Pippa poured Lucky Charms into a bowl and added milk. Pauline thought of suggesting that she mix in a few blueberries, for the sake of the vitamins, then decided that that, too, was better left unsaid. Pippa’s diet was not ideal, but her immune system seemed to be working perfectly anyway.
What she did say was: ‘How’s school, my darling?’
Pippa looked surly. ‘I’m not smoking weed, don’t worry.’
‘I’m very glad to hear it, but I was thinking more about the lessons.’
‘Same shit, different day.’
Pauline thought: Do I really deserve this?
She said: ‘It’s only three years until you have to start applying to colleges. Do you have any ideas about where you might go and what you might study?’
‘I don’t know if I want to go to college. I don’t really see the point.’
Pauline was taken aback but she recovered quickly. ‘Apart from learning for its own sake, I guess the point is to widen the life choices available to you. I can’t imagine what kind of job you’d get at the age of eighteen with only a high-school diploma.’
‘I might be a poet. I like poetry.’
‘You could study poetry at college.’
‘Yeah, but then they want you to have what they call a “broad general education”， which means I’d have to study, like, chemistry and geography and shit.’
‘Which poets do you like?’
‘Modern ones, who experiment. I don’t care about rhyme and metre and all that stuff.’
Pauline thought: Why am I not surprised?
She was tempted to raise the question of how Pippa would earn a living as an eighteen-year-old experimental poet, but she restrained herself yet again. The point was really too obvious to make. Let Pippa come to that realization on her own.
Pauline’s omelette arrived, giving her an excuse to end the conversation, and she picked up her fork with relief. Soon afterwards Pippa finished her cereal, grabbed her bag, said: ‘Later,’ and disappeared.
Pauline waited for Gerry to say something about Pippa’s mood but he remained silent, turning to the business section. There had been a time when he and Pauline would have commiserated with one another, but that had not happened much lately.
They had always talked about having two children. Gerry had been keen. But after Pippa arrived he became less enthusiastic about a second child. Pauline was a congresswoman by then, and Gerry had seemed to resent his share of the childcare. Nevertheless, they had tried, even though Pauline was by then in her late thirties. She had become pregnant again but miscarried, and after that Gerry did not want to try again. He had said he was worried about Pauline’s health, but she wondered if the real reason was that he did not want any more arguments about who was going to take the baby to the doctor. She had felt this decision like a body blow, but she had not fought him: it was a mistake to have a child that one parent did not want.
She noticed that he was wearing suspenders and a dress shirt, and she asked him: ‘What’s on your calendar today?’
‘A board meeting. Nothing too taxing. You?’
‘I have to make sure war doesn’t break out in North Africa. Nothing too taxing.’
He laughed, and for a moment she felt close to him again. Then he folded the newspaper and stood up. ‘I’d better put on my tie.’
‘Enjoy your board meeting.’
He kissed her forehead. ‘Good luck with North Africa.’ He went out.
Pauline returned to the West Wing but instead of going to the Oval Office she made her way to the press office. A dozen or so people, mostly quite young, sat at workstations, reading or keying. There were television screens around the walls, all showing different news shows. Copies of the morning’s papers were scattered everywhere.
Sandip Chakraborty had a desk in the middle of the room, which he preferred to a private office: he liked to be in the thick of things. He stood up as soon as Pauline entered. He was wearing his trademark suit-and-sneakers.
‘The trouble in Chad,’ she said to him. ‘Has that story had any traction?’
‘Until a few minutes ago, no, Madam President,’ Sandip said. ‘But James Moore just commented on NBC. He said you should not send American troops to intervene.’
‘We already have a counterterrorism force of a couple of thousand soldiers there.’
‘But he doesn’t know things like that.’
‘Anyway, on a scale of one to ten?’
‘It just went up from one to two.’