Making an enemy of a powerful senator was never a good idea. Still, Allison knew it was the right thing to do. She took a deep breath.
“Tomorrow, I’m going to open a grand jury. And I’m going to make sure that the first thing they do is take a good hard look at Senator Fairview.”
MYSPACE.COM/THEDCPAGE
Take a Picture
September 17
All the other pages complain about the schedule.
They don’t know what they are talking about.
At least here I can make most of my own decisions. If they give me an errand to run, nobody cares how long it takes. If I stop to talk to some-one, or to look at a painting, they don’t grill me about what I was doing.
Besides, this place is so cool! Like on Sunday evening we all ended up playing Frisbee on the Capitol lawn. I mean, who else gets to do that? We even got one of the Capitol cops to toss it back & forth for a few minutes. And in January we’ll hear the State of the Union live. See the president up close & personal. Did you know the pages are the first people to shake the president’s hand when he walks in? Look for us on TV!
I’ve finally made a friend here—this girl E—& sometimes we do crazy things. E & I went on a “guy hunt” the other day, where you take pictures of cute guys with your cell. But they can’t catch you doing it or the game is over. We got some pictures of the other pages, bike messengers & a cop. I even took one of Senator X, but I didn’t tell E about that one.
When we went through the rotunda, people actually took pictures of us! It must have been because of our uniforms.
Sometimes you do sort of feel important. Some of the senators take time out to talk with you & tell stories in the back lobby. It’s awesome when a senator calls you by name or remembers what state you’re from. We’re even allowed to get in an elevator with senators, as long as it isn’t the senator-only elevator & it isn’t crowded.
It’s not a big deal to them, but being a page is pretty much scum compared to being a senator. Some senators just ignore pages all together, but a few of them are nice. The coolest is my senator, Senator X. He says he remembers what it was like from when he was a page.
I was talking to him today & some newspaper guy started pointing a camera at us. I noticed how Senator X lifted his chin & started using his hands a lot. I took mental notes for when I’m a politician someday. He looked important. He looked powerful.
And then Senator X caught my eye & winked. With the eye that the camera couldn’t see.
UNITED STATES SENATE
September 20
We’re talking about destroying the youngest of human lives for research purposes,” Senator Fairview said.
He had them all. He could feel it. The Senate galleries were packed. The cameras clicked and whirred. His veins were filled with quicksilver.
He nodded, and Katie set up the metal easel and then put up the poster board. He was in the zone, as he liked to think of it, and even though Katie was very easy on the eyes, he barely saw her. The poster showed a series of photos, starting with a black-and-white collection of cells and ending with a color photo of a little girl.
Stepping out from behind the polished podium, Fairview walked over to the easel. He adjusted a silver cuff link that had caught on the edge of his navy blue blazer, then pointed at the photograph of cells—they looked like a cluster of gray circles—on the left-hand side of the board.
“Even the presiding officer, as handsome as he is”—Fairview paused for the laughter, and got it, feeling a Yes! in his gut—“he looked like this at one time, just a little clump of cells. If he had been destroyed at this point, he wouldn’t be here before you today. It’s important to remember that we all started like this.”
He ran his hand from left to right over the series of photographs—a baby sucking its thumb in the womb, a swaddled newborn, a toddler with a teddy bear—that ended with a six-year-old with blonde pigtails and a gap-toothed grin. Could she be any more perfect?
“This shows the development taking place that led to Ellie here.” He tapped her photograph, then trailed his fingers back to the clump of cells. “If you destroy her here, you don’t get Ellie here.” Fingers back to tap on the smiling girl. “That’s key. If they had destroyed Ellie and used her cells for research, then this little girl wouldn’t be alive today. And Ellie knows how important that is. That’s why she drew this.”
Katie stepped up to take the first poster as he removed it, revealing the second poster, a series of a child’s drawings.