by Ira Tabankin
“Shit.” Smiling, Jay looks into Fred’s eyes, “It’s just like you to hand me something like this as we’re boarding the plane. Jesus, this thing must weigh five pounds, did someone charge us by the page?”
“Please, just read the summary, we can discuss the details later. If you agree, there’s going to be a hell of a lot of planning to do. I’ll have to get on it right away.”
Jay scans the first few pages of the summary, “Are you serious? My God, you want me to approve a huge new project while I’m leaving Tony in charge? I wonder how many of his ex-friends we’re going to end up with. Fred, keep his union buddies away from me.”
“Didn’t Frank work out?”
“If you consider having a Pit bull on a leash working out, okay, but, he’s not union, I never heard of a hitman union.”
“I’d rather have him on our side versus him working against us.”
“You’ve got a good point. Okay, I’ll read the full summary on the plane and get back to you when we land in Memphis.”
“Thanks. Take care and don’t let Lacy tire herself out.”
“I won’t, the Doc will keep an eye on her.”
Laughing, Fred adds,
“He’ll also be keeping an eye on you.”
“Don’t remind me.”
A voice is heard from the doorway of the plane,
“Mr. President, we’re ready to leave whenever you are.”
“On that note, I’ll speak with you tonight.”
“Travel safe.”
“Look above you, do you hear the fighters? They’ll make sure the North doesn’t get a shot in at us. I better go, we have a schedule to keep. Memphis is closing the air space between here and there. We have an empty sky except for our fighter escorts.”
Jay boards the Air Force VIP plane where Lacy, Doctor Basco, Stu, his new Press Secretary and Colonel Black with Jay’s protection detail are waiting for him.
“I’m here, let’s go. I always wanted to see Graceland.”
“Sir, more than half of Graceland was lost to fires in the riots.”
“I know; I still want to see it though.”
“Yes, sir, I’ll arrange it.” Said a smiling Press Secretary.
Jay settles into his leather seat next to Lacy,
“Honey, are you alright? Any pain? Need anything?”
“I’m fine, I’ll be a lot better when the damn cast comes off, and I can reach all of the places that itch. Don’t worry about me, just focus on the town hall meetings.”
Jay drops the large report on his lap,
“What the hell is that?”
“Fred handed it to me on the tarmac, he said I need to review at least the first five pages.”
“Christ, there must be four hundred pages in that report. Why now? What could be so important?”
“A huge new project, something about changing our capital, let me read the Executive Summary, and then I’ll tell you why the rush.”
Jay scans the summary shaking his head, he doesn’t realize he’s speaking out loud,
“My God, is this real? Has Fred lost his mind? I leave him alone for a day to prepare for the trip, and he hands me this mess? How much is this going to cost?”
Lacy taps him on his shoulder,
“Honey, what’s wrong? What’s in the report? Is it bad news?”
“Is your seat belt tight? When I show you this, you better be buckled in. You won’t believe what Fred and Glenn are proposing.”
“Okay, let me have it.”
“Our borrowed tunneling expert doesn’t believe he can protect the new government and us in normal shelters under the street and under our fields. He warned us the North’s ground penetrating bombs will be able to break through whatever he builds under the street. He wants, are you ready for the punch line?”
Lacy nods.
“To tunnel forty miles to the Mammoth Caves, which he plans to turn into our government offices. He also plans to install a high-speed rail system between our tunnels and shelters with the cave.”
“Holy shit! Wait, let me digest this.” Lacy closes her eyes, trying to visualize the project. “You know it makes sense.”
“You too? I’m surrounded by nuts. Honey, how does this make sense?”
“If the shelter expert says the North has bunker busting bombs, and our shelters can’t be hardened enough to protect us, he’s doing what you hired him to do. The caves are inside mountains. Doesn’t the North have their command base inside a mountain?”
“Yeah, Cheyenne Mountain, it was designed to survive a nuclear explosion.”
“Think about it, our government offices inside a mountain with high-speed rail lines connecting our cities to it makes sense.”
“Whoa, you want us to connect our major cities to the new capital?”
“Yes, think about it. Our major cities connected by underground high-speed rail lines, they’ll be clean, and secure.”
“What about airplanes?”
“If we can build the trains like Japan and China have, they’ll travel at hundreds of miles per hour, they somehow operate above the tracks, they’ll fly between cities and the capital. No more weather delays. When we meet with the Chinese, try to get as much information about their trains as you can from them. Maybe as a sign of good faith we should contract them for the trains.”
“My God, you support this proposal? Do you have any idea how much it’s bound to cost, or how long it’ll take to build?”
“Do you have any idea how many people it’ll employ? How much all those working people will return to the economy? Driving unemployment to zero will make you the people’s hero. You’ll get elected because no one will want to run against you.”
“Do you realize this would be the largest construction project in history, it will make the pyramids look like a weekend project. We’re talking thousands of miles of rail lines, hundreds of stations, entire cities built underground, talk about a shelter, my Lord, this is a monster project. I’ll be laughed at by the people.”
“Honey, this is a genius plan, I love it. No one’s going to laugh at you, they’ll love it, trust me.”
Jay thinks to himself, Shit, this will most likely cost trillions, what are the benefits? Combined with shelters, we’ll be able to protect most of our population, will they buy it? Will they think I’m looney? Why did he have to drop this on me now? This is nuts, I ought to fire Fred, not thank him. I need someone else to look over the plan. Did he email it to me too? Yes, there it is. Good, I know just the couple of people to ask. Jay sits back to scan the report on the short thirty-five-minute flight.
“This is the pilot, we’re five minutes from the airport, please buckle your seat belts and secure your tables. We’ll be on the ground in a few minutes.”
Jay looked out of the window, one of the fighters is close enough to for him to see its pilot. Jay salutes the pilot, who’s surprised and salutes back to the President. Jay nods giving the pilot a thumbs up signal. The pilot of the fighter wags his wings thanking him. As Jay’s plane descends he sees the tail of the fighter now carries the Confederate flag. Smiling to himself, that didn’t take long, it looks good. I like it.
The VIP flight smoothly lands, using most of the runway, you can always tell where the pilot got their training, Air Force pilots use all of the runway, Navy pilots slam the plane down looking for the arresting cable. The plane comes to a stop next to a line of large black SUVs and four LAV’s flying the Confederate flag. Colonel Black opens the plane’s door to check the surrounding area, he meets with the ground security group, then steps back into the plane,
“Mr. President, we’re ready for you and the First Lady.”
“Thank you Colonel, we’re coming.”
Jay turns to Lacy,
“Are you ready?”
“Lead on, Mr. President.”
Jay stops at the cockpit door to shake the pilot’s hand.
“Thank you for the smooth flight. We appreciate it.”
“Thank YOU, si
r. We’ll prep the plane and be ready whenever you call.”
Jay holds Lacy’s right arm, “I’ll help you stand and hold you as you walk down the stairs.”
Doctor Basco taps Jay on the shoulder,
“Jay, we can put her in a wheelchair, taking her down in a lift.”
Lacy snaps at him,
“I’m walking off this plane with my husband, you know we both hate wheelchairs, I can walk, I’m not a cripple.”
“Lacy, I was only offering an easy way off the plane.”
“If I need help, I’ll ask for it. We thank you for everything you’ve done for us, we thank you for coming along on the trip with us. I want to be seen as being strong. I don’t want people to think I’m disabled, and that’s why they should vote for Jay, I don’t want him to win because of the sympathy vote.”
“I understand, I’m sorry.”
“No problem, I know you were only trying to help.”
Jay and Lacy stand at the top of the stairs, they notice there are a handful of military officers and people standing at attention at the bottom of the stairs. Jay assumes they are the Mayor and town council of Memphis. The Mayor walks forward, as Jay helps Lacy down the steep, narrow steps from the plane to the tarmac.
“Mr. President, First Lady, I’m Mayor Todd Green, welcome to the City of Memphis.”
“Mr. Mayor, thank you, I’d like to introduce you to my wife, this is Lacy.”
“First Lady, we heard you were wounded trying to help those trapped in the cave in, you’re an inspiration to everyone. Welcome, there are some children here who made a get well card who would like to present it to you.”
“Thank you, that’s very nice of them.”
Six young children exit one of the SUVs, the Mayor smiles watching them hand the First Lady a large get well card and a dozen bright red roses.
“Oh that’s very kind of you, roses are my favorite, how did you know?”
The children just smile Stu smiles and nods to the Mayor, who silently thanks him. The local and national media records the event, they broadcast The First Lady bending down to hug the children in her right arm while kissing the tops of their heads. Stu arranges them in a group picture which flashes around the world. Jay smiles, he salutes each of the officers, he chats with each before Stu whispers in his ear,
“Sir, it’s time to go.”
Nodding he says,
“Mr. Mayor, officers, I’m sorry, but I’ve just been told it's time we head downtown, I don’t want to block traffic any longer than we have to.”
The Presidential motorcade quickly travels to the Peabody hotel in downtown Memphis. Jay tells the Mayor,
“We’d like to visit Graceland while we’re here.”
“Mr. President, it was damaged in the riots, it needs over a million dollars in repairs, money we don’t have, and we can’t locate the surviving members of the family of the trust.”
“We understand, we’d still like to at least drive by it.”
“I’m sure a private tour can be arranged before the town hall meeting.”
“Thank you.”
The security detail handled their hotel check in, Jay stops to thank the hotel manager for arranging to provide his party with an entire floor.
“How’s business been since the breakaway?”
“Mr. President, to be honest, it could be much better.”
“Let’s see what we can do about that. I'm sure we’ll find some ways to bring back tourists to the city and get everyone working again.”
“That would be a Godsend.”
Jay and Lacy turn in early, they get a surprise from the doctor who tells them he thinks he’ll be able to remove the large cast in a couple of days, replacing it with a small one and a sling.
Lacy hugs the doctor, she’s overjoyed to have the large itchy cast removed. Both toss and turn most of the night, unable to sleep soundly in a strange bed.
At breakfast, Jay meets with a group of city officials and business leaders. He asks them to be very honest about the city’s condition and what they need.
“Mr. President, our top priority is the same as it was before the breakaway, we need jobs, too many of our people are unemployed and under the new welfare guidelines, we foresee many problems.”
“I assume most of the unemployed are unskilled?”
“That’s correct. The city has been feeding them since your new, and VERY unwelcomewelfare programs went into effect. Sir, your new programs are going to cause mass riots when our excess food runs out. We’re expecting thousands to demonstrate against you tomorrow at the town hallmeeting. I’ve ordered all of our police to report for duty.”
“So they don’t like my program of working and drug testing before any benefits are paid?”
“Mr. President, you kicked over a hornet’s nest. Many believe you’ve taken away their rights.”
“I wasn’t aware anyone had a right to get high or a right to take from others. By demanding the working give the nonworking free handouts, aren’t they making the working people slaves?”
“They don’t see it that way, they feel they’re entitled to compensation because their ancestors were slaves.”
“Ah, now I understand. I agree with them.”
Every face in the meeting turns white, the Mayor asks,
“You agree with them?”
“Yes, any who can prove they were slaves, will be compensated for their time.”
“Mr. President, none of these people were alive when the country practiced slavery.”
“Exactly my point. Why should they be compensated when they can’t prove they or their ancestors were slaves? Slavery ended over one hundred fifty years ago. Everyone living today has had the opportunity of a free education from kindergarten through high school, most could have received grants to State colleges or training programs, did they use the educational benefits open to them? What did they do to improve their lives?”
“Mr. President, if you say these things tomorrow, you’ll launch a riot which may burn the city down.”
“Need I remind you, rioters are criminals and will be treated as such. I won’t be held captive by people who refuse to follow the rules. I do plan to announce a new jobs program; I’m not going to change the new welfare rules. I won’t tolerate the unemployed using people’s hard earned money to buy drugs and adult entertainment. If they can afford new iPhones, spend hundreds of dollars on tattoos, purchase two hundred dollar designer sneakers, then they don’t need welfare. If they’re able to work, they will work.”
“Mr. President, that’s not going to be met very well by most of the people.”
“I disagree; I believe most of those people who work for a living will be very happy with the new rules. At the end of the day, the city’s costs will be reduced, the nation’s costs will be reduced, which is one step toward doing away with the income tax, people will have more money in their pockets, money to spend which will support new businesses. We have to break the old model; we cannot and will not enable our citizens, currently a large percentage of unemployed people, to sit at home and be paid by the government for doing so. I believe we can turn the model around; it may take a generation.”
The word generation causes the Mayor to shake his head,
“Mr. President, we can’t wait that long, we need to keep the people happy.”’
“What are you suggesting? Should we drug the water supply with anti-depression meds? Should we turn everyone into robots?”
“We’ve just undergone a huge change by breaking away from the North, we need to give the people a little time to adjust to the change.”
“And we are, we’ve brought value to our currency, we’ve cut income taxes for families and corporations, we’re bringing thousands of new jobs to our country by lifting the bureaucratic hurdles businesses had to jump through. We’re changing the medical mess the Northern President put in place; one with sky high deductibles that no one can afford. We’re stopping illegal immigration, I’m going to anno
unce we’re going to build a wall along our Southern border so we can deploy our military along our border with the North. We are making many changes, changes that will improve everyone’s life.”
“Mr. President, we all think you’ve performed miracles, and we fully support you, you have to understand that there is a class of people who are sorry they voted for secession. They miss the old welfare system.”
