Apart from the friendship with Natalie, Emily-Grace did not particularly enjoy working at the White House. She was in a room with up to 6 or 7 people and had little conversation with them. For her part she found their conversation too political and often plain stupid and she wondered about the intelligence of several of them. They also seemed to want to keep their distance from her and Emily-Grace was sure that this was because she worked for Natalie.
But, wondered Emily-Grace, was this because how they directly thought about Natalie or was it the influence of Susie Wiles? The room seemed to approve the appointment of Katie Zacharia as Press Secretary, although one woman asked – loudly enough so that Emily-Grace could clearly hear – “I wonder what Natalie thinks?” Emily-Grace just ignored this, put on her headphones and focused on her computer screen even though, as usual, she had little work to do.
One man, who was probably around 30 years old, clearly wanted to ask her out for a date but did not know how to do so in a crowded room. Later that day as they passed in a corridor he suggested that they have lunch together and Emily-Grace accepted. He was somewhat overweight, which Emily-Grace did not find appealing, but she was quite tired of the feeling of isolation in the room. David turned out to be interesting because of his candid comments about people in the White House and subsequently they met for coffee or lunch every few days.
Emily-Grace heard little from Natalie after the appointment of Katie Zacharia as Press Secretary and assumed that she would be happy that the position became vacant again after only a few days. But, to her surprise Emily-Grace found Natalie to be somewhat pensive when they had coffee together. Natalie said that she “quite liked Katie” and that at least they sat together on the plane which meant that Howard Lutnick was “forced to keep his distance”.
“Will you now get the job?” asked Emily-Grace.
Natalie: “I am not sure I want it. I would need to spend less time with the President and continually need to talk to those stupid journalists.”
Emily-Grace felt a small sense of relief. Her friend might slowly be coming around to reality. “What about Susie Wiles?”
Natalie: “Susie is happy, I think. Her cancer is gone. But things are just more complicated now.” Natalie’s voice trailed off and then she excused herself saying that she needed to get back to work. “He might need me!”
Emily-Grace was very relieved that live-streaming of the execution of a man by firing squad had been called-off because the issue had upset her Aunt Dawn and potentially affected Dawn’s view of Emily-Grace’s friendship with Natalie. Moreover, the fiasco of Katie Zacharia’s brief period of Press Secretary had heightened Dawn’s mood, and she was now looking forward to a “Democrat victory” in the mid-term elections.
Emily-Grace had herself become more relaxed as Natalie’s “dramas” – Dawn’s word – had not reoccurred and with David she had someone to make her feel less lonely at work. When Emily-Grace later related the conversations with Natalie to her Aunt Dawn she asked if there had been any further calls from “bone-cancer John Doe”. “Did Natalie and Susie talk about surviving cancer?”
There had not been any more calls and Emily-Grace had not thought about it again. However, the next time she had coffee with David she asked if he thought Natalie and Susie had “discussed cancer”. David was quick in his reply: “Susie doesn’t believe Natalie.”
Emily-Grace: “How do you know?”
David shook his head: “I just know!”
David’s tone was so definite that Emily-Grace dropped the subject.
Overall, Emily-Grace was finding her “White House situation”, as she described it to Aunt Dawn, stressful. There was no job satisfaction, there was always the potential issue of coping with a “Natalie meltdown” if she woke from her delusions, and the more she knew about Trump’s ideas and policies the more she disliked them. “After the mid-terms”, she told Dawn, “I want to get a normal job.”
The next day Emily-Grace noticed an online story that said that Natalie had been showing Trump reports critical of Susie Wiles and even talking to some journalist about her. She texted a link to Natalie who replied with a smile sticker. Later Natalie suggested coffee together and reiterated that she now did not wasn’t to be Press Secretary. “I can do the Chief of Staff job. I know exactly what Susie does and I know I can do it. The only problem is that Stephen Miller wants to do it.”
Emily-Grace: “Everything that I read about him is negative. That he is a racist bigot.”
Natalie shrugged: “Maybe. I just think that I can better tell the president about what is happening in the world".
Something in Emily-Grace's mind focused on the word “is” and brought up the idea of “should”, so she ventured to say: “I suppose the Chief of Staff should present ideas of what should be done, not only information about what is happening?”
Natalie: “No. the president is a genius. He does not need someone to tell him what to do. Even me!”
Emily-Grace went to lunch alone the next day and on the way back to her shared office she saw David at the end of a corridor talking to someone. She suddenly realized that it was Susie Wiles! Back at her desk Emily-Grace thought about a previous conversation in which David emphatically insisted that he knew what Susie Wiles thought about Natalie’s cancer claims.
That evening Emily-Grace told Aunt Dawn about this connection between David and Susie Wiles. Her reaction was: “Is David spying on you for Wiles?”
This thought had crossed Emily-Grace’s mind, and it was unpleasant as she had come to regard David as a friend. Dawn had another thought: “Is there some connection to the ‘bone-cancer John Doe’ call? It may have been an attempt in some way to reduce your loyalty to Natalie.”
When David suggested coffee the next day Emily-Grace was primed to tackle him on this issue. But she managed to restrain herself and simply say: “I saw you talking to Susie Wiles yesterday.”
David hesitated for a while before saying: “I went to school with her daughter.”
Emily-Grace found something odd in the way David answered but let the matter drop. She knew nothing about Wiles’s daughter and decided to later do some research.
“Caligula!” exclaimed Aunt Dawn when Emily-Grace walked in the door that evening. “Trump has been bragging about how much power he has in changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America. He is drunk with power. Irrespective of what happens with the mid-term elections he will do something very bad for this country!”