strains to listen for anything resembling a big block motor. With only the sound of Shelly’s tires rolling on the rough pavement, Neil is confident that he has left the town unnoticed. As he turns the ignition to ON and slips her into gear, Shelly responds and comes to life, “Whop-a-da, POW!” the backfire explodes into the darkness and rings in Neil’s ears.
“Oh thanks Shelly, I’m sure they didn’t hear that!”
“Whop-a-da, Whop-a-da, Whop-a-da”
Neil checks his mirror again for the trailing car then turns on Shelly’s lights.
“Ok girl, let’s get out of here.”
“Whop-a-da, Whop-a-da, ROAR, blip, ROAR, blip, ROAR, blip, ROAR!”
Neil and Shelly rumble through the night, ever mindful of his mirror, the ’67 Fawn Catalina’s lights, never reappeared.
Φ Π Ψ
The Right Reverend Jeremiah Branch is in his office when a janitor, shocked to see anyone else in the building at 6:00 am, greets him.
“Good morning Senator Branch. I didn’t expect to see you here this early.”
The Senator so absorbed in the files he has laid out on the floor in front of him that he doesn’t respond to the janitor.
“Sir, you alright?”
“Who’s there?” Branch jumps up from the floor where he had been kneeling.
“Senator Branch, you been here all night?”
“Yes sir! You know what they say, no rest for the wicked.”
The janitor freezes in place when he sees the face of Jeremiah Branch as he turns and looks toward him. Branch’s habit of playing with his hair had made the sides stand up straight. With the Washington sunrise coming through the window behind the Senator, he appeared evil, scaring the janitor.
“Ah, Senator sir, you should fix your hair before anyone else sees you.”
“What did you say?”
“I said that if you would like to go freshen yourself up, I could pick those papers up and tidy the place up for you, sir.”
“Don’t you dare, it took me all night to place these files exactly where they are!”
As Jeremiah Branch’s voice begins to elevate, his aide, Cliff Cortez, walks into the office.
“Senator Branch? When I left you at midnight, you said that you were right behind me.”
Senator Branch, attempting to regain his decorum and stature, ignores the janitor and lays out marching orders for Cliff,
“Son I want you to find the files on Senator Foot’s two brothers. My last aide was not able to, shall I say, acquire them? Their names are Nathan and Neil, both of whom were in the military. I need their, secure files. Do y’all understand what I’m asking?”
“Yes sir.”
“Cliff this is important, I know all their normal data, such as where they were born, their social security numbers, their current occupations, hell Cliffy I know just about everything about those boys. What I don’t know is what they did in the military. They call that need to know stuff, damn it, I need to know!”
Senator Branch stares at his aide and studies him intently to see if Cliff understood what he was asking for. Several eerie silent seconds pass until Branch releases his new convert.
“Now get!”
Cliff performs an about-face and heads out of the office passing Senator James Bernard in the hallway.
“The boss IN, Mr. Cortez?”
“Yes sir, Senator Bernard sir. He’s been here all night.”
“I’m not SURPRISED, he doesn’t SLEEP much.”
Senator Bernard stands at the open door to Senator Branch’s office,
“That incense I smell?”
Senator Branch lifts his arms and pretends to smell himself,
“No sir, I believe that smell came from Cliff and his homebrewed ointment.”
“HA, you must be right. What ARE you doing, there’s papers ever-where!”
Reverend Branch begins to walk about the room explaining his sorting system. Each pile has been positioned according to its date. The Reverend has accounted for every day in the short life of Senator Nathaniel Foot.
“Look at this Bernard, no mention of any military record what so ever!”
“That’s WHAT we were saying LAST night.”
“I know, but take a step back, what do you see?”
“I don’t KNOW what you’re asking.”
Jeremiah, now refreshed with adrenalin pumping through his veins, jumps onto his desk and calls for Bernard to join him,
“James, come up here.”
“Sir?”
“Jimmy, I’m not fooling, come up here you’ll see it from here.”
Senator Bernard tentatively steps onto a chair and then onto the desk.
“Now turnaround, and tell me what you see.”
Senator Bernard dutifully turns around and begins to look at the floor covered with papers.
“Well sir, I see one MESSY office, that’s WHAT I see.”
“You’re not seeing it, just relax and take it all in.”
Senator Bernard bends over and places his hands on his knees and intently studies the floor. As he’s doing so, Senator Cindy Aaronson walks into the office.
“Boys, it can’t be all that bad, don’t jump, don’t jump! Ha, ha”
Senator Branch un-amused by Aaronson’s joking, orders her up onto the desk too.
Now all three senators are up on Branch’s desk, all three bent over with their hands on their knees.
Senator Aaronson stands up and complains,
“All I see is a hole in the floor where you missed throwing your papers.”
“That’s it!” exclaims Branch.
“That’s what?” a puzzled Aaronson asks.
“That’s what took me all night to find!”
The three senators climb down from the desk as Jeremiah Branch has them follow him over to the hole in the row of papers.
“Look at the dates, there are 12 months missing, exactly 12!”
Confused over the significance of Branch’s discovery, Senator Bernard stares at the hole in the papers,
“Ok, so where ARE the MISSING files?”
“Bernard my friend, that’s the question. I believe that our young freshman Senator Nathaniel Foot was somewhere out of this country. Somewhere in the world, our Nathaniel Foot was plotting terroristic activities against our nation. I believe that we can say that during the missing year, Nathaniel Foot was leading the international terrorist group the tri-P and there’s not a damn thing Foot will be able to say to prove otherwise!”
Senator Bernard swayed by Branch’s enthusiasm shouts, “Amen Reverend!”
Senator Aaronson still not convinced, walks toward the Presidential Portrait that they were looking at last night and says, “If he was involved with a terrorist group, how did he get one of these?” She points to the Challenge Coins behind President Clinton.
“Exactly!” Reverend Branch now in full preacher mode, continues in his sermon,
“Once we