[Write the Story] Political Machinations
Prompt: Political Machinations
Words: appointment, dangerous, cost, empire, kitten, mug, converter, essence, tennis, poke
Story
“The only way you could possibly lose this election is if you play tennis with kittens on camera.”
“Wouldn’t that … oh, you mean as the balls, right.” Buck Ingram wasn’t always the sharpest crayon in the box, but he was the candidate the party put up probably because he was “malleable”. No one asked Fran Johnson’s opinion on that. They only asked her to get the candidate elected, or if already elected, the prime appointment.
Fran knew she helped build an empire in essence. She was good at her job, too. She knew which buttons to push, which nerves to poke to get the job done. Buck was a challenge she fought tooth and nail to overcome. His affable mug and aw-shucks obliviousness hid a steel-trap mind—but getting to the point was…well, she’d house-trained puppies with easier “bombs” to dodge.
“We’ll just head over there to the power converter doohickey and do the photo shoot there.”
Fran cringed. The “doohickey” Buck referred to was the main console feeding the grid from the nuclear power plant. One wrong move…well, dangerous didn’t begin to cover it. If he…well, a mishap would cost untold lives, not to mention economic and environmental devastation. The country and the world would never be the same.
“Oopsie! I guess it’s a whole new world now,” Buck said.
Fran choked.
Word Count: 222
Written: 6/28/17