“Discretion is the better part of valor,” I told him, which didn’t really register. I grabbed a magazine from the end table and started reading in my recliner.
After finishing with the dishes, Marilyn came out of the kitchen, and I had to bite my lip all over again. “You think you’re so funny!” she said to me, in a more normal tone.
I had to laugh. “You know, all those years ago, I told you that you’d get in trouble screaming like that.”
“You are deluded!”
“I warned you that the Carl Buckman Experience was a life changing event.”
Marilyn started laughing now, too. “In your dreams!”
I glanced around and saw that none of the kids were paying any attention to us. I smiled and responded, “I bet I can make you scream.”
“Forget it!” I just gave her a confident look and a half smile. “Maybe. Later. If you think you’re up for it!”
I grinned back. “Just remember, an artist does his best work on a fresh canvas! Maybe you need to clean up — all over! — to make sure you get the best result. That and dig out a gag, since I don’t want your begging and screaming for more to scare the children.”
That really made her laugh. “Bullshit!” she whispered to me.
I just waggled my eyebrows in return. “Just remember, I taught you everything you know, but not everything I know!”
Marilyn really laughed at that. On the plus side, shortly after the kids went to bed, Marilyn opened a bottle of wine and took a glass into the bedroom, and said she wanted to relax in the whirlpool bathtub. That meant to me that she was planning on a bubble bath and shaving her legs. I’d bring her in a refill after a bit, and then head to bed a little early, after she was done cleaning up.
I was right, too. Marilyn returned later in a black peignoir set that was pretty much transparent. Everything was clean enough to eat off of, so that’s exactly what I did! She returned the favor, and while she didn’t need a gag (not that we even had one; my kinks don’t quite go that far) she did end up moaning into the pillow while I finished by plowing her ass from behind. Saturday night we did a very nice date night, with dinner and a movie, and Marilyn without any underwear. I teased her by telling her I’d let Marty know how wild she still was, and she retaliated by telling me that when Marty was visiting, I was cut off, so there wouldn’t be any ‘embarrassment.’
Chuck lasted through Wednesday before pissing me off for the last time. It started out as a scheduling issue, but then he tried a workaround through Mindy, scheduling something on my calendar without clearing it ahead of time. I had also asked him to figure out when some of the troops would be getting back from the Gulf, as I was planning to co-sponsor a ‘Welcome Home’ party in Fayetteville with the USO. He ignored that. I simply couldn’t trust the guy. I asked him to stay late Wednesday, and then after sending the rest of the staff home, I cut him loose. He protested his innocence six ways from Sunday, but I simply took his keys from him and showed him the door.
Thursday morning I called the staff in and made a simple announcement that Chuck had left to pursue other opportunities, and that I was in the market for a new chief of staff, but that we were on our own until then. I kept a smile on my face and looked around the room. The response was interesting. The more junior people looked relieved, and the senior people simply nodded to each other. After that, I sent everybody back to work, although I kept Babs, Mindy, and Sherry behind.
“Okay ladies, let’s go over today’s plans,” I said.
Mindy and Sherry nodded. Babs asked, “Are you planning on hiring a new chief of staff?”
“Probably. Do you think I should? What are your thoughts?” I pointed at all of them. “What do all of you think?”
It was Mindy who answered first. “It might make things easier when you’re not here,” she said timidly.
Sherry nodded and Babs added, “I’m not going to miss Chuck, but somebody needs to do it.”
“Just don’t hire somebody who orders people around like he did. You need something from Legislative, ask me, or Bobby if I’m not around, not one of the kids,” commented Sherry. Bobby was Bobby Hisert, her assistant.
I looked at the others. Mindy wasn’t in charge of anybody, and was one of the more junior people, but she was dialed into the grapevine. “He do that a lot? Going around people?” They nodded. “Okay, that’s not good. I used to be in the Army, and I’m a big fan of the chain of command. Okay, I need to replace Chuck. I got his name from Gingrich, but I don’t want to go back to that well. If any of you know somebody, let me know. Now, what do we have planned?”
That got us off of Chuck and back to something useful. Babs reported on the usual missing Social Security checks and help needed with Health and Human Services by a town in the western end of the district. Babs handed me a sheet of paper with a name and a phone number and a script of sorts, a bunch of talking points, really, for when I called over there. I was to wave my Congressman badge around and get somebody to do something. I was also handed a second sheet with a name of somebody over at Veterans Affairs. Same deal, call over, be a Congressman, get something done.
Next, Sherry mentioned something about a bill called the ‘Gore’ bill, because Tennessee Senator Al Gore was pushing it. It was going through the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, and she thought I might be interested. I scratched my head at that. Al Gore? What was he up to? “What’s that about?” I asked.
She riffed through some notes. “It’s something called the ‘High Performance Computing and Communication Act’. Something to do with computer networks, I think.”
Holy shit! It was Al Gore’s Internet bill, the one that tied ARPANet and NSFNet together! I sat upright. “Okay, I want to know all about it. If it’s what I think it is, I want in on this,” I told them.
“Al Gore’s a Democrat and a Senator,” she replied, curious at my interest.
I nodded. “Ladies, long before I was an investor or a soldier, I was a scientist. In case you didn’t know, I’m not a lawyer, I’m a mathematician. I have a doctorate in computer networking. If it’s what I think it is, this is an important bill, and I want my name on it somewhere. Does he have any sponsors in the House? I might not know how this works, but I know you need to sponsor this in the House as well as the Senate. Get me involved!”
Sherry nodded with a surprised look on her face. “Yes, sir. Let me look into this. Give me a few days and I’ll get back to you.”
I tilted my head towards Mindy, but kept talking to Sherry. “Get in touch with Al Gore’s staff. Feel free to set me up with a lunch with the Senator, my treat. Schedule it with Mindy for me.”
Next I turned to Mindy. “I want you to call somebody at either the Pentagon or Fort Bragg. Find out when the 82nd Airborne is going to be coming back from the Gulf. Then get in touch with the USO. I donate to them every year, and I would bet that they are planning some sort of ‘Welcome Home’ party. Feel free to use my name, but I want to help. They’ll want some money, so remind them I have contributed in the past and will continue to do so. Also, figure out about any troops from the Maryland Ninth. We can have a party back home for that. I’ll want to attend both.”
Mindy was scribbling furiously. The others eye me curiously. “You were in the 82nd, right?” asked Sherry.
“Yeah.”
The others all nodded. “So, we should stop selling you to the lobbyists, and actually try to get something accomplished?” commented Babs.
I smiled. “Chuck didn’t quite get it. Let’s see if you ladies and whoever I get as my next chief of staff can figure it out.” That got some laughs, and I shooed them out of the office.