“Thank you so much. But I-”
“Look, you want to stay in that chair and wallow in sorrow, that’s your business. Waste away to nothing, I don’t care. But you’ve got a brand-new wife, buster. And she does care, you get what I’m saying? So eat already!”
Ben took a bite. Not half bad, actually.
“I talked to the docs out in the hallway,” she continued. “No change, right?”
Ben nodded and took another nibble.
“Prognosis?”
Ben wiped his mouth, then spoke. “Poor.”
“That’s what I thought.” She looked down at her stricken partner again, then pointed to the green vinyl chair next to the one Ben was sitting in. “That chair empty?”
“Uh, yeah.”
She plopped into it. “You know, Ben-this is not your fault. No one could have foreseen-”
“Stop.”
“I’m just saying-”
“Stop.”
“But you can’t go on-”
“Would you please just stop!”
This time, it was Kate who fell silent.
For a moment. “You’re wounded.”
“Please don’t get all psychological on me.”
“I’m being literal.” She touched the side of his cheek.
“Oh. Right. Bullet grazed me. Docs say it will heal. Won’t leave a scar.”
“I’ve seen bullet creases before. I think the doctors are wrong.”
“Whatever. Who cares? By all rights, it should’ve taken my head off. I was lucky. Unlike-”
He didn’t finish.
She decided to change the subject. Slightly.
“Saw the first lady’s funeral on television. A horrible thing.”
Ben agreed. “Saw the start. Couldn’t stand it any longer.”
“Good to see the president back on his feet, though. He looked strong. Grief-stricken, sure. But he still had it together. Some of the rumors going around-” She paused. “Well, it was good to see him back in action, even under these circumstances. I’m glad he’s going to speak to the nation. I think it’s the right thing to do. What everyone needs. A feeling of unity. Strength. Resilience. What do you think he’s going to say?”
Ben shrugged.
“Ben, you are going back to Washington, aren’t you? The president is addressing a joint session. I’m no political expert, but I’m pretty sure that means the U.S. senators are supposed to be there.”
“I’m not a real senator.”
“Ben-at the moment, you’re the only senator this state has got.”
It was too sad, too true. With Tidwell killed in the explosion, and the governor hesitant to name a successor so soon after the tragedy, Ben was Oklahoma’s only rep in the Senate.
Kate gently laid her hand over Ben’s. “We need you in Washington, Ben. You go back and do your job. I’ll stay here with Mike.”
He turned slowly. “That’s why Christina sent you, isn’t it? To take my place. So I’d go to Washington.”
Kate’s eyes told him all he needed to know.
Ben waited until Kate had closed the door behind her; then he leaned forward, his eyes on Mike. “I remember when our roles were reversed, pal. After I took that spill at the refinery and ended up in the hospital, out for days. You stayed by me. I may not have known it at the time…but then again, somehow I think I did. And I like to think you know I’m here now.”
He drew in his breath. “I have to go now. But I’ll still be thinking of you. I will not forget-anything. I especially won’t forget that you tossed my butt out of that car before you saved your own. If it had gone the other way around, you’d still be hale and hearty. You took that explosion for me, and the president. You did what you always do. Took care of others better than you take care of yourself. And I won’t forget it-ever.”
He steadied himself with the metal guardrail.
“I will do everything in my power to make sure that this does not happen again. Not to anyone else. Not ever. That’s what you would do, if you were here. So since you can’t-I’ll do it for you.”
He opened the door and handed Kate The Oxford Book of English Verse. “He’s all yours now.”
As he rose, he gave Mike one last look.
Come back to us, Mike. Please.
5
“Where’s the script?” Christina kept asking. “Don’t we get advance copies? We always get advance copies.”
“I asked Jimmy twice,” Ben said, as they took their designated seats in the chamber. “There are no copies.”
“But-that’s just not done. The President of the United States does not address a joint session without providing advance copies.”
“This isn’t the State of the Union address.”
“No, this will probably be about a thousand times more important than the State of the Union address. People will actually be watching.”
“I hear what you’re saying,” Ben replied, as the throng of senators and representatives and staff began taking their seats. “But the fact remains. There are no advance copies.”
“Did Jimmy give a reason?”
Ben hesitated. “He did, but…well, it almost seems too incredible to believe, much less repeat.”
“Don’t hold out on me, hubby. What did the man say?”
“Jimmy said…” Ben took a deep breath. “He said the president wasn’t quite sure yet exactly what he was going to say.”
Christina looked at him with eyes wide as Frisbees. “The president has requested an invitation to address a special joint session-but he hasn’t decided yet what he’s going to say?”
“I know. Difficult to imagine.”
Christina shook her head sadly. “I suppose anything is possible. The man just lost his wife in a horrible, violent manner. He must be more shaken up than we realized.”
As Ben gazed around the huge and historic chamber, he saw that most of the key players had taken their designated seats, just as they would if this were the State of the Union address. Near the front of the chamber, the joint chiefs of staff sat in a row, next to the nine members of the Supreme Court and the president’s cabinet. Ben did a quick count and realized that one of the cabinet members was missing-the secretary of commerce, if he wasn’t mistaken. He was the designated survivor, the man who would ensure continuity in government in the event that some tragedy should take out everyone above him in the constitutional line of succession. Ever since 9/11, Ben knew a few members of Congress also were quietly asked to view the proceedings from another location by closed-circuit monitor, for exactly the same reason.
“Virtually everyone we know in Washington is here,” Ben commented.
“Yes, and about a thousand people we don’t know,” Christina said wryly. “It’s a veritable ‘Who’s That’ of politics.”
