Dwight was thrilled and happy when Zoe Katopodis asked if he would
take her and her mother Cissy to the MAGA March in D.C. There
hadn't been much to look forward to since the lame "virtual" graduation
ceremony from Middletown High back in June. Zoe was the woman of
his dreams—there was no doubt of that. But there hadn't been any
prom that-who knows?- he might have worked up the nerve to invite
her to. Since spring she'd been working at the Hang Nails! shop a few
blocks away from where he waited on customers at O'Shaughnessy's
Auto Parts. He and Zoe were only part of the same group that hung out
some evenings smoking weed on the greens of the Cheryl Forest Golf
Course. They weren't a couple. He had daydreamed of seeing Zoe's
lustrous black eyes focused intently on him alone, while she pushed the
mass of her thick black hair behind her right ear. His daydream had come
true four days ago when she sweetly asked him if he was going to the
Trump support march on Saturday.
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Deep down he knew that his red 2015 Ford 250 might be a bigger factor
in this request than himself. Baby steps, was he right? It would be a
wonderful adventure. He blessed his father for giving him the truck as a
graduation gift, even if his graduation was so lame.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Dwight drove over to Zoe's house at 2 PM on Friday as they had arranged.
It was about an 8 hour drive to Silver Springs, Maryland, where they had a
room at the Days Inn. Dwight was sad that he couldn't drive his truck
adorned with Trump banners directly to Freedom Plaza. But Zoe insisted
that it would be impossible to find parking, and that traffic would be
gridlocked. They would take the train into D.C. to join the march.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
When he arrived at Zoe's house, Cissy Katopodis had two suitcases and
four duffel bags ready to be loaded into the pickup. Dwight secured them
behind the front seat, and navigated to I-71. He had worried that it might
be difficult to make conversation with Zoe and her mother for eight hours.
However Zoe and Cissy kept up an animated discussion of the recent
history of the friends they were going to meet at the MAGA March, and
there was never an awkward pause.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Zoe never talked about her father. Dwight didn't even know his first name,
or if he were dead or alive. At whatever point he had disappeared, the
domestic surface seemed to have closed seamlessly over the space he had
occupied. Zoe and Cissie were entirely absorbed in the minutiae of their
friends' lives—dating, new jobs, promotions, babies, funerals, breakups and
family feuds.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
After eight hours of driving through intermittent showers, they were all ready
to crash after checking into their motel room. Zoe and her mother shared one
double bed, and Dwight took the other. Their alarm was set for 8 AM.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
They drank coffee made in the room, and ate Pop Tarts before walking to the
train station. It was chilly and the sky was overcast, but the rain had stopped.
Zoe looked sexy and comfortable in her leopard print jacket. Unfortunately the
sexy effect was diminished by the fact that her mother wore a matching jacket.
The four duffels Dwight carried were not much of a burden. Two of them were
remarkably light. He had supposed they contained rolled up signs to wave at
the rally. But when he sneaked a glance inside he saw only some flexible gold
plastic wands, and a jumble of gilt covered pinecones. He had never seen these
symbols at a Trump rally before, but women were always coming up with
something new in decorations. In the station Dwight marveled privately at the
automated ticket kiosk, but did not betray that he'd never seen anything quite
like it before.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
On the train, Cissy took two water bottles from a duffel, and gave one to Zoe.
They didn't offer one to Dwight, and he tried not to feel slighted. In truth he
wasn't thirsty. The women sipped constantly at their water, gradually
becoming more animated in their conversation, with higher color in their
cheeks as the train approached their destination.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
When they arrived at Freedom Plaza, Zoe took him aside. Dwight again realized
his daydream of having her shining black eyes focused on him to the exclusion
of any other distractions.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
"Dwight." She gently laid a perfectly manicured hand with long, strong nails on
his forearm. "Mom and I have to join our friends. It will be better if you don't
stay with us. You remember the way back to the Days Inn, don't you? We'll
meet you back there."
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
He felt like a fool, and like an unmanly man, leaving women alone in a situation
that might be dangerous. But Zoe wasn't asking permission. "Uh, sure, Zoe. I
mean are you sure? I wouldn't get in your way."
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Cissy had clearly been standing by, and now she joined them. Zoe took the
duffel bags from Dwight, and each woman took two. Zoe waved him away with
a bright smile, and then sent a text. She and her mother bent their heads over her
phone momentarily, and then walked purposefully away from him.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Dwight stood uncertainly for a moment, and then bought a "Trump" sign from the
nearest vendor. He followed the crowd along Pennsylvania Ave. and Constitution
Ave. to the Supreme Court building where there would be speakers. In the course
of the walk he made an effort to make his way up through the line of marchers,
hoping to catch sight of Zoe and Cissy.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
His purpose proved much easier to achieve than he had expected. He ended up
only 50 feet or so behind a large contingent of women in leopard print coats,
with matching masks. They were chanting loudly but musically. He couldn't quite
make out the words. Perhaps they weren't English, although the chant was clearly
punctuated at intervals with the word "TRUMP." All of the women took frequent
swigs from plastic bottles. They all waved wands with shiny cones. Zoe and Cissy
had to be in this group. Dwight had never seen these Women for Trump at any
other rallies.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Alex Jones had trouble making himself heard over the chanting and applauding
groups in front of the Supreme Court. But he had barely begun to speak when the
crowd started cheering wildly. A motorcade of black cars was approaching the
Supreme Court from Maryland Ave. Trump had said he "might drop in." Dwight
couldn't believe his luck that this might be happening right in front of his own eyes.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Sure enough, President Trump himself emerged from the fourth car, a huge black
Cadillac with windows too dark to see through. Trump looked huge in his boxy
overcoat. The Women for Trump started up a low wail that was barely audible,
but rather disturbing. Their wands trembled slightly over their heads.
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"Who do you think you are, the President?" Trump shouted the sarcastic words to
the Secret Service men in black suits and sunglasses who surrounded him.
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The crowd laughed in appreciation.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
"Help me up on the roof," he ordered the men. They hung back, while at the same
time trying to make a wall around him.
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"You're here to do what I say," he snapped. Trump approached the hood of the car
as though he were going to climb up on it unassisted.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Two of the men in black suits broke rank, and hesitantly approached him. One
made a step with his hands, and clearly almost went down under Trump's weight.
Two more men stepped forward and succeeded in hoisting him onto the hood. Two
of the four climbed up on the hood with him, and from there helped him onto the
roof of the car.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Trump stood triumphantly, a man supporting each elbow. The rest of his security
detail frantically tried to scan the crowd and the surrounding structures
simultaneously. Dwight had seen enough action movies with snipers to know what
they were worried about.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Of course the media was always joking that the president looked orange, but he didn't.
He looked pink and more bloated in the face than he looked on TV. He didn't seem to
care about his hair lifting away from his scalp in the slight breeze, exposing pale scalp.
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"Let them come up to the car," Trump instructed his men. "They can't hear me
without an audio system.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Dwight thought Alex Jones, looking lonely and ignored in front of his microphone,
would have been happy to share the spotlight. But Trump gestured vigorously to the
crowd to come forward. The Women for Trump wailed a bit more loudly in a higher
key. The Secret Service men were pointing at the women's trembling wands and
talking to each other in furious whispers.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
"You probably don't remember it, but back during the debates one of the Democrat
candidates did something I've always wanted to try. Do you remember when Big
Bang Yang showed off his crowd surfing? I know we can do it better."
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Dwight could see expressions of horror winning out over impassivity on the faces
of the Secret Service men. The Women for Trump began chanting again, with
frequent shouts of the name "TRUMP" interjected. Trump handed his overcoat to
one of the men and edged toward the edge of the car roof. Then he hesitated, and the
men on each side of him moved as though to grasp his elbows again. But at that
moment an unearthly howl went up from a woman in the group, and Trump either
lost his footing or made a daring jump into the crowd. Later no one could tell from
the videos which it was.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
After that everything happened too quickly to take in. The crowd was clearly up to
handling Trump's bulk, and he was moved quickly across the front of the crowd. Then
he was moved backward, toward the Women for Trump group. The chanting had never
stopped, and now it became too rapid to tell whether words were actually being spoken.
Suddenly there was a hesitation in the movement of the president's body, and then it
seemed to sink out of sight. For a moment Dwight wondered if the president's weight
was too much for a group of women. Then there was a deafening cacophony of guttural
shrieks and a red explosion spouting up into the sky.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
The Secret Service and the police had to run toward that red explosion, but everyone
else in the crowd did their best to run away. Dwight, of course, was in the latter group.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
The confusion was massive. Hundreds of people were knocked down in the stampede.
Law enforcement had no clear orders because no one knew what happened. The crowd
simply scattered leaving the injured behind as witnesses.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
But witnesses to what exactly? The president had disappeared, and nothing was found in
the area where that seemed to have happened but hundreds of leopard print coats, plastic
wands and gilded pine cones. There was blood, later confirmed as Trump's, but not
nearly as much as the medical examiner said there had to be if what might have
happened, happened.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
It took Dwight hours to get a train back to the Day's Inn. He looked for Zoe and Cissy
throughout the wait and the journey, but saw no sign of them. He was watching the news
obsessively on the TV and his phone when they entered with their key card at 5 AM.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
"You should be asleep, Dwight. We'll have to start driving pretty soon," said Cissy.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
"I'm not sleepy," Dwight said. He didn't think he wanted to go to sleep in a room with
them anymore. "Let's start back right now. I just need a cup of coffee."
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Zoe made up some more of the watery coffee provided by the motel, but Dwight didn't
even need it. Zoe and Cissy had a great deal more to say about their friends during the
long drive back to Middletown. They recounted all the news they had learned at the
gathering after the march. They didn't have a word to say about the president's bizarre
disappearance and the resulting stampede.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Dwight dared to ask only one question. "Where did you and your friends meet up after
the . . . the disturbance?"
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
"Oh, one of them lives around Alexandria," Zoe said vaguely. "We had a BBQ."
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Then she resumed the dramatic account of Nyssa's bad breakup followed by a highly
romantic reconciliation.
^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^v ^v^v^v^
Within the week Dwight left Middletown to go stay with his grandparents in Kentucky.
He told everyone the job prospecta would be better there. And anyway the old folks
weren't getting any younger.