15
I arrived the next morning at 8:45 and found four college students waiting for me outside the building. I embraced the tallest. “How are you, Paul?”
He returned the hug a little too strongly. He’d always had a crush on me. “I’m well. I’m sorry to hear about Larry.”
“Are you?” I asked, the corners of my mouth twitching up.
“Not in the least,” he admitted.
I shook my head. “How did I know that would guarantee you’d be here?”
“Actually, I’m thrilled for the opportunity.”
I smiled for real. “Introduce me to your friends. Then we’ll get to work.”
The other two boys were George and Charlie, and the young woman was Claire. “Wonderful,” I said. “Now a word of warning—two actually. First, they’re a mess in there. But don’t let on that you know that. We’re here to fix it. And two, don’t you mind anything that Stuart says.”
“Who’s Stuart?” Charlie asked.
“Mr. Landau’s campaign manager—for now anyway.” I winked at him, and he grinned. Paul hit him in the chest with the back of his hand, and I laughed. “Come on. We have a campaign to win.”
I led the way and opened the door to the office. Stuart didn’t look up. “At least you managed to come on time today.”
“I did,” I said. “And I brought reinforcements.” At this, he did look up, suspiciously.
“Are these your kids?”
“Yes,” I said. “I had them at seven years old. I’ve always been precocious.”
He glared at me. “Who are they, then?”
“They’re our campaign staff. This is Paul, Charlie, George, and Claire.”
Stuart stood rapidly behind his desk, came around it, and took me by the arm, pulling me into the far corner of the office. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“We need help. You agreed with that yesterday as I recall.”
“And as I said yesterday, we don’t have money for a full staff.”
“We won’t pay them.” I rolled my eyes. I could have sworn I saw steam creeping up toward his ears. “They’re interns,” I said slowly as if I were spelling it out for a child. “They don’t expect to be paid.”
“Why would they actually do any work, then?”
“They want experience. And when we win, they’ll get a letter of recommendation to the employers of their choice from the senator.”
He digested this information, and I could see him wavering. “They’re not even old enough to vote, are they?”
I shook my head. “They are not. I used to babysit Paul over there.”
“I don’t have time to babysit kids. What do you plan to have them do?”
I called over to them. “Paul, darling, what’s your major?”
“Government and politics,” he said.
“Great. You’re going to be in charge of going door-to-door and talking about the issues.”
“What are the issues?”
That was a great question. “We’re still working that out,” I said, waving a hand in the air. “Charlie, what about you?”
“Journalism.”
“Fabulous. You’re our press secretary. You’ll be in charge of press releases and the media. George?”
“Finance.”
“Even better,” I said. “We need money. And a lot of it. Quickly. Let’s work on a plan to round up donors. Claire?”
“Secretarial school.”
I beamed at her. “Excellent.”
“What do we need you for, then?” Stuart asked. “If we have a secretary who’s willing to work for free.”
I ignored him and quickly assigned each intern to a desk. “We’ll need additional phone lines installed as soon as possible. Claire, could you—”
“I’ll call the phone company right away, Mrs. Diamond,” she said.
“Lovely. George—”
“Can you work up a list of Mr. Landau’s stances, so I know how I’m pitching him?”
I looked at Stuart. “Do we have that already done?”
“They were over here,” Stuart said, gesturing toward a desk I had cleared the previous day.
“Then they’re in that file cabinet,” I said. “Don’t get too attached to them yet though. I’ll need to review his platform eventually. Charlie and Paul—”
“We’ll get to work with George and that list.”
The door opened, and everyone’s head swiveled to see Michael walk in. He took in the scene. “Uh—good morning.”
“Good morning,” I said cheerfully. “Meet your new campaign staff.” I gave introductions.
He shook each of their hands, as befitting a politician, before retreating to his office. “Beverly?” he asked before closing the door. “A word?”
I pulled my notepad from my purse and followed him to the small room that housed his desk. “I have some questions,” I said, sitting across from his desk.
He looked at me as if I were an alien for a moment. “So do I, actually.”
“Oh, after you, of course.”
His hands were the only tell that I was flustering him. He didn’t quite seem to know where to put them. “Who are those people?”
“Oh dear. If you’re planning to be a politician, you’ll really need to be able to remember names.”
“I remember their names just fine. But who are they?”
“My mother is friends with Paul’s mother, and I used to babysit him. I asked her to round up some interns for us.”
“Interns?”
I nodded.
“So we’re not paying them?”
“Not a cent.”
He processed this. “Well done, I suppose. As long as they’re reliable.”
“They’ll be reliable. They’re hungry for this experience.” I hoped that was true. But I was confident Paul would keep them in line, if for no other reason than to impress me.
“And I suppose that answers part of my next question. You told Stuart we needed the bigger venue and to find the bodies to fill it. Can you do that the way you just filled the office?”
“Yes. But this speech tomorrow night—who’s it for?”
He looked at me quizzically. “Everyone. Everyone of voting age, that is.”
I shook my head. “No, who specifically are you targeting tomorrow?”
“I don’t know what you’re asking.”
“Well, you wouldn’t give the same speech at a women’s luncheon as you would at a men’s club.” He dropped his gaze. “Wait. You don’t mean to tell me you’re giving the same speech all over town? What if someone sees you speak twice?”
“It’s not exactly the same,” he said meekly.
“Oh dear,” I said again, fighting the urge to use a much stronger expression. “We have our work cut out for us, don’t we?”
“Stuart says it’s best to stick to strong talking points.”
“With all due respect, Stuart hasn’t participated in a big campaign before. I have.”
His eyes met mine. “I’m listening.”
I exhaled heavily. “Okay. Where’s the event?” He named a recreation center, and I nodded. “I’ll need a copy of the speech.”
“Why?” he asked, suddenly guarded.
“To figure out who should be there,” I said patiently, like I was explaining to Robbie for the nine hundredth time that there were no monsters under his bed. And to punch it up, I thought. Better not to tell him I would be making changes though.
He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a manila envelope. “I’ll need this back.”
“Of course.”
He handed it to me hesitantly, and I replied with a winning smile. The tension in his shoulders loosened. We would have to work on his politician’s demeanor too. He was too prickly and quick to jump to conclusions.
But that was all a job for once he trusted me.