"Josh, it's your turn with Cerulean," Donna says, leaning into his office. Josh covers the mouthpiece on the phone in his hand.
"I'm in the middle of something right now. Can Toby wait five minutes?" he says.
"He's already gone over to the Hill."
"Okay, fine. Just let her know I need five minutes to finish this phone call." Josh uncovers the mouthpiece. "Yeah, Dan, I'm still here…" Donna steps out and he can hear her voice for a moment. Then Cerulean comes in, yellow duck backpack hanging off one shoulder. Josh doesn't process Dan's explanation of 458 because he's too busy trying to figure out why Cerulean is frowning as she walks in. She climbs into the guest chair in front of his desk, brow furrowed at nothing in particular.
"Yeah, thanks, Dan. Listen, I'll call you later," Josh says.
"But Josh-"
"Nice talking to you." Josh hangs up. Cerulean looks up at him as he folds his hands on his desk.
"What's up?" he says.
"I thought you needed five minutes," Cerulean says. Josh shrugs.
"We finished fast. What's on your mind?" Cerulean's eyes fix on his hands.
"Nothing."
"Cerulean, let me give you some tried-and-true Uncle Josh advice," Josh says. "If you're going to lie about nothing being wrong, you have to try to act like you normally would. Otherwise everyone is going to know you're lying, like I do right now." Cerulean glances up before putting her hand and her gaze in her lap. "Now, what's bugging you?"
"My teacher said something," Cerulean says.
"Yeah?"
"She said that the teachers at my old school must have been stupid or really nice to say that I was smart." Cerulean bites her lip. Josh's mouth falls open.
"But you are smart! You can read, you know more words than a fifth grader, you do math just fine- she told you you're not smart?" he says, hands spreading. Cerulean shakes her head.
"She said it to another teacher at recess. I heard her," she says. "I'm not good at writing. I'm pretty bad."
"Don't say that-"
"I am, look!" Cerulean opens her backpack and takes out a wide-ruled notebook. Josh flips through the book to see pages of what can be best described as scrawling shapes.
"Okay, so your penmanship isn't stellar," he admits. "But that has no bearing on your intelligence. They say the smartest people have the worst handwriting."
"Who's they?" Cerulean asks.
"I don't know. People in general, I guess." Josh shuts the notebook to see Cerulean is still frowning. "Cerulean, it's not a big deal. Have you seen my handwriting? It's chickenscratch."
"My teacher says my writing is holding me back," Cerulean says. "And she might call Daddy and tell him. I don't want him to know I write really bad."
"Your dad won't-" Cerulean's lip trembles and Josh decides to switch gears. "Okay, kid. I know how to fix this."
"You do?" Cerulean finally meets his eyes and Josh has a moment of panic when he sees there were almost tears. Jeez, I cannot fuck this up.
"Yes. I do. In fact, I have a mission for you," he says, the spark of an idea.
"A mission?"
"Yes. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to be able to write the names of your family by Monday so well everyone can read them," Josh says. "You will complete this mission by writing them over and over again until you can do it well. Do you accept this mission?" Cerulean nods, round face solemn. "Okay. We need to start by gathering supplies for your mission. We're going to need pens, lots of paper-" Josh spots his chalkboard, which hasn't been updated since last month. "-and chalk. You ready?"
"Yeah."
"Great. Let's go." Josh stands and Cerulean slides- with great care, Josh notes- off the chair. She grabs his hand as they head out of the office.
Cerulean Seaborn CERULEAN SEABORN
Samuel Seaborn SAMUEL SEABORN
Zachary Dosil ZACHARY DOSIL
Hannah Seaborn HANNAH SEABORN
Joshua Lyman JOSHUA LYMAN
Toby Ziegler TOBY ZIEGLER
Claudia Jean Cregg CLAUDIA JEAN CREGG
Donnatella Moss DONNATELLA MOSS
Leo McGarry LEO MCGARRY
Josh makes the list while Cerulean erases the chalkboard. He debates putting in more names for more letters, like F, K, Q, P, and X, but nobody has an X in their name and frankly, this list is getting too long. Once she gets these names down, she can practice the others. 21 letters should satisfy that tightass teacher.
"Kay, Uncle Josh, I'm ready," Cerulean says. She stands on the table in front of the chalkboard, which they cleared of files and folders. By cleared, Josh means they put all the stuff on the floor under the table and in front of it in case Cerulean falls. Josh gets up, list in hand.
"All right. Here is your list of names, kiddo, get cracking." He holds out the list to her and she takes it. Josh looks at his watch. "You have six days. Good luck."
"But we're missing a name!" Cerulean says. Josh pauses.
"We are?" He's sure he hit all the main names. Maybe he should have put Joseph on there after all.
"Yeah, Jason's not on here," Cerulean says. Jason. Shit.
"Ah. Yes. He should be on there?" Josh says. Cerulean nods. "I'll put his name on there. You get started on your name." Cerulean gives back the list and turns to the chalkboard, yellow chalk in hand. Josh brings the list back to his desk.
Jason Barber JASON BARBER
He hesitates after writing the name. He had been like this seven months after Joanie died. He'd refused to admit she was gone, pretending one day she would just be back like she went to sleepaway camp for a while. Josh looks up at Cerulean, who is scribbling her name on the board. He assumes it's her name, anyway. It could say almost anything.
"Hey, Cerulean, you're making an effort to make that legible, right?" he says. This was the wrong thing to say. Cerulean stops mid-scribble.
"It's hard," she says. "The chalk is slippery."
"Sorry, kiddo. Can I help you for a second?" Josh goes over to the board and stands behind Cerulean. He takes her right hand and guides it to write a sloppy but legible S.
"Uncle Josh?" Cerulean says.
"Yeah?"
"Can we do that for the first time through?" she asks. Josh smiles.
"Sure thing."
"Josh!" Sam's irritated voice carries through the Policy Bullpen. Josh turns to Donna, bewildered.
"What's that about?" he asks. Donna shrugs.
"I don't know. But it was nice knowing you."
"Come on, Sam's not gonna kill me!" Josh says.
"No, but depending on what it is, you might lose a limb," Donna replies.
"Fair point," Josh says. Sam reaches them and he's not angry- his shoulders are sagged, so whatever it is, he's only annoyed, not angry. Sam telegraphs his mood more than anyone else Josh knows, and Josh has his body language down to a science.
"Josh, what did you do?" Sam says.
"You're going to have to be more specific," Josh says.
"Cerulean is covered in chalk dust. She has a layer of it over her entire body and there's a trail of it behind her," Sam says. "Furthermore, she won't stop writing and she won't tell me anything about it other than that she has a mission from you."
"A mission?" Donna repeats.
"Yeah, well, about that. It's kind of a long story," Josh says with a slight chuckle. Shit. Cerulean does not want Sam knowing her 'writing' has been called horrible.
"Josh." Sam's tone has passed irritation and has gone straight to warning. Josh points to his door.
"Follow me."
"Josh!"
"No, there's something I gotta show you!" Josh starts walking towards his office. Sam and Donna both follow him. They come into the office to see Cerulean's big, messy writing across the chalkboard, the names becoming more and more recognizable- to Josh anyway.
"What is all that?" Sam asks, gesturing to the board.
"What happened to the bill tallies?" Donna says, crossing her arms.
"I wasn't keeping up with them. And Cerulean's practicing her penmanship," Josh says. "It's been bugging her, so I gave her a little mission."
"What are you having her write?" Sam says. "I can't read any of that."
"Yeah, don't say that to her. But it's our names. I figure she's gonna have to write those a lot in the future," Josh says. "Did you know, out of Leo, the Senior Staff, her brothers, and your mom, we have 21 out of 26 letters of the alphabet? That's pretty cool."
"Really?" Sam says.
"Yeah, I counted."
"Which five do we not get?"
"F, K, Q, P, and X."
"Kathy, Ginger, and Carol would cover four of those," Sam says.
"The list was getting too long. And nobody has X in their name," Josh says.
"Good point."
"Uh, guys, I hate to rain on the parade here, but brothers?" Donna says. "Cerulean has one brother, Zach. Jason's dead and no one likes Jeremy."
"She insisted Jason was on the list," Josh answers. Sam sighs. "Hey, it's completely normal for kids to do this kind of thing. I checked."
"All right. Thank you for doing this," Sam says. Josh shrugs.
"Don't mention it. It's kinda fun, actually," he says. "Just let me know if this starts stressing her out, coz I'd feel bad about that."