Note: This Harry And Judith In Her Office Chapter 2 Excerpt certainly reveals the similar hardheaded characters of General Harry Faldwell and his fiancee Senator Judith Cranston. They actually do get along quite well and are a proper match for each other when they are not fencing in a battle of wills to get something important done.
Chapter Two
(Excerpt)
CONTACT OVER THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE
Harry was also wearing his four-star Air Force uniform that day, as he stuffed an unlit cigar into the corner of his mouth and bit down. Then he walked through the open door to Senator Judith Cranston’s Washington, D.C. office. He was in his middle-fifties with hazel eyes, short curly dark brown hair, a chiseled face with a cleft chin in his square jaw, and a slight paunch; yet, he was in good shape for his age with his chest and upper arms strongly developed.
Judith was younger, in her middle-forties, and Harry admired the way she had kept remarkably slim, and shapely with wrinkle-free olive skin. She was wearing an elegant dark-blue knee-length business dress with a white satin blouse as she got up from the chair, and flipped her long slightly grey streaked black hair over her shoulders. She casually walked around to the front of the desk, sat down on the edge, defiantly crossed her arms, and then puckered her lips.
Harry yanked the cigar from his mouth, and confidently stated to his fiance, “It doesn’t matter what the press thinks, Judith.”
He impatiently stared at her; but just she glared back at him.
“Look Judith,” he continued annoyed, “I’ve already told you this a dozen times. All of the United Nations Security Council members will be there, not just those with a preference for the President’s point of view.”
“Oh bull, Harry,” she shot back. “You know Stockwell has a personal political agenda of his own. That’s why he’s sending you to South America.”
Harry started to pace back and forth, and then stepped closer.
“Look, what do I have to do to convince you? The President’s interest in the World Peace Summit is genuine, with only the best intentions for all the countries involved. I know you two don’t exactly see eye to eye. Hell, I don’t see eye to eye with him on most things, but that doesn’t change the fact that I personally know he’s really behind this conference. He really wants it to succeed.”
Judith remained silent as Harry walked right up to her.
“Come on, Senator Cranston, we need your one vote or this whole thing will be shot to hell!”
Beginning to grin, she stood up from the edge of the desk, walked back around it, and sat back down in the chair. She picked up the pen from its holder, placed it on the signature line of an official looking document lying on the desk top, sternly eyed him, and then sighed.
“Okay, Harry, but if I find out you or Stockwell have stabbed me in the back on this one, it will ruin my career. I would hold you personally responsible, and call off the marriage. Is that perfectly clear?”
Relieved, Harry’s eyes lit-up.
“Of course…of course, Judith,” he excitedly concurred. “Then it’s settled. With full Congressional support the President can pull this off. I’m sure of it, and you, my dear, will get reelected. In fact, I believe he’ll ask you to become some kind of temporary Ambassador to the entire World Congress Peace Initiative when it convenes next week. You’ll be representing the official U.S. position on all the relevant issues. Now that’s romantic, isn’t it?”
Harry expectantly raised his eyebrows; but Judith returned an icy stare, raising a single eyebrow.
“You mean, don’t you, that I’ll be doing a lot of the negotiating work to make it happen, and somebody else will get all the credit.”
He rolled his eyes groaning, and opened his mouth to protest but Judith gave in.
“All right, damn it, don’t worry I’ll do it.”
Relieved, Harry grinned wide at her.
“Judith, dear, you won’t regret it.
Uneasy, Judith frowned.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, famous last words.”
She grabbed the pen, signed her name to the document, tossed the pen on the desk, and then grabbed the document as she stood up. She walked around the front of the desk, sat on the edge in front of Harry, and then slapped the document in his chest.
Harry grabbed it with his left hand, reached behind her back with his right hand holding the cigar, and lifted her up off the edge of the desk by the small of her back. Then he wrapped his left arm around her to tightly hug her close to his chest, gave her a quick kiss, and then abruptly let her go.
“Well, that makes it official,” he exuberantly remarked. “The Worldwide Congress For Peace is on. I’ll see ya’ tonight, dear.”
He started to walk out of the office, while Judith walked back around her desk, but stopped short of the door to turn around, and admiringly gaze at her as she sat down in the chair. When she looked up, he winked at her.
“Did I tell you lately I love you?”
“Not in the last six months or so,” she replied with a wry grin.
Harry’s smile dropped.
“Has it been that long,” he innocently asked, reflecting on their time together. Then he cheerfully stated, “Man, how time flies. Well, I’ll see ya’ tonight.”
He swung around and briskly walked out of her office, headed to the right down the hallway.
“Don’t forget,” she yelled after him, “it’s your turn to order food in tonight.”
Harry didn’t turn around as he continued walking along the hallway with a nonchalant wave of his right arm over his shoulder.
Gazing out the open doorway, Judith briefly listened for an answer. Then she grinned shaking her head, picked up the phone handset, and started to tap in a number.
By
R. S. Lemriel
© TXu 62 748
© PAu 835 230
(Library of Congress)
Buy The Emerald Doorway Senator Judith Cranston Character Sketches General Harry Faldwell Character Sketches Harry and Judith office scene
Note: This Harry And Judith In Her Office Chapter 2 Excerpt does not reveal the depth of experiential changes that Harry and Judith go through when they are both thrust into the center of the conflict between benevolent and malevolent extraterrestrials that comes to focus on the total destruction of planet Earth or the liberation of all life on it to wake up to the knowing certain awareness they once had before it was taken from them or suppressed in the subconscious domain by the misuse of extraterrestrial technology.