Mean Woman Blues

restaurant.
    The first course was a potato soup, followed by perfectly prepared pork chops and fresh vegetables, with strawberry shortcake for dessert.
    During dinner, the conversation was mostly about sports and David’s show, with a sprinkling of current events, but afterward the talk turned to politics: whether Guy would run again and against whom. It happened so fast Karen wasn’t sure who had initiated it, her husband or her uncle. But it was clear to her that this was the subject the two of them had wanted to meet to discuss, each for his own reasons.
    As David had predicted, Guy wanted to move up: He wanted to run for governor. Karen gushed as if she were surprised, “Oh, Uncle Guy, that’s wonderful. I know we’d… I know we’d love to…”
    Her uncle wasn’t even looking at her; he was staring straight at David. Karen was used to that kind of thing. In a family of powerful men, if you didn’t have a penis, you hardly ever got to finish a sentence. She didn’t now.
    Her husband gave her a sharp look— a
shut-up
look— and cut in on her. “Why, Guy, I’m delighted to hear that. I was just telling Karen here I was hoping you were going to come up with that. Fact is, I was going to suggest it if you hadn’t thought of it first.”
    They all laughed at the absurdity of Guy’s not thinking of it first. Karen was all puffed up about her husband; he really knew how to make people like him. He kept going, as if the words were tumbling spontaneously out of his heart. “I want you to know I’m with you a thousand percent, Guy. Karen and I will do whatever it takes to help you financially, and… well… any way you can think of.”
    Uncle Guy made a stab at modesty— not his natural state. “Well, David, I really appreciate that. It sure means a lot to Carol Ann and me.”
    “There’s so much I’d like to do,” David said. “Really. So much.”
    Karen hid a giggle.
There sure is
, she thought.
Uncle Guy doesn’t even have a clue
. She now understood why her husband, the world’s staunchest Democrat, read everything he could get his hands on about Ronald Reagan, a man logic would tell you he had every reason to hate. In fact, Reagan was his hero. Reagan had done what David Wright wanted to do and believed he could do and intended to do: He had gained a popular following through the world of entertainment and parlayed it into the presidency.
    This was the amazing fact her husband had shared with her in the closet, and in an instant she’d grasped how easy it was going to be for him. People loved him. They were drawn to him. And he had a lot more than show biz going for him: He was on the side of the people; he was already changing the world, showing what could be done with the tiniest bit of effort. He not only had a following, he had a track record, and he’d never even run for anything.
    She was going to be First Lady. Oh, and that was going to be delicious! Unbeknownst to her male relatives, Karen had causes that went far beyond her modest foundation idea. They had to do not only with women but with children. And education. And the IRS. She didn’t want girls to make the same mistakes she’d made; she wanted tax reform on a scale nobody’d ever even talked about. For openers. In the last two hours, she’d barely listened to Aunt Carol Ann prattle on about her children. She couldn’t wait till she had some influence, a voice of her own.
    David put a hand on her leg in the car going home. “You did well tonight.”
    She was thrilled with the praise. “It all worked out just like you said.”
    “We’re going all the way, baby. We’re going all the way!” He was yelling like a football fan, something she’d never expected of her generally reserved husband. “We’re going to do it, you know that?”
    Karen was staring up at him, beaming, in a state of dreamy adoration, so rapt she didn’t hear him unzip his pants till he had guided her hand to him. “Suck me, baby. Come on, suck me. Let’s celebrate.”
    She felt confused. “But I thought you said…”
    “You thought I said what?” He shouted, flashing furious eyes at her.
    She felt like crying. This was no way to have a baby. If she did what he wanted, he wouldn’t want to make love for days. “I thought we were going to start working on the baby.”
    “Karen, for God’s sake, you act like tonight was nothing. You know what I accomplished in there? That was big, what happened in there. Don’t I deserve a little