he will have no defense and he and his puny little lawyer will indeed have themselves a trial! And we will then have the leader of one of the most dangerous and evil terrorists groups in recent history, the tri-P!”
Senator Aaronson, still unmoved by Reverend Branch’s sermon, begins to show signs of unbelief and attempts to refocus the group to their original intent.
“Gees Jerry, we started this thing to embarrass Senator Foot enough to force him to resign, our intent was not to hang the hole gall darn thing around his neck.”
The Right Reverend Jeremiah Branch slams his fist down on the desk, causing Senator Aaronson to jump back away from him. Branch follows her, reaching out his hand, grabbing her blouse and pulling her violently back into him. Reverend Branch, his face flush, his eyes wide, his breath rancid, screams into Aaronson’s very being.
“Cindy, you knew where I was heading with this. My INTENT has always been to prove that FOOT was the HEAD!”
Branch, amused by his own twist of words, releases his grip on her blouse. Aaronson falls back into a chair, her torn blouse exposing her bra as well as her bruised shoulder. Her chin begins to quiver as she stands up. She wipes Branch’s spit from her cheek. Unashamed by her exposed bra, she stands erect with her shoulders square and proclaims, “I am a United States Senator, you can not push me around anymore.”
The Right Reverend Branch brushes his hair behind his ears and says,
“No one is outside of my reach.”
Chapter 3
His hair still wet from his early morning swim in the ocean, Nathan Foot is now driving toward the “Big Donut”, a doughnut shop just north of Long Beach California, that the brothers had frequented with their parents. Shortly after sunrise, Nathan had driven down to the beach for his usual swim, part of a routine that he had kept since he had been discharged from the Navy SEALS some 10 years ago. His normal routine would have included a run down to the beach followed by another on the way back, but this morning, after a sleepless night, Nathan decided to drive and conserve his energy. Yesterday, while he was shaping a new surfboard for a young and talented grom, he was shocked to hear the charges that were being leveled against his baby brother Nathaniel. In order to strategize a plan on how best to rescue their brother, Nathan had worked through the night researching everything he could on the Chairman, Senator Jeremiah Branch.
Shortly after midnight, Neil had called Nathan to let him know that he was passing through Hermosillo Mexico, and that he would make it to the surf shop closer to lunch than late breakfast. Nathan decided that he needed to clear his head and what better way to do that, than by having that hot cup of coffee and a few warm honey glazed doughnuts that he had promised to have ready for Neil.
Driving along in his 1972 three door Chevy Suburban, they called “The Burb”, Nathan thought back on growing up the oldest of three brothers. He couldn’t remember the day his parents brought Neil home from the hospital, but he did remember the day Nathaniel came home. His earliest memories of Nathaniel were visiting him in the hospital. The image of seeing his little baby brother lying in the hospital crib with tubes coming out of his nose was an image that haunted him in his dreams for years. Now that dream had been replaced by the nightmare of seeing his baby brother sitting at a table being attacked by what appeared to be the embodiment of evil. Nathan knew that it would take all of his strength, all of his wisdom and all of his faith in order to defeat the monsters that now threatened his baby brother; but first he had to wake up.
A familiar voice over the drive-thru intercom interrupts his daydream,
“Welcome to the Big Donut, how about a dozen this morning?”
“Good morning Susan how are you?”
“Well hello Junior, I thought that was The Burb I saw coming around the corner. How was your swim?”
“Am I that predictable?”
“Well duh! Let’s see, you’re going to order a cup of coffee with cream and two warm honey glazed.”
Nathan rests his arm on The Burb’s window sill, “Ah Susan, this morning you’re wrong. I’d like to order a dozen mixed and two cups of coffee, one with cream.”
“Is Neil in town?”
“Susan, Seriously? You know us too well?”
“Drive forward please.”
Nathan drives forward and is greeted by Susan an early 20’s, tanned surfer-girl who has been working at the Big Donut, off and on, since her junior year of high school.
Φ Π Ψ
Nathan, Neil and Nathaniel had first met Susan when they were surfing Dog’s Beach near San Diego. The three brothers had driven down to the beach in The Burb on a Friday before Memorial Day. Their typical plan was to surf through the day, make a fire on the beach where they would eat “ring bologna” and graham crackers and then sleep in the back of the suburban. They would then wake up the next day and do it all over again. Their dad had called it their, “I got to get out of town before I blow my brains out” weekend. The brothers knew that it was really their dad’s way of making Memorial Day special. Their dad, a World War II veteran, would load the boys into the family station wagon on Friday and drive to the beach. Their mom and dad would sleep in the back of the car while the boys would sleep on the roof. In the evening their dad would build a fire on the beach and tell stories about his old friends in the service and all the great times he shared with them. It wasn’t until the boys were older that they found out the stories were about their dad’s friends who didn’t make it back after the war.
The family weekend get-away tradition continued every year without fail, even when the two older brothers were away in the military. Nathaniel told his two older brothers that their dad and him would sit around the fire and pray for their safe return. When Nathan did finally come home, it was the first place he wanted to go, even though it was December and the water was cold and it was a glassy-flat day. Nathan and his dad paddled out alone and sat on their boards silently. All day they just sat there without saying a word. Neil was still overseas somewhere and Nathaniel was finishing a study abroad year during graduate school. Their father repeated the same ritual when Neil came home. When Nathaniel returned from his study abroad the two brothers and their dad took him to the beach and surfed all day. Their dad did spend a good bit of time sitting around the fire that night with Nathaniel, alone, just the two of them.
The weekend they met Susan, started off routine with the three brothers loading their surfboards on top of The Burb and driving to Dog’s Beach. On Friday when the brothers returned to the suburban to bed down for the night, they found a young teenage girl sleeping in the back of The Burb. They woke her up and tried to help her, but she ran from them. On Saturday night, the runaway was sleeping in the back again. This time they convinced her that they could be trusted; that they would sleep on top of the suburban as they had many times growing up and that she could stay in the back all-alone.
The brothers were surprised to find her still in the suburban in the morning. They weren’t completely surprise, they had taken turns standing watch through the night, but they never told her. As the brothers were packing up for the trip home, they offered to drive her to wherever her home was. When she said, “Newport Beach”, they said “no problem”. They didn’t ask any questions nor did they condemn her, they just helped her find her way home.
On the drive home, Nathan told her that he knew the manager of the Big Donut, that he might be able to help her find a job, if she was interested. A few weeks after dropping her off at her home, she called Nathan and took him up on his offer. Ever since then, Susan had worked, part-time at the Big Donut.
Φ Π Ψ
Nathan is smiling proudly at her as he drives forward and asks,
“How you doing Susan?”
“Pretty good, how’ bout you guys? Where’s Neil?”
Nathan hands Susan his money, “He should come sliding in here in about an hour.”
“Hey