By Silent Majority by Robert Buschel

Author:Robert Buschel [Buschel, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Robert Buschel
Published: 2016-06-03T16:00:00+00:00

June walked into her family room and shut the door. She sat on a couch opposite Roger Rock. She was dressed as if it were a formal occasion. Rock was a man she felt she had to dress for. She looked at his eyes and immediately took out a cigarette and lit it.

“You’re not a smoker,” Rock said forthright.

“This whole dialogue is bothersome. I resent it and I don’t feel very good about it. You’re going to have to deal with my smoking?”

“I meant in public. The future First Lady does not smoke. It’s a disgusting habit.”

“You smoke.”

“I’m not running for office, you are. The whole family is. And it’s not what I think, it’s what the public thinks. First Ladies don’t smoke.”

“First Ladies don’t smoke,” June said dutifully. She could say nothing else, he was right. She wanted to make it to the White House and knew that would be the climax of power. Where she would have the most influence. For what, even she had not resolved. June had no cause or pet project that she wanted to see furthered. The influence over others gave her a sense of security. An odd prioritization of values for a woman from the poor South. A priority of power number one makes a woman clawing her way up a silk curtain like a cat; but, instead of it being a game of adventure—the purpose of a cat—it is necessary for survival. With power as a need in June’s life, surely she scratched the wrong rat along the way.

At first, June was reluctant to confide in Roger Rock, like the rest of the family. June, however, felt guilty. She was guilty in her mind. She told a couple of usual stories, linked to forgetfulness or laziness—not returning excess change at the grocery store. Rock grew impatient. June knew that this was not what he wanted. She needed some lubricant; she needed a psychiatrist.

“I’m your priest, June. You should tell me everything. Everything that will help your husband become President.” Rock knew what to say next. “When Daniel is President, you will be able to bury these memories and do some wonderful things once you’re tapped with authority.”

June immediately complied. Her thoughts took her back to the early 1970s. She was June Wolfe back then. Tom, her husband returned from Vietnam less than a hero, as most soldiers did. While most wives pined away for their lovers or got their love elsewhere, she did neither. June didn’t yearn for Tom or any other man. She moved on, financially and socially.

June and Tom had just leased an apartment in a suburb in Virginia, before he was called away to the Vietnam “police action.” While Tom provided well for June financially, she wanted more from life than waiting for her husband to come home and offer to take her out. She wanted to need to go outside. “I have an appointment,” she would love to say. Through a friend, she joined the staff of Senator Buckley of Alabama.

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