Leo McGarry looked at his friend and shrugged his shoulders.
"She is your God Daughter." Leo reminded.
"Yet, she is your daughter." President Josiah Bartlett fired back. The two men sat for a time in companionable silence before Jed took the envelope from his friend and opened it. Letters fell out onto his desk.
"You don't have to approve this you know." Leo suggested. His daughter had approached him a few weeks ago with the hope that he would be able to get idea to fly with the Senior Staff of the White House.
"I know, but the kids in Mallory's class worked hard on these letters. Look there is even one addressed to you." Jed pulled out the one with Leo's name on it.
"Mallory told me that one of her students had drawn my name." Leo nodded.
"How will we break this to the staff?" Jed asked.
"I guess the question will be is how will you break it to the staff." Leo countered. "You are the one that has to approve the project."
"Approve what project?" Josh Lyman asked as he came into the Oval Office followed by the rest of the Senior staff.
"Mallory's class has written letters to the Senior Staff. Apparently everyone has a letter from the best ones in the class. Mallory's already corrected spelling and punctuation. I haven't gone over them personally for content, but I'd like each one of you to take the letter addressed to you and write the children back." Jed paused and looked over to Sam Seaborn. "It might be nice since the last class Mallory brought here for a tour had some difficulties." Sam shifted slightly but didn't make any attempt of a response.
"Do the letters have to long?" C.J Cregg asked. She was swamped with her own work most days and reading letters from a fifth grader really wasn't on her high priority list.
"No, they can be short, but I would like you to answer their questions as honestly as possible. No writing about national secrets and don't mention anything about my eating habits. Just answer their questions if you can." Jed suggested. As the President started to hand out letter he noticed that some of the support staff had been included in the letters. "Now onto the rest of our meeting, Toby can you start." Jed suggested and the group got down to agenda of the day.
Leo looked down at the letter in his hand. A few quiet moments in the afternoon found him thinking about his daughter and her students. He was proud of his daughter and all the hard work she put into being a teacher. He wasn't surprised that she had thought up this assignment, but at the same time he wasn't sure what type of response he'd be able to give. Sighing Leo opened the letter.
Dear Mr. McGarry,
Today is the first day of our letter assignment and I got your name. Miss O'Brian told me that you have the most important job outside of the President at the White House. I feel that you are the best person to write to because I am also in politics. School politics actually, I am the Class President and feel that I am the best leader of my fellow classmates.
I also want to be President of the United States one day, but would actually run for Vice President first because I would then have the opportunity to be part of the country's leadership for eight years instead of just four.
Miss O'Brian says that your are the best friend of the President. That sounds like a hard job too. Having a best friend be your boss would be tough.
I am supposed to ask you questions, but I'm having a hard time thinking of any so I'll just ask you the easy ones.
What does your office look like? Is it very big? Do you get to have a personal Secret Service agent or do you have to share one? What is riding in the Presidential Limo feel like? Do you get to order the entire staff around for the Presidents. What exactly is your job?
Well Miss O'Brian said that this letter only had to be on page long, so I'm finished.
Please if you get this letter would you write me back? My Nanny says that it is polite to send a self addressed stamped envelope if you want anything to be returned, but I told her that it was a writing assignment and not a real letter technically so that rule doesn't count.
Yours Truly
Gregory Fozzel the III
Leo looked over the letter again before laughing softly. Mallory had her hands full if the children were all like this he thought as he pulled out some of the thick White House bonded paper to scratch what he hoped would be a short response. Although the boy hadn't asked a lot of questions, some of the questions were large ones that couldn't be answered directly
"Leo could you sign these? " Margaret, Leo's personal assistant, asked as she came into his office carrying several files
"Mow many do I have to sign?'" Leo asked as he took the files
"Apparently the first two pages of the seven folders." Margaret told him and Leo sighed.
"Right now?"
"Three pages are waiting as we speak to run them back." Margaret nodded. Leo opened the files and started to sign them while Margaret stood over him.
"Before you leave the President wanted me to give you this letter. It's from one of the children in Mallory's class. If you find the time, maybe you could answer the letter."
"Really?" Margaret took the letter and started to open it, she never got these types of requests and was eager to see what the letter read.
"Not here Margaret, take it back to your desk and when you have a spare moment you can read it."
"I never get a spare moment around here." Margaret sighed and left with the files. Leo only nodded his head. He new that everyone was busy around here, not just the President.
Dear Mr. Fozzel,
This may be of interest to you but I am sitting in my office reading your letter. I do enjoy getting letters that are not always addressed to the President. I am pleased to learn that you are the Class President and have good leadership skills. That is one of the first thing that a potential world leader needs to have and work on developing early in their lives.
I suppose I should get right down to answering your questions regarding my job. My office is large and mostly brown in colour. My window faces the rose garden an in the spring I can enjoy the the flowers from my desk. One of the most interesting things about my office is that I have doorway that leads right into the Oval Office so I don't have o walk the long way around if I want to talk with the President.
Yes I am close friends to the President and help him with some of the many choices he has to make. The final choice is always the President, I just advise. Part of my job is to over see all the staff employed here at the White House. I have several people under me that also help with this so I am not over worked with human resources. I have other jobs, but I am unable to share those with you at this time.
I do have a personal Secret Service agent who follows me around all the time. The Limo is quite large and black but outside of that I can not tell you much because the security around the car is classified.
I hope that this answered some of your questions. Thank you for your interest and your letter.
Regards
Leo McGarry, Chief of Staff