The Black Aura - 6. Keep on Truckin'

Never Surrender

Never Surrender, it's easier said than done
But you go to finish what's already begun
Never, that's forever, seems like such a long time
But I only got one life to live - It's gonna be mine
Never Surrender - we cannot be denied
Never Surrender - spread your wings and fly

Triumph - 1983

16

I walked away and took out my cell phone, "Hi, Maisie, is Tommy available?"

"Hello, Avery. He should be, can you hold for a minute?"

"Sure."

Forty seconds later, Governor Sansone picked up, "Avery, how goes the battle?"

"We'll win the war, but we're looking at casualties."

"How many?"

"I tried to limit it to three and a quarter, But Hartlee wants to take five. He thinks that's a good number for us to save face with."

"What do you think?"

"He'll make sure you lose votes otherwise; I say we go for it. If we don't, he'll say we were offering nothing."

"But we'd have won the war otherwise?"

"Yeah. The jury knows it wasn't Banders's fault. A ruling in our favor would be in the bag."

"Okay. We can spin that. Give him five. But try four and a half first. Can you handle the immediate press?"

"Certainly."

"Thanks. We knew winning outright was a loss in the long run. I'll set up a press conference for six. We can hit the evening news live."

"See you in a bit, boss."

"You'd better."

Bob was sitting outside the courtroom, "So, what do you have for me?"

"Four and a half, and no admission of guilt. And the promise the other driver, Arkins, won't be sued."

"Five gets me a bigger piece."

I knew he meant a larger percentage.

"Thirty-three versus twenty-five?"

"Yeah."

"Like I give a fuck. Four and a half gets the widow a few thousand more. I'd rather she gets it than you. Make sure tell you her that when she knows you're not getting five for her. Or I will."

"You're a dick."

"Politeness dies even before truth in politics."

Resigned, he put out his hand, "Four and a half."

"Done."

Hartlee kept his promise, letting his client know she was actually getting a few thousand dollars more at four and a half, due to his fee being smaller. Six o'clock rolled around and I was standing next to the governor in front of the governor's mansion, and in front of approximately sixty members of the press.

Donny opened the press conference, "Thank you all for coming. As you are all aware, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania has been involved in a contentious lawsuit against the State Police. I am happy to report that the suit has been settled to the satisfaction of all parties. While the State of Pennsylvania admits no fault in the unfortunate accident that claimed the life of Mr. Pan Austin, we have agreed to pay his widow four and one half million dollars."

"Governor, doesn't the fact that the state is paying her off imply guilt?"

"Normally it would. However, during the course of the trial, it became evident that it was going to end in favor of the state. In that case, Mrs. Austin would have received nothing, plus would have also been responsible for both attorney's fees. We didn't think that was fair to Mrs. Austin, so we settled for an amount equal to roughly one quarter of what she was asking for. A small price to pay to prevent further insult and potential embarrassment to Mrs. Austin."

Another reporter spoke up, "How was it evident that it wasn't the trooper's fault? We all saw the dash-cam footage from his car."

"I believe I will let Attorney General Avery Noonan handle that question, having been in the courtroom when the evidence proved otherwise. Avery?"

"Thank you, Governor Sansone. While it is true everybody saw the trooper's dash-cam footage, that one piece of evidence didn't tell the whole story. There were two other pieces of footage, obtained from a vehicle behind Trooper Banders's vehicle, that told more of the story. When Trooper Banders approached the vehicle being driven by Mr. Arkins, he swerved left at the last moment, in order to avoid that vehicle. Simultaneous with that action, Mr. Arkins swerved right to keep from getting hit. Unfortunately, this action caused his vehicle to impact Mr. Austin's vehicle, sending it toward its unfortunate collision with the guardrail. The accident was truly that. Simply an accident. Two drivers swerved to avoid one collision, and unfortunately, got involved in another."

"No offense, Attorney General, but that smells like a cover up."

"I can understand why that would be concluded. We will be releasing the two other videos that will illustrate things happened just the way I indicated."

"So, is Mrs. Austin planning on suing Mr. Arkins, then?"

"No. For several reasons. What compensation she would have been able to obtain from Mr. Arkins would be nowhere close to what the commonwealth settled for. Secondly, she has agreed, as a condition of the settlement, not to sue Mr. Arkins. Mrs. Austin gets fair compensation, and the parties involved are spared another long court action. Lastly, Mr. Arkins was not at fault either, reacting exactly how anyone, even you or I, would have in the same situation."

"What do you think all this does to your re-election chances?"

"I can't say. I'm in my second term, so I won't be retained regardless. Governor Sansone hasn't mentioned it either."

It was real strange to watch my own aura shimmer. It's not like I'd never lied before, but my arms were out in front of me on the lectern, so I couldn't miss it.

I looked around, saw no more questions being raised, "Thank you for your time. The two videos should be posted on the Attorney General's website shortly, if not already taken care of by my staff."

17

A little over a year after that trial, I was out of a job. Pennsylvania has term limits set for a number of positions, Attorney General being one of them. I served my two terms. Shortly after I left office, I was approached by the senior senator from Pennsylvania. She asked if I would be interested in running for senate later that year. She had an ulterior motive, obviously.

The junior senator had been embroiled in controversy for the past few months. He was accused of taking bribes. Of course there was no proof, I investigated the allegations and found them to be groundless. But public opinion sometimes cares little about the truth. Part of my investigation included asking him outright if he took the bribe. No shimmer with his answer. It seemed unfair to try to take his senate seat, but like they say, gotta look out for number one.

Since the junior senator was from the other political party, and I have always run as an independent, Madame Carrolton thought I could still be an ally to her party. I suppose because slightly more than half of my views agreed with that party line, it was a reasonable assumption at the time. She made her entire staff available to me. Her campaign manager ran my campaign. She even convinced the party not to have a candidate for that year's election. Quite an accomplishment. And of course, she endorsed my candidacy.

Avery Jr.'s regular check-up finally turned up something while I was campaigning for the senate. Fortunately, since it was caught early, it was curable. He was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. He was admitted to the hospital, and had a total thyroidectomy performed. When Lindy and I walked into the recovery room, she looked at me, hoping I would tell her his aura was no longer blue. I smiled widely, couldn't hide it if I wanted to. My oldest son was yellow, with a long life ahead of him.

So, two months after my fifty-seventh birthday, I was on the ballot against that same junior senator. I got enough of Madame Carrolton's party's votes, along with a smattering from the other party to win by small margin, three percent. As if District Attorney and Attorney General weren't political enough, I got in deep as a Senator.

My first day in Washington was a real eye-opener. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, but damn, almost everything every other senator said was a lie. Okay, I exaggerate, but an awful lot of what they said were lies. It was common practice to try to get the new guy to back everyone's proposals and views. Imagine my chagrin when someone said, "This will be good for the people of Pennsylvania" with their aura shimmering like a plate full of Jell-O. The fact that it was strawberry Jell-O was more disconcerting than the lie itself. I had to wonder what kind of illegal shit the junior senator from California was into. His red Jell-O was lighter than my brown block of wood, so I figured I'd probably never find out. I tried not to let his fate affect me in any way. Not true for another colleague.

I noticed something new and very strange about one of the senators from Tennessee. His aura would change from green to red on a nearly daily basis. It wasn't very dark, but I knew Mr. Albert Pelson didn't have too many years left. Apparently, his manner of death wasn't written in stone. It seemed whether it would be an accident or by some unlawful means, young Albert was going to die somewhere between eight and ten years from the time I met him. I didn't know it at the time, but this was one instance where I would actually have some unintended control over the timing of someone else's death. But I'll get back to that.

It became a real struggle with Madame Carrolton when it came to voting the issues. I couldn't in good conscience vote with her across the board when much of what she backed came from a shimmering proposal. Case in point, she proposed cutting the budget for the support of retired veterans when it was plain the situation was critical for many of our aging veterans. The defense budget had been going down annually because the world was peaceful. That meant more and more vets were leaving the service against their will. There were only so many jobs to go around for those people outside of the armed forces. If their pensions were cut, they would quickly find themselves in dire straits. Even without those cuts, many were having a difficult time making ends meet. Vets who had been injured serving their country were hit the hardest. They simply couldn't compete with able-bodied people for the limited number of jobs available. Her shimmering claim? It was necessary for the country to move on from people who couldn't contribute fully. I wanted to strangle her.

That particular issue became a hill I was willing to die on, figuratively. It was amusing to most of the Senate that I was so strongly opposed to my mentor and the woman who backed my entire run for office. Fortunately, they saw my opposition as a strong point and rather than cut veteran's benefits, it was voted to put in place an increasing budget, at least for the next five years. That was only the first of many straws contributing to breaking the back of my senate career.

Apparently, Madame Carrolton had many views where cutting budgets didn't make a lot of sense. To be honest, her proposals to increase budgets didn't make a lot of sense either. Subsidizing the cosmetic industry was one of her ridiculous proposals that died a quick death on the voting floor. As time went on, more and more of what she supported drifted so far away from what I believed in, she finally stopped talking to me.

So, Madame Carrolton wasn't entirely happy with me over the six years we served together. I agreed with her some of the time, but apparently not enough to get her backing for my next election. Not to worry, the congressional seat for Pennsylvania's tenth congressional district was up for grabs. The incumbent was retiring, and apparently there were no favorites among the other two candidates. So, at sixty-three, I became a congressman. The tenth district worked, because I still maintained a residence in Camp Hill, a suburb of Harrisburg, from my time as Attorney General. It wasn't the same house we lived in with the kids, we'd bought a smaller house a few years back, so it was easier for Lindy to maintain. I was well liked as a senator, so I won that seat quite handily. I felt I could happily continue as a congressman for the rest of my political career.

Nope, wasn't going to happen. Albert Pelson IV was running for president and tabbed me as his running mate. So, November second, twenty-sixty, I was on the Presidential ballot. Once again, my independent status was a benefit, this time to the young senator from Tennessee. While nearly twenty years my junior, at forty-six, he became one of the youngest US Presidents ever. I reached yet another pinnacle of my political career. I really had no intent on ever being President. Unfortunately, many things are out of one's control, and I really had no good reason to turn his offer down. What was I going to say? No, I don't want to be your running mate because you're going to die in less than a year?