Time Warp: The Whole Tapestry of One's Life

[Joshua Bernstein]

July 7, 1981

---

Joshua Bernstein leaned across the table he shared with his lover, his expression gleeful. A basket of tortilla chips and a dish of salsa separated them, though beneath the safety of the tablecloth their feet brushed together.

"Can you believe it?"

He'd asked this same question at least twenty times that day, to everyone: Greg, Daphne, his parents, Talia, Simon, several of his professors, Donald (via the phone), his Rabbi, and the woman who worked at the laundromat he frequented.

He hadn't expected this level of progress, not from this president, and yet....

"Can you believe it? A woman, on the supreme court!"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean liked this restaurant because the food was of high quality and because Josh loved Mexican food. The telepath enjoyed making his boyfriend happy, and this included going to restaurants that served the younger boy’s favorite foods.

Truly, his greatest objection to this particular restaurant was its location. Specifically, it was located outside of the Village, which meant that he and Josh had to avoid even the small liberties they allowed themselves in the safer establishments of the Village.

They couldn’t allow themselves to look like they were on a date.

Which, technically, they were not.

They couldn’t allow themselves to look like two young lovers sharing a meal.

Incidentally, Sean had developed a greater appreciation for tablecloths since he and Josh had begun dating those few years ago. The ability to play footsie provided some sense of closeness.

“I wasn’t expecting it,” he admitted, as he pressed his foot against his boyfriend’s beneath the table, while reaching for a tortilla chip. Already, Reagan had proven himself an unmitigated disaster, since he had tried to gut the Great Society programs after less than a month in office. He was also trying to force through a 30% tax cut, to the approval of the Neville family and to the barely concealed horror of the telepath and his social circle.

As a result, he met the announcement with suspicion rather than open-armed glee.

He nibbled his chip and swallowed, before he said, “I need to read more about her, but obviously Reagan thinks she’ll rule how he’d like.”

[Joshua Bernstein]

"She might," josh allowed. He couldn't discount the fact that she had been nominated by Reagan and was thus likely to vote very conservative. "It's still an important step, though. Just think, maybe we could vote in a female president next.@

[Dr. Sean Neville]

This was why Sean wanted to read and research more about O’Connor. Aside from his suspicions about how a conservative president would utilize a justice on the Supreme Court, he had very little specific knowledge. He never liked to pontificate in the absence of knowledge.

“It would be incredible to have a female president,” the telepath conceded with a nod. He had no hopes of that within the next few years, given the trends of the nation, but the various liberation movements had made some progress and ignited hope for the future. “But I wouldn’t want an American Margaret Thatcher. Would you?”

Sean knew the answer to that. Margaret Thatcher was Ronald Reagan’s British counterpart. She favored deregulation. She favored lower taxes. She favored privatization of government functions. She opposed labor unions. She opposed Communism in the same way that the U.S. did, albeit with a smaller stick. They did not need another president like that, irrespective of gender.

Not that it mattered, since Reagan had only been sworn in earlier this year, and he had three and a half years left in his term. The telepath could only hope that he would be a one-term president, because eight years of Reagan was a terrifying thought.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh sat back with a frown at Sean's statement. "Did you have to say that?"

Now his celebration of progress was <I> ruined</I>.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

That had not been Sean’s intention.

This was one of the difficulties that he had with Josh at times. His boyfriend was twenty-one years old. He was an adult and had been an adult for three years now, and in two months, he would be a senior in college, preparing for law school applications and the road to even higher education followed by self-sufficiency. Josh was intelligent and, more importantly, he was intellectually curious with a deep love of learning. Sean cherished all of their conversations, especially the ones about current events and world policy; sharing on that level brought them closer together, even when they might not find themselves completely in tune.

However, his boyfriend’s bright-eyed idealism could make it difficult to have those conversations at times. He went so quickly from exuberance to disappointment, and he had yet to master the state of “cautious optimism.” A state that Sean called home more often than not, as his telepathy had made him more worldly than his young life and relatively paltry experience would have provided him otherwise.

Because they were in public, the telepath could not reach for Josh’s hand as he might in the sanctity of their apartment. Instead, he pressed his foot against his boyfriend’s, beneath the table where nobody would see it.

“I’m not trying to rain on your parade,” he said gently. “I’d love a rightly liberal woman president as much as you would, you know.”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh inhaled deeply. Of course Sean would welcome a woman president should she share their ideology; he had no doubts about the telepath' devotion to gender equality. But he wanted to be happy about this development, to celebrate the first woman on the Supreme Court. And he didn't want to mourn that she was a Reagan appointee. Instead he wanted to celebrate that even Reagan had advanced something good rather than only appointing men.

"Yeah. Maybe Bella Abzug will run again. I would vote for her. I just hope McCormack isn't the first woman president. That would be too depressing."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean inhaled sharply through his nose at the mention of Ellen McCormack. The displeasure and frustration represented by that act was directed toward the woman in question, not toward his boyfriend for saying her name. After all, the telepath agreed with Josh’s assessment.

The mere thought of Ellen McCormack as the first woman president was enough to destroy his appetite.

Fortunately, this would never come to pass. Sean felt confident of that fact, and he said as much to his boyfriend. “America won’t elect a third party under our system. She could never get the Democratic nomination, and, even if she did, she wouldn’t get liberal voters. She has nothing to offer.”

That Sean declared that was telling, although not surprising. He was Catholic, and he had been raised in a culture of pro-life rhetoric through the Church, albeit one that extended past mere opposition to abortion. It included opposition to war and to the death penalty and to suicide (both individual and assisted or euthanasia, which was medically distinct but which many people confused with assisted suicide in conversation) and ostensibly to poverty. Despite that, Catholics held all manner of political views, which caused them to compromise on, or outright reject, some or all of those teachings.

The telepath maintained about half of those beliefs; this did not include room for McCormack’s sole political issue which comprised her entire platform.

He shook his head to exorcise the notion. “It’s too bad Mother Jones isn’t here. I’d vote for her for every office.” Of course, she had been dead for over fifty years, so that, too, would never come to pass.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Would she even want to be in elected office?" Josh squinted in thought. "Didn't she oppose women's suffrage?"

Mother Jones was a formidable and legendary figure who had achieved much Good, but even she wasn't perfect.

"I still want Azbug to run. Just think, our first woman president could also be the first Jewish president!" He suggested, blue eyes bright with enthusiasm for this idea. But then his shoulders fell and he sighed. "That would never happen."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

“She opposed suffrage at the age of 90 and died in 1930,” the telepath pointed out. “I think she’d run and would vote if she lived in the present.” Although Sean did not say as much, he drew on his family experiences in forming that opinion. His mother proudly voted and engaged in some political organizing, albeit for candidates that Sean opposed by all measures. His sister voted, and she would not tolerate anyone who tried to dictate her political opinions, something for which Sean was proud of her, even if she supported the same candidates as his parents. At the same time, if his mother had been the product of a different age, born in the 19th Century instead of the 20th Century, Sean could envision her opposing suffrage for similar reasons to those that Mother Jones had articulated.

That was neither here nor there, since Mother Jones had been dead for half a century, and Victor Frankenstein was confined to gothic horror novels and Universal Studios movies.

Sean dipped a tortilla chip in salsa and munched on it while his lover grew starry-eyed at the thought of something that would never be. At least Josh recognized this, so that the telepath did not have to break the news to the younger boy.

He understood the dream, of course. Sean knew that he would be overjoyed at the thought of a meta-human president, as long as the person in question was like Robert instead of Ronald Reagan (who was, thankfully, not meta-human). “It would be nice if she did.”

[Joshua Bernstein]

"I would vote for her." Josh opined, in case there was doubt on this point. Anything else he had to say on the matter was interrupted by the return of their server bearing hot platters of rice and beans and enchiladas and tacos. He scooted back, obediently dropping his hands into his lap at the warning of 'hot plate, hot plate'.

"Mmmmm. It smells delicious!"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean knew, although he refrained from saying as much. He loved his boyfriend, but part of talking with Josh was exercising self-restraint and not telling him everything that he knew. The telepath tried not to frustrate the younger boy, which meant allowing him to say whatever was on his mind, eve when he simultaneously wore it on his sleeve. Rather than point out that he already knew because he was a telepath, or because Josh was so passionate and easy to read, he simply smiled and replied, “So would I.”

The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of their food, and Sean instinctively moved his arms so as to make room for the platter. The spicy aroma filled his nostrils, causing his smile to widen. “It does,” he agreed. His stomach grumbled, and he reached down to pat it. “I’m sure it tastes as good as it smells.”

Despite his hunger and his surety, he nudged the plate slightly, careful only to touch the edge in order to avoid burning his fingers. “Take some,” he encouraged the younger boy. Once Josh filled his plate, then Sean would follow suit. He had ingrained manners, coupled with his general desire to take care of his boyfriend and his delight in seeing him happy.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh eagerly piled refried beans and rice and enchiladas onto his plate, then gingerly nudged the tray towards Sean. Now that the server was once again out of earshot it was safe to resume their conversation.

"Do you think we'll ever see a Jewish president?" He asked, his expression wistful. Although he wished for one who was both a woman and Jewish, he knew that either one of those was a tall order given American prejudices. Any presidential candidate seen as a Serious Contender had their Christian bonafides put under scrutiny, because, as even people he thought ought to know better had said to his face, "America is a Christian country."

The veracity of this statement, and what it had to do with the president, was debatable in Josh's very vocal opinion. But that didn't change the fact that it would be near miraculous for someone who wasn't at least putting on a pretense of Christianity to be elected to the highest office in the country.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean only reached for the platter once Josh had finished serving himself and had nudged the dish in his direction. He considered that part of manners, letting his boyfriend have the first sample of whatever their shared dish was, no different than how he would not take a bite of his meal until everyone at a table had been served. Then he served himself a large portion of rice, beans, and enchiladas, before pushing the platter back into the center of the table.

However, before he could take a bite, Josh posed a difficult question, and he set down his fork. “I don’t know if we will,” he admitted, although it pained him to have to dash his boyfriend’s idealistic dreams. One of the aspects of Josh that he loved was how hopeful the younger boy was. And there was no intrinsic aspect of being president that required belief in Christianity. However, there had only been one Catholic president, elected two decades ago in a very close race, and he had been assassinated (although probably not for being Catholic). Everyone else had been protestant, and this time, Reagan had run on such a heavily religious platform. Sean found it difficult to hold to idealism in light of that. But... “I’m sure there will be one someday.”

He shook his head in response to Josh’s other remark, although he knew that the younger boy did not truly believe it. “We aren’t. And someday others will see that.”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh crunched into his taco with a grimace.

Someday can't be soon enough. He thought savagely. It simply wasn't fair that so many of his fellow citizens were convinced that one couldn't be a good president if one wasn't Christian. Or, more specifically, Evangelical. He simply didn't understand how enough people felt this way that it was a platform that could see success.

"Is not fair." He complained after swallowing. "It shouldn't be controversial if I wanted to run."