah was referring to the attire for the event, so Pete, Effie's bodyguard-and-sidekick, would have to be appropriately attired, just like everyone.)
Anyway, after Kat's call, Sarah told many of her guests that Effie was coming, and everyone got very excited about it. Because of Effie, Sarah got lots of last-minute requests, and though Sarah tried to include as many of them as she could, she was forced by Mindy, her executive assistant, to not exceed the earmarked number of invitees, otherwise, there won't be room for them to sit in the mini-fashion show, and some people will go hungry. As it was, Mindy was going half out of her mind trying to brief her people about new invitees, and arranging seating for the mini-fashion show, and the after-show sit-down dinner.
Sarah reluctantly had to turn down a lot of requests, but did say yes to several movers-and-shakers, which included Anna Benson-Reynolds and her husband, California's very popular ex-Governor, Matt Reynolds. She also included Melody Piper, the CEO of the large conglomerate PiperCorp, and her daughter, Tracey. With Mr. Simon Thadeus Tate, Jr., the president of the even-larger, giant conglomerate Tate & Company, and his wife already having RSVP'd before, it was a coup of sorts for Sarah.
- - - - -
After Effie, Kat and Pete finished dinner at the hotel's swanky rooftop restaurant, Kat asked if Pete brought his "special suit" (after Effie attended her first important reception as Wyoming's AG, a need for Pete to have a nice tux-type suit appropriate for fancy, red carpet-type parties became obvious, so Kat arranged for Pete to have some custom-fit suits appropriate for fancy parties specially tailored to hide his sidearm. This allowed him to accompany Effie, and sometimes Kat, to red-carpet events without sticking out).
Knowing about Kat's party, Pete said he brought one just in case, as well as the appropriate shirt, shoes and other accoutrements. Kat went with Pete to his room to get them, and had them dry-cleaned and pressed.
"That takes care of Pete," she sighed. "Now, how about you, sis?"
Effie showed her everything she brought, but nothing was good enough for the party.
"Dammit, Effie!" Kat complained.
"What!" Effie exclaimed, and giggled. "Ain't my fault. You picked my wardrobe for this week."
Kat grumbled and went out to the balcony with her phone. Effie and Pete looked at each other with a small chuckle, amused by her concern about clothes again.
While Kat stood out in the balcony, she called the fancy, little fashion store located in DC's posh and fancy 14th Street that sells her designs. Kat had ties to several small shops scattered all over the country to sell her designs - some, like the one on 14th, even sold them exclusively, with no other clothes on their shelves. It was part of Kat's strategy to make her name known among the indy and hipster communities, and it seemed her strategy is working. (Kat made arrangements with Blumenfeld and the other houses who manufacture her designs, to sell them to "her" stores at cost - but these fashion houses didn't mind this since the amount of stock that these tiny stores tool were miniscule, and that was a small price to pay to get exclusive rights to manufacture Kat's designs.)
Kat came back in shortly. "Okay," she said, "I've made arrangements for you to have an appropriate outfit for tomorrow night. They'll deliver it early tomorrow afternoon."
"Great," Effie said.
- - - - -
In the morning, after an early breakfast, Effie got the hotel to arrange a nondescript chauffeured car for them, and they went to the usual touristy places, like the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial and its surrounding cherry blossom trees (they weren't in bloom, unfortunately), the Newseum, and because Pete suggested it, the International Spy Museum.
As Kat and Effie took in the sights and took photos and selfies, many early-bird tourists couldn't help but notice Kat and Effie - two statuesque redheaded beauties just couldn't escape attracting attention, but besides this, Effie was eventually recognized.
The behavior of most people toward them were positive, and these tourists were surpised that Kat and Effie didn't have any sort of entourage with them, but when asked, Kat explained that was how they preferred it.
In any case, a lot of these tourists asked for pictures, and Pete obliged, taking their cameras or their phones, and took the pictures for them.
There were a few people that were less than friendly, though, but Pete's six-foot nine, 300-pound presence was enough of a deterrent. Heowever, while near the Jefferson Memorial and the cherry blossoms, Pete and Effie spotted someone who seemed to about to bring out some kind of rifle, presumably to shoot at them and the small crowd that had formed around them. and while Effie brought out her own sidearm, Pete announced himself to be a federal agent (which he was). Many in the crowd screamed in fear, and the trenchcoat-wearing would-be shooter, not expecting to be spotted, took off, and Pete gave chase.
Some patrolling officers saw Pete running after the other man, and called for them to halt.
Pete stopped immediately, took out his wallet and put up his hands.
While one of the officers went to Pete, the rest gave chase. Pete readily gave up his IDs, which included his military ID, his special permit-to-carry card, and his FBI ID card identifying him as Effie's specially-assigned military security detail.
"Sorry, sergeant," the police officer said. "Had to be sure." He holstered his sidearm and gestured for Pete to lower his arms.
"No trouble at all, officer," Pete said. "You were just doing your job." He gestured towards Effie. "If you don't mind, I'd like to introduce you to the Major, I mean, Ms Effie Xander, and her sister, Kat."
"Really?" the policeman said. "the Fox? Sure!"
Pete pointed to Effie and Kat, who were presently walking towards them.
"Oh, wow!" he said. He took off his policeman's hat, combed his hair with his fingers, put his hat underneath his arm, and straightened his tie.
"Oh, wow..." he repeated, and that made Pete chuckle. "The guys will never believe I got to meet The Fox!"
- - - - -
In minutes, the media heard of the incident with the gunman, and they let their field people know. They sent their second-string people to the gunman, which by then, had already been caught was currently being processed in the Park Police District One station, the police station nearest the Jefferson Memorial, while their top crews went to look for Effie and Kat, who, by that time, had already left.
After giving the starstruck policeman a short statement, and promising to be available to be witnesses or whatever, the three continued with their day out playing tourist, and the newspeople eventually caught up with them at the National Gallery of Art.
Effie shushed them when they started causing a commotion inside the gallery, and promised them an interview later outside.
But, instead of leaving them alone, even though they kept quiet and kept their distance, they following the three through the gallery.
The paparazzi ruined their touristy mood, so they decided to cut their day short, and went out to the gallery's west entrance, where they had an impromptu interview.
"Ms Xander," one of the TV reporters began as Effie and Kat stood on the gallery's steps.
"Which one," Kat quipped, and everyone laughed.
"Ummm, either, ma'am," the reporter smiled.
"Okay," Kat nodded. "Shoot."
"How are you enjoying your time in DC?"
"Oh! We're njoying it very much so," she said. "Effie and I feel privileged to be able to visit our nation's capital, and were just looking at the usual sites. I don't know about Effie, but my favorite was the Lincoln Memorial. It was a bit sad, but it was also very inspiring and beautiful. President Lincoln is my favorite historical figure."
"How about you, Attorney General?"
"I agree completely with Kat," she said, "but she beat me to the Lincoln Memorial." Everyone laughed. "So I guess I'd say the Jefferson Memorial and the cherry blossoms. They're not in bloom now, but even so, the trees are still pretty lovely."
"Where to next after this?"
"Well, I wouldn't be telling you guys, otherwise, you'd follow us." Everyone laughed again.
Another reporter raised his hand.
"AG Xander," he said, "any thoughts on the Senate and House hearings? What do you think your chances for confirmation are?"
Effie shrugged, and everyone laughed again.
"Seriously, ma'am. The entire town is saying your confirmation is a sure thing."
"Well, seriously, I can't say. It would be improper, as well as impolite to second-guess the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. I guess I have to wait for the final vote, just like the rest of the country. I'd like to take this opportunity, though, to give my thanks to the President, for giving me his trust, and I hope I comported myself such that I did not let the President's trust down."
All the other reporters couldn't shake Effie and make her comment about about how the hearings went.
However, one of the reporters brought up the comments of Senator Oakes and Senator Birch, and also mentioned Senator McLaughlin's very combative words during the Senate hearings.
"Well, I cannot speak to Senator McLaughlin's words," Effie said. "After all, he just took exception to my being late to the hearing, and when it was definitively proven that I wasn't, he didn't bring it up anymore. Anyone can be mistaken from time to time. As for the public's neagative reaction to the LGBTQ-unfriendly comments of Senators Birch and Oakes, it wasn't surprising. Let me lay some numbers on you:
"A conservative estimate of the size of the adult LGBTQ population is about seven percent of the total adult population in the country. This has remained fairly constant since 2019, and almost one hundred percent of these folks are politically active, meaning to say, almost all of them vote, and almost all of them are more vocal about politics and politicians than, ummm, regular folk, especially in social media;
"The total number of citizens today is roughly four hundred fifty million, which is up by one hundred twenty-three million from 2018, and the percentage of citizens under eighteen has remained almost constant since 2018, at twenty-four percent. This means that the adult population of voting age is seventy-six percent; and,
"The percentage of actual people who vote versus the country's total adult population has also remained mostly constant since 2016, at about sixty-one percent.
"So, considering all of these numbers, this means that the total number of citizens who vote is around two hundred million, and out of this, around twenty-four million are LGBTQ. This represents a solid twelve percent of the voting public. If we use the Pareto Rule for a conservative estimate of the LGBTQ-friendly portion of the remaining voters, i.e. a conservative twenty percent, that would be a total of thirty-five point two million. Meaning to say, there would be close to sixty million voters who would be offended by the two senators' statements.
"Now, if we include twenty percent of the non-voting adults, which would be around twenty-seven million, then we have a a grand total of eighty-seven million adults that aren't happy with the senators Oakes and Birch."
The reporters looked at each other, and then at Effie.
"Wow," one of them commented. "Those are amazing numbers, ma'am."
Effie chuckled. "I know," she said. "Blame my assistant, Max. She's very big on math. Anyway, I'm sure you can play back the video and review my numbers. But all I'm saying is that it isn't surprising that the senators pissed off a lot of people."
A confused kind of murmuring followed. One of the senior reporters commented that he hadn't heard so many numbers since the late, great Senator Bernie Sanders, which was then greeted by laughter.
Effie used that momentary lull to make their excuses, and made their way to their car.
"Pete," Effie said as they rapidly walked to the car while the reporters tried to hurry after them, "I want you to take over the driving. I want you to lose these reporters, and let's find a quiet spot to have a drink or something."
"Right, Boss," Pete responded.
Effie and Kat sat in the back while Pete had a talk with the hotel's limo driver. Pete was sucessful in convincing the driver, and allowing him to drive this time.
"Buckle up!" Pete said, and while the newspeople, finally realizing Effie and Kat were leaving in their car, scrambled to get to their own cars, Pete stepped on the gas. With his training and experience, he expertly wove around the cars on the street, and it was like they were the only ones moving in the traffic-clogged street. In a minute they were already three blocks away from where they started while the reporters were just getting into their cars.
Seeing the next stop light just turning yellow, Pete speeded up and hung a left and just made it before the light turned red. He did it a couple more times, and they had effectively lost the reporters.
"Mission accomplished, Boss!" Pete said.
"Ooorah!" Kat said in a small trembling voice. It seems she almost peed her pants from Pete's demolition derby style of driving. Pete and Effie chuckled, and Effie gave Kat a kiss on the forehead.
"No need to be scared, honey," Effie said to Kat. "You can trust your life to Pete's driving. Believe me."
"The bad news, however, is I think we're lost now," Pete said. Effie and Kat laughed.
"No, we're not lost," their driver-now-passenger said. "I know DC like the back of my hand. We're just a few blocks from Dupont Circle. Where do you want to go, anyway?"
"We're looking for a quiet place to have a drink and a bite," Pete said. "Preferrably somewhere that those newspeople won't find us."
"I think I know a place," the driver responded, and started giving Pete directions.
After a little bit, they found themselves in CityCenterDC, one of the most eclectic and semi-upper scale neighborhoods in DC, which was made up of a mix of shops, restaurants, apartments, condominiums, office buildings and public common areas. They got out of the car and left their driver to look for parking, and the driver gave them a business card with a link that they could log on to with their phones. This app would then allow the driver to be paged, and help him find them, sort of like the Uber app.
Effie and Pete left it to Kat to find them a nice place to sit and have a bite, and true to her reputation as a super-shopper, she unerringly steered them to a nice little bistro. Effie and Kat had a mess of panninis and a deli-style sampler plate, and shared a nice half-bottle of sparkling prosecco. Pete sat down at a table a dozen feet away, and enjoyed a big meatball sub and a glass of milk (he was on duty so nothing alcoholic for him) while he watched out for trouble, poised to spring into action at a moment's notice.
After that late lunch, they were finally able to get to their shopping, but barely an hour into it, the paparazzi was finally able to track them down.
"Dammit!" Kat exclaimed as they saw a bunch of reporters and camera men coming towards them.
Effie gave her a hug. "I'm sorry, kid."
That's okay," Kat said, and hugged her back. "Not your fault. But, y'know, if you do become the VP, this is going to happen more and more. Guess we have to get used to it."
So the two sisters put on smiles and faced the oncoming hoarde of reporters.
- - - - -
After they cut their shopping trip short and went back to the hotel, Effie found her new dress in their hotel suite. The dress was laid out on her bed, still in it's disposable garment bag. Effie called Kat.
"Yeah, sis?"
"This the dress?"
"Yep," she dimpled. "Pretty, huh?"
"Don't you think this is a bit over the top?"
"You don't know these Blumenfeld parties. This is just the right outfit for it. Try it on and see how it fits."
Effie skinned down to her bra and bikini panties, and, with help from Kat, started to put it on.
"Oh, wait! Put on the shoes first, though," Kat said.
Effie got the high-heeled shiny lemon-gold stiletto pumps from the foot from the bed. Kat watched how effortlessly Effie put them on and maneuver in them - a skill she envied - and then, with her helping, Effie was able to shimmy into the dress.
"Tight," Effie commented.
"It's meant to be," Kat said. "Don't worry - the fabric is a spandex mix: it'll stretch and make you look faaahbulous, darling."
It was a strapless gown in lipstick red, featuring a figure hugging mermaid/trumpet silhouette, strapless neckline, and draped details at the skirt.
"Smokin' hot, Effie!" Kat giggled. She turned to Pete, who was watching from near the door. "What do you think, Pete?"
Pete blushed furiously and cleared his throat. "I, ummm, think I'll check if my suit is ready." Embarassedly, he rushed out, presumably to go to his room and check if the hotel laundry had delivered his fancy suit.
Effie and Kat laughed.
"You're gonna knock 'em dead, sis," Kat said.
"Given Pete's reaction, I don't doubt it," Efffie giggled.
"I asked for this dress specifically since this isn't scheduled to be released until next week," Kat said. "This way, your dress'll be one-of-a-kind. That's important in a fashion event."
"Kat," Effie scolded her little sister, "you know how I feel about..."
"Hey! This isn't a designer dress! This is off-the-shelf!"
"You know what I mean, Kat." She sighed. "Leave it to you to get around my..."
"I didn't go around anything!" she exclaimed.
Effie made a patting gesture. "Okay, okay! Simmer down. I'll wear it."
"Oh, it comes with a gold diamond choker and a gold clutch." Kat took out the tiny clutch from its box, handed Effie the clutch, went to her room and came back with a diamond-encrusted gold choker, which she put around Effie's slim neck.
Effie went to the full-length mirror in the living area, and admired herself.
"Wow! Kat... I can't say anything! It's so sexy!"
Kat giggled. "I'm good, aren't I?"
Effie looked at the choker. "Wait... Kat, this is mother's!"
"Relax, Effie," Kat said. "Yes, it's mother's. And I'm just lending it to you, 'kay? So chill."
When their folks passed away, and brother and sister were sitting out the reading of their parents' will (Effie was still Marty at the time), Kat got all of their mother's jewelry and other things, while Marty got their dad's. But Marty asked for mom and dad's wedding rings, and Kat and the executor agreed. And when Marty had finally transitioned to Effie, he, now she, wore the two rings on a gold chain around her neck.
Little did Kat or Marty or their parents know that Kat's big brother would eventually become her big sister, and Kat tried to give Effie some of their mom's jewelry after Effie's transition. But Effie didn't agree - she said the jewelry was given to Kat by their mom. Kat argued that if their mom knew about Effie, that might not have been the case, but Effie shook her head. From time to time, Kat tried to give her some of them, but Effie would always turn her down. Eventually, after she had turned down several offers from Kat, Effie explained that she wasn't spurning them, or, for some reason, was bitter that their mom didn't give her any of her prized jewelry. Rather, it was Effie's way of honoring their parents. It was a bit illogical, she knew, because, as Kat put it, if their mom knew of Effie's transgenderism, she probably would have split her jewelry between the siblings.
Effie gave Kat a kiss on the cheek that time, and said she knew how illogical she was being. But it was just her way of honoring them, just like the the time she picked her new forever name.
So, eventually, Kat quit trying to give Effie any of her jewelry, but instead would "lend" her sister some of them from time to time, and if Kat forgot to take them back, well... It was a gambit that Effie was yet to catch on to.
- - - - -
At around seven, they were ready for the party. Pete was looking especially handsome in his fancy suit, while the two redheaded sisters were drop-dead gorgeous: Effie in her red dress and Kat in a very sexy, shiny, emerald green bandage dress (of her own design, of course) with the hem being several inches above the knee, displaying Kat's very sexy legs to their full advantage, and a plunging neckline that made her not-so-modest B's look a lot more... full and inviting.
The three made their way down to the hotel's front drive where their hotel limo was waiting for them, and they were off to partay...
to be continued...
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Presidents' Day, Chapter 8
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Jamie, the White House Press Secretary, also Kat's best friend, had been watching the coverage of Effie's confirmation hearings every free moment she had, and she was delighted how well Effie had been managing. And now that the hearings had concluded, the start of speculations about her chances to be confirmed had started.
She had heard from her Columbia friends that the bookies in New York had started to take bets on whether the committees will confirm Effie as the new VP. The odds for her confirmation were reportedly high, so she decided not to ask her friends to bet for her, since her winnings would be quite low, or she'd probably not make any money at all.
Her own opinion, just like most of the rest of the country, was that Effie was going to be the next VP, and was impatient for the Senate and the House Judiciary Committees to vote and finally declare it. Of course, there were still a lot of homophobes and whatnot out there that still wanted Effie to do a faceplant, politically speaking, but Jamie was confident that wasn't very likely.
At the moment, Jamie was watching a piece on CNN that was reporting on Effie's and Kat's outing - it seems that, since the House Committee hearings ended early, the sisters decided on a bit of shopping and sightseeing today. Jamie so wanted to join them, but aside from the fact that she had work, she and Kat had agreed to minimize being seen together, otherwise, their link would become obvious, and Effie's nomination might be considered some kind of collusion or something. But, even if it was, that wasn't illegal, or even improper - after all, the selection of a VP, by definition, was a totally partisan decision, so how could it be an "improper collusion?"
In any case, rather than go through the bother of having to defend themselves in the public arena, she and Kat agreed to not see each other for now.
Last night, she saw Senators Oakes and Birch give an interview where they explained that their very incendiary comments the previous week regarding AG Xander, and of the "LGBTQ agenda creeping into mainstream society" was deliberate - so that they could test if society was indeed accepting of LGBTQ citizens. They also mentioned several senators, including Senator McLaughlin, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Congresswoman Nuuane, one of the most senior people in the House, were part of this so-called experiment.
Congresswoman Nuuane was also asked about this statement that the two senators made, and, though she said she wasn't part of this "social experiment," she believed that forcing people to show their colors this way, the way Oakes and Birch did, was an effective tool. "I mean, how can including LGBTQ facts in our children's textbooks be bad?" Nuuane said in the interview. "Facts are facts. It's only the people with an ulterior motive or agenda that would stoop so low as to give these facts color."
In almost no time at all, social media lit up and ridiculed the two senators, with a lot of Internet folks saying how stupid the two senators' extremely transparent attempt at back-pedaling and trying to take back what they said. A lot of ridicule was also heaped in front of Congresswoman Nuuane, that if she believed fomenting discord in the public arena was a justifiable means of taking the people's temperature with regards to LGBTQ issues was reckless in the extreme and totally lacking forethought, and just showed how clueless and lacking in sensitivity Nuuane was. To instigate such a thing showed how inconsequential Congresswoman Nuuane thought people's feelings were. Someone from the Internet, a "BC Abbott," posted the following: "surely someone as smart as Congresswoman Nuuane claims to be would be able to gauge the people's sentiments about LGBTQ better than deliberately causing controversy and hostility. If she really wanted to gauge people's opinions, she should have thought of something else instead of causing divisiveness, all for the sake of an experiment."
In about an hour, the other senators and congressmen mentioned by Oakes and Birch, provided interviews to most mainstream media outlets, all vehemently denying any involvement in Oakes' and Birch's "social experiment," and that they had nothing to do with the two Senators and Congresswoman Nuuane, at least in connection with with LGBTQ issues, and such behavior was, at best, reckless, and, at worst, just a transparent and lame way of taking back their mean-spirited statements.
At that point, a signature campaign was started by some LGBTQ proponents to actually recall them. However, a constitutional expert went online and said that the Supreme Court has already made its position clear - that members of Congress cannot be recalled. He suggested, instead, that the campaign should be a petition directed at the Senate, petitioning the members of the Senate to remove the two senators by way of expulsion, and if they can get a two-thirds vote, then Senators Oakes and Birch would be removed from the Senate by way of expulsion. (That's because expulsion was a legal thing.)
The people behind the campaign thanked that person and modified the campaign as he suggested.
The petition was now circulating on the web, and online signatures reached over fifty thousand in a matter of days.
- - - - -
Jamie thought of all this as she worked. In fact, she was so busy, she couldn't watch her TV program. So she decided to raise the volume of the TV in her office so she could listen to Molly Crosby, the pretty afternoon anchor of CNN, while she worked.
"The Attorney General," Molly said loudly over Jamie's TV, "and her sister, Kelly-Ann, or 'Kat' to her friends, had decided to take Thursday off to do a bit of sightseeing and some shopping in the capital, since the House committee hearings had concluded early."
"Betcha they went to the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials," Jamie giggled to herself. "Aunt Effie is boring like that."
"The two visited the Newseum, the International Spy Museum, the Washington Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and then they checked out the nearby cherry blossom trees near the West Potomac tidal basin."
Jamie hooted. "I thought so!"
"They went on to the National Gallery of Art, but before they did, there was a bit of a crisis."
Jamie stopped typing on her computer. "What!" she exclaimed. "Crisis!" She went to the TV and watched the program.
"The pair was unlucky enough to have encountered Monroe Westhill, a Washington DC native," Molly continued. "Mr. Westhill, a troubled man, has had an unhealthy obsession with beautiful women for years now, and has been arrested several times in the past for stalking. In fact, he currently has one stay away court order still in effect.
"A week ago, according to police records, Mr. Westhill purchased a 2000-era AR-15 assault rifle. He was able to do so since present gun laws, dating back from the early 2000s, provide no restrictions for individuals with the same type of record as Mr. Westhill to purchase such weapons.
"Today, Mr. Westhill had gone to the Jefferson Memorial 'trawling for babes,' as he put put it.
"AG Xander is a retired ex-Marine, as everyone knows, and is a highly-trained military woman, and is also licensed to carry a weapon. Ms Xander and her personal bodyguard spotted Mr. Westhill as he was bringing out his assault rifle.
"The two drew their weapons. Ms Xander's bodyguard, Mr. Peter Stone, identified himself as a federal officer, and scared the man off. Mr. Stone then gave chase."
Blurry CCTV video from the cameras around the memorial was then shown on-screen, and Effie and Pete could be seen drawing their weapons, and then Pete giving chase when Westhill ran.
"As Mr. Westhill ran, DC police officers saw them and caught Mr. Westhill. He was then brought to the nearest police station - the DC Park Police District One police station.
"CNN had a chance to interview him from a holding cell in the police station."
The video cut to a picture of Westhill in the holding cell. "What can I tell you," the crazed-looking man said. "I just love the babes."
"Why were you carrying a rifle?" the off-camera interviewer asked.
"Lots of women are snooty, you know - so full of themselves. They think they're too good for regular folk. Folks like me. Well, I'm gonna show them. They shouldn't say no to Monroe Westhill!"
The TV cut back to Molly.
"Among other things, Mr. Westhill has been charged with aggravated possession of a firearm, and is waiting for arraignment."
Jamie watched some more, but muted the TV after a minute or so. She felt relieved that nothing more happened, but wondered why the Secret Service didn't help. She called her assistant.
"Gil!" Jamie bellowed through her office door, and Gil went to her office.
"Yeah, Jamie?" he said.
"Can you find out who's the agent in charge of AG Xander's Secret Service detail?"
"Right away!"
"Where was the damned Secret Service when that weirdo showed up?" Jamie mumbled.
In a minute, Gil was back. "Boss," Gil said, "I can't find the agent. Apparently, there's no security detail assigned to AG Xander."
Jamie looked at him for a moment. "Okay," she said. "Can you get me the director of the Secret Service, please?"
"Okay." Gil went back to his desk.
Jamie sat on her desk, and in a minute, Gil rang back.
"Secret Service director Halversham is on Line One, Jamie," Gil said over the phone's speaker.
"Thanks, Gil," Jamie replied, lifted the headset and pressed One.
"Good afternoon, Director Halversham - Jamie Summers here, from the White House."
"Good afternoon, Ms Summers. What can I do for you?"
"Can you please tell me the name of the agent in charge of the security detail of Attorney General Freja Xander?"
The director didn't answer right away.
"I don't have that information available at the moment," he eventually replied. "I'll look it up and let you know."
"Thank you. From what I know, the Secret Service is required to provide a security detail for an official presidential or vice-presidential candidate, as well as appointees to the office, until he or she is voted in or confirmed. Isn't that correct?"
"You are correct," he said, although Jamie detected some hesitancy in his voice.
"The reason I am asking, sir, is because I wanted to know why Ms Xander's security detail wasn't in evidence during a potential shooting earlier this afternoon."
Again, there was no response.
"You know?" Jamie said "That crazy guy with the assault rifle near the Jefferson Memorial earlier today while AG Xander was there playing tourist?"
After several moments, the director finally replied.
"Thank you for bringing up the matter," Halversham finally said. "I'll investigate and let you know within the day."
"Thank you, director. I need to brief the press later at 4PM, and it would be great to have the information before then as it may come up. Also, I am fairly sure that the President will want to know as well."
"Of course. Good day, Ms Summers."
"Good day, Director Halversham."
"Dammit!" Jamie thought, now with an idea what had happened. It was so frustrating to find bigoted... people... in high places. She had half a mind to call the Secretary of Homeland Security - the Secret Service was part of Homeland, after all - or even report it directly to the President.
But she was afraid of rocking the boat. Actually, she was more afraid to find out that the Secretary and the President already knew, but didn't do anything about it.
She sighed and decided to just wait for Director Halversham's call. And if he decided to call Jamie's bluff by calling after four, she had already thought of a way to let the cat out of the bag without lying or rocking the boat too much.
She called her friend, Tom Flaherty.
"Hi, Tom? This is Jamie. Listen, did you hear about that crazy guy earlier today? The one who tried to bring out an assault rifle near the Jefferson Memorial? You did? Ah, Good. Listen, I have to tell you something..."
- - - - -
Effie and Kat stepped out of the hotel-provided limousine, and made their way to the party venue's main entrance. Kat was expected but Effie wasn't, and when she came out of the limo arm-in-arm with her sister, there were some murmurs among the crowd standing behind the line by the red carpet, wondering who the other redheaded hottie was.
But recognition eventually came, and the clapping and cheering resumed.
Kat and Effie made a distinct impression, even among the glitterati and the beautiful people of the fashion world that were there: even though the place was practically splitting at the seams with beautiful people in beautiful dresses and suits, Kat and Effie, especially their outfits, were particularly striking - Kat had especially picked their outfits to suit them, making their outfits natural extensions of their beauty. So they definitely (and literally) stood out - they were both beautiful natural redheads with bright, coppery hair set in very effortless and breezy styles (care of Kat and her blow-dryer), light but expertly-done makeup (again care of Kat), very fetching, light smatterings of freckles across their cheeks and the bridge of their noses, and pale strawberries-and-cream complexions. They were also probably the tallest among all the women there, with Effie especially so at over six feet: they literally stood out among the crowd, Effie being taller, or at least as tall, as the tallest of Sarah's guests.
The two had put on short, stylish, matching thermal evening capes against the evening DC chill before stepping out of the limo. Kat put on a shiny, white satin cape over her dress. It was edged with white mink, while Effie had a shiny lemon-gold crepe one edged with yellow-white sable fur. The fur on both capes were humanely-harvested from ethically and sustainably farmed stock - the only kind of fur Blumenfeld used. The capes kept them warm as they walked the line, and made them even more spectacularly elegant-looking besides. There were no other women with drapes or stoles or capes - yet another thing that made them apart from the rest.
As expected, when they walked the line, there were lots of Kat's fans there, and they had pictures of their favorites designs of Kat's in their hands, and Kat obliged and autographed the sketches, making sure to include the fan's name in the autograph. Effie, being the "dutiful date," smiled and stood patiently as Kat entertained her fans.
Surprisingly, however, one fan tapped Effie on the arm.
After a small expression of surprise, Effie looked down.
"Yes, my dear," Effie said in her low, smokey but very attractively feminine voice.
"Ms Xander," she said, "would you, ummm, sign my picture, too?"
"Do you know who I am, dear?"
"Yes. You're Freja Xander, our next vice president."
Kat and Effie looked at each other in delight.
"Of course, I will sign your picture!" she said, and reached for the pen.
Below Kat's autograph, which said, "with love - Kat," she added "and Effie." She also added her usual little cat doodle - a smiling cartoony cat's head, similar to an emoji.
"Here you go, dear," she said as she gave the picture back, and gave the girl a small peck on the cheek. "But it's not sure yet if I'm going to be the VP - we'll have to wait for Congress to finish voting."
"I'm sure they'll vote the right way, ma'am," the girl said. And Effie gave her another peck.
After everyone heard their exchange, and seeing that Effie was so friendly and accommodating, all the other fans asked for autographs as well.
Beside them was Pete, observing all of the people by the line. At least no one looked suspicious and tried to pull something. Actually, Pete made it easier for Kat's and Effie's fans to get near by directing most of the red carpet traffic around the two.
- - - - -
After an interminable time of signing autographs, chatting with folks and posing for selfies and pictures, Kat and Effie finally cleared the line. Liezl O'Brien from E! Entertainment was next, though, and Kat and Effie obliged by coming over.
"Hey, guys!" the pretty reporter for E! said. "So good to see you!"
"Hello, Lizzy," Kat said, calling her by her pet name, and gave her air kisses. Liezl proffered her cheek, so Effie also gave her air kisses. The two vamped in front of the camera.
"So," Liezl began. "Fancy seeing you here, Kat!" Kat nodded, giggling. "This is, what, your seventh year to be here in one of Sarah's shindigs?"
"Well, as you know, I'm a big supporter of Blumenfeld House, and Sarah, too, so I'm very pleased to be invited again."
"I know. I'm surprised that you brought along your sister, the famous political fox, Freja Xander."
"Fox?" Effie whispered to Kat.
"From your initials," Kat whispered back, and she turned back to Liezl.
Kat shrugged. "My boyfriend and I split several months ago, as you know, so I decided to make Effie my plus-one tonight. Ain't she sexy?"
"Kelly-Ann!" Effie protested, and blushed furiously. Kat and Liezl laughed at her embarassment.
"But you are!" Liezl said. "Tell me, Kat," she said, "Effie's gorgeous red outfit - one of your bespoke designs?"
"Ah, yes," Kat said, "it's mine, actually, but it's not bespoke. Effie is against bespoke, haute couture and custom designs, unlike the rest of us." She smiled so Effie knew Kat was joking. "She is actually wearing one of my pret-a-porter designs for Blumenfeld," Kat continued, "and it should be coming out in select Blumenfeld and other stores next week."
"What do you call the design?"
"It's called the 'Freja Red Carpet' cocktail dress." Effie tried to hide her giggle. "Sure, sure," Effie thought with some amusement, "that's its name."
"We'll be watching out for it then. How about this sexy emerald green number you're wearing?"
"This is mine, too, but it's not coming out in stores. Just something I made for me." She smiled at Liezl mischievously. "How do you like it?"
Leizl gave her a humorous wolf whistle, making Kat giggle. "Thank you Lizzy," Kat said, and gave her a small peck on the cheek.
"I do have to ask, though, before I let you go," Liezl said to Effie. "how do you think the Senate and House committee hearings went?"
"I think they went pretty much okay," Effie said.
"So can we expect you to be the country's new vice president soon?"
Effie shrugged. "I don't really know. I guess we have to wait for their vote."
"Any guesses, then?"
"I don't think it would be polite nor proper for me to second guess Congress."
Liezl nodded. "Well put, Effie. Well anyway, I'll let you two go to the party now. Thanks for passing by."
"It was our pleasure, Liezl," Effie said, and they bussed her cheek again.
But as they were walking away, Effie jumped a little - Liezl had playfully squeezed her butt!
But, in order to avoid making a scene, Effie just continued walking. But when they were some distance away, she looked back, and caught Liezl's eye while she was interviewing one of Sarah's other invited celebrities in front of the TV cameras. Looking back, Liezl gave her a salacious little wink.
- - - - -
As they fell in line to the doors, Kat noticed Effie's preoccupied, worried expression.
"Hey, sis," she whispered. "What's wrong?"
"Liezl," Effie whispered back, "the girl who interviewed us?"
"What about Liezl?" Kat smiled. It was like she knew already.
"She pinched my butt!"
Kat giggled. "Yeah, I know. She did it to me several times before. Liezl is known for doing that, but no one minds it."
"What do you mean she did it to you!" Effie started making moves to go back, most probably to confront the girl, more for doing that to her sister than to her. Kat took hold of Effie's arm and pulled her back.
"Effie! Stop!" she whispered.
"But..."
"She's harmless! Believe me! If it were someone else, I'd probably have popped her one. Or him. But this is Liezl."
Effie huffed. "Explain better. And faster."
"Sis, Liezl has been in the business for a long time now. At least twenty years, I think, and she's done that to people she likes - both men and women - and she never means anything by it, except maybe to say she likes you, or thinks you're very pretty, or something like that. But that's the extent of it. It's just the way she is. For those who take offense, Liezl will apologize and not do it again - she knows she shouldn't be doing it, but forgets sometimes. And for those who misconstrue her fanny-pinching as something more, well, there's many a person who've been on the receiving end of one of her legendary punches in the face or gut, or a resounding slap. And if the person persists, well the lady is a black belt in Karate. Plus, her company has one of the best legal departments in the industry."
"But..."
"Take it as a compliment, Effie! Really! She doesn't mean anything by it! Everyone knows that about her."
Effie sighed. "Okay, kid. I'll trust you."
Kat reached up and gave her a sisterly kiss. "Thanks, sis."
By that time, they had reached the door, where Alexandra Ambrose, the famous, drop-dead gorgeous Brazilian model who did a lot of modeling for Blumenfeld House, all decked out in a sexy version of a majordomo outfit, was checking guests off a checklist with the help of Brooke Decklin, another one of the famous models of Blumenfeld House. Aside from modeling for Blumenfeld, Brooke now stars on the popular sitcom "Friends Like Us." Brook was dressed in a super-sexy version of an eighteenth-century butler's uniform, and the effect the two had was such that they got more attention than the guests.
The sisters finally got past the two models, turned their capes over to the cloak girl, and made straight for the bar - Kat had told Effie about the lavish bars that Sarah always had in these parties. Kat only drank occasionally, and Effie minimized drinking because people on HRT can increase their risk for breast cancer if they drink regularly. But the sisters do, occasionally, drink, especially when there's good champagne to be had.
They asked the sommelier (Sarah had an honest-to-goodness sommelier helping to tend the bar) what was available for the night. The man gave them a quick once-over, and, noting that they were probably VIPs, suggested either Tattinger's, Henriot or Dom Perignon 2029.
Kat preferred the fruitier and sweeter Tattinger, while Effie went with the classic Dom Perignon. And when a waitress passed by with a tray of caviar, cheese and little triangular pieces of toasted French bread, Effie got a couple of saucers and loaded them up with food.
Pretty soon, they were having themselves a fancy little picnic at the bar, with fancy-pants Beluga caviar (it was actually Beluga hybrid caviar since the real kind was illegal to import into the US), fancy-pants Burrata cheese, and fancy-pants toast points made from French bread, and their champagne. As usual, Pete was just a few feet away drinking ginger ale out of a tall collins glass and pretending to be a guest while he kept watch over the two.
As they chatted and giggled, they caught the eye of most of the men (and some of the women), and pretty soon, the bar was surrounded by people. Many came over to supposedly introduce themselves to the famous Attorney General, and to inquire how her hearings had gone, or to say hi to the famous fashion designer, and that might even be true for some of them, but most of them were actually more charmed by the sisters' beauty.
To be fair, though, the ballroom was full of beautiful people, but to see a pair of tall, redheaded hotties in beautiful cocktail-type gowns that bordered on being club clothes, the two couldn't help but stand out.
Effie was having a great time because everyone was being nice and complimentary, a lot of them were actually too friendly and complimentary, almost fawning, although there were a few that were fairly hostile - they obviously had issues with her being a transgender girl, and, not surprisingly, many of those were women.
That wasn't new to Effie and Kat, and they were able to keep being polite to these guests. Of course, when they found that Effie was almost sure to become the Vice President in a few weeks, they became a lot more friendly.
As Effie was pretending to be nice to one of these people, an arm snaked around her waist.
"Gotcha!" the man said.
Effie whirled, and saw it was Matt Reynolds, the popular ex-governor of California, and one of her best friends.
"Matt!" she exclaimed, and hugged the man - he was almost as tall as Effie. "What're you doing here?"
"I'm supposed to be here. How about you? What're you doing here?"
"Kat invited me to be her plus-one."
"Matt!" Kat exclaimed when she finally saw him.
"Heya, squirt!"
"Squirt!" Kat said, trying to sound offended, but wasn't too successful, especially when she giggled. The "squirt" was ironic, of course, given Kat was just a few inches shorter.
"Is Ann here?" Effie said, asking about Matt's wife. Ann was a little cool towards Effie (she suspected that Ann thought Effie was being sweet to her husband, and was therefore a little hostile), but Effie genuinely liked the girl.
"Present!" someone said, and Ann came over, bringing along her sister, Natalie, and they both hugged Effie.
"Ann! Nat!" Kat cried, and gave them hugs, too. "I heard about you getting married?" she said to Nat.
Natalie giggled and showed off her wedding and engagement rings. Kat and Effie ooohed and ahhhed.
"Where's your new husband now?" Kat asked.
"Jake should be around," Natalie said, and then pointed to a tall, handsome young man standing and chatting with some people. "There he is!" She waved and beckoned him over. He smiled and started walking towards them, bringing the people he had been chatting with.
"Jake is working with his Uncle Edward," she said, "the owner of Blumenfeld House. He's currently taking a designer internship with Uncle Edward."
Natalie explained that the people he was with were Sarah Rhodes, the lady who organized the party, his uncle (and Sarah's boss) Edward Blumenfeld of Blumenfeld House, and his dad, Ambrose Blumenfeld, the owner of California's current, most successful corporation, BMC - the current leading manufacturer of electric vehicles.
"Hey, honey," Jake said and kissed Natalie.
"Jake, I'd like to introduce you to some people, this is..."
"Of course! I'd know Attorney General Xander. How are you, ma'am? How go the hearings?"
"Call me Effie, Mr. Blumenfeld. The hearings are over, actually. Congress finished interrogating me yesterday." They all laughed at the word.
"And, of course, I know Kat, her genius fashion designer sister." Jake continued. He then gestured to his companions.
"This is my dad, Ambrose - he runs the Blumenfeld-Tate Motor Company, or BMC, and my uncle Edward. Uncle Ed runs Blumenfeld House." They all shook hands.
"And this is..." Jake cleared his throat, "or rather, that was Sarah, our host." Sarah had taken Kat's arm, and had dragged her to meet some people.
"You have to pardon Sarah," Edward said. "She and your sister are very close friends, and she's excited to show Kat off."
Effie nodded. "I expected as much," she said, laughing. "I knew Kat would disappear as soon as she got spotted." She turned toward Reynolds and his wife.
"So, how's it been, Matt?" she asked. "Haven't seen you and Ann for a while."
"It's been quiet but nice," he said. "It's a chance for Annie and I to enjoy life for while. We now have a place in Manhattan Beach, and, I mean the one in LA," he chuckled. "Our place is a pretty nice place, if we do say so. And secluded - you and Kat should visit: the beach is very nice, and no one would be around to bother you."
Effie sneaked a glance at Ann, and Ann nodded. She seemed to be fine with the idea. Effie thought her staying away seemed to have done wonders for her relationship with Matt's wife.
"I might not have a chance to anytime soon, though..." Effie said
"Yeah," Ann giggled, "you're gonna be vice president soon."
Effie waved that away. "There's no guarantee of that," she said, "especially if Senator McLaughlin gets his way." She looked at the both of them. "I envy you - you two have not a care in the world."
"Not for long," Ann responded. "Matt's already plotting his return to politics," she said in a joking, conspiratorial tone. "Right, dear?"
"Oh, honey..." Matt sighed.
"Notice how he didn't deny it," Natalie said, giggling.
"But not before we start a family," Ann said.
"What!" Effie exclaimed. "You mean you're..."
"Pregnant?" Ann grinned. "Yep."
And Effie congratulated and hugged her, and peppered her with kisses.
"I am so pleased for you," Ambrose interjected, "but, speaking selfishly, I have to say, it was a sad day when California lost it's miracle worker. And it'd be great to have him back." He turned to Effie.
"How about you, Ms Xander? What are your plans?"
"Me? Well, I think I'll stay on as Wyoming's AG as long as they want me. I'm pleased to be of service."
"Ummm, I meant your plans for the vice presidency?"
Effie shrugged. "Like I said to Ann, tht's not guaranteed at all. I'm not gonna plan for it until Congress announces."
They chatted some more, and more and more people started to cluster around them, listening in or trying to be part of their conversation.
Effie and Matt didn't mind, and made no effort to exclude anyone from their little chat, and it went well.
However, an older lady, one of Blumenfeld's top models during the early 2000s but now clearly past her prime, was being very... disruptive. It was like she was picking a fight or something.
Edward Blumenfeld had been trying to keep his simmering anger at bay as this... "lady" continued to be disagreeable to his friends and guests for no particular reason. And he realized that this was his fault.
He had been insisting that Tasmin Brown always be invited to their yearly parties, even though the last time she modeled for them, or any other fashion house, magazine or whatever, was more than twenty years ago. But Edward felt a kind of loyalty and gratitude to her, because she was partly responsible for the success of Blumenfeld House, and because she was a friend of his dad.
But her erratic behavior had not endeared her to any of Edward's friends, or, indeed to Blumenfeld House. Not anymore. And, tonight, it was like she was trying to piss off the potential VP of the country just because she resented her looks and her youth. Actually, it was Edward's personal opinion that Effie looked tons better than Tasmin did, even during her heyday. And he felt Tasmin thought the same, too, especially given all the catty remarks she was throwing Effie's way. Even so, Effie seemed to be keeping her cool, and, wonder of wonders, she was actually getting Tasmin to tone down a bit, and even be friendlier to her and everyone else.
But then, Tasmin saw one of her "old friends," and went over to say hi.
Almost as if synchronized, as soon as Tasmin left, everyone sighed in relief. And then noticing it, everyone laughed.
Hearing the laughter, Tasmin looked back and felt bad that she was missing out on a good joke or something, but she resolved to ask her new friend, Effie, later, and what the joke was about. Fomo was something Tasmin never could deal with.
One of the ladies, a lovely girl named Sally, giggled.
"That was pretty great, Ms Xander," Sally giggled. "You have to teach people how you do that."
"Do what, my dear?"
"You know - kill with kindness."
And everyone laughed.
Most of the people in the group started to leave, but the girl, Sally, stayed and chatted a while. Effie found out that Sally was one of Blumenfeld's models, newly-hired to model their YA line. Effie congratulated her, and they had a pleasant discussion on fashion, which everyone in Effie's remaining group seem to be able to follow, except, perhaps for her, Matt and Jake's Uncle Ambrose. But even so, it was like watching a foreign language movie without subtitles for her - it looked interesting even though one only got half of it, and only because of context.
It was with some regret that Effie saw Kat waving to her, signalling that the "mini" fashion show was about to start and, therefore, ending their chat.
Everyone dispersed so that they could get to their assigned seats. Effie went over to Kat and got to sit at the very edge of the runway since she was Kat's plus-one, and she found herself surrounded by Hollywood's "who's who" and the fashion world's movers and shakers. She was the only political person there, however - she had discounted Matt since, because of his wife, he's been in similar events multiple times before, and people were used to him already - and felt a moment of dread when Kat joked that this'll be more and more common if and when she became vice president.
When Sarah and Edwin Blumenfeld came out, applause rained down. They stepped in front of a couple of mic stands, and started making some opening remarks before the start of the show, and when she and Kat were mentioned by name, they stood up and acknowledged the applause.
As they sat down, Effie felt a vibration in her tiny clutch, and brought out her smartphone. She had told everyone not to call her unless it was an emergency, so, when the phone rang (or buzzed, rather - the ringer was off), she feared the worst.
But when the number wasn't in her phone book, she decided to ignore the call. But whoever it was rang a couple more times. She wanted to turn off her phone but she couldn't, in case Max or someone else needed her.
While Sarah continued her speech, Kat's phone buzzed this time. She took out her phone and looked at the number, and answered. "Text" she said to the other person very curtly, and hung up.
The phone buzzed again, and Kat started texting with the person on the other end.
"Kat, what are you doing?" Effie whispered. "We're in a thing. You shouldn't be texting. It's rude."
Kat shrugged as she texted. "I know," Kat whispered back, "but this is a lot less rude than talking on the phone. It's Jamie."
"What's she..."
"Shhh! Okay. Jamie texted she didn't know we were doing a thing before, but now she knows coz we're on TV, and she says she's sorry, but she says this is important. Jamie also says she's texting you in a bit and you better reply."
"But..."
Kat put her finger across Effie's lips. "I know, but she says it's important. Just say you'll answer."
"Okay!"
Kat texted her back and put her phone away.
In a few moments, Effie's phone buzzed again. Yep, it was Jamie.
"Sorry to bother you, Aunt Effie," Jamie texted, "but I saw that news item about that gunman at the park. Were you assigned a Secret Service detail?"
"No," she typed back curtly.
"I understand," Jamie replied. "Presidents, vice presidents and appointees are required to have one. I suspect you weren't assigned one, for the usual reasons." There were no italics in the text, of course, but Effie could readily imagine Jamie italicizing the word. Effie sighed.
"Of course," Effie thought. "Secret Service was required to provide a security detail! Why did I forget that? Having prejudiced people in positions of power..." That was starting to become a kind of mantra for her now.
"I've put something in motion," Jamie texted, "so you should have your own Secret Service detail in a while. I'd appreciate it if you can let me know as soon as they show up. Just text 'Y' if you understand."
Effie sighed. "So it's started," she thought, and texted back "Y."
"Thanks, Aunt Effie," Jamie texted. "I won't bug you anymore. Enjoy your evening. Tell Kat to call me back when she can."
Effie put away her phone, looked around and, aside from Pete, she couldn't find anyone that looked like Secret Service, and she was sure she'd recognize them.
She noticed that Ed had gotten off the stage and music had started. "Guess the show's starting," Effie said, and clapped along with everyone.
One of the things many "normals" assume with gays, transgendered and transsexuals all had an attraction to clothes, fashion, and anything connected to clothes and fashion, and it was hard to explain why that was for many of them. Early on, even before her transition, Effie tried to parse that particular out as part of her trying to understand herself, and she thought she could articulate it now - at least that particular one.
She couldn't speak for others, of course, and she knew it was different for every person, but for her, the clothes were part of what it was to be female, and that was what she desperately wanted to be. So if clothes, fashion, makeup and all the accoutrements of being female was important to females, then therefore it was important to her. Of course, she never parsed it down so logically and coldly before, but, when she did, she realized it was true.
But, if she looked at it not so coldly and not quite so logically, all she knew was she just liked pretty clothes, and, by extension, she liked looking pretty. The big difference, her therapist and doctor said. was her motivation was more in line with what "normal" women felt, as opposed to the ones who wear female clothes... recreationally, whose motivation was more-or-less sexual gratification - at least to some degree.
And though she felt sexy and pretty and all the good things that cisgender women say when they're all dressed up, sexual gratification wasn't the thing. And she supposed that was the big difference, even though, after her transition, dressing sexy has led to some... sexual encounters.
- - - - -
One of the bigger revelations to her about being female was that most everything was talked about and shared with fellow female friends, and for Effie, friends meant Kat, Max and her "residential manager," Andrea (though her little circle of post-transition friends was, and still is, growing). And her female friends now know all about her... sexual dalliances, and she theirs, and almost anything of consequence in their lives, and for these four women, they would die a thousand deaths for each other.
Effie thought that if having these lifelong sisters in her life was the prize for going through what she went through (though the older Andrea felt more like an aunt than her sister, and Kat was literally her sister), she thought it a fair exchange.
- - - - -
Effie watched the show, and because it was her first fashion show, she didn't know what to do. So she took her cues on how to behave by looking at her fellow audience members, and clapped when they clapped. However, as soon as the tenth or eleventh model started sashaying down the runway, she didn't need cues anymore - she looked at the wonderful clothes and how beautiful they made the models look, and wondered how the outfits would look on her: she was totally engrossed in the show now, just like all the girls there.
Kat looked at her sister and giggled. Effie was fitting in as a girl more and more everyday. Kat had a surprise for her sister, though, and was so excited for the surprise to walk down the runway. She set it up with Sarah earlier, and she was anticipating it so much.
Kat caught Effie making notes on her phone and on a little scrap of paper, and she looked at what she was writing.
"You know, Effie," Kat said conversationally, "everyone's gonna be given a catalog later. So you should just sit back and enjoy the show."
Effie smiled at Kat embarrassedly, blushed and put her pen and phone away.
After roughly three-fourths of the show was done, Sarah nodded subtly at Kat, and Kat nodded back. Her surprise was next. She elbowed her sister, and Effie looked at her.
Kat gestured to the runway, and Effie looked.
"Up next is Jasmine," Sarah said, "wearing yet another Kat Xander design."
With that cue, the a 1990s pop classic song, "I'm Too Sexy," by a one-hit wonder band called "Right Said Fred," started blasting rom the speakers, and a tall girl with red hair came out wearing exactly what Effie was wearing...
"Jasmine's fabulous new dress is a strapless, figure-hugging gown in lipstick red, as you see. The material is a spandex mix, which allows the dress to follow Jasmine's spectacular figure to the the millimeter. "
The girl walked down the runway, her yellow, fur-trimmed cape swaying over her dress.
"It has a wonderful shiny-yellow crepe cape, perfect for those nippy nights, with sable fur edging. You will be pleased to know that the fur is humanely harvested from ethically and sustainably farmed sables, just as all Blumenfeld House furs are."
The girl, as she walked down the runway, doffed the cape, and everyone oohed and ahhhed, as they saw the sexy, red outfit underneath.
"You now see the dress in its full glory," Sarah continued. "It features a mermaid/trumpet silhouette. It's strapless, and features a very daring decolletage that any girl with even a moderate figure will find it showcased in spectacular fashion.
"The draped details at the skirt adds more drama to the mermaid cut and tail, but there's enough of a cut in front to let your tootsies, and your legs, too, pop out as you walk." Jasmine accommodated Sarah, and started walking again.
"The ensemble matches up well with the high-heeled shiny lemon-gold stiletto pumps she is wearing, also by Kat." The redheaded girl stopped and pointed the toe of her shoe out from under the skirt.
"Hey, wait!" someone exclaimed. "That's the same dress Effie Xander is wearing!" And then, after a short intake of breath from the crowd, everyone laughed at the exclamation, and then the applause rained down.
The model stopped right in front of Effie and Kat, and clapped as well, as she bowed towards the sisters. Obviously, it was all arranged, and Ellie, blushing a mile a minute, stood up and waved to everyone.
There were several wolf whistles and Effie blushed an even brighter red.
"And here you see, also wearing the 'Freja Red Carpet' cocktail dress is fashionista, war hero and Attorney General of the great state of Wyoming, Ms. Freja Xander, the inspiration for sister Kat Xander's newest creation."
Sarah motioned her to come up the runway, and Effie, escorted by Kat, went to the short steps on the side of the stage, and climbed up.
Jasmine, the model, embraced Effie and hand in hand, the two walked to the very front of the stage. The cheers and applause just continued to rain down as they turned and walked back.
Once they reached the other end of the runway, the two stopped, turned to the crowd and waved.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Sarah said, "Blumenfeld House's own Jasmine, and our new vice president, Ms. Freja Xander!"
And the crowd's applause trebled as they gave her a standing ovation.
- - - - -
After the fashion show and the sit-down dinner that followdd, and hours of after-dinner cocktails and chats, the event finally ended.
Most of the fashionistas and guests, after saying goodbye to their hosts, departed for other parties. For Effie and Kat, they made their goodbyes, and, before departing for the hotel, were met by a couple of big men (not as big as Pete, thought) just outside, wearing what Effie, Kat and Pete recognized as FBI-style nondescript suits.
"Good evening, ma'am," the blond one said, "I'm special agent Tim Colton of the Secret Service. This is Sam Jenkins, my partner. We're part of your Secret Service detail."
"Glad you guys finally showed up," Effie said. "We could have used you guys earlier. Good evening, Agent Colton."
"We know about that incident near the Jefferson Memorial. In behalf of the Secret Service, I apologize, ma'am. We were only assigned as your temporary detail just an hour ago. We'll be with you until your real detail replaces us."
"Real detail?"
We're just the alert team, ma'am. There's always an alert team on standby just in case a security detail needs to be deployed on short notice. Your real, perm team will eventually replace us. At the latest, that would be tomorrow morning."
"All right." She and Kat put their capes back on. Kat put her arm through Effie's, and walked to their limo.
"Ma'am," Colton said, "we prefer that you ride in our own car..."
"Sorry," Effie said. "You weren't around earlier, and we hired this car. You and your guys can just follow us."
Ma'am..."
"Tomorrow, you guys can call the shots. Not tonight. Tonight, you get to follow us." Colton had the good grace to blush in embarassment, and that made Effie feel a little better.
"Ma'am?" Jenkins, Colton's partner asked, "where are we going, exactly?"
"We are going to go back to our hotel."
Jenkins did that FBI thing, and talked to a mic on his wrist, and a car parked out in the driveway.
Colton and Jenkins moved to try and usher Effie and Kat into their limo, but the sisters were intercepted by Peter opening the limo door.
"Agents," Effie said, "let me introduce you to my one-man security detail, Sergeant Peter Stone. Pete, these are agents Colton and Jenkins."
Pete nodded to them.
"Sergeant!" Colton said, and saluted. He elbowed Jenkins, and Jenkins saluted as well.
"At ease boys," he said and handed the girls into the car. They watched passively and watched Pete rush to the front passenger door and get in.
As soon as he did, the two rushed to their own car, which was nearby, idling.
"Who was that, Tim," Jenkins asked.
"That, my friend, is the legendary Marine Sergeant-Major Peter Stone."
"Ohmigod!" Jenkins said. "What's he doing being Xander's bodyguard?"
"We can try to find out later. Right now, we need to go follow them to their hotel."
to be continued...
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