Free The Invitation-kindle by Michael McKinney Page B

Democrats, but I’ll make an exception in this case,” Senator Fields says.
    “I appreciate your patience, Senator.”
    “Oh I know about patience. You ever go fishin̓, Mr. Slaughter?”
    “No, I never do.”
    “That’ll teach ya about patience.”
    “Do you fish a lot, Senator Fields?”
    “When I get a chance. Senator Miles, and I went last weekend, did pretty good.”
    A moment later the door swings open. Senator Merrick enters unannounced, and is greeted by Director Slaughter.
    “Senator Merrick, please come in. Have a seat.”
    “Thank you, your secretary told me to come straight in, so-”
    “Absolutely, I’m glad you’re here. Please sit down.”
    Taking his seat, Senator Merrick is surprised to see Senator Fields, who greets him.
    “Morning, Senator Merrick.”
    “Senator Fields, good morning. I didn’t expect to see you here.”
    “I’m responsible for that, Senator Merrick. I asked both of you to come here this morning for a good reason.”
    “I’m sure it is,” Senator Merrick says.
    “Gentlemen, what I’m going to show you is something that I can’t explain, and it has to do with the President of the United States.”
     

 

Chapter Nine
     
    As the director of the FBI recounts the cryptic story about the President with all its improbable details to Senators Fields and Merrick, on a small farm in western North Carolina a man is sitting on his front porch waiting for the mail. His name is Todd Keniston, and at thirty-four years old his life has reached a point of personal crises.
    After nine years of marriage his wife has left him, taking their two children with her. The former Marine had just returned home less than a week ago, after an extended tour of duty overseas working as a freelance security contractor. Instead of seeing his family in their home, he was informed several weeks before, in a letter from his wife, of her intention to leave him, and though the news was not entirely unexpected, he never thought she would actually go through with it. But the unnaturally quiet house once alive with activity that now surrounds and engulfs his entire being is a stinging, silent rebuttal. Looking at the swing set in the front yard, he painfully remembers the joyful enthusiasm that filled the air when his children used it for the first time. Everything around him that was once familiar now seems disjointed and out of place.
    Todd Keniston is a man whose life is being pulled in two different directions. Surrounding him are all the physical reminders of the life he had as a husband, and father, a life he is sure he wants back, while at the same time he knows it’s only a matter of time before the phone rings, and he is offered another overseas assignment that he in all likelihood will accept. He sees it simply as his profession, the only profession that he has known in his adult life, albeit a profession that in the end his wife found it impossible to accept. It never occurred to him, or most likely he preferred not to consider the possibility that years of working as a security contractor in foreign countries for extended periods, often under dangerous conditions, was simply not compatible with the psychological and emotional needs of a young family. Telling his wife repeatedly that the next assignment would be his last, until she eventually became convinced that nothing was going to change, the gradual strain on their marriage had finally reached the point of no return. Weeks, months, and years of waiting for a father and husband to return home had taken its toll.
    In an effort to persuade his wife to return, he drove to her parents’ home some thirty miles away, where she now resides. The encounter quickly developed into a heated confrontation, resulting in a restraining order banning him from contact with his wife until further adjudication. Trying to contact his wife by phone or email being unsuccessful, he writes, hoping to receive a letter in return. Going over things in his mind, he