Free Lethal Trajectories by Michael Conley Page A

over my face. It seems that I drove my truck through the window of Jeppson’s Hardware store in St. Peter, but I didn’t remember any of it.”
    “What happened then?” Maureen asked. She seemed to relate completely to Veronica’s blackouts, a situation that worried the pastor.
    “An old high-school friend of mine heard about my predicament and stopped by to visit me. She related her own dreadful experiences with booze, much as I’m doing here with you, and I was relieved to know I was not the only one with self-esteem problems and a basketful of fears. I no longer felt so alone. I told her, ‘whatever you’ve got, I want,’ and from that point on my life changed.”
    “How did it change, Pastor? What did you do?”
    “I joined Alcoholics Anonymous and began working with other alcoholics and addicts like myself. In helping them, I seemed to help myself even more. Over time, I began to develop my spiritual life and decided to become a pastor—an unbelievable development, I can assure you. I was ordained in 2014 and have been a pastor at Redeemer ever since. I love what I do, and I formed a self-help group I call Life Challenges to deal with the daily problems of life. It’s not a Twelve Step group, but it’s a place where people can help each other cope. There is hope and a good ending for you, Maureen, if you want it.”
    After talking a while more, Veronica said her good-byes. She had planted the seeds and offered her hand, but the rest was up to Maureen. As always, she was in a grateful mood as she ended her visit, mindful of a saying in the program that “to keep it you need to give it away.”
    Her glow turned to concern as she approached her driveway on Maple Lane. The conversation she would soon have with Mandy regarding her school suspension would be far more difficult.

10
    Washington, DC
17 September 2017
    C layton McCarty felt an adrenaline rush on his ride to the studio as he contemplated the televised slugfest he would soon have with two of his administration’s sharpest critics: Wellington Crane and the mercurial Nelson Fitzwater. No novice to media interviews, he knew how to deflect questions and control the message, but still, these guys played hardball.
    He had a message to deliver and knew Fitzwater’s Financial Issues and Answers show spoke to a target audience the administration most needed to reach: Wall Street and corporate America. His message was simple. America had a host of energy, economic, and environmental problems that could best be addressed in their entirety through the newly created Department of Energy, Transportation, and Climate-change, headed up by Peter Canton. His audience was hostile to the ETCC, and he had to make his case before them and their television viewers.
    Arriving an hour before the on-air time, he sat patiently through the obligatory makeup application and lighting checks. He visited briefly with Nelson Fitzwater and his two regular talking-head panelists. The guest panelist, Wellington Crane, was preoccupied with issuing terse orders to the camera crew on angles they should use in covering him. Wellington was obviously miffed that he couldn’t sit in Fitzwater’s regular seat with the Capitol dome in the background. After smelling bourbon on Fitzwater’s breath and observing the thinly disguised hostility of the two talking heads, Clayton thought, This little soap opera should be interesting. Just then, the live-air light went on, and it was showtime.
    “Good morning, and welcome to Financial Issues and Answers,” Fitzwater proclaimed in his most authoritative voice. After briefly introducing his two regular panelists, he effusively welcomed his guest panelist, Wellington Crane. As almost an afterthought, he added, “We are pleased to have Vice President Clayton McCarty joining us to defend the financial policies of the Burkmeister administration, which, frankly, many of us don’t understand. Welcome, Mr. Vice President.”
    “Thanks for having me on