"Oh! Hello, Angela!" The President remarked. "Been expecting you. Calm down! Come on up and have supper with me. We'll talk about it there."
"I don't know if I want to accept your hospitality!" the yong woman answered, "after what you've done!"
"Angela Page!" The President snapped, "Your father has not always agreed with me, but he has always accepted my hospitality! I think he would be quite disappointed if you were not to do likewise!"
The young woman's expression softened. "Yes, sir!" she moaned.
"Good!" The President continued. "Now come on! We're having my special beans."
Without another word the young woman followed The President through The White House to the dining room. The President's wife and children were already there, eating. The President's wife looked at Angela and smiled. "Found out, huh?" she remarked.
The young woman looked irritated, but only nodded. The President sat down, his eldest son dished up his food, and brought it to him. "Thank you, Forrest!" The President remarked. "Sit down, Angela! Forrest, serve our guest."
The boy quickly did so. The young woman sampled a spoonful of the beans, went, "Hmmm!" Grabbed a slice of bread, and began to eat hartily. The two children giggled, and The First Lady grinned. The President grinned back at her, and everybody ate for some time, in silence.
Suddenly The President's daughter spoke up. "Angela's mad because her new mother is so young and she's already going to be a mother."
Angela looked angry. "She can never be my mother! Never! She can never take my mother's place. I can't understand father doing this! How could you have begun it? They should have taken precautions. Now father feels he's obligated. She trapped him, and that isn't right!"
The President put down his spoon. "You are absolutey right!" he commented. "She can never be your mother. I knew your mother for a very short time, but she had the wisdom to make your father understand that he should not work against us, but work with us. And with his support we have been able to accomplish great things. Your mother knows that this young woman can never replace the place your father has in his heart for her. But she knows your father already loves her, and, she loves him. Your father knew the chance he was taking and is an honorable man and fulfills his obligations. Perhaps you will never love this young woman as you loved your mother, but you will show her the dignity and respect that is due your father's wife! And your mother would expect nothing less, for you are her child! And you will love her children as much as you were loved because they are as much a part of your father as you are, and you should never, ever forget that!"
The President turned to his daughter. "And YOU, young lady, have been told before NOT to repeat White House gossip or reveal anything you have learned by any other means! And kindly do not break any more little boy's noses no matter what they say. Billy Ray may be an obnoxious little brat, but I need his father's support."
The little girl looked hurt. "Well, I'm not a scientific freak that you had made because you're so rich. I'm just an ordinary little girl! And besides, I didn't like where he put his hand. Boys aren't supposed to but their hand there."
The President laughed. "No, they're not!" he remarked, "but young lady, we must always remember because of our heritage we are stronger and more agile than other people. We can easily hurt them and we must not do that unless it's absolutely necessary. What is the first of all rules?"
The little girl looked hurt but answered. "We must only use enough force to defend ourselves, and, to defend the innocent."
"Good!" The President snapped. "Now, try to remember that in the future."
"Maybe there'll come a time," her brother remarked, "that she won't mind Billy touching her there, at all."
"Never!" his sister cried. "Never ever!"
Everybody laughed. The President looked at his guest. "Better?" he asked. She smiled.
"Yes sir!" she answered, "Better. Still not perfect, but better. Why do you always have to be right? Can't you be wrong once and a while?"
"What?" The President asked, "And ruin my reputation as the world's most obnoxious pest? People would never stand for it!"
Everyone laughed. The President went back to his office, did another hour or so's work, and then went to bed. His wife snuggled up to him. "What?" The President asked.
"Oh, nothing," she remarked. "Just thinking what a pest you've been over the years."
The President smiled and was quickly asleep.

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