Page 117 of Never

The headline read:

PIPPA THE POTHEAD

Pauline said: ‘Oh, no! No!’

The anchor said: ‘The president’s daughter, Pippa Green, aged fourteen, is in trouble for smoking pot at a party in the home of a fellow pupil at her elite private high school.’

Pauline was stunned. She stared at the screen, mouth open in bewilderment, both hands held against her cheeks, hardly able to believe this was real.

The front page filled the screen. There was a faked colour photo of Pauline and Pippa together: Pauline was looking furious and Pippa wore an old T-shirt and needed to wash her hair. The two images came from different shots that had been melded to show a scene that had never happened, with Pauline apparently berating her drug-addicted daughter.

Shock was replaced by rage. Pauline stood up, yelling at the TV: ‘You fucking shits!’ she screamed. ‘She’s a child!’

The door opened and an anxious Secret Service agent looked in. Gus waved him away.

On the screen, the anchor moved on to other newspapers, but every tabloid led with Pippa.

Pauline could accept any insult to herself and laugh it off, but she could not bear the humiliation of Pippa. She was so enraged that she wanted to kill someone: the reporter, the editor, the proprietor, and all the brain-dead fools who read this kind of trash. Her eyes filled with tears of rage. She was possessed by the primal instinct to protect her child, but she could not, and the frustration made her want to tear out her hair. ‘This is not fair!’ she cried. ‘We conceal the identities of children who commit murder – but they’re crucifying my daughter just for smoking a fucking joint!’

The serious press had other priorities but nevertheless Pippa was on every front page. The conflict in Chad, and Pauline’s success in establishing a demilitarized zone, was not mentioned by the anchor.

Pauline said: ‘I can’t believe this.’

The summary of the papers came to an end and the anchor threw to a film reviewer. Pauline switched off and turned to Gus. ‘What am I going to do?’ she said.

Gus said quietly: ‘I think James Moore is responsible. He did this to push your DMZ off the front page.’

‘I don’t care who leaked it,’ Pauline said, and she could hear the shrill tone in her own voice. ‘I just need to figure out how to handle this with Pippa. It’s the kind of mortification that makes teenage girls suicidal.’ Her tears flowed again, and now they were tears of grief.

‘I know,’ said Gus. ‘My girls were adolescents only a decade or so ago. It’s a sensitive time. They can be depressed for a week because someone criticized their nail polish. But you can help her through it.’

Pauline checked her watch. ‘It’s after eleven, she’ll be asleep; she won’t have heard the news. I’ll see her as soon as she wakes up in the morning. But what am I going to say?’

‘You’ll say that you’re sorry this happened, but you love her, and together you’ll get through it okay. It’s nasty, but on the other hand no one died, no one caught a deadly virus, and no one is going to jail. Most of all, you’re going to tell her that this is not her fault.’

She stared at him. Already she was feeling calmer. In a more normal voice she said: ‘How did you get so wise, Gus?’

He paused. ‘Mostly by listening to you,’ he said quietly. ‘You’re the wisest person I’ve ever met.’

She was embarrassed by the unexpected strength of his feeling. She passed it off with a quip. ‘If we’re so smart, how come we’re in so much trouble?’

He took the question seriously. ‘Everyone who does good acquires enemies. Think how they hated Martin Luther King. I have a different question, though I believe I know the answer. Who told James Moore that Pippa had smoked marijuana?’

‘You’re thinking about Milt.’

‘He hates you enough – he showed that earlier this evening. I don’t know how he found out about her smoking weed, but it’s not hard to imagine – he was around here all the time.’

Pauline was thoughtful. ‘I believe I know exactly how and when he found out.’ She recalled the moment. ‘It was about three weeks ago. I had been discussing North Korea with Milt and Chess. Then Gerry came in, Milt and Chess left, and Gerry told me about the dope-smoking. While we were having that conversation, Milt came back to pick up something he’d left behind.’ She recalled looking up, startled, to check who it was, and seeing Milt grab that purple scarf. ‘I wondered then how much he’d overheard. Now we know. At any rate he gathered enough to put theMailon the story.’

‘I’m pretty sure you won’t do this, but I have to mention it: if you want to punish Milt you have a means at hand.’

‘You mean reveal the secret of his affair? You’re right, I won’t do it.’

‘I didn’t think it was your style.’

‘Besides, let’s not forget that there’s another vulnerable teenage girl in the middle of this mess: Rita Cross.’

‘You’re right.’