Out of Tune

And here we go! Chapter 6 is here! I hope you enjoy it; this one's a fun chapter; not much revealed to the story, just a fun, cool chapter to get you hooked. Chapter 7 later today!


President Bartlet sighed. He had just received word that Palachini had been interrogated, with little success. He stared down at his papers, a mess on the large oak desk. Just as he was leafing through a particularly boring memo on a social security protest group from South Carolina, Abbey came in.

"Hi, Abbey."

"Hey, what are you up to?"

"Not too much…not too much."

"Oh."

She walked slowly over to his desk and squeezed in beside him on the chair.

"What's this?" She pointed to a small black box made of plastic on the president's desk. It had two speakers on it, and an array of buttons across the top.

"Huh? Oh, that. A radio."

"I can tell that. The question is, what's it doing here?"

"Oh, Leo brought it in today. A girl from Kansas sent it to me as a present…and me having had a history of trouble with radios…Leo brought it in here as a joke."

Abbey smiled as she remembered back to that day when Jed had—

"And I don't know why it's still on my desk."

"Well…" Abbey started. She popped up out of the chair and walked over to the shiny stereo system on the far wall. Using its incredible hi-fi surround-sound, it was playing a string quartet that sounded like it was from heaven. She poked the "off" button, and then came back to the desk.

"Hey…I was listening to that!"

"Huh. Tough luck."

Abbey unplugged the President's desk lamp.

"Hey! I need that!"

"Not anymore."

She plugged in the small radio and tuned it to the same channel. The quartet came fuzzily through the speakers. Jed wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"Can't you hear all the static? Put on the stereo."

"Why?"

"Because. It plays much nicer."

"You don't need it."

Jed looked up at her incredulously. And then, he found himself asking, "Care to dance?"

"Without a doubt," was Abbey's curt response. She smiled, then curtseyed. Jed bowed, but went down too far, and almost fell over. Abbey stifled a giggle.

Then they started to sway back and forth to the song. It came out in an awful static blur, but they kept dancing. As the piece progressed, so did the skill involved in the dance. With time, they began to dance less timidly and more vividly. Soon, their skill from childhood came out. They were on a roll. Then something happened.

"Was that an out of tune note?"

The music suddenly sped up, and all the notes went out of proportion, way out of tune. The music went faster, then slower, distorting and flying from scale to scale. It no longer sounded like a string quartet, but a transmission from Mars. They danced accordingly.

Jed dipped down and flapped his arms. Abbey twisted her head crazily and scratched her legs. They danced in such a way that it was hardly dancing anymore. And it was then that Leo came in. Without knocking. That meant business. They both stopped, and Abbey hurriedly shut the broken radio off.

"Mr. President?"

"Yes, Leo," said Jed, out of breath.

"I think you oughta turn on your TV."

As Jed reached for the remote, Abbey whispered to him, "See? While the radio might not work the way it's supposed too, that sure worked for me."

Jed smiled, and pressed the small green button on the sleek, silver remote.