Chapter 23
After finally receiving the thumbs up to fly, Josh and his family happily returned home. With
Brian on the ground in Minnesota, Josh felt comfortable making the calls from D.C. Although
Donna had noticed a change in attitude with him lately, she was hoping the return home would
be a cure all.
Josh had dived right into Julie’s campaign with a fervor she hadn’t seen in a long while. He and
the rag tag team he’d formed with the U of M students had truly energized him and helped him
deal with the fact that he was stuck in a hotel room every day. But starting a couple days
before they came home, he’d become more quiet and withdrawn.
The rest of the family was happy to be home, but perhaps none of them were as pleased as
Tori. Being back in her room with her things and her routine had an instantly positive effect on
her and her mood improved the moment they walked in the door.
“Hello, we’re home!” she shouted even though there wasn’t anyone to answer her and she
went running for the stairs.
“Careful Tori, you don’t want to hit your cast, baby.” Donna warned.
“I’m careful!” she replied as she raced to her room. She didn’t hit any of the furniture with her
cast but more than one sibling called out an ‘ouch’.”
Josh gingerly lay down on the couch. “Someone is happy to be home.” He muttered.
“I think we all are. Can I get you something?” Donna asked solicitously.
“Yeah, my laptop?” Josh was jonesing to get online after traveling for hours.
“I was thinking more along the lines of food, drink, medication…”
“No, just my laptop.”
“Josh, we just walked through our front door after several unplanned weeks away. Maybe we
could just savor the moment for a bit? The work will be there after dinner.” Donna suggested.
“I’m just going to check my emails; make sure nothing’s gone off the rails in Minnesota.” He
insisted.
“Right.” Donna’s clipped reply got his attention.
“What does that mean?” he asked in irritation.
“We just left Minnesota a few hours ago. Just what exactly do you imagine has gone off the
rails since then? I’m pretty sure if there had been a cataclysmic event we would have heard
something by now. I know that Julie’s campaign kept you from going stir crazy there but do you
think you could let it go for now?”
“I’m just going to check emails.” Josh said stubbornly.
“You’re not ‘just going to check emails’. Lately you are incapable of just checking emails,
because inevitably one or, I don’t know, a dozen of them require an instant response from you
or the world stops turning.” Donna left before Josh could reply. When she returned she nearly
threw his laptop at him and left again. Josh called her twice but she didn’t return.
“You need something, Daddy?” Ally asked while rolling a suitcase behind her.
“I was just calling for Mom, honey.” Josh said but his aggravation must have been evident
because Ally ran ahead into the kitchen calling for her mom. She returned a minute later.
“Mom says she’s busy making dinner with Jenny and Jake, but I can help you.”
“I’m fine, Ally cat, I just wanted to talk to mom about something. It can wait til dinner.”
“If you want I can stay by you and unpack later.” She offered.
“I think you better unpack first. Then you can come stay with me.” Josh smiled. Of all his
children, Ally had the most tender heart.
“Okay, I’ll be RIGHT back.” She promised and made her dad chuckle.
Josh opened his laptop and started scanning emails. He hadn’t been reading long when Tori
screamed from the top of the stairs.
“Dinner time!”
“Not quite yet, kiddo.”
“It’s six o’clock.” Tori stated.
“But we just got home. We’re not ready to eat yet.” Josh reasoned while still scanning his
emails. Look at that! The Minneapolis Star Tribune had a nice write up on Julie’s campaign.
“But it’s six o’clock.” She repeated.
“What?” Josh asked distracted by the Tribune email. “It’ll just be a few minutes Tori.” Josh hit
reply and started typing.
“Daddy, I’m hungry and it’s six o-“
“Clock. Yes, Tori, I can tell time. Let me finish this and then we can see about-“
“Mommy! It’s six O’clock!” Tori screamed as Ally came down.
“Tori, not so loud.” Ally suggested pointedly.
“Mommy?!” Tori continued to scream from the top of the stairs.
Donna came rushing in. “Tori, please don’t shout it hurts my ears.”
“It’s six o’clock and Daddy said we’re not eating.” She announced. Donna sighed loudly.
“How are those emails coming, Joshua?” Donna glared at him.
“I can’t make dinner appear Donna.” He picked up his cell to make a call. If Brian got right on
this, they could turn the Tribune article into a couple local news sit downs.
“When are we gonna eat Mommy?” Tori was approaching melt down point.
“When it’s six o’clock.” Donna smiled
“It’s six o’clock now.” Tori pointed to the clock on the wall.
“No, it’s not. Look at your watch.” Donna instructed and Tori looked down puzzled.
“My watch says five o’clock.” Tori noted.
“Yes it does, because we started our day in Minnesota and Minnesota is on a different time
zone. When you start a day in a different time zone sometimes it’s easier to stay in that time
zone all day so your body doesn’t get mixed up. Tomorrow we’ll switch back to our home time
zone, okay?”
“Okay. Can I set the table?” Tori asked.
“I’d love that, thanks.” Donna accepted the offer and Tori practically danced into the kitchen.
“That was so awesome, Mom!” Ally smiled.
“Thanks, Ally cat. Are you all unpacked?”
“Yep. Then I came down to spend time with Daddy.”
“That’s very nice. I’m sure he appreciates that.” Donna said drily while Josh continued to argue
with someone on the phone.
Maybe I’m just tired, Donna thought. It had been a hellish month and they were all justified in
being exhausted. So maybe she was just overreacting. After a nice, relaxing dinner and their
regular bedtime routine things were sure to settle down.
***********************************************
Dear Ben,
I miss seeing you around here. How is everyone settling back in? We’re running around the
district like crazy. Holly lost her voice yesterday, so Laura had to do spokesperson duties. She
was so bad it was hysterical! I think I may be the first candidate in history who had to apologize
for and clarify the remarks of my own spokesperson!
We are driving back from an event in Austin, Minnesota and I’m feeling pretty queasy. You see
Austin is the home of the Hormel meat packing plant. Ever seen a meat packing plant, kiddo?
They are disgusting! Of course the people of Austin are very proud of their plant, as they
should be. It started in the 1800’s and has been the source of employment and tax revenue
ever since. That’s all well and good, but the people of Austin are SO proud of their plant that
they wanted to show me every inch of it; every dead animal piece of it.
There was blood and guts everywhere, Ben, I almost puked right on the tour guide’s feet. And
your pal, Brian? He just stood at the back of the tour and laughed at me the entire time. I hope
the good voters of Austin couldn’t tell I was about to lose my lunch. They gave me some
wonderful meat products to take home, but after the tour, I’m seriously thinking of becoming a
vegetarian. Watching carrots get cut up into little pieces doesn’t bother me like this.
I got another card from Tori. Can you help me translate it? She wrote: Hi Julie (I got that part,
thanks) then she lists the average seasonal temperatures in both Minnesota and the District
as well as the time difference between the two before signing love, Tori. Any clarifications you
can give me would be great. I’d like to write back to her, but I don’t want to write the wrong
thing.
I’m going to close the computer down and try to take a short nap before we get home. I’m
getting very good at catching naps whenever I can even though Brian usually takes that
opportunity to take embarrassing pictures of me with my mouth hanging open or something.
Write back soon and fill me in on my favorite Lyman.
Love,
Julie
Dear Julie,
That meat place sounded gross so I looked it up on the web. It was totally GORY! Pigs and
turkeys all hacked up and stuff. I showed it to Mom and she freaked! Jenny said it must smell
awful. I told her you almost puked, but she didn’t laugh at you. She said she would have puked
too.
I emailed Brian and he sent me some of the sleeping pictures. How did you fall asleep sitting
up on that bench? The sign he put in your hand was funny. Holly says you guys do practical
jokes all the time. That sounds more like a vacation than a campaign.
Sorry about Laura. She’s a really good writer, but she doesn’t like people much, you know?
Tori got her cast off and she’s really happy about that. So are the rest of us, cause she kept
hitting us with it, on purpose!
I asked Mom about how you should answer her postcard. Mom said she thinks Tori was trying
to tell you that she’s keeping track of how things are in Minnesota; also Tori is now obsessed
about the different time zones. She kept asking what time it was in different time zones so
much that Dad got her a World Clock. You know, one of those things that show the time all
over the world. That helped, but now she just carries it around with her everywhere and reads
off the time in all these different cities!
Only 6 more weeks of school! Mom always signs us up for some kind of classes in the
summer, but they’re always fun so that’s okay. Brian said Minnesota has a huge state fair in
August and we should come for it. He said you’ll have your own booth and we can work there
with you guys. I asked if we could go for the opening day and Mom said, ‘We’ll talk about it
later’ which is what she says when she’s going to say ‘no’ later, but Dad winked at me so I think
we’ll be there.
Write again soon, and stay away from dead, disgusting animal parts! LOL!
Benjamin Lyman
Dear Tori,
Thanks for your wonderful card. The picture on it was beautiful. Isn’t it funny how it can be
dinner time at your house and lunch time in California? I know you’ve been to California a lot. I’
ve only been there twice.
I heard you might come to Minnesota for the State Fair, so I’m including a book about our fair
for you to read before you come. I can’t wait to see all of you again!
Love,
Julie
*****************************************************
The state convention was, as most are, mayhem. It never ceased to amaze Brian how many
delegates were more of the lunatic fringe variety than the well balanced political activist
variety. His eyes grew wide when he read a sign that said, “Misogamists for Social Change”.
Brian was about to offer some advice; that they change the wording of their sign. He wagered
not many people knew that Misogamists were people who hated marriage and dictionaries
weren’t readily available at the convention venue. Instead, he deftly steered Julie away from
that small but enthusiastic group.
“Keep walking. We don’t want any pictures of you here.” He advised her. When she caught
sight of the sign, she chuckled.
“How do you know I’m NOT a secret misogamist?” She teased.
“Well, if you are then I think that’s something we should talk about soon.” Brian shot back
without looking at her. Julie stopped in her tracks.
“I’m sorry?” she said quietly.
Brian turned to face her. “Were you under the mistaken impression that this” he gestured
between them, “is some sort of casual thing to me?”
“Not casual, no, but-“
“Then unless you intend to go lend your support to that group over there, you’ll have an
important decision to make soon.”
“How soon?” she asked breathlessly.
“Very, very soon.” He promised moving closer to her. He looked directly into her eyes as he
closed the distance between them before bending to capture her lips with his; using the chaos
of the crowd around them as cover. “Now let’s get to work.”
A dazed but happy Congressional candidate followed his lead.
*********************************************************************
“Josh I’ve got updated numbers for you.”
“Thanks Liz.” Josh answered absently. He was looking at a campaign in Ohio that was tanking
and looking for new campaign management. But in actuality he was distracting himself with it
until he got an update on Julie’s nomination convention.
“And Brian said to check your email. He sent you a video download of Julie’s speech to the
State convention.” Liz told him. Josh sat up quickly and opened his email.
“You’re supposed to call him after you watch it. He wants some advice on a media thing.” Liz
added.
That got Josh’s attention. “He didn’t happen to say what kind of ‘media thing’ did he?”
“Sorry, he just said to call him on his cell.” Liz explained. Josh pulled up the video and listened.
“…so it is with great pride that I accept your nomination to represent the first district of
Minnesota in Congress. Thank you very much!” Josh looked carefully at Julie and saw the
excitement and happiness on her face. He’d seen that expression before; on Jed Bartlet’s face
when he accepted his party’s nomination, on the face of Matt Santos too, hell Josh had worn it
himself more than once.
But lately he didn’t seem to feel that same sense of fresh excitement. Maybe that was why he
felt so invested in the Peterson campaign. It helped him recapture some of that feeling;
especially seeing it through Ben’s eyes.
During his imposed exile he’d felt useless and superfluous to the rest of the team. Everybody
handled everything just fine without him. He wanted to work on something only he could do.
Maybe this race in Ohio…He looked at their campaign board. Donna had assembled it for him
on their ‘anniversary’ a couple Aprils ago and it contained pictures of candidates that they had
worked with ever since they assembled their ‘team’.
Was that his legacy? Putting good people into all areas of Government to effect change for a
long time to come? Was that it? It didn’t feel like enough. Maybe getting Julie Peterson into
Congress…that thought jogged his memory and he picked up his cell to call Brian.
“Hey! What did you think about the speech?” Brian answered.
“It was great.” Josh answered absently, still thinking about the Ohio numbers in his hands.
“Great? She kicked ass with it.” Brian protested.
“That’s what I meant by it was great. What’s up? Liz said something about a media thing.”
“Yeah….uh…”
“Don’t tell me you’ve blown the momentum right out of the gate.” Josh said apprehensively.
“No! No momentum blowing. In fact, some might see this as a positive development...You
know, garnering some positive publicity… or at least some face time on the news…” Brian
trailed off.
“Brian, I’m tired and I’m looking at this campaign in southern Ohio that seems to be running on
the Confederate platform, so it you could just spit out whatev-“
“Julie and I are engaged.” Brian spit out as ordered and caused Josh to drop all his papers.
“Excuse me? When and how did this happen?” Josh demanded.
“Well, that’s a little personal don’t you think, Boss?” Brian joked.
“Let me rephrase then. Did it occur to you that mixing personal and professional roles right out
of the gate might make others see your candidate in a different light just as she’s kicking off
her general election campaign?”
“I…” Brian stuttered under Josh’s unexpected attack.
“I’ve set her up as a candidate the people are clamoring for and now all they’re going to see is
a woman with Bride magazine in her hands.”
“Hold on. I was thinking that-“
“Cause this might be the kind of thing your older, wiser boss might have had in mind when he
suggested your vision could get clouded by dating the woman whose campaign you’re
running.” Josh continued.
“Josh?” Brian was truly perplexed. He imagined Josh might give him a little shit about the
timing, but then he’d jump on board and figure out how to best play it in the media. What the
hell?
“I should never have let you stay there.” Josh voiced the thought that was best kept to himself.
His uncharacteristic callousness pushed the final button that severed the respect Brian had
always had for him.
“Thanks, boss, I’ll pass on your good wishes to Julie.” Brian said quietly and hung up.
“Brian?!” Josh called through the speaker to no avail just as Donna walked in.
“You get cut off?” she asked sensing her husband’s frustration.
“I think I got hung up on.” Josh fumed.
“By whom?”
“Brian.” Josh hit re-dial and got Brian’s voice mail.
“What happened?”
“Nothing happened! He didn’t like my opinion.”
“And what was your opinion?”
“Why? Do I have to run this by you too?”
“Settle down, Joshua. What are you all worked up about?”
“Brian apparently asked Julie to marry him on the same day she accepted her party’s
nomination for Congress.” Josh muttered.
“Brian and Julie are engaged!” Donna exclaimed; her voice and face showing the happiness
she felt at this news.
“That’s what I’m told.” Josh tried Brian’s number again.
“Wait a second. What’s the problem? Why are you angry?”
“I warned him this would happen. You can’t get romantically involved with the candidate you’re
running without losing your focus.”
“I don’t understand, Josh. Did something happen? Was there a negative story? A problem with
the campaign?”
“Not yet.” Josh admitted. “Tomorrow is the first day of the general election campaign and
instead of hitting the ground running the press is going to get caught up in this…romantic
sidebar! Is she running for Congress or planning her wedding?”
“Josh…?”
“I’ve worked for weeks, months now, to get her to be taken seriously as a candidate and now
all the press will be writing about is a tawdry affair with the Lyman Consulting representative.”
“Josh. That’s isn’t going to be the story and you know it. What is this really about?” Donna
asked quietly. Usually she could read her husband very well, but his mask was firmly in place.
“This is not what I wanted to be dealing with right now. I’m trying to wrap my head around this
Senate seat in Ohio and now-“
“What Senate seat in Ohio?” Donna asked puzzled.
Josh picked up the pages off the floor that he had dropped earlier. “Carter asked me to look at
it and give him an opinion.”
“Just an opinion?” Donna pressed.
“If he likes my opinion, we may have another client out there.”
“And just who is going to handle that client? We’re already spread pretty thin, Josh.”
“IF it happens, I’ll take it.” Josh assured her.
“This didn’t come up during our conference call.” Donna noted.
“Carter faxed this to me after the call.” Josh tried to organize the sheets but Donna took them
out of his hands. “Donna!”
“Something’s wrong Josh. You’ve been…off for awhile and you seem to have gotten more
stressed since we’ve been back than you were when you were laid up in Minnesota. You’re
taking on more work, personally, consulting with the team less and less. What is going on?”
“It’s a pretty busy time for us right now, Donna. I’m just trying to pick up some of the slack.”
“No, you’re not.” Donna objected and shook the offending papers at him. “This is not slack.
This is additional work. You need to slow down or you’re going to end up back in the hospital.”
“I was in the hospital because I was in car accident. That wasn’t about overwork.”
“It wasn’t? We didn’t have to be in Minnesota, but you had to micromanage Julie’s campaign.
You were fighting with Ben about the campaign. Ben was upset about Julie losing and so were
you.”
“Donna-“
“The whole fight was about this campaign. This campaign that has you and Ben obsessed!
That’s why you were distracted, that’s why you were in an accident, and that’s why you were in
the hospital and unable to fly for weeks.”
“I am not obsessed.” Josh argued.
“Take a look at the facts, counselor, I think they’d show otherwise. It’s almost the only thing
you work on, you’ ignored Tori on the verge of a meltdown because of it, and you distanced
yourself from me.” Donna snapped back but then took a calming breath. When she started
talking again, it was with a softer tone. “Talk to me, Joshua. I’m worried about you. You’re
keeping something from me and it hurts.”
“I’m just trying to win an election here. A job, I might add, which was made more difficult with
this ill-timed engagement.”
“This is NOT about an engagement. You are too good at what you do to think that Julie
Peterson’s election is going to hinge on the fact that she’s become engaged.”
“I can spin it, yes, but he should have either waited or given me a heads up.”
“A heads up? What, before he asked Julie?”
“Yes. I could have talked him into waiting or I-“
“Do you hear yourself? You don’t say ‘we’ anymore. You only use ‘I’. What happened to ‘we’?”
Donna knelt down in front of him so he couldn’t avoid her eyes.
“Maybe that’s because I don’t feel like a part of this team anymore. The ‘team’ doesn’t need
me.” Josh nearly shouted.
“You lead this team, you founded this team, you’re a vital part of this team.” Donna shouted
back.
“No, I’m not; not anymore. You’ve taken over campaign strategy, Toby is supervising the
writers, Fred is the traveling trouble shooter, Alan is the numbers master, Mandy and Peter
handle the media buys, and Lou’s got strategy on the west coast. I have no impact here
anymore. At least on the Peterson campaign I can make a difference.”
“Josh, I honestly don’t know where all this is coming from. You have to help me understand
what’s going on. When did you start feeling this way?”
Josh just shrugged.
“You’re shutting me out and that’s not fair. That’s not how we work. You need to talk to me and
be connected to our children. If there’s an issue with the company then let’s address it.”
“Then you can wave a magic wand and make it all better?” Josh smirked. “You can’t fix
everything, Donna.”
“I can’t if I don’t know what the problem is to begin with. Julie’s campaign is going to do fine.
She has the best chance she’s ever had to win that seat due to your strategy. Brian is a great
manager and he can take the wheel from here. Everyone on our team has an important role,
but that doesn’t negate the importance of each and every one of us. That’s why we’re a team.
We all do better collectively than we would individually.”
“Am I going to get a chance to talk here, or is this just another Donna lecture.” Josh said
acerbically.
Donna’s eyes grew wide and moist. She threw his papers on his desk and stood up. “Lecture
over. Good luck with Ohio. I hope you can manage it ALL by yourself, because the Lyman
Consulting Group will not be taking on another client there.” Donna stormed out. Infuriating,
stubborn, jackass! And she didn’t even want to think about what he said to Brian while he was
in that state. At least that she could try to remedy. Deciding she was done for the day, she
headed home, working out a plan as she went.