“Jonathan,” Doug called to one of the security guards by the door. “Get Amelia some water.”
I’d never seen Doug like this. So nervous. So—anticipatory. Not that I didn’t understand. After years of preparation, Doug was about to step into the skin of another person, and he was going to have to hold that costume together—not just for the rest of the night, but for the next year. The next five years, if he won. The next nine, if you factored in a second term. It occurred to me that I might be the only person in the room who understood that feeling as acutely as Doug did. I wondered if he would survive the ordeal or die of exhaustion from the effort.
“It’s a big day, Dad,” one of the brothers said. “An exciting day.”
“The beginning of a great adventure,” one of the wives added.
Doug nodded slowly at his boys, his face frozen in a joyless grin. “Big day,” he repeated. “Absolutely. And you know: we’ve done it all, the testing and the surveys and the studies, and we know it’s the right time.” His lips stretched wider. “And if it isn’t—”
“Don’t say that, Dad,” two brothers said at once.
But Doug seemed not to have heard them. He sat down with a groan. He looked suddenly like he might throw up.
The room was still.
“Really,” Doug said suddenly, “it doesn’t matter if I win or I lose. Same organizations funding everyone. Creeps. I told them, if you want to see me win, give me all the money, but that’s not how they work. They hedge their bets.” He sniffed. “I’ll get what I want, either way. The only difference is if I win, I’ll get the credit.”
“Dad, you’re going to win,” Caleb said.
Doug looked up, about to say something, and then he froze. He was looking at me. No—he was looking at Shannon. “Are you—are you filming me right now?”
She was standing there with her arms folded, her phone tucked flat against her chest in a decidedly strange way. Her face went white. “Of course not.”
“You are,” Doug said incredulously. “You’re filming me.”
In the next moment, half a dozen bodies lunged toward Shannon, toward me. In a flash of instinct, or maybe possession, I stepped forward too, so that I was standing directly in front of Shannon, blocking the path. “She works for me,” I hissed. “She films all the time. The footage isn’t going anywhere.”
At that moment, a young man in a suit stepped into the room. “Sir? They’re announcing you in five.”
Doug stood up. His face was set in an expression of grimly terrified determination. “All righty,” he said quietly. He looked like he was preparing for the electric chair.
As the final round ofgood lucksto Doug ensued, I flashed a look at Shannon. She mouthed to me,It’s fine.
Right as Doug was leaving the room, Amelia said from the corner, “Knock ’em dead, sweetheart!” Doug threw up a hand in response, and then he was gone, and all of us were standing there, like a storage room of puppets, eyes blinking wide at one another while we waited for the sudden crush of dark.
“America!” Doug roared a minute later, his voice echoing through a thousand speakers. “How long have we waited for a new dawn?”
Later that night, news panels and editorial boards alike would agree: it was the kind of flawless moment that reinvigorates a dying campaign. Doug was a roaring triumph. Exactly the kind of man to put this country back on track. And his family—weren’t they lovely?
Natalie I just saw u at your dad’s campaign rally and youare so pretty in person!
OBSESSED WITHTHE MILLS FAMILY OMG
Do u have anything to say about ur father-in-law’s speech tonight???
Wait is she a nazi lol
It seems like anyone can be called a nazi these days for anything!!!! No one can just celebrate traditional femininity anymore without being called a nazi!!!! You cannot acknowldege the basic facts of the invazion of our borders with out sum fucking whore saying youre a—
Two hours later, we were walking back to the car, moving in a slow march along with the crowd, people with folding chairs and soup thermoses and rolled-up Confederate flags tucked under their armpits. “That was terrifying,” Shannon said quietly next to me.
I laughed crisply. “You’re telling me. Try being legally bound to him.”
“No. Natalie, thatspeechwas terrifying. I mean, I know your father-in-law is … intense, I always knew he was intense, but that was—don’t you think that was different?”
I looked behind me. Caleb was walking with his brothers, the excitement of the night having afforded a brief moment of shared camaraderie with them. The nannies were about a hundred feet away from us with the kids. Clementine was getting a piggybackride from Aimee. Louise had Junebug strapped to her chest and was saying something to one of the littles—I couldn’t see through the crowd—and from her expression, I could tell that the child was crying.
“Natalie.”
