The general election was really tough, but Shane continued to bring in supporters with huge wallets. I spent most of my time speaking to various contributors as well as the media, but set aside two weeks prior to July 4th to be with my family. Ironically, we all discovered the truth of what happens to women’s reproductive systems becoming synchronized when living together. A few weeks later Katja became very nauseous at a dinner honoring some retiring business leader. I suspected she might be pregnant, but for some reason, when picking up a pregnancy test after the function, I grabbed three. Sure enough, not only did Katja’s come back positive, but so did the ones Nicole and I took. Our family finally had to find another place to live! Yet when we all got together the next day Matt proposed, “We have to use the money we received from the house that burned down soon or we will be taxed on it. I have been looking and I found two large homes in a semi-rural area that is still in Melanie’s district. We have enough to keep this house if we want, and buy these two if we choose.”
The idea sounded great, and we went to check the homes out the next day. I went with Matt while Katja and Nicole would watch the children and check them out later. It was perfect – the housing market had again crashed and we were in the ideal position to grab both homes at bargain prices. The closest neighbors, except for a house with an elderly couple across the street, were far down the road. We decided that if anyone was curious as to why we would spend so much time together we could easily make it look as if Nicole and Katja were together and Matt and I were merely their best friends. I loved both houses and when Nicole and Katja did their tour they liked them too. We decided to go ahead and buy. Since both were of equal size, and I had no real preference, it was Nicole who insisted on the one with the more old-fashioned look. We would have to establish a rotation of sorts with each other but I would be responsible for one home and Nicole and Katja the other. Matt noted how we seemed to be excluding him from the decision-making process. We all turned to face him and Nicole stated, “Sorry my love but with three women you may as well get used to it.”
We decided that since the mortgage was paid off from my mother’s old house we would sit on it for the time being – I wanted to maintain my base of memories for my mother. As for religion, I indeed relented and Matt baptized me in a private ceremony with an agreement that his bishop would not divulge my membership – which might cost me some support in both the more liberal voter groups and the evangelical camp. Matt was quite happy at my choosing to share this aspect of his life with him, while Nicole was ecstatic! She vowed to me she would work on Katja next. She even asked if I would study the Bible with her, but I tended to avoid that since I still felt more comfortable contemplating my place with God while alone in nature and lost in my own form of renewal. Of course I did not do any extreme survival excursions since I had little free time and especially once I found out I was pregnant.
It was strange, as November came closer I feared that my trailing in the polls signaled my defeat, but Shane continued to be very encouraging while Faber was absolutely filled with optimism. I again found that odd since my original purpose was only to be a sacrificial candidate. The most accurate polling data showed me behind by four percentage points on the Friday before the election, but both Shane and Faber urged me to be super aggressive for the entire weekend. Katja and I did not sleep at all as we propelled ourselves and our support base into the final stage of the campaign. Then came the nervous trip to the campaign headquarters on Tuesday afternoon. Nicole would watch the children while Matt and I, and my hyper-dedicated young organizer, arrived to be greeted by our supporters and Dr. Hodge. The hours were spent watching precinct by precinct report in. At times I was ahead, at other times my Democratic opponent held the lead, but by 2am the media confirmed that I was the projected winner! I had done it! I won a seat in the United States Congress! I realized that from then on I would have real power and influence, and if I played my cards right I could even set my sights higher in the future.
None of my family or I knew exactly how we would organize life around my new responsibilities, but Katja suggested she run my Portland outreach office so she could spend a lot of time with the children – especially when the family would grow by three. That would mean I had to find someone to head my D.C. office, but that could be taken care of later. Of course, before my term would begin we both had to travel to Washington, D.C. to get the office established there. While we walked through the US Capitol Katja took my hand, but I pulled away and warned, “Please my love. We have to be really careful since I have an image I need to preserve more than ever.” She sighed, “Wow. You realize last year you were a prisoner of Nazir and living undercover and now you have traded one cage for another.” I smiled and resisted the urge to take her into my arms as I replied, “Yeah I have had to give up doing as I please…at least out in the open. Of course with the trade-off has come power and influence. Maybe it’s a fair bargain. Besides, we can be whoever we want to be as long as we are careful to conceal ourselves.”
So as I lay there in bed early in the morning, after having toured D.C. and enjoying a marvelous, close evening with Katja, I turned to her and woke her up. She asked what was wrong and I asked, “Are you happy? Because I really am.” She motioned for me to come closer to her and she gently embraced me and gave me a little kiss and said, “I certainly am glad you are happy.” She sighed and asked, “What can be better than this? I have the love of three wonderful people and all of us girls will be giving birth sometime around my birthday. I will actually be a mother! I just know our children will have a wonderful time growing up together. And to top it off, here we are in Washington, D.C.. It’s not as beautiful or charming as Moscow, but still…” She then smiled and went back to sleep.
In that moment I really was happy. I hopped out of bed to check my email to see how everyone was doing in Portland. Yet for some reason I opened up the account that I had set up special for Tiffanie. I had not looked at it for months but when I did I noticed a mail addressed to me, well to Amber, from a Rebecca McAllister titled, “Sad News.” I opened it and found out that Tiffanie had been deployed as a maintenance technician in northern Afghanistan. After having been there for only one week her transport convoy ran over a road-side mine and she was killed. Her mother went on about being proud of her sacrifice for her country.
I went into a state of private rage! Here was a young woman who had her life ahead of her, who wanted to marry and have a family but instead had been blown to pieces in some god-forsaken region of the world for what, an oil pipeline or mining interests? And on top of this her mother was wrapping the tragedy in patriotism? No, I could not and would not shed a tear. I walked over to the window and looked over the lights of Washington, DC. In the distance I could see those symbols of American government illuminated in the distance even as a new dawn was fast approaching. I vowed revenge…on who I did not know but someone’s blood would be spilt to make up for the sacrifice of that young woman who I had befriended, but who could not get past the artificial confines of a culture increasingly built on conformity, military, and violence but terrified of new ways of expressing love and building families. The image of Katja that fateful evening holding the bloody shard of glass invaded my mind. I fantasized an encounter with a faceless adversary, one wielding power over life and death in what even Vincent and Nazir could see was a decadent and dying culture; cut off from its roots and being steered to the abyss by dark forces. Maybe I had the qualities to bring retribution, a destroying angel perhaps…one who would send the faceless foe to the depths of hell where he or she belonged!
I repressed my rage when I heard Katja stirring. I would not tell her of Tiffanie. Instead I would try to divert my aggression into passion for this woman who had the courage to transform her life and take a path that few had ever journeyed. For that I would make sure she would never doubt my devotion to her. I wanted to spend the entire day in her arms but such could not be as this day was one for me to shine as Oregon’s youngest na
tional political star…one with a history well suited for the environment that I would be entering. I pictured myself as the archetypal lone she-wolf in sheep’s clothing. I would make sure to reward my friends, but save my unique, creative wrath for anyone who dared to underestimate me.
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Descent Into Darkness Page 37