Black, White and Gold (Josh)

[Rhea Hartman]

Rhea was twelve years old when she realized that she was too tall. She'd always been bigger than her peers, but so was everyone else in her family. Then came the annual checkup at the beginning of sixth grade. As Rhea stepped off the scale the nurse noted, “You must be starting your growth spurt, you're an inch taller than your brother this year.”

Rhea and her twin brother would fight over who had the worst breath in the morning if no better rivalry presented itself, and she flaunted her extra inch with relish. But as the weeks passed, her victory developed a strange self-consciousness. If she was taller than Daniel, she was taller than...well, everybody.

And she just kept growing. Their dad was re-stationed to Tennessee, they started middle school, and most of Rhea's classmates came up to her shoulders. The popularity that accompanied her athletic skill kept her from being teased, but in the halls between classes she felt freakish and huge. She developed a cool-kid slouch and wore flat heeled shoes. Her pituitary gland took encores through two more schools, and finally mere self-consciousness became impossible. She broke six feet when she was fifteen years old, and she could embrace her body or despise it.

Rhea's legs extended from the car with three inch heels on the ends of them. It required precision, since her cocktail dress kept her legs effectively pinned at the knees. Her companion offered a hand to help her out, which she accepted even as she used the car door to pull herself up.

Her date, Rajaram Manda, had made the invitation over OkCupid. Rhea was re-entering the world of romance the way a cancer survivor entered a hospital, which meant she mostly went on dates with men who could have been her dentist. So it was that she found herself on a Friday evening walking up the front steps of a colonial manor into a prominent councilman's retirement party.

As Raj introduced her into the elegant entryway, Rhea felt a suddent flash of her thirteen year-old self. Amazonian, black and tattooed in a sea of politician’s wives. It passed. Rhea selected an hors 'd'oeuvre from a silver tray and gestured it into the room. “Shall we?”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh, on the other hand, blended in with the rest of the men in attendance: primarily white due to Vermont's demographics, black-suited due to the occasion, and with the easy smiles of men who were among their network of peers. And although he wished at times he was a few inches taller or a few pounds slimmer, his decidedly average height and weight kept him from standing out.

Even wearing the tie[/i] Sean had bought him for his birthday was not enough to call attention to himself.

His personality, on the other hand, wouldn't allow him to fade into the background. He roamed the room, stopping to chat here or there with a colleague about a case, or to discuss policy with someone with a more successful campaign than his own had been.

Although he had arrived with Sean, the other man had left nearly as soon as they had stepped into the door, called away for a Hammel emergency. The attorney could hardly begrudge his partner that; they both had careers that involved occasional sacrifice from their personal lives. But although Sean was, in many ways, always on call, this was a rare enough occurrence that he could accept it for one evening, disappointing as it may have been.

"Oh, but at least he doesn't have to travel for work," He laughed when someone commented in sympathy that his plus one had run out the door so soon. And then they had seen an old friend and moved across the room, and his eyes had wandered across the crowd to see if there were any more familiar faces.

And there, in the doorway, was Raj Manda, along with...Rhea Hartman. She was the last woman he would have expected to see at a fancy cocktail party, but there she was. And in a dress and heels, too!

He lifted his cocktail towards the couple in greeting. Rhea was perhaps a bit aloof in his experience, but that was no reason not to say hello.

[Rhea Hartman]

There Rhea was, indeed, in the doorway. She was hard to miss. The district attorney did a comical double-take as she walked by--indeed above--him, stevedore arms and seventeen miles of leg in a shimmery red dress. Raj pointed out guests with slightly too much nonchalance, and the pair was gradually absorbed into the room.

Rhea lost Josh's initial greeting in the crowd, but about ten minutes later the currents of the mingling party allowed a second attempt. Raj had met some colleagues and gotten absorbed into a conversation about the stock market. She nodded along and sipped her white wine for a few minutes, but her attention shifted gradually from the discussion to the crowd around them. Her heels gave her a clear view of the entire room, and she noticed Josh in the next circle over.

She'd seen him around the courthouse, of course, and she was pretty sure he was Sean's husband. This made him moderately more interesting than the rest of the liberal gentry in the room. Rhea shifted her weight, and a branch of Josh's circle split to accompany her. "Having a nice time?" she asked the attorney, raising her dainty eyebrows over a small toast of her glass.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Miss Hartley!" Josh stretched his arms out in an enthusiastic welcome. "It's wonderful to see you outside the courthouse."

In such a small town it was difficult not to run into people from work at some point, but thus far they had largely managed to miss one another -- or, if they had been present at the same places at the same times, he had been too absorbed in other tasks or people to notice her.

"I don't think I've ever seen you in heels before."

Which was perhaps an inane thing to say, given that he only ever saw her on the job and thus in her uniform.

[Rhea Hartman]

Rhea had never imagined herself as a kindergarten teacher, but 'Miss Hartley' summoned an image of a pretty young woman helping a child correct their penmanship. She smiled slowly over the rim of her glass. "It's good to see you too, Mr. Berenstain."

Rhea and Josh moved in very different spheres of the legal process and did not interact much at work. However, it would be a lie to say that this completely justified their estrangement. There were Pilot Ridge attorneys that Rhea knew quite well, and she and Judge Williams got drinks together once a quarter. But the cursory information she knew about Josh, namely his campaign platform and choice of a partner, had kept her from getting to know him any better. He was a near-socialist who relished flat, sanctimonious conversation. Why bother?

But he was at least familiar, unlike the rest of the suits and cocktail dresses in the elegant dining room. The warmth of his greeting surprised and pleased her. "Yeah, well," she replied, placing one hand on her hip and resting her glass in her palm. "They make it a lot harder to hit people. Anything anyone's ever told you about kicking with stilettos is garbage."

The other members of Josh's circle were not sure how to take this comment from a six foot four woman with scars on her knuckles, and after some chuckles the school district commissioner asked, "And what is it that you do, Miss Hartley?"

"Police officer and firefighting." Sip. "Josh and I see each other at the Pilot Ridge courthouse every once in a while."

[Joshua Bernstein]

"That's right," Josh confirmed, dipping his chin and lifting his glass in her direction. "Although I don't believe we have ever had a chance to talk!"

Which was not through any introversion on his own part; he was willing to converse with anyone who would stand still to listen. However, he was also prone to a narrow focus, and when at court that often meant that he was too zoned in on his job to bother anyone he didn't directly need to interact with.

Then he added hastily, "But she's only joking about kicking people with stilettos," and he gave her an imploring look.

[Rhea Hartman]

Rhea tipped her glass slightly in a return toast to his own. "We haven't," she agreed, her voice somewhere between dry sarcasm and amusement.

She did not respond to Josh's imploring look, but she chuckled along with the rest of the group at his comment and didn't bring up the topic again. The circle of people gradually returned to their own fluid conversations, and Rhea returned her attention to Josh.

"I was sorry to hear about your last campaign," she said. This was technically true. Her tone was affable nonetheless as she continued, "Are you planning to run again?"

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh shook his head in response. "I don't think so. Campaigning takes up so much time, and I've been enjoying having free time again."

He took another sip of wine, then offered her a smile, "What about yourself? Gunning for the chief of police title?"

[Rhea Hartman]

Rhea did not have free time so much as time at a modest discount, and that was mostly spent asleep in front of the TV. When Josh suggested Rhea Hartman Police Commissioner 2016, she threw back her head in full-throated laughter. "No," she chuckled, stifling her mirth with her wine glass. She nearly blew bubbles of it into her nose. "I wouldn't call myself the political type."

It took a few more giggles to get the idea out of her system, which Rhea occupied by fishing another snack off of a passing tray. She offered one to Josh as an afterthought, and amusement remained in her voice as she asked, "But, it sounds like that would fit you just fine. What would you have pushed for on the council if you got elected?"

[Joshua Bernstein]

Rhea had just brought up one of Josh's favorite topics, a fact which the men and women around him knew all too well. Several people murmured their apologies as they sought refuge elsewhere in the room while the attorney straightened his shoulders and began to explain his platform.

"Oh, there are so many important issues! For instance, making Town Meeting Day a holiday so that anyone can participate and not have to worry about taking off work. Of course, it would be better if that were a state holiday, but state wide measures are a bit beyond town council's pay grade. Easing regulation of land use and building in a manner that doesn't compromise safety, so that we can provide more affordable housing. With how many transient residents Pilot Ridge has, it's important that they're able to find housing while here. And of course, pushing for meta humans to be a protected class. Pilot Ridge is the meta human capital of the United States, and we need to do our best to ensure that they're given the same rights as baseline humans. But since I am not on the town council, I can advocate for that on a state wide level. Those are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issues that the government should be addressing," He added, just in case she thought he had exhausted his list of topics.

[Rhea Hartman]

A grin threatened Rhea's courteous poker face when two attorneys and the district commissioner abruptly made their excuses and bailed ship. She nodded along solemnly and wondered if Josh had ever actually attended a public forum in a town that had more than ten thousand well-mannered residents.

She couldn't help a smile at his last comment, and she turned it into a nod of encouragement. "I can imagine," she agreed. She almost added, "I'd love if the mayor came and washed my car every weekend," but checked herself in favor of hearing how Josh would continue. "Such as?"

[Joshua Bernstein]

A third attorney and her date took their leave, but Josh remained oblivious to this.

"Well, for instance, ensuring that every working aged citizen of Pilot Ridge has an opportunity for full-time employment that pays a living wage. We have a better employment rate here than in much of the rest of the country, but anything less than one hundred percent is simply unacceptable. In that vein, making sure that the government only contracts with responsible employers who have unions and pay a living wage, rather than the employers who cut pay as much as possible in order to make a profit. Promoting agricultural infrastructure, so that locally grown foods are more easily accessible, promoting fair trade pricing for our local farmers, promoting sustainable farming practices...agricultural issues are important for the country as a whole, of course, but they impact Pilot Ridge much more than some other places."

[Rhea Hartman]

Rhea wondered how many more times Josh would use the word 'promoting' if she let him keep talking. She also wondered what exactly he had in mind for implementing all of these promotions. Poster campaigns? Asking people nicely?

"I imagine you've been happy with Shumlin so far, then," Rhea observed, taking a bite of her hors 'd'oeuvre. The Vermont Progressive party had backed down for him in 2010, after all. Of course, despite decriminalizing marijuana and legalizing physician assisted suicide, the governor had failed to raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hour, so maybe Josh still had a bone to pick with him after all. "And Obama?"

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Shumlin has done a great deal of good for this state," Josh said in the tone of someone who expected his audience agreed with him. "But Obama...." He hissed through his teeth and shook his head, "He's done some good, but he failed to follow through on all of his campaign promises, and the amount of drone strikes he's overseen is nothing short of shameful. We are literally killing US citizens without due process, and that's simply atrocious. I like Obama, but he hasn't quite lived up to the hopes and dreams the left had pinned on him."

He sighed heavily, then shrugged. "But that's almost no surprise when our country doesn't even have a proper leftist party, only conservative and slightly less conservative. You can't win elections if you're really on the left."

[Rhea Hartman]

Rhea had planned to keep her cards close for as long as possible just to see what Josh would say next, but she didn't see how he could possibly top that. The answers to this speech that jumped immediately to her mind were, You don't know the first thing about fighting a war, I think our leftist party is plenty far left if you're in it, and That's true, thank God.

Still, she managed to keep from either laughing or rolling her eyes so hard she popped a cornea, and instead remarked dryly, "A candidate not following through on all his campaign promises. What is American politics coming to?" She took another sip of wine. "Well, I only voted for Obama because he's black, and he's done a good job of following through on that."