For the Love of Gina: The President's Girlfriend (5 page)

Reyza
was obviously confused.
 
“Yes, sir,” he
said and glanced at Forbes, who motioned for him to leave.
 
And Reyza did, but not before glancing at
Jade.
 
She was not pleased.

“Well,”
Forbes said, rubbing his hands together and attempting to remain upbeat.
 
“Perhaps the doctor painted too rosy a
scenario for your daughter, but his point, I think, is that she’s ready to get
back on with her life.”

Dutch
remained standing.
 
“Yes,” he said, as if
he was in deep thought.
 
“That appears to
have been his point.”

Jade,
extremely nervous now, stood up too.
 
Had
Reyza’s overdramatic endorsement just blown it for her?
 
“What is it, Daddy?” she asked him.

Dutch
looked at Forbes.
 
“May I see you
privately?” Although Dutch had politely asked the question, he was already
heading for the exit.

“Yes,
of course,” Forbes replied, and hurried behind him.

“Daddy,
where are you going?” Jade asked him anxiously.

Dutch
glanced back at Jade and Sam, although he didn’t break his stride.
 
“Excuse us for a moment,” he said, and walked
out of the door.

Forbes
glanced back at them too, just as confused as they were, but he swiftly
followed Dutch out.
 

Sam
stared at Jade so intensely that Jade had to ask if she had a problem.
 
Sam did.
 
“What the hell is going on here?” she asked her daughter.

Jade
gave her a sidelong look.
 
“What is that
supposed to mean?”

“You’re
fucking him, aren’t you?”

Jade
smiled.
 
“You’re sick,” she said.

Sam
grabbed her daughter and shook her.
 
“You’re fucking that fool?”
 
Sam
could hardly believe it.
 
“Aren’t you?
 
Aren’t you, Jade?”

Jade
snatched away from her mother with a bitter snatch.
 
“Leave me alone!” she said so harshly that
Sam knew it was true.
 
She knew it like
she knew her name.
 

She
exhaled and shook her head.
 
Jade getting
better was about as possible as Jade getting a heart.
 
Neither, Sam concluded, were ever going to
happen in her lifetime.

Or
anybody else’s.

Once
Dutch and Forbes were out in the hall, Dutch hesitated, as if he was in deep
thought, as his hand still rested on the doorknob.

“What’s
wrong, sir?” Forbes asked him.

Dutch
didn’t respond.
 
He just stood there,
dressed immaculately as usual, Forbes thought, and Forbes suddenly felt as if
he was being treated disrespectfully.
 
He
was the director of Hammersmith, one of the best psychiatric facilities in the
country.
 
Dutch Harber, he felt, could at
least give him an explanation.
 

“What’s
wrong, sir?” Forbes finally asked again.

It
was only then did Dutch look at him.
 
“I
heard the official version,” he said.
 
“Now I need to hear the unofficial one.”

But
Forbes was confused.
 
“I don’t quite
follow you, sir.”

“How
does your staff break down?
 
Are there
assignments based on patient room numbers, or full floor assignments, or what?”

“Not
at all.
  
Well, let me back up.
 
Only for the housekeeping staff do we have
assignments based on patient rooms.
 
But as
for counselors, it’s based on their diagnoses and whether or not---”

“Take
me to the men and women responsible for Jade’s section.
 
In Housekeeping.”

Forbes
was dumbstruck now.
 
“Housekeeping, sir?”

Dutch
nodded.
 
“Housekeeping.”

Forbes
still didn’t understand, but it wasn’t as if he had a say in the matter.
 
“Right this way, sir,” he said.

Dutch
followed Forbes as he took him downstairs, to Housekeeping, and requested that
the maids and janitors responsible for the fifth floor immediately stop what
they were doing and report downstairs.
 
Dutch and Forbes sat in the housekeeping supervisor’s tiny office, and
waited.
 
Within minutes the staff, two
women and one man, all black, arrived.
 
Including Cindy, the fifth floor maid in charge.

“You
wanted to see us, sir?” she asked Forbes.

“Yes,”
Forbes said.
 
“And you are?”

“Cindy,
sir.
 
And that’s Richard.
  
And that’s Maggie.”

“Very
good.
 
Close the door, please.”

Richard
quickly closed the door.
 
All three stood
there, with their hands behind their backs, looking as if they were in some
kind of trouble.
 
Especially when they
saw Dutch sitting there.
 
They were used
to wealthy people around them.
 
The
patients all came from wealth.
 
But a
former president was an entirely different level, even at Hammersmith.

“I’m sure
you all know President Harber.”

They
all acknowledged that they did.

“He
wants to ask you a question or two,” Forbes said, and then turned it over to
Dutch.
 

Dutch,
who was sitting on the front edge of the desk, crossed his legs at the
ankle.
 
“My daughter, Jade, has a room on
the floor you service.
  
Correct?”

“Yes,
sir,” Cindy said for all three.

“Were
all three of you were working on the fifth floor when my daughter first arrived
here?”

They
all nodded.
 
“Yes, sir,” Cindy said.

“I
want a straight answer from each of you, please,” Dutch requested.
 
“I want to know if any of you think my
daughter has changed since her arrival at Hammersmith.”

At
first, they all just stood there.
 

“Changed,
sir?” Cindy asked.

“Yes.
 
Has she improved, in your estimation.
 
And I know you’re not doctors.
 
I don’t
 
mean that kind of technical improvement.
 
But all three of you are observant human beings.
 
I need your honest opinions.
 
And trust me,” Dutch added, “your jobs will
remain secure.
 
Won’t they, Dr. Forbes?”

“Oh,
absolutely,” Forbes said honestly.
 
“There will be no retribution.
 
We
value opinions.
 
They know it.”

“Good,”
Dutch said.
 
“So will each of you answer
my question?
 
Do you, Cindy, feel that my
daughter has changed for the better since she arrived at Hammersmith?”

Cindy
hesitated, but then spoke the truth.
 
“No, sir,” she said.

Dutch’s
heart sank.
 
“You don’t feel she’s
changed?”

“She
act like she has.
 
When she’s around the
counselors and Dr. Forbes and them, she act like a little princess.
 
But she’s as mean and hateful as she was when
she first got here.
 
When nobody’s
around, she treats us worse than mangy dogs.”

This
inwardly saddened Dutch, but he continued to listen.
 

Then
Richard, the only male of the three workers, spoke up too.
 
“I wouldn’t say she hasn’t changed at all,”
he said.
 
“I remember when she first got
here.
 
She’s not as crazy as she was when
she first got here, begging your pardon, sir.
 
But she sure is meaner.”

“She’s
so mean,” Maggie chimed in, “that it makes you wonder where that’s coming
from.
 
There’s something got to be wrong
with her to be that mean and hateful.
 
And the way she smiles and act all innocent when the counselors come
around.”

“Yeah,”
Richard agreed.
 
“It’s like she’s playing
a game.
 
And Maggie’s right.
 
To be that mean and hateful, there has to be
something wrong with her.
 
It has to be.”

“So
you don’t think she’s ready to leave this place?”

“I
wouldn’t trust her as far as I could throw her, sir,” Cindy said bluntly.
 
“There’s something bad inside of that
child.
 
I’m sorry, but it is.”

After
the other two agreed with Cindy, Dutch let out an exhale.
 
Then he looked at them.
 
“Thank-you for your honesty,” he said.
 
“I really appreciate it.”

“We
appreciate you, sir, and your presidency,” Cindy said.
 
“You did a lot of good for poor folks and
working folks like us.”

“Thank-you,”
Dutch said.

“And,
sir,” Richard chimed in, “please tell your wife we said hello.”

Dutch
laughed, and so did the other staff.
 

“He’s
got a monster crush on the former First Lady, sir,” Cindy said.

“You
have very good taste, young man,” Dutch said, and Richard smiled too.

Forbes
warned them before they left.
 
“What you
discussed here, with the president, is completely confidential, and it will not
be discussed beyond these walls.
 
Understood?”

They
all said that they did, and then they all were released to return to their
stations.

Forbes
looked at Dutch.
 
“That doesn’t mean Dr.
Golan is incompetent.
 
Please understand
that.
 
The housekeepers probably see a
side of her that Dr. Golan never sees.”

“That’s
the problem, isn’t it?” Dutch asked.

Forbes
was puzzled.
 
“What do you mean, sir?”

“The
side the housekeepers see, that side Dr. Golan doesn’t see, is really the only
side that matters.”

Forbes
thought about it, and then nodded his head.
 
“You’re right, of course,” he said.
 
And they headed back upstairs, to the private waiting area.

When
they walked back into the room, Jade and Sam both stood up, anxious to know
just what was going on.

Jade
smiled, but her desperation was already showing.
 
“I can’t wait to get out of here, Daddy,” she
said.
 
“I can’t wait to get away for a
couple of days.”

“I
think getting away from the hospital is a good thing,” Dutch agreed.
 
“But for now, it’s not going to happen.
 
You’re going to stay here.”

Jade’s
heart dropped.
 
“Stay here?” she asked,
astounded.
 

Sam
wasn’t surprised, but she wasn’t about to take Dutch’s side against her
daughter.
 
“What do you mean, Dutch?” she
asked him.

“I
mean she’s not coming to my home.
 
She’s
not ready yet.
 
Not yet.”

Jade
frowned.
 
“But I am ready, Daddy.
 
What have I done?”

“You
haven’t done anything.
 
You’re doing
well, if your psychiatrist is to be believed.”

“Why
wouldn’t you believe him?” Sam asked.
 
“He’s her psychiatrist!”

“I
understand that.
 
But I have to be certain,
and I’m not there yet.”

“Certain
of what?” Jade wanted to know.
 
“Certain
that I’m not crazy anymore?”

“Of
course not, Jade,” Dutch said in an admonished tone.

“No,
Jade,” Sam said, now understanding.
 
“It’s not about you being crazy.
 
It’s about you not being good enough to be around his family.”

“But
I’m his family!” Jade blared.

Sam
corrected her.
 
“You’re his
daughter.
 
Gina and Little Walt are his
family.
 
And he doesn’t want the likes of
you around those precious two.”

Dutch
was surprised by Sam’s sarcasm.
 
“That’s
not the case,” he said.

“Then
what is it?” Jade asked.
 
“Why can’t I go
home with you?
 
With my father?
 
You promised!”