Capitol Hell by Jayne J. Jones

Author:Jayne J. Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Beaver's Pond
Published: 2012-08-27T00:00:00+00:00

9

The Political Wheels on the Bus

I woke up with a spring in my step and a zest for life. Over the next twenty-four hours, I would transform from a Senate staffer to someone working for a presidential candidate. I’d be on a fifteen-stop bus tour across Minnesota with Senator McDermott as he announced his foray into presidential politics. It was incomprehensible that the man I told where to go and what to do was positioning himself to be the leader of the free world. It was rewarding to work for a man who aspired to be President of the United States, the most powerful country in the world. And to think that I, a small-town girl from South Dakota, could have such an amazing opportunity was almost beyond comprehension. It was easy to lose sight of that with all the nonsense and constant pressures of my job. But on days like today it was just as easy to be thankful. I couldn’t help but feel excited, and I began to fantasize about working in the West Wing. From South Dakota to Pennsylvania Avenue, I thought.

As I pulled on my “McDermott for President” red, white, and blue T-shirt and matching baseball cap, I proudly looked at myself in the mirror. I was ready for the battle that a presidential election was sure to be. Despite everything, Senator McDermott put a lot of trust in me. I was honored, and I couldn’t let him or my parents down.

I noticed that Janet was being unusually quiet for a morning of such importance. I went to wake her up and noticed that her air mattress was already deflated and put away. I went to the kitchen, expecting to find her downing a Diet Coke as a morning stress reliever, but she wasn’t there. In fact, she didn’t seem to be in the McDermott house anywhere.

“What in God’s name are you doing?” I asked after I found her sprawled out in the McDermotts’ garage. She had a crazed look in her eye and was surrounded by thousands of personalized water bottles that announced “McDermott for President” on their labels.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” she asked as she peeled off a manufacturer’s label and replaced it with a campaign sticker.

“You did all of these bottles already?” I asked, stunned, looking at what had to be thousands of bottles surrounding her.

“All night long, while you snored away,” she griped and passed me some stickers.

“Who asked you to do this and when?” I asked.

“Last night while you were getting your beauty sleep you didn’t hear the pounding on the window? Trista was outside and I woke up. She said Charles was worried about us buying the wrong kind of bottled water and pissing off a few of the donors—some of whom are apparently in the water-bottling business. So Charles told us that we needed to get all these bottle labels off and replace them with ‘McDermott for President’ stickers,” Janet said.

“Where’s Trista?” I asked.

“No clue. I tried to wake you up, but you were out cold.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.