Karen's President

by Ann M. Martin

  It was 1:42 when we left our hotel room. I pushed the elevator button about six times in a row.

  “Easy, Karen. We have plenty of time,” said Daddy.

  “There could be traffic on the way,” I replied. “There is already traffic in the elevator. It is taking forever.”

  The elevator came a minute later. We got taxis right away. I was in a taxi with Daddy, Andrew, and Kristy.

  “We would like to go to the White House, please,” said Daddy.

  I wished he had let me say that! It sounded gigundoly important.

  We drove a few city blocks, then turned onto a bigger road. Honk! Drivers all around were blowing their horns.

  “There may have been an accident up ahead,” said the taxi driver. “We will have to be patient.”

  “We do not have time!” I said.

  “I am afraid we have no choice,” said the driver.

  He inched along. Finally the traffic jam cleared. We pulled up to the White House at 2:15

  I had never visited a house like this before. Usually I just walk into a house and say hello. Here we had to be checked for dangerous or messy things. For example, we were not allowed to have chewing gum or food. That was okay, because we had already eaten our lunch. We were not allowed to bring big knives or guns or firecrackers. That was okay too, because we are never allowed to have those things. And I did not want them.

  Marsha was waiting for us at the end of the security checks. She was standing with a young man.

  “Welcome,” she said. “I would like you to meet your tour guide.”

  “Just follow me,” he said. “I will be happy to answer any questions you have.”

  “Have you seen the President yet today?” I asked.

  “Karen, we are touring the White House. We are not looking for the President,” said Daddy.

  Boo. I knew I could not ask any more questions about finding the President. But I could still look.

  Our tour guide told us about the First Families who have lived in the White House. And he showed us some things the First Ladies had done to make the White House look nice.

  “When Mrs. Eisenhower lived here, she used pink so much that people called the color ‘Mamie pink.’ Mamie was her nickname. She was so careful about keeping the house looking nice that people had to walk around the edges of rooms to keep from leaving footprints on the carpet.”

  “She would not have been very happy at our house. We have people and pets running all over the place,” I said.

  We visited a few rooms. We went to the Green Room, Blue Room, Red Room, State Dining Room, and East Room.

  “Um, how many rooms are there?” I asked.

  I did not say anything about seeing the President. But I thought if we visited every room, we could find him.

  “There are one hundred and thirty-two rooms at the White House,” said the guide. “We are allowed in only a few of them.”

  I was disappointed. The tour was fun. But I had wanted to see the President. After all, I knew from reading the newspaper that he was right in the building.

  We were on our way to the gift shop when we heard someone calling Elizabeth. It was Marsha.

  “I am so glad I found you,” she said. “Come with me. There is someone I would like you to meet.”

  Greetings, Mr. President

  Marsha led us to a room we had not been in before. Sitting in an armchair with his back to us was a man looking at some papers.

  “Excuse me, Mr. President. Your visitors are here,” said Marsha.

  Mr. President! I could not believe it. The man stood up and turned around. It was him. It was the real, live President of the United States! He smiled at us.

  “Welcome to the White House,” he said. “I am happy to meet special friends of Ms. Meyers.”

  “We are happy to meet you too!” I said.

  No one else in my family said anything. For a minute they were speechless. Then the President shook hands with each of us.

  “This is a great honor, Mr. President,” said Daddy.

  “Thank you for seeing us,” said Elizabeth.

  “I rarely have a chance to meet with visitors to the White House,” said the President. “I am glad I could make the time today. I understand there is someone here who has a lot of questions for me. I will be happy to answer any questions I can.”

  The President turned and looked at me.

  “Thank you!” I said. “My first question is, do you like being President of the United States? I want to know in case I want to be President someday. And, um, could you please answer slowly? I want to write everything down.”

  I took out my notepad and pencil.

  “Karen, I am glad you are thinking about becoming President. I like my job very much,” the President replied. “And I notice that you are very good at speaking up. That is an important skill for a President to have.”

  “Sometimes I get in trouble for speaking up too much,” I replied.

  “Me too,” said the President.

  He laughed. I could see we had a lot in common.

  “Karen, maybe someone else has something to say,” said Daddy.

  The rest of my family asked their questions. A couple of times I asked the President if he could please slow down so I could take notes. He was very patient.

  Then it was my turn again. I told the President about Ms. Colman and our homework assignment.

  “What do you think of my idea to have a Presidents’ Partners’ Day?” I asked.

  “I think you have an excellent idea, Karen,” replied the President. “If that proposal came to me as a bill from Congress, I would sign it right away.”

  Wow! If my idea was good enough to be signed by the President, I was sure it was good enough to share with my class at school.

  “It has been a great pleasure speaking with you,” said the President. “I wish I could talk with you longer. But I have a meeting scheduled with the Vice President and the Secretary of State.”

  “We read all about your meeting,” I said. “You are going to talk about countries that are not getting along.”

  “I see you keep up with the news. We need more citizens like you. Thank you, Karen,” said the President.

  “You are welcome!” I replied.

  Visitors are not usually allowed to take photographs at the White House. But the President made an exception to the rule, since we are Marsha’s friends. Daddy took a picture of the President shaking my hand. Snap!

  Getting Ready

  We thanked Marsha and headed back to our hotel. We had an early supper, then went to bed. It had been a long day, and we were going to catch a train back to New York first thing in the morning.

  I spent part of my time on the train reading over my notes. The rest of the time I looked out the window, remembering my visit with the President of the United States.

  “Nannie, guess what!” I called as soon as we got home. “We met the President!”

  “That is wonderful!” Nannie replied. “Come tell us all about it.”

  I gave Nannie and Emily their gifts. (They loved them.) While we ate lunch, we all told them about our visit to Washington.

  I called Hannie and Nancy after lunch and told them my news too. Then I got to work. My presentation was due on Monday.

  I started writing about my idea for a new national holiday. I read what I wrote aloud to see how it sounded. It sounded very good. But it needed something more.

  Hearing the President tell me he liked my idea had been so exciting. Reading it on paper was just not the same. I wished I had taken a tape recorder to the White House. Then I could play the tape for my class.

  “Wait a minute! I have an idea,” I said.

  I ran downstairs to find Daddy. He was part of my idea. Daddy was in his office catching up on some paperwork.

  “Daddy, could you please help me with my assignment?” I asked.

  “I would be happy to,” replied Daddy. “What would you like me to do?”

  “I would l
ike you to play the part of the President on a tape I am going to make for my class,” I said. “I have notes from our real meeting, and I can write a script for you.”

  “That sounds like a lot of fun,” said Daddy. “Just let me know when you are ready.”

  “Thank you!” I said.

  I was having fun doing my assignment. I made up a very neat script. I wrote the name of the person who was speaking. Then I wrote down the exact words that were said.

  When the script was ready, I went back to Daddy’s office. We closed the door and got to work making my tape.

  Soon I was finished. I had my written report and my tape recording. And our photos would be ready on Saturday.

  Presidents’ Partners’ Day

  We did not give our reports right away on Monday. Ms. Colman said we were still too excited from our vacations.

  “I think you need some time to settle down,” she said.

  I had trouble settling down in the afternoon too. So Ms. Colman did not call on me first. That was okay. I liked listening to the other reports. And if I went last, my report would be an excellent surprise.

  “Omar, would you like to begin?” asked Ms. Colman.

  Omar walked to the front of the room and read his report.

  “If I were President, I would make tax cuts,” he said.

  He went on to describe how upset his parents get at tax time. This upsets his whole family, including their pets.

  “So it would be a very good thing for everyone to cut taxes. And that is what I would do if I were President. Thank you,” said Omar.

  “That was a good report,” said Ms. Colman. “It raises some interesting questions about our country’s policy on taxes. Some people think we need to leave taxes as they are, to pay for services in our country. Other people think taxes are just too high. Addie, would you like to speak next?”

  Addie spoke about animal rights.

  “If I were President, I would make sure I represented animals as well as people,” she said. “We should consider animals citizens too.”

  Nancy spoke about gun control.

  “If I were President, I would make it very hard for people to get guns, because they hurt and kill people,” she said.

  “Thank you, Nancy,” said Ms. Colman. “That is another interesting issue. Some people think everyone should be allowed to own a gun for protection. Other people, like you and me, think guns are too dangerous to have in the hands of so many people.”

  I liked every one of the reports I heard. Finally it was time for me to give mine.

  “I will tell you what I would do if I were President. Then I will let you hear the President’s own words,” I said. “The voice you will be hearing is my daddy’s. But the words are the President’s, because I got to meet him last week and I wrote down everything he said.”

  “Is that true, Karen? You met the President? asked Ms. Colman.

  “Yes, I did!” I replied.

  Nancy and Hannie had done a very good job of keeping my secret. Everyone, including Ms. Colman, was surprised and excited.

  “Please go ahead with your report,” said Ms. Colman. “We are looking forward to hearing your idea.”

  “If I were President, I would declare a new holiday. It would be Presidents’ Partners’ Day, because of all the good things Presidents’ partners have done.”

  I played my tape for the class. They heard Daddy’s voice speaking the President’s words.

  “I think you have an excellent idea, Karen. If that proposal came to me as a bill from Congress, I would sign it right away.”

  While they listened, I held up the photograph of the President shaking my hand. It was almost as though he were in the room with us.

  The class clapped when my report was through.

  “Thank you, Karen,” said Ms. Colman. “If you ever become President, or the President’s partner, our country will be very lucky.”

  Ms. Colman said she liked many of our ideas.

  “Maybe someday your ideas will become bills that are turned into laws,” said Ms. Colman.

  Wow! I had met the President. I had presented a good report. I was a very proud citizen.

  About the Author

  ANN M. MARTIN is the acclaimed and bestselling author of a number of novels and series, including Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), A Dog’s Life, Here Today, P.S. Longer Letter Later (written with Paula Danziger), the Family Tree series, the Doll People series (written with Laura Godwin), the Main Street series, and the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club. She lives in New York.

  Copyright © 1999 by Ann M. Martin

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  First edition, 1999

  e-ISBN 978-1-338-06079-9