W: The Planner, The Chosen (17 page)

O
n the last Friday of June Kris received a message on Friendshare from Janine, “I just got off the phone with Karyn. She and Jeff and the kids are coming to spend the Fourth of July with us. Call me when you have time so that we can make plans.”

Kris smiled as she read the message. Karyn was the baby of the family. In spite of the six-year age difference between them—or perhaps because of it—Kris had always been especially close to her. Karyn had met Jeff on the first day of high school, and she had married him a week after graduation. They had recently celebrated seventeen happy years together. He and Karyn had waited to have children until he finished school and got established in his career; Faith, their first child, came along after they had been married for six years. By then Kris was in her thirties and wishing that she had children of her own, but Ben hated children, and her life with him was not really conducive to raising a family, so she comforted herself by lavishing her love and attention on her little niece. Faith could not stay over at their home unless Ben was out of town—which actually occurred rather frequently near the end of their relationship—but she was a regular presence at Kris’ real estate office, and many weekends involved taking Faith to the park or the zoo or, as she grew older, the mall.  Since Faith was an only child for many years, she was used to being around adults most of the time, and her personality and temperament made her an easy child to care for.

When Faith was six, Karyn and Jeff decided to try for a little boy, and nine months later Seth was born. Karyn was still living in Arizona when he came into the world, and during the first year of his life, she stopped by Kris’ office often to visit. Kris would put Seth on her lap and feel his small form curl up against her as she worked and made phone calls. Those visits were the best part of her day. He was so good—the ringing telephones and chatter of the other agents did not bother him at all. 

Unfortunately, Jeff worked in construction, and as the real estate market collapsed, he could no longer find work.  Just about the time that Ben and Kris were separating, Karyn announced that she and Jeff were moving to Dallas where the economy was considerably healthier than it was in Arizona.  Shortly afterward, they sold their home, packed up their small family and relocated to Texas, leaving Kris and Janine to grieve being separated from their sister and daughter and especially from her children.

Karyn had not been back for a visit since Christmas. Kris’ life had been such a mess since losing her agency that she had not gotten in touch with Karyn often. No one in the family knew about Kris’ short relationship with Nick or how completely broke she had become. After she landed her new job Kris had been so busy that she had talked to her sister only a couple of times in the last six months. Other than sending an ecard at each birthday, she had communicated with her sister’s family very little. Now that Kris was working and she had a place to live, she would have a much easier time talking to Karyn. She was glad they were coming and very glad to get the chance to see her niece and nephew again.

Later that evening she called Janine from her unit.  “What are we going to do with them while they are here?” Janine asked her. “Our apartment is tiny, and there is nothing for a family to do here. I can’t even cook for them,” her mother paused with emotion in her voice. Janine was a wonderful cook, and in her previous life she had prepared large family dinners whenever she could get the family together.  Now that was no longer an option.

“I thought about this all day today; I think we need to take everybody to Enchanted Island. The kids can play at the water park and ride all the rides. Then we can all watch the fireworks display. It will be a really fun way to spend the day.  When do they get here?”

“They are coming in on Thursday the third, and they will be here all day on Friday the fourth and Saturday the fifth, and then they will drive back on Sunday. But, Kris, taking everybody to Enchanted Island will cost you a lot of money. I wish I could split the cost with you, but I can’t because we are just getting these ridiculous credits….”

“Don’t worry about it, Mom. I’ve got this. I will get the tickets for the park. After the kids are through playing we can go eat someplace and then go back for the fireworks.  It’ll be fun—just like old times.”

After Kris hung up with her mother she went to the Enchanted Island website to purchase and print seven tickets.  The website boasted that the 2014 fireworks display would be the best one in the history of the park, complete with a laser show and live music. This would be fun.

She had just finished paying for the tickets when her phone rang again. Assuming it was Janine calling back, she answered the phone without looking at the caller ID and was surprised to hear another voice on the other end of the line.

“Kris, this is Lena St. Clair. How have you been?”

“I’m doing great, Lena.” Kris let the surprise of hearing from an old client who had become a friend show in her voice.  Kris had sold Lena two houses and had not talked to her since she had left real estate to go to work for the FMPD.  Lena might be calling to ask her to list a house. “I’m not selling real estate anymore; I am now working for the Federal Municipal Planning Division in the Smart Seniors’ program. How are you doing?”

“I’m doing very well, thanks for asking.  Do you like your job?”

“I do; I’ve been there since March. It’s a lot different from what I did for so many years. What about you—are you still in counter intelligence?”

“No, I left the agency about six months ago. I have a new job too. I was calling to invite you to lunch so that we could talk. Would you be free tomorrow?”

Kris was free the next day, which was Saturday, and she looked forward to getting away from FE. Since her blow up at Eva, her fellow residents had treated her as if she had an ongoing case of plague, so any excuse to get out of the community for any length of time was welcome. Besides, Lena was one of the most interesting people Kris knew, and she had always enjoyed talking with her.

“Tomorrow sounds great. What if we meet at The Gourmet at 11:30?” Lena confirmed and Kris hung up the phone. She was glad to be going to lunch with Lena but also very curious about why she had called.

Lena and Ed St. Clair had been among Kris’ first clients after she opened her own agency. They were also the first African-American couple she had sold a home to during her career. She always remembered the first time they had walked into her agency. Ed was a large, intimidating man; he did not mean to be intimidating, but that was just part of being a former Navy Seal who had gone to work for the Secret Service. Lena was tall and slim and beautifully groomed in a pale cream pant suit.  She had a low distinctive voice that made her interesting to listen to; as Kris got to know her better she found that Lena was also interesting to talk to. 

Lena had grown up in the South where she had been raised by her grandmother after her own mother had died.  She had gone back to school after raising her own children and earned a graduate degree while working full time, first for the U.S. Army and later for the federal government in counter-intelligence. As a hobby, she hosted a radio show on weekends, and Kris had been her guest on several occasions discussing the real estate market and tips for first time home buyers. Over the years, Kris and Lena had become friends.  As Lena and Ed had become more financially successful Kris had helped them sell the initial house and purchase a new custom build—Ben did the mortgage loan for them. The couples had gotten together several times for dinner, and what had started as a professional relationship grew into a friendship. Now Kris realized that it had been over a year since she had spoken to Lena; all of the turmoil in her own life had caused her to pull away from nearly everyone—her family, her friends, all of the people who had been part of her life.

The next morning Kris was seated at a table at The Gourmet by 11:20. The old Kris Mitchell was always about ten minutes late for everything, but that was the Kris Mitchell who packed too many activities into too short a space of time and owned a car. The new Kris Mitchell lived at the mercy of public transit, so she had to think of every appointment in terms of the commuter train schedule. As a result, she was not able to pack a lot of activities into her morning, and she was now a little early for every appointment rather than a little late. Lena walked into the restaurant precisely at 11:30. The two women spent a few minutes catching up—Ed had left the Secret Service and gone to work for a private security company providing personal bodyguard services to the rich and infamous. On the whole, he could now look forward to better pay and shorter hours. Kris glossed over her breakup with Ben and the loss of her agency by saying that she had “made some life changes and was now working for the federal government.” She was not eager to talk about what her life had been for the past year—it was depressing enough to have lived it the first time without having to relive it by retelling it. Besides, Kris had been a top saleswoman for enough years to understand how to easily shift the conversation from herself to the other person. So after a few sentences she found herself saying, “But enough about me. Tell me what you’re up to.”

“Well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about, Kris.  I think I mentioned on the phone that I left counter-intelligence six months ago. Ed and I both wanted to get a fresh start away from the government. He took the job in private security, and I took a job as the President of the American Freedom Coalition.”

“The American Freedom Coalition?” repeated Kris.  “That sounds interesting.  What do you do?”

“AFC is a conservative think tank. Our purpose is to make Americans aware of the ways in which the federal government is taking our freedoms and to organize citizens to vote and to get involved in the legislative process before it is too late. I’ve been a member of AFC since it started about three years ago, but last year they approached me about taking a more active full-time role. Now you can see why Ed and I both had to give up our federal jobs. There was no way that I could take on the presidency of this organization with either one of us still on the federal payroll.”

Kris nodded. “I have to tell you, Lena. I am really surprised. I know that you were always active politically, and you covered a lot of conservative issues on your show, but I never thought that you would become a full-time activist.”

“It was a difficult decision, but two things made up my mind. The first was the establishment of the National Counter Terrorism Council in 2012. I worked all my life in intelligence protecting American citizens, and then suddenly I was collecting detailed information on the lives of those citizens for an agency that was allowed to keep that information for up to five years—even if there were no evidence linking the person being investigated to terrorism.  I wasn’t comfortable with that.”

“No, I don’t think I would be either.  But, honestly, if people are not doing something they’re not supposed to be doing, why should they care whether the government keeps tabs on them? I mean, where I work I am under constant surveillance, but it’s fine because I’m not doing anything that I shouldn’t be.”  Kris was buttering the muffin that came with her salad.  It looked so delicious; she had not had a blueberry muffin for months, and she was concentrating more on the muffin than on Lena.

“The problem is that the federal government, through various laws and agencies, has given itself the right to track and monitor nearly every part of citizens’ lives,” Lena answered. “The government has the power to monitor how we spend money, where we go, what political parties we support, what causes we promote, how much money we have in savings and in retirement—everything. And on the surface, that is not necessarily a problem, but that kind of knowledge can be used to make lists of people for all kinds of purposes.

“Take Smart Seniors, for example. The town hall meetings are by invitation only; all applicants are completely pre-selected. The reason that the FMPD is able to pre-select these people is that they have a wealth of information in the databases of various federal agencies which they are able to access with the click of a button. There is nothing random about an invitation to W—they are carefully pre-selected applicants. I did not want to be part of the system that was tracking people’s lives.”

Kris wanted to change the subject without appearing to be uninterested or offended, so she smiled and nodded and then said, “You said there were two reasons you left; what was the other one?”

“I lost my radio show.”

“I didn’t know that you lost your show. When did that happen?” Kris hated to admit that she had not tuned into Lena’s show in a while, but she honestly did not know that it was gone.

“After the 2012 elections, Congress passed the Fairness Doctrine. The FCC began mandating that all stations give all viewpoints equal time. My show was on a local Christian radio station, but after the fairness doctrine passed they could not continue on air. I not only lost my show; the entire station folded. It is now a country western station. 

“Anyway, that really set me thinking. I had invested six years in my show.  And it was not just me; a lot of people on that station lost their shows. A lot of stations closed; nearly all of the Christian radio stations broadcasting over the air have shut down in the last six months.  I knew that the government was over-reaching; I worked for the government nearly my entire career.  But this was personal, and it really made me re-evaluate how I was spending my life.”

“So you’re not on the radio at all now?”