you in the middle of this mess?" he asked.
"Pretty well, up to now," she said confidently. "But we're so early into it, I wouldn't even call it the end of the beginning. I'm just happy we have only three dead, so far. States below us did much worse in that department. On the flip side, our infrastructure got hammered — thousands of road breaks, hundreds of miles of pavement, rail, and power lines lost. God knows how many houses and businesses damaged and destroyed and people ruined. It staggers the mind."
It could have been a political pitch, of course — a sympathetic sound bite — except that it was near midnight, they were alone, if in different parts of the state, and they knew each other with the intimacy of an old married couple. They had once been virtually that, a few years ago, before her ambitions and the risky nature of his job had pulled them apart. And they'd been that couple for well over a decade — albeit living in separate houses, pursuing divergent careers, and keeping different friends. The physical part may have passed, he understood, but what they'd forged afterwards had struck him as a dependable, valuable, and cherished friendship, nurtured by a trust he'd once thought unlikely.
He had been sensing a change in her, however. She'd been ambitious and hardworking when they first met. But, born wealthy and urban, and having escaped to the allures of communal living in Vermont, she'd settled for a selection of pursuits — hippie, Realtor, small-town leader. A brutal rape had changed all that, creating a crucible from which she'd emerged shaken, hungry, and in need of a higher purpose — striving to build something in a life that he'd previously felt she'd mostly toyed with. Sadly, it had also made her a bit reckless with the people she once held dear. In truth, there were times toward the end when Joe, for all his sympathy for and understanding of her demons, had wished they'd call it quits.
Lately, though, now that Gail had been governor for half a year, he'd begun to notice small indications of her earlier, gentler yearnings. He sensed in her an element of loneliness, perhaps, or maybe something subtler, akin to regret, if not so definable. But whatever its nature, it had resulted in a series of phone calls and a visit or two, in which she appeared to be reaching out to him. That having been said, he'd undergone his own emotional journey to get to where he was, and he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted or needed any new developments.
"What have you been seeing out there?" she asked him practically, if in a tone of personal concern.
"Stamina," he answered. "Stubbornness. Also frustration with high-visibility targets like FEMA and anyone in a jumpsuit carrying a clipboard. Probably to be expected. I'm just hoping word gets out for everyone to cut each other a little slack."
"I think they will," she stated. "I'm getting good vibes from most legislators right now. They'll run out of Kool-Aid eventually, but I'll do what I can to stretch them out as long as possible."
"You're kind of a student of Vermont politics," Joe said suddenly, his own duties for tomorrow looming in his mind. "You ever hear of Carolyn Barber?"
There was a pause. "In what context?"
Joe shifted the phone from one ear to the other and adjusted how he was sitting. He was in an upstairs guest room of Bill Allard's house, using an armchair he'd placed by the room's one window. The scene outside, normally overlooking a quiet, partially darkened rural town, was instead pulsing with the lights of stationary fire trucks, police cars, and yellow highway signs telling of dangers ahead. It felt as if the entire community had been transformed into a hospital ICU.
"I'm working a case in Waterbury," he explained. "A woman who went missing from the state hospital. They nicknamed her the Governor because she claimed she'd been one a long time ago. They thought it was a delusion, but I remembered she really was governor, for a single day
"Pretty well, up to now," she said confidently. "But we're so early into it, I wouldn't even call it the end of the beginning. I'm just happy we have only three dead, so far. States below us did much worse in that department. On the flip side, our infrastructure got hammered — thousands of road breaks, hundreds of miles of pavement, rail, and power lines lost. God knows how many houses and businesses damaged and destroyed and people ruined. It staggers the mind."
It could have been a political pitch, of course — a sympathetic sound bite — except that it was near midnight, they were alone, if in different parts of the state, and they knew each other with the intimacy of an old married couple. They had once been virtually that, a few years ago, before her ambitions and the risky nature of his job had pulled them apart. And they'd been that couple for well over a decade — albeit living in separate houses, pursuing divergent careers, and keeping different friends. The physical part may have passed, he understood, but what they'd forged afterwards had struck him as a dependable, valuable, and cherished friendship, nurtured by a trust he'd once thought unlikely.
He had been sensing a change in her, however. She'd been ambitious and hardworking when they first met. But, born wealthy and urban, and having escaped to the allures of communal living in Vermont, she'd settled for a selection of pursuits — hippie, Realtor, small-town leader. A brutal rape had changed all that, creating a crucible from which she'd emerged shaken, hungry, and in need of a higher purpose — striving to build something in a life that he'd previously felt she'd mostly toyed with. Sadly, it had also made her a bit reckless with the people she once held dear. In truth, there were times toward the end when Joe, for all his sympathy for and understanding of her demons, had wished they'd call it quits.
Lately, though, now that Gail had been governor for half a year, he'd begun to notice small indications of her earlier, gentler yearnings. He sensed in her an element of loneliness, perhaps, or maybe something subtler, akin to regret, if not so definable. But whatever its nature, it had resulted in a series of phone calls and a visit or two, in which she appeared to be reaching out to him. That having been said, he'd undergone his own emotional journey to get to where he was, and he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted or needed any new developments.
"What have you been seeing out there?" she asked him practically, if in a tone of personal concern.
"Stamina," he answered. "Stubbornness. Also frustration with high-visibility targets like FEMA and anyone in a jumpsuit carrying a clipboard. Probably to be expected. I'm just hoping word gets out for everyone to cut each other a little slack."
"I think they will," she stated. "I'm getting good vibes from most legislators right now. They'll run out of Kool-Aid eventually, but I'll do what I can to stretch them out as long as possible."
"You're kind of a student of Vermont politics," Joe said suddenly, his own duties for tomorrow looming in his mind. "You ever hear of Carolyn Barber?"
There was a pause. "In what context?"
Joe shifted the phone from one ear to the other and adjusted how he was sitting. He was in an upstairs guest room of Bill Allard's house, using an armchair he'd placed by the room's one window. The scene outside, normally overlooking a quiet, partially darkened rural town, was instead pulsing with the lights of stationary fire trucks, police cars, and yellow highway signs telling of dangers ahead. It felt as if the entire community had been transformed into a hospital ICU.
"I'm working a case in Waterbury," he explained. "A woman who went missing from the state hospital. They nicknamed her the Governor because she claimed she'd been one a long time ago. They thought it was a delusion, but I remembered she really was governor, for a single day
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