United (The United Trilogy Book 1) (18 page)

I could tell he wanted to argue the last statement with me, but he held his tongue.

“Now as far as amends goes, I think you are onto something.  When I was little I was playing toys with my best friend.  He accidentally broke one of my dolls arms off, and to get even I smashed his favorite toy.  In order to show him that I was truly sorry and to make me realize how hurt he was and that actions carry responsibilities, my mother made me give him my favorite toy and then I had to use my play time every day for a week to help him with all his chores.  I never did anything like that ever again.”

I could tell he wanted to laugh at my childish lesson, but he was biting his lip so he wouldn’t actually laugh out loud.  Letting the annoyance I feel come through in my voice I said, “My point being, it’s good that the men are working, but they still haven’t take responsibility for their actions.  They need to make it up to the families somehow.  Looking at this work schedule I see they don’t have any days off, they work seven days a week.  That is far too much.  All of our citizens only work five.  And most have weekends off.  The inmates will work Monday-Friday in their usual jobs.  Saturdays and Sundays will be their free time to relax; however, in cases of people who have been wronged, or families of the people who were wronged, the prisoner will use Saturdays to make their amends.  If they are in prison for stealing they will have to do manual labor for the family or establishment they stole from.  If they hurt someone they will find a way to help them.  I know most of the people are in here for child abuse.”  More than one count and they have already been sentenced to death.  So the people left here are usually in for neglect in some form or mistreatment. 

I continued, “They should have to make toys for the kids.  The others will use Saturday as the day to clean the prisons itself.  The weekends are used in most homes to do the heavy cleaning, so it will be the same here.  Do you understand where I’m going with this?” He nods, not looking at all happy about giving them a day off.  “I will have my staff get to working on better ideas for this Act.  In the mean-time it is up to you to make sure that medical treatment is being looked after and the living conditions are changed.  A plumber will be sent over first thing tomorrow, and the doctor should be looking at Smith as we speak, so I will see to it that he knows he is to come back on a monthly basis.”

“Very well, is that all?” Stanley asks; his voice laced with annoyance.

I narrow my eyes at him and stand.  “For now, yes, however, if I find that my orders, and that is exactly what they are, not suggestions, if I find out they haven’t been implemented within the week we will have a new warden starting on Monday.  Also, those men that are healthy but can’t leave the prison due to the risk can use the time to start cleaning up this nasty place.  Have a wonderful day Stanley, no need to see us out.”  I stand taking the folders with me and follow Masters out of the room.

He sends the men a message and we wait for them in the hall.  He looks down at me, “Well done.  I would have thought you a completely different person if I couldn’t see your hands shaking from under the desk.” He says smiling at me.

“Well yes, thank the Lord he couldn’t tell I wanted to wet my pants.  Being assertive may not come naturally to me, but I’m not half bad at it, huh Masters?” He smiled back, just as Green and Adams approach us.

“Well is he thoroughly pissed then?” Green asked with a smile.

“Whether or not he needs a change of clothes I can’t tell you, but he isn’t exactly my number one fan.  Now let’s go check on Smith once more before we leave.”

“Let’s make it quick, I’d like to get out of here before quitting time.  If Missy here sees any more sad looking inmates she just might start an adopt-a- felon program.” Masters said it with a straight face but I know he was making fun of me.

“Ha, ha, laugh all you want, but when I throw you in prison for being a nuisance you will be happy with my changes.” I say this smugly as I wait for him to start leading us back to the cells.  “Oh, and don’t forget Masters, I just made an Act, it may not be official yet, but it will be, so don’t forget to bring your dancing shoes to work with you.”  The other men burst out laughing, but I shut them down just as quick.  “I wouldn’t laugh now, being second in command and helping on this operation just landed you on my dance card.”  I say with a smile.  Adams face instantly sobered but I could hear Greens laughter from behind me.  “It would be my honor.” Even his voice gave me Goosebumps and I’m standing in the middle of the nastiest place I’ve ever been.  Maybe I’ll just make him marry me and he can run the country while I play with the babies all day.  Ha!  Like that will ever happen, but a girl can dream.

We get to Smith’s cell and the doctor is finishing up.  I’m so glad that Judy is so efficient and sent him on the first train out.  “Well, doc, what do you say?” The older man turned to me.  He was at least sixty but still in great shape, he had bright blue eyes that shone with intelligence and a full head of stark white hair.

“Miss President, I say I should have been called months ago.  He has full blown pneumonia now, but I’m going to have him transferred to the Inmate hospital for a few weeks and get him taken care of.”

I sigh in relief that he will be ok.  “Thank you so much Doc, I really appreciate you making it out here so fast.  Before you leave I’d like you to stop in the warden's office and make a rotating schedule with you and the other Ministry doctors to do once a month health checks.”

“I would love to, you are doing a good thing here Miss.” He touched my shoulder on his way out, “Smith, I’ll be back for you in just a few minutes.” The doctor turned and left.

I turned to Smith, “Well it looks like they are going to get you all fixed up.  When you get back there should be a few changes and this should never happen again.  Masters will be in to check on you, and I might even be back.”

Smith smiles up at me with tears in his eyes.  “I sure hope not Miss.  A pretty little thing like you shouldn’t be in this place.  But I thank you for all you’ve done for me today.  You are going to make a fine President and I bet your parents are proud.”

“Thank you Smith, you take care of yourself.”  We turned and made a hasty exit.  I didn’t even yell at Masters for his pace.  I couldn’t remember what fresh air smelled like.  Once we left the building and made our way back to the cabin I took the longest, hottest shower of my life.  I felt feel like I’d never be able to scrub that smell off of me.  Once I got back to my room I noticed there was an extra bag sitting on the floor.  I poked my head out and asked “did someone leave their bag in here?”

Masters looked up from his tablet and shook his head, no.  “I had Andi pack you a bag of things you would need.  It was easier than having to tell you what to pack and then argue with your choices.” He said this in a flip way, but I saw right through the big bad Masters.  He was looking out for me and had Andi do it so I wouldn’t worry about it.

I ran over to him and gave him a huge hug, catching him completely off guard.” Thank you Masters.”

He gave my back a few awkward pats like Wesley would have done and said, “Alright, alright, no need getting all weepy again.” But he added a wink to soften the blow.

“So I’m guessing we aren’t making any stops at the Ministry?”

“Nope.  Two whole weeks with yours truly, handsome, and junior over there.” I should have known that Masters would pick up on the fact that I thought Sebastian was handsome.  Oh well, it’s pretty much just a fact.

“Don’t forget the God- awful smells and gracious wardens.” I added dryly.

“How could I forget?”

Chapter Eighteen

The next two weeks flew by in a blur.  All of the prisons were pretty much like the first.  The conditions were awful, and the inmates weren’t very well taken care of.  I was able to have a few good conversations with some of them, and several of the wardens were very happy with the changes I was making.  The hardest part is going to be all the work involved once we get back to the Ministry.  I hope my staff has been able to take a little break, because they are going to be slammed.  I have been messaging Judy throughout the past two weeks so they all have a heads up and have been able to do a most of the ground work while I have been away, so it should help move things along.

I have gotten to know Masters, Green, and Adams pretty well.  I’m glad I decided to go through with this; it has completely opened my eyes and after that first meltdown I had, I’ve been able to hold it together nicely.  That’s not to say I won’t fall apart as soon as I get home, but I’m proud of the work we have accomplished.  We are finally on the train on our way back.  I don’t think I could have lasted another day.  I’m physically and emotionally drained and I’m pretty sure I’m going to burn all of these clothes.  I don’t know what I was thinking planning the dinner party for this next weekend.  Tomorrow is Monday and I am going to be slammed the whole week and won’t have any time to recover from this trip before I’m welcoming everyone into my house.  Thank God for Miriam, I’m pretty sure all I will have to do is show up.

“How long does the President have to work before they can call in sick do you think?” I asked the guys while I rested my head against the back of the seat with my eyes closed.  The guys all started laughing.

“Well since you are the big boss I’m pretty sure you could order us all to take the week off, yourself included, and there’s nothing we could do about it.” Green said on a chuckle.

“Oh wouldn’t that be horrible, one week doing nothing but sleeping in and eating junk food.” Adams added.

“I don’t know about you but it’s going to take me at least three days to burn all my clothes.” They laughed like I was joking, but I’m serious.  I turn to Masters, “What about you?  What would you do on this holiday that I am dubbing stay out of jail appreciation week?”

Masters just raises an eyebrow at me.  “Catchy.”

Since he didn’t answer, I pushed him again.  “Well, what would you do?”

Green pipes up, “He’d go to work of course.”

I look at Masters waiting for him to deny it.  “He’s joking right?  You do have a life outside of work don’t you?”  I looked over at Adams, who was trying to shake his head no without Masters catching him, of course he failed.

“Oh come on Masters, really?”  He’s not a bad looking guy, and when he’s not being super scary, was pretty fun.  I can’t understand why he hasn’t settled down or had a family yet.

He looked at me seriously for a moment and I didn’t think he was going to answer, but he surprised me when he spoke up.  “You have the kind of job we have and see the kind of things we see; you don’t want a family Roz.  Our hours are completely crazy, night shifts, day shifts, weeks at a time.  Even If you could find someone who is ok with you working those crazy shifts, why would you want to bring a family into that?”

What a sad lonely life.  “But don’t you get lonely?  Aren’t you unhappy?”  These are probably way too personal of questions to ask my Head of Defense, but right now we aren’t our titles.

“Ya it gets lonely, but Green has a new girl every week.  Do you think he’s happy?”

Green winced.  “Thanks for bringing me into this.  I may still be lonely, but at least I have fun.  When’s the last time you had fun Masters?”  Masters doesn’t answer, and I start to formulate a plan in my head.  Maybe I should introduce him to Natasha, she’s beautiful and she works just as crazy hours as he does, who knows, it could work.

Then something Masters said finally hit me.  “You don’t think people with jobs like ours could really have a family and be happy?”  I asked Masters, even though I already knew his answer.  He didn’t.  He just looked at me confirming my thoughts.  Maybe that’s why Eden killed herself, she couldn’t handle the stress of the job, the secrets and the long hours.  Maybe I would never be able to marry, I much rather stay single than to inflict that kind of heart ache on anyone.  But all I’ve ever wanted was to be was a wife and mother as crazy as that sounds.  I never thought about my profession, but I always thought about having a family.  I’m way too exhausted to try to figure this out right now, and if I keep on this track I’m going to burst into tears.

The remainder of the ride was spent in silence until we finally pulled into the station.  The guys stood up and grabbed the bags and got ready to exit the train but I stopped them.  “Wait you guys.  I was serious about you taking off.  You can have the week if you want it, but you have to take at least three days, that’s an order.”

Green looked at me with a smile in his eyes.  “We were only joking Roz, we don’t need time off.”

I gave him my stern President look that I’ve nailed after the last two weeks.  “Sebastian Green, I just went around the whole country giving prisoners two days off, you really think I’m not going to give the top guys in my defense a few days off after they worked two weeks straight?”  I asked him, affronted he would think I wouldn’t give them a vacation.

“Well she does have a point.” Adam said.  Both he and Green looked to Masters.

“Oh, no, no, no!  Don’t you look to him!  Since it seems like you forgot let me remind you, I am your boss and I am HIS boss.  Now your boss is telling you not to show up until Wednesday, Monday if you’d like.  End of story.”

Green and Adams look at me all bug eyed and Masters just laughed.  “You heard the lady.”

“You too Kevin, not until Wednesday!  If I find out you were anywhere on Ministry grounds or doing Ministry work before then I will make you lead every dance party for the next ten years not to mention I will make a certain blonde I know babysit you.”

Adam and Green at the same time said, “Show up!” I punched them both on the arms and walked out of the train saying, “Have a nice vacation boys!”  Sometimes it’s good to be the boss.  Then I remembered I did have to go in tomorrow.  And sometimes it sucks.

I walked into the house and couldn’t think of doing anything at all before I showered.  I ran up the stairs and was totally rude by not evening looking for my roommates, but I didn’t even care.  I stripped off my clothes and threw them on the floor, and turned the water as hot as I could stand it.  The water felt like heaven on my sore muscles and I used a half a container of body wash, two loofas and washed and rinse my hair about four times until I finally felt clean.  I let myself have a good cry and promised I would stop once I got out.  The tears were washed away and nobody could hear me in here so nobody would be the wiser.  That just goes to show how exhausted I actually am.  Wesley is the most observant person ever and as soon as I walked out of the shower he could tell I had been crying.

“What’s wrong Roz?  Did something happen?  Oh my God one of those criminals got to you didn’t they?” Goodness sakes alive, I haven’t even taken two steps and already I’m being ambushed with the crazy!

“Wesley, I’m fine, nobody got to me, it was a very long very hard last couple weeks, but sometimes all a girl needs is a good cry…and a less nosy roommate.”  I said with a smile, although, I wasn’t joking.  Wes looked at me for a moment as if gauging if I really was alright or just lying to him to get him to leave.

Once he was satisfied he sat on the bed and motioned for me to join him.  When I did he picked up the brush on my nightstand and started brushing my hair.  The sweet gesture started my water works all over again.  Molly walked in with a try of chocolate milk and cookies.  “Geez Wes, I leave you for two minutes and you’ve already made her cry?!”

Wes looked affronted.  “Hey, she was that way when I got here, I’m fixing it!” How Wes-like to try to fix a problem to which there is no fixing.  Sometime a girl is just exhausted and emotionally spent and really wishing she could crawl in a hole and sleep for a few days.

“Is everything ok, honey?” Molly asked setting the tray down and coming over to my side.

“I’m fine really, just exhausted.  Thank you for the treats, I’ve missed you guys.”

She gave me a hug, “do you want us to leave so you can rest or do you want to watch a movie?”

I couldn’t wait to crawl into bed and go to sleep, but I really did miss them, and some comfort wouldn’t be a bad thing.  “You pick the movie, Wes scoot over and grab another pillow from that chair please.” They both jumped to do my bidding and came back and jumped into bed with me.  Wes stuffed the pillow in between us and Molly cuddled up to me.  I have no clue what we watched since I fell right to sleep, but it was to the warmth and comfort of best friends.

I woke up much too late the next morning.  Oh no, I slept half the day away, I know I set my alarm!  I look over at the offending alarm and see a note in Molly’s beautiful handwriting.

Good Morning!

Please don’t be mad but your alarm was going off and you were out!  You looked so peaceful and exhausted that I called Judy and we decided it’d be best for you to get as much rest as possible.  So I turned off the alarm and let you sleep.  Take your time and just come in whenever you are ready.  She said its fine if you want to just take the day off, you totally earned it girl!  Love ya!  *Molly

Well who could be mad at that?  They are so sweet, and I really did need the extra sleep!  As tempting as it would be to stay in bed all day, I have way too much to do!  I reluctantly crawled out of my cozy bed and headed toward the shower.  After a way too long but totally amazing shower, I hurried and got dressed.  I felt so much better after a good night’s sleep.  I found some wonderful looking banana nut muffins in the kitchen and grabbed one and chocolate milk and enjoyed my walk to work.  It was drizzling but it felt cleansing somehow after the last few weeks.  My umbrella kept the rain off and I took my time getting there.

Walking into the Ministry I couldn’t help but smile.  Somehow, in such a short amount of time I have come to view this place as home.  My home with my family will always be first in my heart, but this is starting to become second.  I make it to my floor and go straight into Judy’s office.

“Good morning!  Well almost afternoon or whatever it is.” I say and I run to her and give her a huge hug!  It was probably very improper for the President to hug her assistant, but she has become a grandmother figure to me and she has been so wonderful, and I just plain missed her.  She seemed a bit shocked but quickly returned the hug.  “Judy, I missed you so much.  Thank you again for all the work you did while I was away, you were a godsend!”

She beamed under my praise.  “Thank you Miss, I was only doing my job.” And looked a little embarrassed by my praise.

“That may be but you do it exceptionally well.  Now that I slept the morning away, I have a ton of work to catch up on.  Has the staff been working on The Amends Act and the prison revisions?”

She nodded her head excitedly.  “Oh Yes Miss, they have been on it from the moment I talked to you that first day.  They have come pretty far and should have things wrapped up soon.”

“Excellent work!  I plan on doing the rounds soon to offer my thanks and gratitude in person, but first I have a few calls to make.”

Judy nodded her understanding.  “Of course, let me know if there’s anything you need.” I offered my thanks and rushed into my office.  First things first I had a few people to check up on.

Instead of calling their lines directly I decide to call the public defense line.  “Department of Defense, good afternoon this is Sandy how can I help you?”

“Hello Sandy may I speak to Sebastian Green please?”  I’m hoping I sound innocent and not like I’m plotting, she must have bought it.

“I’m sorry Mr. Green is out for a few days.”

Awesome, just what I wanted to hear.  “Well dang, how about Jeff Adams?” a few seconds silence while she checked her logs.

“I’m sorry, Mr.  Adams is also out.” Good boys.

“Well that’s too bad, looks like I’ll just have to talk to them later.  By any chance you wouldn’t happen to know If Mr.  Masters is in today do you?  I’m sure he could help me with my issue.”

I wait holding my breath for her answer.  “Yes Mr.  Masters is in right now, but he isn’t available to accept public calls, I can leave a message for him if you’d like.”

Gotcha!  “Oh no, that isn’t necessary, but thank you, I will just call back later, thank you so much.” I knew that sneaky little snake was going to show up, which to be honest plays right into my hands.  I’m much too busy running a country to play match maker, but I truly believe that if the people helping me run the country are happy, then things as a whole will run much more smoothly so really, I’m setting Masters up for the good of United America.

I pick up the phone again and dial Natasha from my direct line.  “Roz, your back!” I missed her cheery voice.

“HI Tash, yes I am, and Thank God for that.” She chuckled.

“That much fun was it?” she asked sarcastically.

“Yes, well trust me you don’t want to hear details.  Actually it was pretty grueling and I need a favor which is why I called.”

If Tash said no I was stuck, but I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t.  “Anything, shoot.”

“I’m going to be straight with you, I told the guys they had to take a few days off.  It was a very hard few weeks and they worked much harder than I did, especially Masters.  I threatened if he did show up I would stick him with a babysitter, and well of course he shows up thinking it was an empty threat.  As President, I feel it is my duty to follow through to make it a point for my team to know I say what I mean.”