Aunt Lydia rarely used the services of Schlafly Café, but there she was enjoying tea. I had just woken and had a few hours until the next Gyn-ed class for our newest group of Handmaids in training. I sat down with her knowing that Lydia was in one of her talkative moods. At least she'd been last night when she'd told us about the Waterford's martha. Usually, she saw no need to fill in detail like that. Thought of it as gossipy.
I didn't even have to press her. She just started in, oblivious that this was not a secure, but a public setting. "The martha swore up and down that the Waterford's had driven - in their own car - to Canada. I tell you, the Commanders are losing the plot. Guess what else Commander Judd said…"
Again, she didn't even wait for my guess. "The Waterfords are now in Canadian custody. Walked right into it. International Criminal Court." She paused. "It's not that the other Commanders approved of their little trip. Apparently the Chancery had been aware of the Waterford's plans, and just didn't stand in their way. Their 'Errand of Mercy', as Judd called it, to rescue baby Nichole on their own."
On their own? What did that mean? Before I could even say it, Aunt Lydia anticipated it: "That means, amongst other things, no hint of diplomatic protection. None. They'd been arrested 10 feet into Canada. Ten feet!"
Aunt Lydia then pointed out of the Café's windows. "Eyes. Still here. Locked down indefinitely. It's all I can do to keep them out of the building. There's still a few cards to play."
Sitting with Aunt Lydia was always a masters thesis in Gilead. She went on about Commander Lawrence - not that he'd ever done anything to her. She revealed that the Witnessing had been at his home, and that it had been the (now disappeared, both of them) Commanders Winslow and Waterford who had requested it. She herself had represented Ardua Hall. Then, as Commander Judd had related it to her, despite passing the Witnessing, Commander Lawrence fell out of favour with his own Chancery. They'd summarily canceled his security clearances. The rumour that Judd had heard was that Lawrence himself had not been aware of that action until he'd been stopped at a checkpoint headed out of the city. If he'd been anyone else, or if he hadn't had his wife with him, he would have been arrested on the spot.
Lydia paused in her account. Then she said, "With Waterford arrested in Canada, Commanders Putnam and Calhoun were at Lawrence's just this morning. Some Commanders want to go to war with Canada, others want to close the border." Aunt Lydia sighed. She then mumbled something I didn't quite catch, but it was in the neighbourhood of, "these men are clowns."