Forty signs of rain - Kim Stanley Robinson [72]
The Khembalis looked pleased. Sridar looked impassive but faintly amused, as he often did.
Just as he was leaving, Phil spotted Charlie and stopped. “Charlie! Good to see you at last!”
Grinning hugely, he came back and shook his blushing staffer’s hand. “So you laughed in the President’s face!” He turned to the Khembalis: “This man burst out laughing in the President’s face! I’ve always wanted to do that!”
The Khembalis nodded neutrally.
“So what did it feel like?” Phil asked Charlie. “And how did it go over?”
Charlie, still blushing, said, “Well, it felt involuntary, to tell the truth. Like a sneeze. Joe was really tickling me. And as far as I could tell, it went over okay. The President looked pleased. He was trying to make me laugh, so when I did, he laughed too.”
“Yeah I bet, because he had you.”
“Well, yes. Anyway he laughed, and then Joe woke up and we had to get a bottle in him before the Secret Service guys did something rash.”
Phil laughed, then shook his head, growing more serious. “Well, it’s too bad, I guess. But what could you do. You were ambushed. He loves to do that. Hopefully it won’t cost us. It might even help. —But look I’m late, I’ve got to go. You hang in there.” And he put a hand to Charlie’s arm, said good-bye again to the Khembalis, and hustled out the door.
The Khembalis gathered around Charlie, looking cheerful. “Where is Joe? How is it he is not with you?”
“I really couldn’t bring him to this thing I was at, so my friend Asta from Gymboree is looking after him. Actually I have to get back to him soon,” checking his watch. “But come on, tell me how it went.”
They all followed Charlie into his cubicle by the stairwell, stuffing it with their maroon robes (they had dressed formally for Phil, Charlie noted) and their strong brown faces. They still looked pleased.
“Well?” Charlie said.
“It went very well,” Drepung said, and nodded happily. “He asked us many questions about Khembalung. He visited Khembalung seven years ago, and met Padma and others at that time. He was very interested, very…sympathetic. He reminded me of Mr. Clinton in that sense.”
Apparently the ex-President had also visited Khembalung a few years previously, and had made a big impression.
“And, best of all, he told us he would help us.”
“He did? That’s great! What did he say, exactly?”
Drepung squinted, remembering: “He said—‘I’ll see what I can do.’”
Sucandra and Padma nodded, confirming this.
“Those were his exact words?” Charlie asked.
“Yes. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’”
Charlie and Sridar exchanged a glance. Which one was going to tell them?
Sridar said carefully, “Those were indeed his exact words,” thus passing the ball to Charlie.
Charlie sighed.
“What’s wrong?” Drepung asked.
“Well…” Charlie glanced at Sridar again.
“Tell them,” Sridar said.
Charlie said, “What you have to understand is that no congressperson likes to say no.”
“No?”
“No. They don’t.”
“They never say no,” Sridar amplified.
“Never?”
“Never.”
“They like to say yes,” Charlie explained. “People come to them, asking for things—favors, votes—consideration of one thing or another. When they say yes, people go away happy. Everyone is happy.”
“Constituents,” Sridar expanded. “Which mean votes, which means their job. They say yes and it means votes. Sometimes one yes can mean fifty thousand votes. So they just keep saying yes.”
“That’s true,” Charlie admitted. “Some say yes no matter what they really mean. Others, like our Senator Chase, are more honest.”
“Without, however, ever actually saying no,” Sridar added.
“In effect they only answer the questions they can say yes to. The others they avoid in one way or another.”
“Right,” Drepung said. “But he said…”
“He said, ‘I’ll see what I can do.’”
Drepung frowned. “So that means no?”
“Well, you know, in circumstances where they can’t get out of answering the question in some other way—”
“Yes!” Sridar interrupted. “It means no.”
“Well…” Charlie