Chapter 34
Julie took advantage of the crowd and introduced herself to the people
assembled as a distraction, while Brian hustled Ben out the back and
away from the chaos.
Once they had a little distance, Brian sat Ben down on a bench.
"You okay, tiger?"
"I'm sorry." Ben said immediately.
"Don't tell me. Tell Billy. He's the one who's going to
have a shiner from this little party."
Ben moaned. Billy was like a hero to Ben and he felt sick that his
actions got Billy hurt. Brian's cell phone rang and he answered,
then gave Julie directions to where they were sitting.
Julie arrived moments later. "Ben, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I'm sorry." He repeated his apology to her.
"I should go home now." He offered.
"What are you talking about? You promised to ride the Lightning Bolt
with me later." Julie reminded him.
"I made a big mistake with that guy."
"I don't think he was going to vote for me anyway." She
shrugged.
"Don't blow this off." Brian told her. "This is a
serious thing now. It'll be on the news for sure and we don't
know what the effect of that will be other than the fact that Josh and
Donna are going to have my head."
"I'm sorry." Ben said again, a little more desperately.
"I'll tell Mom and Dad it was my fault. I'll tell that guy
I'm sorry if you want."
"What I want is for you to listen to me when I tell you to stop and
back off. He was an ignorant drunk. You don't mess with people like
that; it only leads to trouble." Brian said sternly.
"Brian, he did try to back off; a couple times."
"Will you stay out of this for a minute?"
"Excuse me?" Julie shot back. "He was defending his parents
and he was defending me. That's all."
"No, that's not all. I asked him to stop, so did you, and so did
Billy. Now Billy got assaulted and this campaign is making the news for
the wrong reason." Brian pointed out.
"I'm sorry." Ben barely whispered this time.
"I know, Ben." Julie put a comforting arm around the young
man's shoulder. "It's going to be alright." Again,
Brian's phone rang and again he gave directions to their location.
Billy arrived with a bag of ice pressed to the side of his face. He took
a seat next to Ben who appeared close to tears. "You realize
we're going to have to make up a whole story now so we don't get
in trouble with your parents or my wife."
"I'm sorry." Ben squeaked. "Does it hurt a lot?"
"It hurts like a son of a bitch." Billy replied. "But
it'll be fine, Tiger."
"It looks like it's getting worse." Ben noted.
"I don't doubt it." Billy muttered. "Just to be clear
when I say, `Ben, that's enough' what does that mean?"
"That I should stop."
"That you should stop, yes." Billy's head tipped back with a
sigh.
"Do you want some Motrin?" Julie offered a bottle from her
pocket. Billy raised his eyebrows in a silent question. "I carry
them everywhere now." She explained and Billy gratefully held out
his hand for some pills.
"Should I get an intern to drive you back to the hotel?" Brian
asked.
Billy shook his head slowly. "Jenny and Paige will be coming here to
meet us at 7… And don't call her, please. She'll scold me
enough when she gets here and sees my face."
"It's my fault." Ben said quietly.
"No, it was that blowhard's fault; he decided to use his fist,
but you were what we call a contributing factor. You can't respond
to losers like that Ben. It only leads to trouble. Got it?"
"Yes." Ben confirmed. "Maybe we should leave…?"
"No. A couple people in the crowd recorded the whole thing on their
phones. What a world we live in." Billy mused. "Anyway, once the
police saw the recording, they hauled good old Jerry's ass away for
assault."
"Now we need to figure out who else these people will share their
recording with?" Brian guessed.
"Normally, it would be nothing of consequence unless someone sent it
in to America's Funniest Home Videos; young child faces off with
adult over politics…but unfortunately for us, this child's name
is Lyman and a few people in the crowd obviously know that and what that
means. Couple that with the fact that it happened at the DFL booth where
there are enough political junkies to know that stories about Josh Lyman
and his family make news…"
"Okay, so what first?" Julie cut to the chase.
"First we call Josh…or maybe we call Donna… and fill her in
on what happened here, so that on the off chance this hits the national
media they aren't taken by surprise. They're also going to want
to know Ben's okay."
"I won't be okay after Mom hears what happened." Ben noted.
"Next, we need to find out exactly what the recordings look like and
figure out if we need to spin this or make any kind of statement."
Brian rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.
"I don't know how much they've got, just that it included
enough of the altercation to make the arrest." Billy replied.
"I should really go."
"You did nothing wrong, Ben." Julie re-stated and both men sent
her looks that said otherwise. "You did very little wrong, Ben.
You're not getting sent to your room like some…I don't know
what."
"Hi Donna; just the woman I was looking for." Billy said into
the phone. "NO! He's fine, I swear. Say `hi' to your
mother Ben." Billy held the phone out so Ben could say the one
approved word. Ben was careful to say only what Billy told him to say at
the moment.
"Hi!"
"See? Fine…actually, we had a huge crowd just a little bit
ago…Ben's working like a pro over here; a younger version of
Josh…well, now that you mention it, there was a..thing a few minutes
ago that I wanted to give you a heads up about…" Billy got up and
wandered away from the group to continue his conversation privately.
*******************************************
"Josh! Get on the other phone. Something happened in Minnesota."
Donna called upstairs to her husband.
"Hello?" Josh picked up immediately.
"Ben is fine." Billy repeated for Josh's benefit. "But
there was a small…incident that I wanted to give you a heads up
about. Ben was doing his thing, passing out lit for Julie, and some
inebriated jerk started lecturing him on Democrats. Things kind of
ramped up from there and culminated in Ben telling the drunk guy off,
right before the drunk guy took a swing at me."
"How did a drunk guy get anywhere near Ben, Billy?" Josh asked
pointedly.
"It all happened very fast. You know how many people are swarming
around. Julie and Brian were right next to him." Billy explained.
"Where were you? The person I actually, you know, entrusted my first
born child to?" Josh pressed.
"I was there too, and if you want proof, I'll have Jen take a
picture of my battered face." Billy shot back.
"Are you okay, Billy?" Donna asked. She entered the bedroom, the
cordless phone to her ear, sending Josh silent signal.
"I'm okay. We're all okay, which is what I think we should
keep in mind here."
"So…you're not going to press assault charges?" Josh
mocked.
"The hell I'm not! He's getting a ride to the station as we
speak."
"Is Ben shook up? Does he want to come home?" Donna asked.
"I'll talk to him about it, but I think he mostly just feels
guilty that I got hit." Billy guessed. At the other end of the line,
Donna and Josh shared a grim sort of smile. Loquaciousness wasn't
the only thing Ben got from his father.
"Who is this asshole anyway? Who the hell picks on a kid who's
volunteering on a campaign? Wait a minute! Hold on!. Are you sure this
wasn't someone connected to the Butler campaign trying to stir up a
hornet's nest?" Josh speculated.
"No, this was just a loud mouthed asshole who'd had just enough
to drink to engage in a debate with an 11 year old."
"You're sure?" Donna confirmed. This wouldn't be the
first time someone tried to get to them through one of their children.
"Yes. You should have seen this guy. And the guys he was hanging
with."
"I'd very much like to see the guy and the guys he was hanging
with." Josh shouted . "Where is he now? The asshole drunk, I
mean."
"Incarcerated for assault." Bill replied. "I don't think
you're going to have any luck getting to him right now."
"They have to let him out sometime." Josh growled. Then he
looked up at Donna. "Do we fly out there? Do we bring him back here?
What do we do?"
"Billy, what do you think?" Donna turned the question to their
friend and colleague.
"I think, unless he wants to go home, he should stay here and get
back on the horse. He stood up for himself very well, all things
considered, and I think if he gets packed up and sent home, he's
going to feel like he was the one who did something wrong."
"Fair point." Josh noted. "I'd like to talk to Ben."
"Sure."
"What's going to happen now? With the guy who assaulted
you?" Josh inquired.
"Okay, I know that `assault' is the criminal charge, but it
was hardly an assault. The guy landed one punch and I immediately sat
down just like my mentor taught me, Obi wan."
"I'll believe it when I see it, padiwan." Josh teased.
"You'll get that opportunity. Somebody with a camera phone
recorded it."
"I want a copy of that. Is it going to make its' way to the
media? Julie doesn't need a dust up at this point in the game."
Josh's head was swirling in about 10 different directions.
"I'll find out and get back to you." Billy promised and hung
up the phone, oblivious to the exchange continuing without him.
"We shouldn't have sent him out there by himself." Josh
worried.
"Hello?! Who has been saying that from the start? He's too young
to be traveling across the country by himself." Donna reasoned.
"I didn't give the kid a bus ticket and send him hitch-hiking to
the station!" Josh turned on her.
"Don't do the guilt thing here, this isn't about you. If
Billy hadn't intervened so quickly, who knows what that bastard
might have done to Ben. I'm simply saying that I didn't want to
send Ben not out there; even with Billy."
"Yeah…well he's not out there with his father. That was my
point." Josh muttered.
"Only because his father was recovering from heart surgery."
Donna reminded him. "Let's talk to Ben and see how he's
doing. Then we can decide where to go from there."
************************************************************
"I am SO dead. Mom's going to tell Billy to send me home in a
Fed Ex box…Billy and Jenny will never even take me with them to the
street corner again." Ben gasped. "Jenny! Jenny's going to
flip when she sees Billy's face. Paige will probably cry." He
was getting good and worked up now.
"Hey, calm down." Julie tried to reassure him.
"Julie, you need to get back to the booth. I'll stay with
Ben." Brian told her. Reluctantly, Julie left her two guys alone.
Despite his regret about Ben's outburst, Brian really wasn't
angry with the young man, just frustrated. He really needed to know what
part of that whole debacle was going to end up on the air. So he kept on
arm on Ben's shoulder while he started dialing the contacts he'd
made at local media stations to make some inquiries. One station
already had the whole thing on tape thanks to a loyal viewer. The whole
episode, or at least a good portion of it, would be on the 6:00 news.
When Billy returned to them, Brian shared that news. "Great, I get
beat up by a drunk and it ends up on television."
"You didn't get beat up by him." Ben protested. "You sat
down and waited for the police instead of fighting back. That's a
good thing; especially with people recording it."
Billy smirked. "You keep thinking that, Tiger. I'm going to get
all kinds of grief over it. We need to call your parents in a bit.
Let's go back to the booth."
"Are you sure?" Brian asked. "There are still probably
people there who were witnesses."
"Yeah, I'm sure. Ben's our hero. He stood up to a
belligerent drunk to defend his parents, his candidate, and the
Democratic party, right kiddo?"
"I guess." Ben answered carefully.
"Keep playing the modest routine, it works for you." Billy told
him. "Let's move."
Ben got his share of attention when they got back to the booth and when
Jenny arrived there was a bit of commotion, but Billy and Brian made
sure they were at the WCCO news booth for their 6:00 broadcast so they
could catch the report.
There in all his glory was Ben Lyman, going nose to nose with Jerry the
drunken neocon, explaining to the cognitively challenged man, the
reasons why Julie should be elected. The crowd laughed and cheered
when
Ben concluded with his proof that he could, in fact, spell Julie's
name; despite Jerry's claim to the contrary. They gasped when Billy
got punched and cheered again when the police arrived. Then the news
station cut back to the anchor.
"Quite an interaction there, Rebecca, made only more interesting by
the fact that the young man is the oldest son of Josh and Donna Lyman.
Josh Lyman has been a major player in the Democratic Party for
decades;
most recently as Chief of Staff to President Santos. Donna Moss-Lyman
served as Chief of Staff to First Lady Helen Santos and has made quite a
name for herself in political consulting work. I guess the apple
doesn't fall from the tree, does it?"
"No." Rebecca chuckled. "Josh Lyman made news himself in the
Twin Cities last fall when he had a very public argument with the DFL
State Chair David Strauss."
"Well, when the Lyman family feels passionate about an issue or a
candidate, I guess the rest of us should look out." The anchor
concluded.
"I guess so." Rebecca agreed. "That's all we have for
this hour, join us again at 10 from the Great Minnesota get
together."
"Not so bad." Brian concluded. "They included Ben's
litany of reasons to support Julie. It's like a free
commercial."
"Uh-huh." Billy was figuring something in his head. "Who do
you know over there?" He indicated the news crews
"Rebecca, the co-anchor, Chris, the producer, Ellie directs
segments-"
"Introduce me to one of them." Billy requested. "I want to
get a read on this from them."
"Rebecca, got a minute?" Brian smiled charmingly. She almost
blew him off until she recognized then man standing next to him.
"This is Billy Fernandez with Lyman consulting."
"Rebecca Mills." She held out her hand to Billy. "You need
some ice for that?"
"Got some, thanks." Billy smiled.
"Want to sit down, rest…, give an interview?" she pushed.
"I'm good thanks. I'm wondering how much trouble we're
going to have over this video. Ben's still here and if there's
going to be a backlash, I'd like to get him out of here before
trouble starts."
Brian looked at him oddly. A Backlash? What was Billy really after here?
"Come with me." Rebecca ordered and walked back into the
makeshift studio. She got on the phone and had a brief, quiet
conversation with someone.
"The phones are ringing off the hook. The video clip on the website
is getting massive hits; it's going viral already. The young Mr.
Lyman is going to be quite the rock star, but the feedback is almost
entirely positive. You don't have anything to worry about there. Any
chance he'd like to do an on-air?"
"Sure, `cause I only work for his parents who are in another
state and trusted me with the welfare of their oldest child." Billy
nodded.
"That's a `no'?" Rebecca guessed.
"That's a `no' ." Billy confirmed. "He's
going to finish his day at the DFL booth passing out literature and
buttons like he has the past couple days. It was just an unfortunate set
of circumstances."
"He's a pretty articulate kid, for an eleven year old."
Rebecca noted.
"He's the oldest child of Josh and Donna Lyman. I wasn't
there, but I heard he was debating with his mother over bed times before
he turned one." Billy smiled and Rebecca leaned closer.
"I was disappointed not to have an opportunity to speak with Josh
Lyman last time he was here."
"I imagine any parent would be grateful to people who are kind to
their child." Billy agreed. "And he'll be back before the
election."
"Well, we have a news crew that travels all over the fair doing
interviews and getting quotes from fairgoers and fair workers."
"I guessed that you might." Billy nodded. "There are a lot
of fairgoers over at the DFL booth. You should take a walk over."
"Maybe we should." Rebecca pursed her lips. "I'll need
to get some dinner first. Care to join me?"
"My wife and daughter are waiting for me right now, but thanks for
the invitation." Billy smiled at the mere mention of his wife and
daughter. "Is there anything here that's not on a stick?"
"Good luck with that." Rebecca called over her shoulder.
"What the hell are you doing?" Brian asked once Rebecca was out
of earshot.
"Not sure yet." Billy replied and got on his cell. "Hey,
Josh it's me…it's on WCCO.com right now. Take a look and
call me back."
"Maybe you should take Ben back to the hotel. I'm sure
there's stickless food there."
"Thanks." Billy smacked Brian on the shoulder. "But unless
I hear differently from Josh we're staying."
******************************************
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Josh demanded.
"Why do you think? Who do you think he learned that from?" She
motioned to the computer screen where they were re-playing Ben's
clip.
"Excuse me, chicken fighter?" Josh smirked at her.
"That doesn't count." Donna clipped a reply.
"Why not?"
"Because I learned that from you, too. All of this is your
fault."
"All of it? I didn't get that guy drunk or give him a
lobotomy."
"But you taught Ben what to say when he met someone who was drunk
and had a lobotomy."
"What about the fact that Ben didn't listen to any of the adults
around him?" Josh countered. "I specifically told him to do
whatever Billy and the others told him to do."
"Well…that was really bad too." Donna admitted as she
watched her son again brush off Brian, Julie, and even Billy to make his
point to the moron. "He promised us he'd listen to them, yet he
just couldn't keep his mouth shut. Who could he have picked that
trait up from?"
"And we're back to me again." Josh paced back and forth in
his frustration
"What do we do here, Josh?" Donna watched him pace until she got
dizzy from it.
"I think he should stick it out there and try to fix it." Josh
replied. "Then we go out there and beat the crap out of the neocon
drunk."
That made Donna chuckle. "Only if I get the first crack."
"No way, Donnatella. First shot is mine. Son of a bitch comes after
the son, he has to answer to the father." Josh explained.
"That sounded a little heavy on the mafia there, Joshua."
"Seriously! What kind of asshole attacks a kid like that?"
"The worst kind, Josh; the absolute worst kind." Donna agreed.
"You really don't think I should fly out and get him? Or have
Billy and Jenny bring him home?"
"I think that will just make him feel worse." Josh commented
watching his son give the drunk a tongue lashing again and hit re-wind
when it came to an end. "He stood up. Let him stand."
"He's only 11." Donna protested.
"He stood up." Josh repeated and Donna looked at her husband
critically.
"This is some Y chromosome thing where Ben went mano e mano with
this guy so you're all puffed up, isn't it?"
Josh pretended to be affronted. "Please…That asshole is not
going to get away with this. And I'll explain that to him using very
small words and blunt instruments."
"Joshu!" Donna threw up her arms.
"It should have been me." Josh shouted.
"Excuse me?"
"It should have been me standing between Ben and the stupid asshole
drunk." Josh pursed his lips. "His first political battle and I
missed it; couldn't even stand next to him."
"From my perspective that's a good thing. If your reaction now
is any indication, you'd be sitting in a cell for assault too."
"But I wasn't. I wasn't there or anywhere close to there! He
had to have been scared. Once the asshole took a swing at Billy he had
to have been petrified." Josh speculated.
"And yet, he stood up. Just like you taught him." Donna reminded
him. "Although you could try to teach him a little more diplomacy
next time." Donna heard Ben saying `programs for people with
drug and alcohol problems…you should look into that'. Donna
groaned and shook her head. If the voice had been a little deeper and
more mature, she'd have sworn it was Josh speaking.
"Donnaaaa…" Josh whined and took her by the arms to lead her
back to the computer screen before hitting play again. "Look at him.
Look at our son…" Josh stood behind his wife with his arms wrapped
around here as they watched the video footage together. "At eleven
years old, he's standing up against an adult for what he believes
in, for who he believes in. Can't you hardly wait to see what
he's like when he's twenty?"
"Please. I can hardly stand being the mother of an eleven year old
and you expect me to imagine him being twenty?" Donna sighed. "I
want him to come home."
"He's supposed to come home tomorrow night." Josh reminded
her.
"I want him home now."
Josh paused. "Okay, I'll get Billy to-"
"No." Donna interrupted.
"But you just said-"
"I know. I said I want him home now." Donna repeated. "But I
also know that's just my knee jerk reaction to someone trying to
hurt my child. Billy's going to stay right next to him, right? I
mean glued to my child's side?"
"We can make that perfectly clear." Josh agreed and Donna looked
at him warily.
"Fine." Donna sighed again. "I'm thinking we should
start saving for bail money."
"I'm thinking we should start saving for law school. I hear
Harvard's a good school…" Josh responded and earned a kiss from
his wife. "Let's call him."