“Oh, Perfect… just who I wanted to speak to,” Anita Jones said when the youngest Jones daughter called her the next morning. It worked on at least two levels. “Listen, has Tranquility been around to see you?”
“Around to see me? Mother, she practically abducted me off the street corner,” Perfect said.
“Well, darling, you are awfully hard to get a hold of, sometimes,” her mother said. “And what are you doing standing around on street corners for, anyway? I’ve seen the way you dress. You’ll give people the wrong idea for certain.”
“Are you talking about my workout clothes?”
“You’ve got no reason to work out, dear, you’re skinny as a rail. You always have been.”
“Look, never mind that… I heard Daddy’s going to be in town for a few days, and I wanted to…”
“Where exactly did you get that idea?” her mother replied. “On second thought, don’t tell me. I don’t think I could stand the answer. He was just here. Why would he be back?”
“Yes, but I didn’t get to…”
“Senate’s in session, dear. When is your father ever home during the week when he’s in session?”
“Well, I heard…”
“You aren’t bothering his staffers, are you?”
“No, Mother! I just… I thought I heard someone talking about him,” Perfect said. “Sorry I bothered you.”
“No, I’m glad you called,” her mother said. “Because this law school thing… well, I wasn’t at all in favor of it when Tranquility brought it up, but I actually think you should go through with it.”
“You want me to be a lawyer?”
“Oh, Perfect, nobody’s saying you have to finish it… I wouldn’t ask you to do anything against your nature.”
“You don’t think I could?”
“Perfect, dear, I am confident that you could do anything, just so long as you could set your brilliant little mind to doing it,” her mother said. “I’m just not about to hold my breath waiting for that to happen.”
“Mother!”
“Genetics can be complicated, dear. It may be wrong to expect the same sort of accomplishments out of you that we’ve seen from Divinity and Tranquility. I’m sure you are incredibly gifted in your own way,” Anita said. “It’s simply not a way that leads to anything terribly impressive, in a public sense.”
“You know, maybe you’re right about that,” Perfect said wryly.
“Of course I am, dear,” her mother said. “You’re never going to be a pioneering neurosurgeon or a Supreme Court justice…”
“Trey isn’t a Supreme Court justice.”
“Not yet, but then, her father isn’t president, either.”
“Daddy doesn’t want to run for president,” Perfect said. “He considers the Senate to be the most honorable position for public service.”
“Yes, well, Theodore Jones is a very wise man, and one of the wisest things he did was marry someone with sufficient ambition to make up for his own lack,” Anita said. “Anyway, that’s for another day. I just wanted you to know that I don’t expect the same things from you that I do from your sisters. But law school… well, it would be so convenient. It sounds so perfectly respectable, and you’re so young that… well, what’s that horrid saying your father likes to repeat about the dancing pig?”
“I’m afraid it’s escaped me,” Perfect said.
“Well, the point is that everybody will be terribly impressed when you start out but no one will be particularly disappointed when you fail to finish it. We’ll have someone make up a statement about there being more than one way to pursue social justice, and then when you fall back into your old routine of aimless volunteer work it’ll seem like you’re doing something noble and self-sacrificing instead of evading adulthood. You’ll also be a few years older, which will make everything you do less of a reflection on your father and I.”
“You think of everything, Mother,” Perfect said.
“Of course I do,” she said. “Now, Tranquility will be in touch, so make sure you’re home and you keep your phone on. I think it’s best if you keep your interactions with her focused, even professional. The two of you have never been close, exactly, and I can’t see it helping anyone for that to change at this late date.”
“You’re sure Daddy’s not coming home?”
“Perfect… dear… you know what he does, you know who he is,” Anita said, her voice softening. Perfect almost thought that her mother was feeling a twinge of pain for her, not because of her. “And I hope you also know that he thinks the world of you. He’s away so much that he doesn’t see everything that I see, and that may actually be a blessing. When I said that everyone will be impressed with you getting into law school, I was including him.”
Perfect could take just about anything from her mother, but not pity. It had to be a trick… a cover for something.
“Goodbye, Mother,” she said. “Sorry I bothered you.”
She hung up before Anita could say another word. She spent half a second staring at her cell phone before she opened it back up and dialed another contact.
“Perfect!” Tranquility Jones said as soon as she picked up. She sounded like she meant it. “I’m so glad you called. I…”
“Listen, Trey, have you heard anything about Daddy coming to town?” Perfect asked.
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