Madam President ✓

74. Triggers

Walter
January 23rd,2023
2 am

   I yawn over the sink, trying to work up the will to brush my teeth. I've been dealing with reporters since yesterday morning- two even found me on my walk home. I understood the strain that comes with being in the political world from the time I was born because of my mother. Everything she did- from forgetting reusable to go containers when going out to eat one time- to wearing a real silk jacket from an unethical brand( one she'd had since she was twenty), was viewed as a political statement. They called her an enemy to the environment, a climate anti-activist despite her advocacy for veganism and legislative actions towards lowering carbon emissions.

I was nine years old the first time I was cornered at school by a reporter from some irrelevant local station- desperate enough to go after me since they couldn't get to her. The memory is fuzzy,but it went something like this:

"Walter! Walter Hi- do you have any comments to give on the allegations your mother is mistreating and overworking her staff?" The reporter shoved a mic in my face before I could protest, but oh boy did she have another thing coming.

My mother'd foreseen this happening eventually, as it does to all politician's children at one point or another. She told me what my exact response should be to each question- especially when they asked for comments directly.

Little nine year old me grinned, looked her right in the eye, and replied: "I'm not her fucking press secretary."

Then I walked off, my mother gave me a high five when she came home- and her actual press secretary put out a statement justifying my words.

How ironic that I now am a press secretary, I laugh.

On my way home, before said reporters found me, I watched two reaction videos to Tanya's speech. It isn't uncommon for people who have nothing better to do to sit there and record each one so they can be a part of news segments who'll play them over and over again if the speech has enough shock value. This one'll definitely be a part of a longer news cycle- unless something bigger somehow comes along. In the first, an older woman's face went from bored to what the fuck in less than a second and she put her hand over her mouth, eyes wide. The second was a group of older teenagers, and at the end one of them said "Honestly? I ship it." The cringy giggles that followed made me want to rip my eardrums out.

  With my hand- eye coordination starting to fail, I reach for the cold water knob. I slap my hand on the marble countertop a good ten times before I find my toothbrush. Somehow- I manage to stand upright for two whole minutes while I drag it back and forth across my teeth. I don't pay attention to where I set it down.

  I find the doorframe and stumble from my bathroom to the bed, it barely registering that my housekeeper must have been here earlier today. I groan in frustration, unable to get comfortable until I realize all of my decorative pillows are stacked. With one arm I rake them in the floor and shove my face into the fluffy two that were hiding.

For a moment- everything is fine.

My house is silent other than the low hum of the air conditioning and the single car on the road. Then before I can stop it- my mind starts wandering again.

Sure- Darrel being Katie's biological father will dominate this news cycle, but with my position it's only natural to think about what'll come next that pushes the top story out of the way to take it's place. Another cop kills another unarmed black man? Another eleven year old dies somewhere after being forced to give birth because of abortion bans from pro life state government officials? While we and Congress are working to try and prevent both of those things from happening, it'll be a while before we can threaten the republicans into voting yes on those bills without repercussions.