CHAPTER V
Toby walked into Wal-Mart and was immediately lost. Walking through the endless isles he found himself turning a corner and was instantly floating in a vast sea of women's bras. As he stood there wondering how many of them were made in China, a sweet elderly lady proudly carrying a roll of Wal-Mart smiley face stickers approached him.
"Sir, can I help you find anything?"
Toby turned around with a start. "Uh, I was looking for balloons."
"Oh, is that what we call them now? What size? Right now your standing next to the double Ds, if you were wondering." The understanding employee laughed gently with her eyes.
Toby's face turned scarlet. "No, I mean party balloons...for a party."
The employee was the one who was red now. "Oh, I see. Sorry dear, it's just that I've always been a little dirty-minded. Right this way."
Toby told himself not to venture to a public place for a long time. People were just too weird nowadays.
"Alright, we have red, blue, green, purple, orange, pink, and black."
"Why do you have black balloons? They seem a little, I don't know, a little sad."
The old lady looked back knowingly. "People usually buy those for fortieth or fiftieth birthday parties, it's kind of like a joke, only the birthday person doesn't usually find them that funny."
Toby thought it was a great idea. "I'll take a dozen." He looked at the employee, who now seemed a little annoyed.
"They come in plastic bags. You can get them yourself." She pointed to the rack next to Toby.
"Oh, right...I just figured you blew them up or something..."
The lady revealed a small polite grin. "Are you kidding? This is Wal-Mart. Here, have a happy sticker." She slapped the sticker on Toby's chest, where it would remain for the rest of the day.
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"Annie! Your going the wrong way, no, no turn right...there you go." CJ was several paces behind the speeding Annie as she tried to direct the girl to her desired destination before they ended up in the steam pipe trunk distribution venue. "Annie, why don't you wait up a second..."
The excited girl stopped and watched the press secretary catch up with her. As CJ approached, the fluorescent ceiling lights basked her thin auburn hair in alternating shades of light and dark, causing a series of chills to run up Annie's back. She didn't know why she shivered, but something about that moment in time, that flash of a time yet to come, it was something the teenager would never forget. And forget it she never did.
"Do you want to knock or shall I?" CJ noticed the thrill on Annie's face as she began to draw nearer.
Annie looked to her left and noticed she was standing right outside of her crush's office door. The excitement bubbled within her as she began to-
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knock knock
Josh was startled out of his daydream. He looked up and caught the eye of a somehow very familiar yet totally unrecognizable face. After noticing the black lipstick he glanced at the eyebrow piercing, and Josh knew exactly who this was. "Come in, come in."
CJ followed Annie through Josh's office door, carefully allowing Annie to walk in first.
"Hi Annie, I'm Josh Lyman." Josh reached out his calm hand to shake Annie's anxious one.
"Hey, I'm Annie Westin." Annie froze. She couldn't believe she just said something so stupid. He already knew her name. She had to say something else, something significant... "You wanna potato chip?"
"Uh...sure." Josh was amused by the first-granddaughter's offer. He could see the nervousness in her eyes, and he tried to think of a way to calm her down.
Annie awkwardly dug into her purse for her bag of chips. As she pulled them out a certain item only a woman would carry fell to the floor. CJ looked at Annie, she didn't notice it. She looked at Josh, he had, but he also had the heart to pretend he hadn't. With stealth CJ bent down to pick it up and quickly stashed it in her back pocket, wondering how she could possible give it back without telling Annie what had happened.
Annie handed her crush a single potato chip. She couldn't believe how retarded this little interaction was. "You can have another one if you want."
Josh smiled. "That's okay, thank you." As he munched on the chip he looked over at CJ. "Which reminds me, CJ, I have to show you something."
Josh led CJ and Annie over to his computer, which was still connected to Ebay. Scrolling down he revealed to his audience the Bartlet Chip. "Look, it's shaped just like the president. I'm gonna get it too-"
"You mean we, we're gonna get it." Donna appeared in the doorway, looking upon the computer crowd. "We both bid on that chip, Josh."
"What are we gonna do, break it in half?"
Donna refused to look at Josh's face. Instead she gazed at the brunette beside him, realizing that this must be the girl. "Annie, you grandfather was wondering if you would like to join the first family for a game of Risk."
Annie was relieved. She felt like a total fool in front of Josh. "Uh, sure."
As Annie headed over to the residence Donna walked inside the office and whispered in CJ's ear. "Just a thought, CJ, but if I were you I wouldn't carry that in your back pocket." She then left to show Annie the way.
As CJ transplanted the item to her purse she looked over at her bidding competition. Realizing it would be to her advantage to keep her secret to herself, she decided to change the subject. "Josh, I just got a call from Katie, I was wrong."
Josh was worried. "Wrong about what?"
CJ smiled inside her head, but didn't dare let it show on her face. "The story is out. She was wondering if you had a comment for the article tomorrow, on your insult to congressman Hackle."
Josh's eyes widened. "That jackass!"
"Do you want to say anything else, or should I just give her that?"
"I'd say it sums it up quite nicely." Josh was so upset he didn't even notice how calm CJ remained.
"Josh, I'm kidding."
As Josh's shoulders relaxed he remembered his now unnecessary defense. "CJ, Hackle called the president a terrorist. Well, sort of."
CJ narrowed her eyes. "How do you sort of call the president a terrorist?"
"Well, I think he said it on accident. He was talking about the president and Yassar Arafat in the same sentence and he overused his pronouns, and it got him into some ambiguity troubles."
"Oh."
"Should we leak it?"
CJ paused to think, finally looking directly into Josh's eyes, "No, if he really didn't say it, then no. We don't play that way. We'll save it in case they make a big deal out of your little outburst, however."
"Yeah, that I meant."
"True." CJ looked at her watch. She only had a little over an hour until the two-o'-clock briefing, and she needed to re-bid on the chip. "Joshua, I have to go. By the way, if you happen to see Annie again, stop to talk a bit. I think it would really make her day to see you again."
A smug-looking Josh replied, "No problem."
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Carol carried her cargo up to the front security gate in the west wing. As she balanced the two boxes expertly in her arms, she hoped that what she had stuffed in the larger box would do the trick. She showed the security guard the birthday cake first.
The guard's eyes traced the words on the cake. "Its her birthday, huh? Well if I don't see her come out tonight then wish her happy birthday for me, will ya?"
Carol gave the guard an ironic smile. "Of course I will. Here's the other box, it's got all the decorations and stuff."
The guard glanced into the larger box, shuffling some of the surface confetti around a little. "Looks like that party's gonna be a blast. Go on through, Carol."
As she stepped through the metal detector and was handed her boxes back by the guard, Carol sighed with immense relief. Now all she had to do was avoid CJ.
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When she arrived at her desk, Carol bent over to hide the cake under her chair. As she stood up she saw CJ through the window that divided their two offices. Before CJ could glance in her direction, Carol picked up her box of decorations and strode over to the briefing room.
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Annie opened the door to the residence, expecting to see her grandparents sitting at the couch setting up her favorite board game. Instead she saw just her grandfather, sitting in a big chair by the television.
"Annie, we need to talk about something. Your grandmother should be out in a minute."
Annie silently sat down on a plush gray chair. She had a pretty good idea what all this was about.
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"Perfect," Carol uttered to no one in particular. She finished arranging the things she had set in the large crevice in the new podium and then stepped back to observe her work. Concluding that her handiwork was sufficiently inconspicuous, Carol glanced at her watch. Only half an hour to go, she thought, and then the real fun would begin.