After I hung up I called Suzie at her house. She was at work, but her husband, John, was at home, having finished his shift. "Carl, is this for real!?", he asked.
"As real as it gets. How are you guys doing?"
"So far so good. We've had some reporters trying to bug us but I got the barracks to station a patrol car outside, and Suzie is going to get a ride home with a buddy."
"That figures.", I told him. "I'm sorry about that, but I figure it will calm down in a day or two."
He agreed. "Probably. Maybe I'll get lucky and have to shoot somebody."
"Sounds like fun. I can write you a pardon, you know.", I replied, laughing.
"I'll pass that along." Then he got serious. "What are we going to do about this? I talked to Jack last night. He managed to make a call from the Tarawa. Those guys are ready to bust! They want to go kill some people."
"John, I can't go into that, but if you are talking to him, tell him I agree. When it comes time, we'll be going full bore on this, and if I need the Marines, he and Charlie will be remembered."
He asked, "Have you talked to Charlie?"
"Not yet, but I am getting him brought here. I'm sure it will be a topic of conversation. He'll be there tonight when I get sworn in. Watch it on television."
'Yeah!"
"I have to go. Tell Suzie we'll call over the weekend."
"Take care."
We hung up and I called Tusk Cycle next and talked to Tusker. I promised that we would get together as soon as possible. He told me that Marilyn had been talking to Tessa already about that. After a bit we hung up and I called the American Renaissance Initiative.
Actually, I don't really make the call. Even the Presidential cell phones go through the White House switchboard in the Old Executive Office Building. All calls in or out go through there and are recorded. I've often wondered how many calls get there by an infant playing with Mom's cell phone and just hitting buttons at random. You just knew it had to have happened! In my case, I simply lift the phone and tell them who I want to speak to and hang up. They call the other party, tell them to stay on the line, and then call me and make a connection.
So in this case I asked to talk to Marty Adrianopolis at ARI and then hung up. A few minutes later the phone rang and I picked it up and said, "Hello."
"Carl, is that you? Is this for real?", I heard my old friend say.
"Hey, Marty, good to hear from you."
"You're the President?! Jesus!"
"That's kind of what I've been saying. How are you doing? I'm sorry I didn't call before this, but it's been crazy.", I admitted.
"I'll bet! How are Marilyn and the kids handling this?"
"Okay, so far. They're back home today, but they'll be there at the Capitol tonight for my swearing in. Charlie is coming up from Camp Lejeune, too."
"Carl, what can I do to help?"
I snorted out a laugh. "Know anybody honest who wants to come to work for me?"
"That's pretty much a contradiction in terms, isn't it?", he replied.
"Like you wouldn't believe! There are times I think Diogenes was an optimist!" Marty laughed at that, so I asked, "Want to come to work over here?"
"Doing what?"
"No idea. I can put you on the staff. I don't think you've got the experience to run the CIA or FBI."
"Yeah, I read about that. I heard a rumor that you had to have Wolfowitz dragged out of the building. What a fucking putz!"
"I can neither confirm nor deny any such tale.", I told him.
"Yeah, well you can't afford me. My wife has expensive tastes."
I had to laugh at that, because it was true. I gave him a Presidential Order to come over sometime soon and visit.
Late that afternoon the intercom buzzed and a secretary said, "Visitors, sir." They knew I wasn't on the phone, since it would have gone through them.
"Send them in."
There was a knock on the door and it opened. Captain Miller came through the door with somebody behind him. "Captain Miller reporting for duty with a detail of one, sir." He stepped to the side, and there was Charlie, dressed in a Marine Battle Dress Uniform (a camo version of the fatigues I would have worn in those days.) and looking a touch bewildered. However, Marine habits are strong, and when Captain Miller came to attention, though with a smile on his face, Charlie automatically snapped to attention.
I smiled at Miller and said, "As you were." Miller automatically relaxed, though Charlie took a few seconds.
"Dad? What's going on? Is this real?", came jumbling out.
"Charlie, it's good to see you again. I'm glad they found you. Where were you, by the way?"
"I was out on the firing range! All of a sudden they shut the whole thing down and a chopper lands and the Captain, he orders me and the Gunny to get back to the barracks and pack my stuff. I didn't even get a chance to hit the head and clean up! Then I got thrown back on the chopper and taken to New River, where I was thrown on an airplane and flown to Andrews. And now I'm here! What is going on!?"
I had to laugh at this. To Captain Miller I said, "Congratulations, you got him here." I turned to Charlie and asked, "Did you ever get to the head?"
"Yes, sir, in New River."
I nodded. "Good. The long and the short of it, Charlie, is that tonight I am being sworn in as the President of the United States. Your mother and sisters will be coming down from Hereford this afternoon, in fact they should be down any time now. We need you to be in a good uniform to be with them. I'll get you back to your base tomorrow."
"You told me that I wouldn't be taken from my battalion for this sort of stuff.", he responded.
"And I meant it. It's just that, tonight, for this, I need you here. I'll get you back to where you need to be tomorrow. Alright?"
"Yes, sir."
"Okay. The Captain here will see that you get to the house. We're still in the Naval Observatory. I'll come home for dinner before we head over to the Capitol. We still have your uniforms in your room. You get over there and let Stormy out and get cleaned up."
He smiled at that. "The Monster? Is she going to be there tonight, too?"By the time Charlie had gotten home from the deployment he'd been on when we got Stormy, she was gigantic, and he had taken to calling her The Monster.
"That would be all we'd need!", I laughed. "No, I think she'll stay home. Listen, I promise, I will talk with you about any changes when I get home." I moved towards my office door and the other two moved with me.
Charlie stopped in the door and turned to face me. "Dad, who did this? When do we hit back?"
"We're working on that."
"I want in on it! All the guys do! We have to do something!"
"Like I said, we're working on it. If I need the Marines, I know the address." Not if I can help it!
"Yes, sir." He headed out the door, and then stopped again. "Who could do something like that?"
"Monsters, Charlie. Monsters." I said to Captain Miller, "See he gets to the house. Thank you."
Monsters – like I had become.
I was the last of the family to make it to the Naval Observatory. Marilyn and the girls had flown down as soon as they got home from school. I walked in to find Charlie cleaned up and in an old BDU, sitting on the floor and brushing out Stormy's coat. Stormy was writhing on the floor in delight. Meanwhile the girls informed me that one of the major topics of conversation around Hereford High was their status as daughters of the President. I told them that this gave the Secret Service authority to shoot boyfriends. "Not funny, Dad!", I was informed.