Girl Power (10 page)

"None that I can think of."

"All right, I'll make tomorrow work."

"Good, Winfred will be pleased. You won't have to worry about anything.

We will send a plane to pick you up later today. We will provide lodging at the

Ritz Carlton and a limo will take you to the studio at nine o'clock in the

morning."

Sally ran out of her office wide-eyed, expecting to see Brenda at Millie's

desk. Where's Brenda?"

"I'm sorry I was late. I had a fla—."

"I don't care Millie. I need Brenda. Where is she?"

"I imagine she went back to her off—."

Sally took off running toward Brenda's office.

Sally scooted into Brenda's office. "Brenda, I'm going to be on The Winfred Opry Show tomorrow."

Brenda's mouth dropped open. "That's wonder—."

"They're going to pick me up at Chesapeake Field in six hours. I need your

help." "What do you need?"

Sally bounced on her feet. "I need the data on membership by state and the

candidates we have by state, and any other helpful information you can think

of." "Sally, you know Lindy keeps the latest information. The information I have is a few days old."

"You're right. She needs to get ready, too."

Sally started to run out then stopped and angled back. "See that Millie

reschedules all of my and Lindy's appointments today and tomorrow. Oh, and

see if you can dig up a copy of Mickey's interview, I mean my interview with

Mickey, will you? That's the reason they called."

"Will do."

"Thanks."

"Lindy. Stop what you're doing. You need go home and pack."

Frowning Lindy leapt to her feet. "Sally, what are you talking about?"

A broad smile formed on Sally's lips. "You and I are going to be on The

Winfred Opry Show."

Lindy ran her fingers through her hair, "What are you talking about?"

"I told you. I just talked with Dillon Reed. He's Winfred Opry's personal

assistant. I have accepted an invitation for us to guest on The Winfred Opry

Show, and their private plane is scheduled to pick us up at the airport in five

hours."

~ * * ~

The jet plane they sent for Lindy and Sally was an eight passenger

Gulfstream. Sitting near the front of the plane, across from each other, Sally and Lindy undid their seatbelts once they were airborne, and Sally relaxed.

She gazed through her window. "It's a nice clear day. Look, we're coming

up to the mountains."

Lindy glanced out her window. "So I see. I wonder how long this flight will be." "Dillon said the flight would take a little over two hours, but since Chicago is on Central time, we'll gain an hour and it'll be only one hour later. Of course we'll lose that hour when we go back."

The flight attendant came up. "Can I bring you anything to drink or snack

on?" Lindy asked, "What do you have to drink?"

After the flight attendant recited her list of options, Sally and Lindy both

chose iced tea. When she walked away, Lindy turned to Sally, "I'm glad we have this break because I need to talk to you about something."

"What?"

"Yesterday, Kelly introduced me to a man who used to run national

campaigns. His name is Lee Casey."

Sally glanced upward. "Lee Casey? I remember him. He must be fairly old

by now?" How does Kelly know him?

"He's Kelly's uncle. She said Lee's in his sixties. He's still a nice looking man.

I guess looks run in her family."

The flight attendant brought their iced teas and promptly left.

"He's handsome all right. He always reminded me of Cary Grant. If I

remember right, when he was younger he always had a pretty girl on his arm.

What does he want?"

"He came at my request. I wanted to pick his brain."

Sally sipped her drink."Oh?"

"Yes. He already helped me immensely. He claims what I'm trying to do is

essentially what Debra Waters Scholtz at the DNC and Crowe Magnon at the

RNC, do. He said experienced SAFE candidates need to set up their own

campaign headquarters, but we need to help the novices set theirs up."

"That makes sense."

Lindy adjusted her position, tucking her ankle under her thigh. "I know.

Everything he says makes sense."

Sally grew interested. "What else did he say?"

"He said, we need to get our candidates set and get them out on the

airwaves and campaigning."

She leaned back and shrugged. "Well, we knew that."

Lindy pursed her lips. "Sally, I'm thinking we should do something you

may not like."

"Yeah, like what?"

~ * * ~

Winfred Opry Studios, one p.m. the next day

Shivers of nervousness pattered up and down Sally's back as a handsome,

baritone-voiced presenter announced, "Welcome to The Winfred Opry Show." As Lindy and she waited behind a curtain on one side of the studio, Winfred

entered from the opposite side, and the presenter shouted, "And here's Winfred."

Loud applause from the studio audience accompanied her as she gracefully

strode to the center of the set, bowed to the audience, and sat in her chair as

cameras panned in.

Nodding and smiling, she waited until the applause died down, she said,

"Greetings ladies and gentlemen. We have a wonderful line-up today, including Eleanor Crenshaw and Marvin Walters, but I'm especially excited to talk with

our first guests. You may never have heard of them, but they have taken up a

cause that all women, and I mean all, women should take to their heart. They

have started a women's political party, which they call SAFE. Don't you just love it? Light applause and some mumbling erupted from the audience.

"No, I'm serious, and I say it's about time women stuck up for themselves.

Please give a warm welcome to Sally Cummings and Lindy Rollins, the co-

founders of SAFE."

Applause filled the studio again as the set director half-urged and half-

pushed Lindy and Sally onto stage. Greeting them with a wide smile, Winfred

rose and clapped as the women marched toward her. She took their hands and

cheek kissed each of them. Then pointed at the davenport to take a seat. When

everyone had settled and applause had diminished, Winfred turned her attention

to her guests. "I'm so glad you could come. When I read about your movement in the Tribune yesterday, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was as if God was answering a prayer. Before we get started, will one of you tell the audience what SAFE

stands for?

"Sure," Lindy said, "it's an acronym for Stand Aligned For Equality."

"And SAFE is strictly for women?"

"No, we have male members. Men are welcome. We even have pink T-

shirts, or if men prefer, pink bow ties." Lindy handed Winfred a bag from which she extracted a pink bow tie and a T-shirt that read:

S.A.F.E.

We Have Your Back

Winfred held the T-shirt up and giggled. The audience laughed. "Pink T-

shirts. I like that. Tell me ladies, what made you decide to start SAFE?"

"It was Sally's idea. She's a Maryland congresswoman, you know?"

Winfred turned her head toward Sally. "Yes, I did know, but I'm sure the

audience didn't. We're just learning about you and we want to know everything.

Sally, what motivated you to start a women's party?

Sally straightened. "It all started when I saw a news report about women

demonstrating against the proposed transvaginal ultrasound law in Virginia."

Winfred leaned forward. "Wasn't that awful?"

"Yes it was awful, and all too common. I'd seen this sort of thing before with men legislating against women's reproductive rights and that was the last straw.

I decided to run for the U.S. Senate."

"On your own party?"

"No!" Sally chuckled. "I'm a democrat. Or, I was. I mean I'll finish my term as a democrat, but after being rebuffed by my party, I'm running for Senate as a SAFE candidate."

Winfred and the audience laughed. "You see, audience, a vote for Sally is a SAFE vote."

Lindy added, "As is a vote for any SAFE candidate."

Winfred pointed at Lindy. "Right you are." She turned to Sally. "So you were rebuffed. Tell us about it."

"I went to see our state democratic chairman to discuss running and they'd

already selected someone else to run. We argued a bit. He told me that regardless of my ability, the odds were with the male candidate and they'd not only back

him, they'd do everything to thwart my effort if I ran against their wishes. When he said he was sorry, but it's a man's world, I thought, it shouldn't be. Then I decided, it doesn't have to be. That set the wheels in motion. I talked to Lindy about starting SAFE and here we are."

"So you could run for the Senate?"

"No, I started the party to support others. Lindy talked me into running for the Senate."

"Good for you, Lindy. I think she'd make a fantastic senator."

"She would, and will because she's going to win. I'll see to it."

Sally shifted her hips and crossed her legs. "Lindy is more than co-founder and friend. She's my campaign manager."

Winfred grinned and nodded slowly. "Are you, now? I must tell you both, I

Googled your website after I read the article. It's lovely and very professional. I also Googled Sally's political record and I'm a fan."

"Why, thank you."

"You're welcome. Now tell me, your organization has only been going for

what—two weeks?"

Lindy nodded. "Not quite two weeks."

"How is it going, so far?"

Sally chuckled. "I'm going to defer to Lindy. She's the stat girl."

Winfred angled toward Lindy.

Lindy raised her brow. "When we started, we had no idea what to expect,

but frankly, we've been overwhelmed."

"Oh?"

"Yes. As of yesterday afternoon we had four-hundred and seventy-nine

thousand members."

Winfred's mouth opened, but she quickly closed it. "In less than two weeks, that's fabulous. What about candidates?"

"That's been a little disappointing so far. Across the country, from

councilwoman to Congress, we only have eighty-seven candidates so far. We

have a six-hundred name list of potential candidates, but I haven't had time to

utilize it."

"Well, maybe we can help. Oh, darn it. We have to go to a commercial break

and then our next guest. I'd love to talk with you more. Can you come back?"

Sally nodded. "If you want us back, sure."

Winfred stared at the audience. "Do we want them back, gang?"

Everyone rose and clapped. There were a few hell yeahs and some whistles.

"There you go. And before you go, I want to offer a little contribution to the make your trip worthwhile." Winfred waved to someone off stage and a man and a

woman hustled out carrying a six foot replica of a check for $100,000."

Sally was overwhelmed. She embraced Lindy, a second before she wiped a

tear from her eye. When they stood, Winfred rose too and she embraced the

pair." Winfred said. "I really have to go to break."

Sally and Lindy nodded and held hands as they bowed to another round of

applause, then the cameras cut to the commercial.

Winfred said, loud enough to hear over the crowd, "Dillon will be in touch."

As soon as they took their seats on the return flight to Baltimore, Sally

addressed Lindy, "I've been thinking about what you said."

"About what?"

"I think you're right. We need a big name figure to head our party and Lee

Casey would give the movement a great deal of prestige. I want you to hire him.

If he'll do it, I want him to be Co-chairman of the SAFE National Committee,

with you. Lee would be perfect and thanks to Winfred, we have the money to

hire him."

Lindy's eyes lit up. "That's wonderful. Lee will be pleased. When do you

want to do this?"

"Right away. Hash this out with Lee, a.s.a.p."

Lindy grinned. "Is tomorrow soon enough?"

"The sooner the better."

"Great, I'll call Lee when we get back and ask him to come to our office."

Chapter Eight – Day Nineteen

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
- Ronald Reagan

Sally woke up in a good mood. Things couldn't be going better. The taping at the W. O. show went smooth and with Winfred's surprise backing, the party now

had a great new ally and a fantastic advocate. She was also pleased that she had made the decision to go for broke and have Lindy and Lee Casey establish SAFE

National Committee Office in Washington D.C. Today The Winfred Opry Show

Lindy and she'd appeared on would air, and the world would know about their

crazy, if revolutionary, idea. Today the world would learn about GIRL POWER.

She hopped out of bed, planning to get ready for work when the joy of the

moment overcame her and she broke into song. She sang a song her mother had

sung to her—a song that came to her out of the blue that she barely remembered,

but seemed infinitely appropriate.

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

My, oh my, what a wonderful day

Plenty of sunshine headin' my way

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

Mister Bluebird's on my shoulder

It's the truth, it's actual

Ev'rything is satisfactual

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

Wonderful feeling, wonderful day, yes sir!

She couldn't remember the rest of the words so she repeated them once

more and stopped, but her mind didn't stop. In her mind, her Mum sang, Zip-A-

Dee-Doo-Dah, to her over and over—while she showered, brushed her teeth,

brushed her hair, put her make-up on. And so it went, until she parked her car