Interval 2 – Mea Culpa
She needed to make the call – that much, she knew for sure.
She must have taken a thousand paces in front of that phone. She must have hesitated a hundred times, her soft fingers brushing the receiver. She must have been in that room for a million years.
She had to do it. If she didn't, only God knew what would happen. She quickly walked to the phone, half hidden in the shadow on the kitchen counter. She wavered only a moment before extending her arm.
The phone rang. Startled, she picked up quickly.
"Who is it?" she breathed.
"Aristide, you fucking liar," a male voice said in a low tone.
"Is your end of the line secure?" she said, recovering.
"Goddamnit, Aristide! Don't give me that shit. You have a lot of explaining to do."
"I…" she hesitated. "I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about, Senator."
"Are you watching the news?"
She glanced nervously across the counter at the living room, where her television was on. A reporter was standing in a parking lot near a white building, chattering away excitedly. The volume was down to ten percent.
"No, I'm not," she lied.
"Can you guess where your precious first prototype is right now?"
"No," she said.
"He's not in his hospital room, I can tell you that."
"Wh… what?" Her heart beating in her throat, she tried to sound surprised.
"Don't pretend you don't know. (a pause) He just butchered half the hospital staff and was caught by the police. They're probably questioning him right now."
"My God."
"I told you to stop giving me that shit, Aristide! You know as much as I do in this matter. When you said that we could 'resolve' the Auburn situation quietly, I trusted you with the matter. I should've known better. The Auburn explosion was one thing, but things are really getting out of control. The public knows everything."
A pause followed. She brushed her hair out of the way with one hand and tried to steady her breathing, hoping that the Senator couldn't hear her.
"I'm… going to start working on rectifying the situation right away," she said finally.
"Good," the man said, sighing breathily into the phone like a gale. "You know, Aristide, You got this position for one reason, and one reason only, and you could lose it just as easily as you got it. You got one chance, one chance to make things right. Don't blow it."
He hung up.