A Nice Normal Family by John Terry Moore

Author:John Terry Moore [Moore, John Terry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-63477-546-5
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2016-09-30T04:00:00+00:00

WITH THE election due midyear, some encouraging economic indicators appeared as the autumn session got underway. The balance of trade figures showed marked improvement, and that was all Jason needed.

The next day he visited the governor-general and we readied ourselves to hit the campaign trail once again.

When Jason returned from Yarralumla, I was summoned to his office. I was ushered in, the door closed, and the prime minister gave me his usual welcome. Not the standard greeting for his ministers, but then I clearly wasn’t usual or standard, so I cuddled him back.

There are some things a dyslexic person can visualize particularly in the future, but other obvious things in the present often go unnoticed. So I sat there as Jason told me that as Phillip Gregson had decided to retire and wouldn’t seek reelection, Jason wanted me to become deputy leader and deputy prime minister in the new government if we were reelected, in addition to the Education portfolio.

My head spun as Jason laughed at me, assuring me he’d already done the numbers and I would have a clear margin in caucus, despite the “gang of fifteen” from the right wing of the parliamentary party who opposed everything progressive, including the newbie who seemed a carbon copy of the prime minister, with the same crazy ideas about embracing Asia and Asians. I knew I was hated by them; they were mostly middle-aged Catholics who hated gays, Asians, and anything out of the ordinary. They also clung to the monarchy like leeches and organized themselves into their own factional group but were clearly outnumbered and looking more irrelevant than ever.

“Don’t look so surprised,” Jason said. “Politics is like shooting snakes. A leader needs someone to keep the reptiles under control on one hand and who won’t plug him in the back with the other. How could I possibly choose anyone else?”

Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Sir Richard Branson, Walt Disney, Jay Leno, Whoopi Goldberg, Nelson Rockefeller, Agatha Christie, Steven Spielberg, Harry Belafonte, Winston Churchill, Richard Strauss.

I thanked him and accepted the promotion, because our teamwork was undeniable, and regardless of my relative inexperience, I knew I’d quickly grow into the role. We read each other’s minds miles ahead of the action, sharing a common purpose and strategy, and I felt excited for the future.

Jason had taken a huge risk with the first election, but the electorate sought change from the previous poorly performing government, and we were duly elected with a comfortable majority. This time they would not only judge our progress toward our stated goals, but what was in it for them—the feedback from Hinchcliffe was exactly what the focus groups were saying around the country.

In our favor was the fact we’d delivered on every election promise made and had, we’d hoped, demonstrated we were more interested in running the nation than trying to score political points by running down the Opposition. In fact we tried for good reason to approach everything we did in the Asia Plan with bipartisan support, for the long-term sake of the strategy and the nation.

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