Eighteen Acres: A Novel (27 page)

“Yes, of course. Peter talked to the twins on the way over, and they’re very excited about being in Philly with you this week.”

Charlotte smiled. “I’d better get back inside.”

“Brian will do a good job with the interview,” Dale said, turning back toward the car.

Peter was standing a few feet away.

“Good night, Peter,” Charlotte said, nodding in his direction.

He nodded back and put an arm around Dale.

Charlotte stood and watched Peter help Dale into the car. She waited until they’d driven past the iron gates, and then she walked down the stairs to stand in the driveway. She’d never noticed how many gates there were protecting her from the outside world. It was a steamy night, and the humid air felt good. She took a deep breath and wondered if rolling the dice on Tara Meyers would pay off.

Meyers was a law-and-order Democrat. She’d been the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York and had prosecuted terrorist cases during the Martin administration—a nonpartisan post. When she’d run for attorney general as a Democrat, New York Republicans were disappointed. She’d won her first statewide race with sixty-four percent of the vote. She had an excellent reputation in law-enforcement circles, and when she’d landed in the national spotlight for prosecuting one of the big investment banks, she’d gained additional admirers. Meyers had a six-year-old daughter, and her husband was an FBI agent. They seemed perfectly suited for a life in politics. Charlotte sighed as she turned to walk back toward the Map Room for the interview. Life took such strange turns, she mused. She never thought she’d be bidding her husband and his girlfriend a goodnight while she prepared to upend the political world order by tapping a Democrat as
her VP. She shivered as the air conditioned air blasted her warm skin. Charlotte rubbed her arms and steeled herself for the political attacks that were sure to come from Democrats and Republicans.

Brian conducted a short interview with the outgoing vice president. He honed in on questions about what McMillan wanted his political legacy to be. Then he interviewed Charlotte and Tara together about serving as a team after meeting for the first time only days earlier. Finally, he interviewed Tara about her record as attorney general and her political views on a host of social and foreign-policy issues.

When they finished, Brian thanked everyone and turned to leave.

Melanie followed him into the hallway. “I’m sorry for not telling you about this,” Charlotte heard Melanie say to Brian.

He didn’t say anything. Charlotte watched as he kept walking toward the North Lawn of the White House. Melanie stood in the middle of the hallway, watching him walk away.

“Did you see the way he looked at me?” Melanie said to Charlotte when she noticed her standing behind her.

“Yes. His ego is bruised because you didn’t spill the beans about Tara. He’ll get over it.”

“I don’t know,” Melanie said.

“If he doesn’t, you were going to get in trouble at some point anyway,” Charlotte said.

Melanie stared in the direction in which he’d walked away.

“Don’t worry about it tonight, Melanie. Try to get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.” Charlotte stood there for another moment before turning to head up the stairs toward the residence.

Once upstairs, she read through her convention speech and reviewed the stage directions so she’d know where to stand for the vice president’s speech and where to turn when Tara came onto the stage. The press would go nuts over the announcement. As much as they loved the unexpected, they hated to be surprised; it made them look bad.

Charlotte wandered around her bedroom, straightening items that didn’t need straightening and triple-checking her luggage for the next day. She looked at the dogs sleeping in a heap of cinnamon-colored fur in the center of her bed. She smiled and climbed in beside them.

She wasn’t tired yet, and she wanted to share the news about Tara with someone. She dialed Brooke and Mark’s number. They were flying to Philadelphia in the morning to be there for her speech. Brooke picked up on the first ring.

“Hi,” she said. “It’s Charlotte.”

“I know, silly,” Brooke answered.

“Were you sleeping?” she asked.

“It’s only ten
P.M.
here. What’s up?”

“I might have done something crazy tonight,” Charlotte said.

“You didn’t fire Ralph, did you?” Brooke asked.

“No, I didn’t fire Ralph, for Christ’s sake. I picked a Democrat for vice president.”

“Holy shit,” Brooke said.

“It’s a secret, but the vice president is going to introduce me tomorrow at the convention and announce that he’s stepping aside. Then I’m going to come out and announce a new running mate.”

“Can I tell Mark?” Brooke asked.

“Of course. Just tell him not to talk about it at the airport or on his cell phone.”

“Oh, wait, I forgot to ask. Who is it?” Brooke asked.

“New York attorney general Tara Meyers,” Charlotte said.

“Wow. You might be stuck with this gig for four more years after all,” Brooke said.

“It should not be possible that I can win, should it?” she asked.

“Probably not. But voters like the way you’ve handled yourself, Char. You’ve been tough and graceful. I’m proud of you,” Brooke said.

“Don’t screw it up by telling your neighbors. This is top, top secret,” Charlotte warned.

“I got it. I’ve got to go talk to the nanny about the kids’ schedules. We’ll see you tomorrow night, Char. Love you.”

“You, too. Give the kids a hug from me,” Charlotte said.

Melanie

Melanie ignored Charlotte’s advice and followed Brian to the North Lawn of the White House, where he was taping a stand-up.

“Brian, please, can we talk about this?” she asked while he rehearsed.

He didn’t look away from the camera.

“Are you even going to look at me?” she asked.

He stopped and turned to face her. “What the hell are we doing, Melanie? Do you think it’s funny that I sleep in your bed at night and listen to hours and hours of your complaints about your horrible job, and then when something this big is happening, I don’t get any sort of signal or warning that something major is coming? It takes Dale Smith calling me and telling me she’s been handed a big scoop by the White House and she wants to hand it off to me. The funniest thing is that Dale assumed I already knew. That’s why she asked me.” He wasn’t yelling, but his voice had an edge to it that she’d never heard before.

“I didn’t have a choice about Dale,” Melanie said.

“I believe you. And I’m not mad that Dale got the scoop and the interview, but I have never compromised the things you’ve told me, and I’ve never violated our agreement about what stays off the record
and what I shouldn’t even hear in the first place. I would rather be the last person on a story than betray your trust,” he said.

“I know,” Melanie said. “I’m sorry.”

“It never crossed your mind that you could have shared this, that you could have trusted someone else. You’re a one-woman band. You and Charlotte against the world, so help you God.”

“That’s not fair,” she said.

“No? Do you think I would keep it from you if I heard that Fran was dumping her running mate?” he demanded.

“I don’t know,” Melanie said.

“You don’t know? Well, that’s great. I would
not
keep it from you. I might tell you not to tell Charlotte, but I would not keep it from you.”

“I should have told you,” she said.

“Yes, you should have told me.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again.

“You’re sorry that I’m angry,” he answered.

Melanie was silent.

“See, that’s why this isn’t going to work,” he said sadly.

She looked at him. “What are you saying?”

“I’m not saying anything at one in the morning. I’m going to sleep at home tonight. I need to be up at the crack of dawn,” he said.

“Me, too. Can’t we just go home and sleep on it and figure things out later?” she asked.

“I can’t deal with this right now, Melanie,” he said.

She watched him pack up his things and walk away from her. She stood there until she heard the northwest gate close behind him. She saw Walter and Sherry sitting in the front seat of the SUV parked on the other side of the driveway. She walked over to the car and climbed into the backseat. Walter and Sherry were quiet.

“Hi, guys,” she said.

“Good evening, Melanie,” Walter said, smiling at her sympathetically.

She sent an e-mail to Charlotte’s stylist, asking her to bring a dozen suits to the convention for Tara. The stylist wrote back: “Desired look?” Melanie replied: “Less Erin Brockovich, more Jackie Kennedy.”

She e-mailed Annie to make sure she was traveling to the convention
in the morning, and she typed out a lengthy note of congratulations to the speechwriting team. Charlotte’s convention speech was a masterpiece, and they’d written a fiery address for Tara as well. Melanie leaned back and closed her eyes.

“It’s almost over,” Walter said from the front.

“Yep,” Melanie said. “Sure is.”

Dale

You sure you want to watch it?” Peter asked.

“Yeah. I mean, it’s not like I’m going to have a breakdown or anything. I know the interview could have been mine, but like you said, it wouldn’t have changed anything,” Dale said, reaching for the remote.

Peter sat down next to her, and they turned on the network Dale had spent the better part of five years working for.

“We have some breaking news to share with our viewers,” the anchor said.

“He is so pissed about this,” Dale said, leaning forward and staring intently at the screen.

“How can you tell?” Peter asked.

“He is trying so hard to smile that his face muscles are in spasm. See?” Dale pointed to the bottom left side of the screen.

“What do you know, you’re right,” Peter said, laughing. “Do you really think Billy and Brian kept the Tara announcement a secret from the anchor?”

“I wouldn’t have guessed that they would have, but it’s obvious from his face that he had no idea,” Dale said, laughing and relaxing for the first time since they’d returned the night before from Washington.
“This is going to be fun,” she said, reaching for the can of Coke Peter had brought in for her.

The anchor tossed to Brian.

“At around eight
P.M.
last night, Alan, we were invited deep inside the White House residence, where the president of the United States shared a secret announcement only with us. We’ll have that secret here, exclusively, on the other side of the break,” Brian said, tossing back to the anchor.

Peter looked at Dale to gauge her mood. “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine,” she said.

“All right. I’ll stop fretting,” he said.

“Here we go,” she said.

“If you’re just joining us, we have some breaking news. Our very own Brian Watson is reporting on a dramatic development from President Charlotte Kramer—a decision that could make this week’s Republican convention very, very interesting. We’re going to go to Brian now. Brian, what can you tell us?” the anchor said.

“Thanks, Alan. We were invited to the White House residence last night—the part of the White House rarely seen by the public because it’s where the first family actually lives. But we were invited there last night for an exclusive interview with President Kramer, Vice President Neal McMillan, and Tara Meyers. Some of our viewers might recognize that name. Tara Meyers is the New York State attorney general. She is a Democrat, and after tonight, she will be the vice-presidential nominee for the Republican ticket. The vice president will step down at the end of his term, and President Kramer has replaced him as her running mate with Tara Meyers, a Democrat and the current attorney general for the state of New York,” Brian said.

“Brian, what do we know about how this came to be?” the anchor asked.

“In my exclusive interview with all of the parties involved, I asked the vice president why he was stepping down, and he told me, quote, ‘It is time to see how far we can push the process,’ end quote, a reference, Alan, to what he described as the very nasty and partisan nature of the last several presidential campaigns.”

“Interesting, Brian. And what do we know about Tara Meyers?
She is a woman, obviously, and that makes the Kramer-Meyers ticket historic in more ways than one.”

“That’s right, Alan. Obviously, Charlotte Kramer is sending all sorts of messages here. First, she’s picked a Democrat, and she joked with us last night that the right wing of her party, which has given her all sorts of grief over the last four years, might appreciate her a little more now that there’s a Democrat who could be standing, as they say, a heartbeat away from the Oval Office,” Brian said.

“Fascinating. Historic. And only here. Stay with us for continuing coverage of this breaking news. We’ll be right back with Brian’s interview with President Kramer, Vice President McMillan, and the Republican Party’s new vice-presidential nominee, Democrat Tara Meyers,” the anchor said.

Dale clicked the television off and took a deep breath, blowing it out through her lips with a loud shushing sound. She had overestimated her ability simply to observe the world that she had been a part of for so long. “Honey, I think I’m going to go for a walk,” she said.

“Want some company?” Peter asked.

“No. I think I need a head-clearing walk along the water.”

“I understand. Will you bring your cell phone in case you want a ride back?”

“Sure,” she said. She was wearing black yoga pants and running shoes, and she put on a fleece jacket over her long-sleeved T-shirt. San Francisco was freezing in August.

“I’ll see you in a little bit,” Peter said.

Dale hurried out the front door.

Once outside Peter’s Pacific Heights Victorian, she crossed Divisadero and walked into the Presidio. The old military base made her feel as if she was stepping back in time. She made her way through the Presidio and down to the waterfront. She walked along the dirt path toward the Golden Gate Bridge and tried to breathe deeply. She had spiraled into a funk that she could no longer figure out how to pull herself out of. It wasn’t just that she’d lost her job. She’d lost everything that went with it.