Something about Kate

The two senior women laughed.

"Go ahead with your special project Kate and do a good job so this office gets the credit."

"I'll do my best Mrs Frankton and I thank you both for taking such close interest in me."

Kate left the two women looking open-mouth at her and she walked to her desk, her trim butt showing a slight waggle.

The next day Kate emailed her two-page report on her study to Faye and late that afternoon Mrs Frankton came to Kate and said, "Faye just called to say your report has impressed the boss. In an unconnected matter, you finish work here this afternoon and tomorrow you report for permanent placement at the Senator's office at Parliament. You are to ask for his PA Mrs Shelley Goodyear. You will be her assistant-in-training. Here is Faye's requisition order that will get you preliminary access into Parliament Buildings. Mrs Goodyear will explain your duties and tell you about your salary rise to senior grading. I can't believe it, senior grading to you who is just a child."

"I'm twenty-three Mrs Frankton."

"Oh god, you have an answer for everything. I'm sorry if I offended you."

"No it's okay. I'm in no hurry to grow old and die."

Mrs Frankton sighed and knew she had a story to wow her associates.

When having a pre-dinner drink with her parents that evening, Kate said, "I begin working at parliament tomorrow as a trainee."

"Have you been drinking?" asked Laura.

"Tell us more," Basil said, looking at his youngest daughter with interest.

"I have been working at the downtown offices of Senator Tom Mitchell and am being transferred to his parliamentary office to be some sort of trainee."

Basil looked at his wife. "Didn't Tom Mitchell date you at high school when he was a senior?"

"Mom!"

"Kate it's not what you think," Laura said, red-faced. "I was a 9th grader and a couple of times went to the movies with Tom who was a couple of grades ahead of me."

"And did he touch you in the dark?"

"Yes dear in a friendly fashion but never under my clothes if that's what you are getting at. For heaven's sake Kate, his sister use to babysit me."

"I bet your breasts were beginning to develop at fourteen."

"Oh was I fourteen? I thought I would have been much younger?"

"Mom you don't fool me and dad is laughing his head off. It seems to me that Tom Mitchell was lucky to become a Senator if he touched up schoolmates at that age."

"Oh don't be too tough on the guy Little One," Basil said. "It probably gave him a rounded education."

"Rather rounded I would think if mom was advanced in development for her age."

Laura went off. "Oh god, I must check on dinner."

"I'll go mom and give you time to explain your juvenile naughtiness to dad."

At dinner, with Laura apparently feeling in control again, she asked Kate what would be her duties at the Senator's office."

"I have no idea. Do you think he'll try to fondle my breasts? God if he did that would take him back."

"Hit her Basil," Laura groaned.

"You must have some idea about what you'll do," Basil said.

"None at all. My supervisor said I was to report to the Senator's PA, that she would train me and I would transfer on a higher salary and be given senior grading."

"Omigod," Laura said. "Do you mean he has more in mind for Kate than office duties?"

Both women looked at Basil who smiled and said he wouldn't think so, that probably Kate was being groomed to replace the PA.

"Do you want that to happen?" Laura asked her daughter.

"I have no idea. I'll just wait to things are explained to me and then will assess the situation. Could we talk about something else? What's happening in the lives of my brother and sister?

CHAPTER 2

Mrs Frankton had given Kate a temporary pass to get beyond the first stage of security at parliament and she had to wait at the second checkpoint for Mrs Goodyear to come down to identify her.

Kate saw the woman in her mid-fifties who was slight, mousy-haired and thought well perhaps sexiness didn't matter with Senator Tom when he hired key people. Perhaps she had a brain and that would give her an edge on clueless blondes with big boobs.

"That is Miss Childs," Mrs Goodyear said in a commanding voice.

"Yes ma'am," said the security guard in a bullet-proof enclosed sentry box. A buzzer sounded and Kate walked through the gate in the high grill.

"Just a child," Mrs Goodyear murmured, kissing and welcoming Kate. "Call me Shelley dear."

"Thank you for your warm welcome."

"Oh so polite. You have seduced me already?"

Huh?

"Don't worry, that's just a figure of speech," Shelley said. That told Kate the woman was sharp enough to have spotted Kate's reaction to the reference to seduction. Well at least the woman was interesting.

Their office suite was on the 14th floor but before proceeding Shelley took Kate into the Lower House that was presently in recess and then on the floor above they went into the more ornate senate that had a dome that projected into the third level of Parliament Building.

On the 14th they inspected the 'boss's office', met the media and the research executive officers and the three women who worked in another office and then finished at the small meeting room.

"We use this room for getting drunk and having sex orgies."

Kate felt obliged to think she was being teased and just winked and Shelley appeared to like that.

After Kate put her light jacket and handbag in the closet and locked the door with the key and put the key back in its hiding place as directed by Shelley, she sat in her desk that was at right angles and jutting out beyond the left-hand side of Shelley's larger desk.

"I make no apologies for squeezing on your space Shelley: I've been placed here to learn."

"That's an excellent opener. It's my role to educate how the parliamentary system works, how this office works and what we can and can't do and what I do and the problems I've had to deal with over the years and from our perspective how Senators are regarded as kings or queens in their offices."

"Why am I here?"

"Senator Richards will brief you about that in due course but don't assume you are being schooled to replace me. I have another four and a half years to go before I retire."

"Then why am I here... oh sorry, that's rhetoric and reflects my nervousness."

"Whatever you say dear. Now this is a piece of paper," Shelley said, pointing to the paper in front of her. "What is written on the side facing down?"

"Your husband's name so I will recognize who is calling if I answer your phone?"

"Omigod, it's true."

"What is?"

"You have extrasensory perception."

"No I don't, I have something but not that."

Shelley had one my try, asking, "What is my husband's name?"

"Frank?"

"There we go, bull's-eye."

Kate said, "Oh no we don't. I have no idea what if anything is written on the other side of that piece of paper. It just seemed logical to guess you have written down your husband's name as a first step in my briefing because his calls are important to you. On Senator Mitchell's website you are named as Shelley Ellen Goodyear, your husband is Frank Leyland Goodyear and your two sons are Ian Richard and Ben James."

Shelley gasped.

"Very well, I accept the logic of your response and obviously you have remarkable memory retention. Tom told me he senses in your something very special and already I can see that will include remarkable if not astonishing memory recall. In having a full security check done on you which is normal procedure, we have become aware of your reason for flat-lining your college grades. Your action was because of a false accusation made against you early in your freshman year."

"God is nothing sacred?"

"We found a professor who has pretty good memory recall herself and that was fortunate for us because no records where filed of the accusations and any details of the investigative hearing where the allegations were dismissed as being totally unfounded."

"What about my two reprimands for political disobedience? They must count against me?"

"We believe you were justified in protesting for female equality at your college."

"Well what an enlightened outfit this is."

Just before lunchtime the Senator called Kate.

"How are you settling on?"

"Fine thanks. Shelley is very impressive," Kate said, smiling at Shelley.

"That's why she's on senior staff."

"Quite. May I call you Tom?"

"In private with no outsiders present yes."

"Thank you Tom. Are you also calling to thank me for my recommendations about diary timetable management efficiency?"

"Yes it's an excellent report and I agree with more than 50% of the recommendations and will implement them."

"Excellent is there anything else?"

"Yes hand your phone to Shelley. I need to brief her."

As Shelley and Kate went down to the main dining room, Shelley said, "I thought when you asked could you call him Tom he'd give conditional approval. Do you think I'm gaining extrasensory perception?"

"Oh yes Shelley. Mind that chair."

"Oh so much for super perception," Shelley laughed, only just missing hitting the chair that was well out from a table.

As they dined on chicken salads, Shelley asked, "Then what is this power you believe you have?"

"I don't think I have it, I know I have it. I sometimes dream things that are about to happen and they more or less come true, I mean perhaps not exactly how I dream them. I dream them in the form of a nightmare, from which I wake up perspiring and my heart ponding and I feel scared with a deep sense of foreboding."

"Omigod, who'd want to have a power like that?"

"Not me," Kate said devoutly. "But it's something I appear I was born with. I predicted mom's father's death and the deaths of dad's mother and my aunt but my parents only knew of my first predication about mom's father. I was too scared to reveal details about the other two because of the possibility of panicking people."

"Omigod Kate, what a cross to bear. There also is something else, isn't there? Tom asked me to chat to you about it. It's your prodigious memory recall."

"Ah yes, I might have known when learning about me being wrongfully accused of cheating at college that Tom would see that as a useful tool in transferring me to his political team. I used to worry that I'd jam too much information in my mind but the storage system appears limitless. You see I can't stop remembering things. I would prefer storing only information that I believe I might wish to retrieve at a later date."

"Wow that's a load on your mind."

They laughed and Shelley said, "Can you remember precisely where you where and what were you doing at the time President Kennedy was assassinated?"

"Shelley your question sucks. I was nowhere near Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. God Shelley, mom and dad were not even born then."

"Ah just testing," Shelley said she then said lamely she'd never make it as a quiz-master.

Soon after she got home that evening, Kate answered a knock on the door and a well-dressed young guy said hi, "Are you Kate Childs."

"Indeed I am."

"You look really cool. I'm Max Usher and my mom Faith and your mom are friends. Your mom told my mom you can't pull a date and asked if I could help out."

"My mom said what?"

"Kate does it really matter? I'd be more interested in talking to you about a date."

Kate sighed and thought perhaps she might not strangle her mom after all. The guy appeared really pleasant.

"My parents are not home yet. Come in if you think you'll be safe."

He grinned and said she had good humor.

"What say we go off somewhere now where we can talk undisturbed?"

She smiled. "You mean to park and grope in daylight?"

He looked taken aback and said he meant to a coffee shop or a bar.

"Let's go to a bar. Why don't you it in your car and listen to music to give me three minutes to get ready."

She took almost fifteen minutes. Although Max looked at his watch, nothing was said.

As Kate settled into the comfortable passenger seat of a fairly new SUV, she asked, "What do you do Max?"

"I'm in my first year of work after graduating in law and represent t clients on minor charges in court at present."

"Oh that's interesting. I bet your mom is proud of you?"

He looked surprised and said, "Yes she is. It was clever of you to guess that."

"I've dated a couple of law grads and met their proud mothers."

Max frowned. "I thought you were unsuccessful in being dated?"

Kate laughed and he grinned.

"Max my mother can be a bit of a liar when it suits her. She asked me a couple of evenings ago where were the guys who used to line up to date me and I indicated because of my long absences away at college, I'd become a forgotten bunny."

"Ah I see, the guys who are still around have written you off."

"That's about it. My vibrator is almost worn out."

Max tensed and drove on, not speaking.

Kate said softly, "That was meant as an adult joke."

"Oh."

"I'm pretty upfront with what I say Max."

"Um it's okay. I'm used to cracking jokes with guys like that but most females..."

"Many of them probably do once they get to feel comfortable with a guy Max."

"Gee is that right?"

"Probably unless I have my mother's habit of lying when it suits me."

He laughed and she was very appealing.

"Appealing enough to take me to dinner?"

"You mean tonight?"

"If you wish to do that. Yeah that would be great."

"Well we'll have a couple of drinks first and when we arrive at the bar you can call your mother you won't be home for dinner because I've dated you."

He said, "I'd call my two roommates if I won't be home to dinner. You mean we've decided to date tonight?"

"If you wish to call it that. Your choice of words doesn't bother me."

"Well actually you did propose the date."

"Yes Max but it doesn't matter? But also call your mom because she will wonder if her attempt at linking us was successful. Keep it simple and tell your mother we've decided to date tonight. She won't ask who proposed the date."

"How do you know she won't?"

"I know because your mom will have more important things to think about. She'll be wondering whether you will be safe with me."

"You mean will you be safe with me."

"Oooh Max, what are you thinking?"

Max said, "Jeepers Kate, you really are a hot date."

Kate thought that sounded promising.

Kate went to work next day sexually unfulfilled but it had been a sweet evening and she'd managed to finally get him to kiss her outside her home just before she left the car, leaving him panting.

Tom was already at the office when she arrived and called her in.

"Good morning."

"Hi Tom, you look fit and good looking this morning?"

That caught him by surprise and when he finally lifted his gaze from her chest, he said: "That was an unexpectedly cheering salutation.

"I live at home and my dad tends to wake up grumpy and I work to cheer him up.

"Ah the good daughter."

"Yes Tom and I hope you'll not be disappointed in me as an effective assistant. You are about to tell me why you've promoted me aren't you?"

Tom studied her thoughtfully and then said yes and asked Kate to close the door and to keep what he was about to say confidential.

"I tend to retire next year when this term of parliament ends in early April. I propose to support the candidature of Rodney Hagen as my successor and in the meantime I want you trained in the ways political around here and to become his media adviser/manager in his pre-election team."

"Why?"

"Because I perceived you have some outstanding abilities Kate. I know you have extraordinary memory recall that would make you a key person to be standing at Rodney's shoulder when he begins his election bid by talking to every Senator. His parents are very wealthy and will finance his campaign which will include employing people like you. You have great ways about you. For instance you almost knocked me off my perch with your greeting not ten minutes ago and then later when I spoke about you being on Rodney's election team you just asked "Why?" without surrounding it with the usual piffle people do when feeling they have been flattered. You've never met Rodney Hagen have you?"

"No."

"Nor read anything about him in say the last fortnight?"

"No."

"Give me a precise of what you know about Rodney Hagen."

"Okay. Rodney is thirty or thirty-one, has a bachelor degree in political science, entered parliament representing the constituent of Maryvale/Langdon aged twenty-three after working for eighteen months as a political reporter for the Evening Standard, becoming the second youngest person to be elected to our Lower House. Was married for just over a year and wife Sally died skiing when caught in an avalanche. Political interests are law and order, bio-security and International Free Trade. Is an able debater, parents Jade and Philip own this city's largest trucking company and its largest courier company and own a number of central Downtown commercial properties. Rodney's photograph appears very frequently in the social pages of newspapers and magazines, usually in the company of beautiful women who appear not to last long in his company. He plays golf well, cycles and enjoys going to the gym and politically is classed as a Liberal. He's spokesman on bio-security and Free Trade for the Center Right party that helps the governing party retain its majority in Parliament. Those were the main points I read in two similar magazine interviews with him."

"Kate that is very impressive and as you say covers the main points about him. I have a comprehensive personal file on him that you must read. You will also divide your time between Shelley and my media manager Stephen."

Later that morning Max Usher called and invited Kate to dinner at his shared apartment.

"So your roommates wish to look me over to see if I can gain the necessary level of approval rating?"

"Um well nothing was said about that."

"But implied and they suggested the invitation?"

"Ah yes. Have you been trained in cross-examination?"

They laughed but Kate thought he'd sounded serious. She wondered if he was the right fit for adversary procedure. Perhaps working as a patent attorney would be more appropriate for him.

Freddie and Nigel were also attorneys about Max's age and working at different law offices. She was surprised how well they appeared to meld together and found they'd gone through law school together so it obviously was a brotherhood thing.

Kate accepted the Martini and knew her breasts and butt had received sly glances and she said, "Meatballs tonight guys?"

Nigel nodded.

"Oh I thought you guys would be out to impress me."

"We cook meatballs best," Freddie said.

"Oh of course. I apologize for not working that out for myself. Well put those things away. Your mothers would expect a female visitor to cook something better for you. Please excuse me while I go out for pizza."

"There's no need...." Freddie said. But Kate was already opening the door and heard Max say to leave her, that Kate was one of those unstoppable females. She grinned when she heard the other two guys mutter something uncharitable.

Kate returned loaded with shopping bags without a pizza in sight.

"Dinner is an hour away boys," she said cheerfully. "Toss your Martinis out if you wish and grab beers. There's not need to try to impress me of your sophistication. And could we please have some racy music and you guys watch sport on TV if you wish.

They appeared to instantly metamorphose into grateful puppies and even asked if they could help but were shooed away to the sofas.

"Take your sneakers off if you wish to put your feet up anywhere."

They dined on 'farfalle con salmone mediterranea' served with a dry light red Italian wine.