Girl Power (19 page)

"God yes, could you be Angelique next time we…you know?"

Angelique sat and Crowe followed. "If you like, but I must warn you

Angelique is meaner than Melissa."

"Oh yes, I like mean."

"All right, but you've been warned. Did you bring my money?"

Crowe reached in his breast pocket and fetched an envelope. "Here, your

first month's check. It's for $680,000. I did the math for you. After deducting your cost of goods, you need to write a check to me for $138,000."

Tight lipped, she snatched the envelope and used her long frosty peach

nails like a letter opener. She glanced at the check and rolled her eyes. "A check? I expected a briefcase of hundred dollar bills."

"That's how we pay everybody. How else do you expect us to keep track of

all the money that flows through the RNC?"

"Fine, I'm going to make a copy of this for my records, but I'm not writing any checks to you. Your 138 grand is coming back to you in cash. You can pick it up tonight at my condo and while you're there you can sign a receipt for $680,000

in women's clothes."

Crowe's eyes expanded. "Your place tonight."

"Ah-huh."

"Could you be Angelique?"

"I intend to be. I'm in a viciously mean mood!" Angelique took an envelope out of her handbag and handed it to Crowe."

Crowe looked at it, handed it back to Angelique and asked, "Could you?"

Angelique slit the top of it with her stiletto tipped nails and handed it back.

He removed the papers inside and studied them. "This is nothing more than

their membership and candidate numbers."

"I know."

"Well, I can get this information from their website."

"Not anymore. From now on it's going to be like McDonalds—millions

served!"

"Really?"

"Ah-huh. Lee Casey decided we didn't need to feed information to our

enemies. Smart man, Lee. You'll have a tough time staying ahead of him and that

little sweetheart, Lindy."

"Sweetheart?"

"Yeah, I like her. I like Sally too. There're good people. Better than I'm

accustomed to dealing with, with most of your associates."

"What kind of dealing?"

"You know what goes on in my spa after hours. It's where we met."

"Oh, yeah. I don't like to think about it."

"Then don't. I have some other information for you. Do you want hear it?"

"Email it to me."

"Email it! Jesus Christ! I hope you're a better chairman than you are a spy. I gotta go. I'll tell you the other information when you come over." She rose and sashayed toward the entrance. Crowe admired every jiggle of her fine ass

through her form-fitting dress as she did.

Chapter Fifteen - Twenty-Four weeks to Election Day

No one ever asks the men how you can be president AND a father to five kids.

- Nicolle Wallace

For the first half of May, Sally, and when she could, Winfred crisscrossed

the country campaigning. Wherever Sally and Lindy went, Melissa went, making

sure the candidate and her manager always looked beautifully dignified. In

addition, other key SAFE members, as surrogates, continued to hold Town Hall

meetings.

When possible, they held meetings in city or county council rooms, school

all-purpose rooms or gymnasiums. Many times the facilities supplied were too

small, with people crammed in and some standing outside. In a couple cases,

Fire Departments shut the meetings down.

~ * * ~

In a Town Hall meeting hosted by the Skull Rock Valley, Texas, PTA a small

group of hecklers showed up.

Speaking to an audience of about a hundred residents in a school all-

purpose room, Sally begam to wrap up her speech. "So you see, in the long run, Federal, state and local governments will run better with our party counter-balancing the other parties. There will be no more obfuscation. There will be no more gridlock. There will be no more government by politics. I can truthfully say SAFE candidates are beholden to no one, but our members and if elected, our

constituents."

A balding, but otherwise longhaired man in biker garb leapt up and yelled,

"Lying Pink Bitch."

As Sally turned her attention toward the man, another yelled, "Sit down

Rocky, and let the nice lady speak."

Sally asked, "Rocky? Is that your name?"

He nodded. "Yes'm."

"Why do you say I'm lying?"

Rocky stuck his hands in his pockets and twisted his body slightly side to

side. "You just are."

Sally looked out over the crowd. "Does anyone else think I'm lying?"

Most heads shook, but a burly man wearing bib overalls and a lean middle-

aged man wearing a cowboy hat stood. The man in the cowboy hat said, "I do.

Hammerhead Hanks says you want to take our guns away."

The Burly man added, "And take away free speech."

Sally frowned. "Who is Hammerhead Hanks?"

One of the women in the front row, who sponsored the event, answered,

"He's just some radio nut, other nuts listen to. He comes on right before or after, I'm not sure, that other major nut, Lush Rimbaugh."

Fidgeting in their seats, some of the audience took exception to the lady's

comment. One said, "Lush's no nut, Margaret."

Margaret reddened. She took a deep breath, stood and turned back to the

rest of the audience. "Yes he is, fact check what he says some time. They both are liars, but some of you are so boneheaded you can't see it. They make stuff up to play to an agenda and you rubes buy into it completely.

"I have been following this woman for over a month and she has never

mentioned guns or free speech. What's more, everything she says makes perfect

sense—to me, at least. Some of you wouldn't know perfect sense if it hit you over the head.

She gazed at the man in the cowboy hat. "How many guns you have, Carl?"

The skinny cowboy smiled and puffed his chest out. "Twenty-seven

counting one I have on order at Wal-Mart."

"Phew, you must be proud. Tell me, Carl, how much did you spend for

them guns?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Around ten thousand, I guess."

"Humph, ten thousand on guns. You must be rich."

Chuckles filtered through the crowd.

"You know better 'n that." Carl twisted his hat.

"No, I don't know, Carl. It seems you, like so many I know, have strange

priorities. Maybe if you spent some of your gun money on food, people'd stop

calling you Splinter."

After the applause and laughter died down, the three hecklers sat quietly

and Sally ended the meeting on an upbeat note with twenty of the spectators,

including Rocky, signing up with SAFE.

~ * * ~

Melissa stepped into Lindy's office. "Millie said you wanted to see me."

"Yes, Melissa. Do you by any chance like Mexican Food?"

Melissa grinned. "One of my favorites. Why?"

"Good. If you don't have anything else going for lunch, I'd like to take you."

"I'd love to."

Lindy came around her desk and took her hand.

She expected to turn right heading out the front door to Lindy's SUV, but

instead they turned left. Lindy led Melissa to the coffee/lunch room.

Lindy wrapped an arm around her, tugged the door open and dragged her

in. As Lindy pulled her in, she glimpsed everyone's bright smiling faces at the

same time she heard, "Surprise!" and "Happy Birthday!" shouted by at least two dozen of her co-workers. There were balloons, streamers, Happy Birthday

Banners and a large, flat, rectangular birthday cake.

Lindy was the first to wish her happy birthday and embrace her, followed

by Brenda, Sally, Lee, Millie, and the whole crew. When they were finished, she

turned to Lindy. "How did you know it was my birthday?"

Lindy smiled. "Unless you lied, you put down May 12th on your

application."

Brenda led Melissa to the head of one of the tables. "We saved this seat for you and the one on each side for Sally and Lindy." After they both sat, Brenda asked, "What would you like? We have tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, beans, rice, chips and salsa and margaritas."

She laughed. "Definitely a margarita and some chips. Surprise me with the

rest." The party went on for nearly an hour. Everybody had a blast, especially Melissa. After finishing her third margarita, Melissa blew out the candles and cut the cake. She passed out slices on paper plates. "I can’t thank everyone enough.

Everyone is so nice to me here. I've never felt so welcome, so loved. With SAFE, I have dozens of best friends. I'm so glad I came to work here and I hope to make

myself worthy of your friendship. Thank you again, I love you all."

~ * * ~

Melissa drove home in her BMW. Being a spy in a dog-eat-dog corporation

was one thing, but being a spy in SAFE was not as much fun as she thought it

would be. In corporations, everyone was out for his or herself, trying to push you down, because they thought it made them look better.

She'd worked for a corporation right out of college and every boss she'd had

made it clear, for her, the road to success was between her beauty queen lips and legs. She hated corporations.

SAFE was different. It was a family. Everyone was friendly and goal-

oriented, fixated not on personal success, but the success of the movement—

electing their candidates to government and electing Sally Cummings president.

By the time Melissa arrived at her condo, she was in the dumps. So she

poured a glass half-full of gin from a kitchen cabinet and filled the glass with soda and ice from the Sub Zero fridge. She sat on the white couch in her opulent living room and perused, one of the many fashion magazines on the coffee table.

Her mind spun too fast for her to actually read or even look at the pictures. She finished her drink and made another.

She'd had a wonderful afternoon with her new friends at SAFE. She always

had fun with them. Unlike many women, they either didn't notice or care if she

was beautiful. She liked that. That's the way it should be. Being beautiful was an accident of birth, of genetics.

Sure, she took advantage of her beauty, but people are foolish if they don't

use their strengths. If she had a beautiful voice, shouldn't she sing? Just because Melissa was better looking than most women, she thought no better of herself

than other women. Many of the women of SAFE were nice looking.

She finished her drink and fixed a third. Brenda is gorgeous and Sally has a

distinguished beauty. Jennifer is pretty, Carla cute and Lindy…I don't know.

There's something about Lindy. I can't put my finger on it, but I really like her looks. Here she was, thinking about how much she liked everyone and how bad

she wanted Sally and the others to win and she was a turncoat spying on them.

Tears formed in her eyes and they burned. She cried. I'm nothing but a sneaky

traitor—a Judas to my friends.

~ * * ~

The next day, Sally's intercom rang. "Yes, Millie?"

"You have a call from Ernest Givens. He's with the Secret Service and his

title is Special Agent."

"Thank you, Millie."

"Yes, Special Agent Givens."

"Hello, Ms. Cummings. Congratulations on your candidacy. I work for the

Secret Service. Normally, we wouldn't provide protection for a presidential

candidate until July unless there are extenuating circumstances. Have you had

any problems?"

"Like what?"

"Oh, things like threats, vandalism, picketers, graffiti? Have you had any

problems like that?

"A few anonymous threats and a tiny bit of graffiti, but nothing came of it.

We've informed the Silver Spring Police Department and they are investigating

and patrolling our building. Why?"

"What about when you're out campaigning? Any heckling? Are any groups

giving you a bad time?"

"Some pickets and loud mouths, but nothing I'm not used to from years of

campaigning. What's this all about?"

He paused. She heard him take a breath. "An incident at a town hall

meeting you held in Skull Rock, Texas has come to our attention."

Sally frowned. "How do you know about that?"

"It's on You Tube."

Sally straightened. "Wh-a-t?"

"Someone apparently recorded it and posted it on You Tube."

"You're kidding."

"No, Ma'am, I'm not."

"Well, it was no big deal. We handled it and everybody left friends."

"Yes, I could see that. Thanks to a well-meaning bystander, but you can't

always count on that. Some of these Libertarian and Tea Party people can be

quite aggressive."

"Yes, I know, but I think we can handle it. I'll call you if we can't."

"All right, but there are men out there who can't stand the idea of a woman president. At least let me give you couple tips."

"Go ahead."

"Take two or three men with you on future events. The bigger and more

intimidating, the better."

Sally almost laughed. "Special Agent Givens, this is the Pink Party. While

we have some large and tall men, the ones I've met are socially conscious and

friendly, the opposite of intimida…Herman and Tino…wait a minute. I just

thought of two construction workers that'll work just fine."

"Good, another thing you could look into is having the sponsors of your

events supply security. Law enforcement authorities will often supply one or two deputies for special events like that. If not, the sponsor could hire local security or a local Bubba."

"Those are all good ideas, since some of our other members also hold

meetings. Thank you, Special Agent Givens."

"You're welcome. Call me if you need anything. Unless I hear from you, I'll get back in touch with you in July."