Chapter 11
by Dan Kirk
"Ibn dad la drk?" Sam whispered to me at the table, causing me to choke as the Dr. Pepper I was drinking went down the wrong pipe. He broke up laughing, as did David while the others at the tables around us just gave us dirty looks. In the month since Thanksgiving, most of our schoolmates had gotten use to us laughing at something no one else understood. The fact that we were in a Burger King in Fallon only meant that we were sharing a table with Derek, who was giving us a dirty look.
"I know that was something about me." Derek muttered as he put the Whopper he was eating down. He was frowning at us.
"David said you were a pig." David said, playing another joke on Derek. What Sam had really said was 'Do you like Derek?' to me. Since the twins were dressed identically again, today with tight Wranglers and blue polo shirts, Derek stared hard at them.
"I thought that was Sam." Derek muttered, challenging me with a glance.
"David, be nice." I said to the real David on my other side and the two of them broke up laughing while Derek gave me a satisfied grin. Truth be told, with his curly dark hair he was cute, and I might have been interested in him if I'd never met my Brian. I gave Sam his answer, though. "Ada" The single word conveyed that yeah, Derek would be a possibility.
"How did you learn that gobbly-gook?" Derek asked for about the tenth time in the last month.
"It's easy, once you understand the basics of linguistics." I answered again and Derek gave a frustrated sigh before picking up his hamburger and tearing into it viciously. I picked up my own and finished it up fairly quickly. We only had an hour in the large town that was home of the Naval Air Station since we were on the way to the State Championship in Carson City. The team was taking the high schooler's bus, which was different than the one we normally used, even though most of our families would be making the drive tomorrow for the actual game. Unlike the junior high sports bus, the high school bus had reclining seats, a stereo system, and was much more comfortable than the normal school bus. Since most of the away games we played involved a three hour drive or longer, I was eagerly looking forward to riding the more comfortable bus on a regular basis.
"Are Tammy and Julie talking to you two again yet?" David asked, changing the subject. The two girls from our year had been mad at Derek and I because the girls team didn't make it to the play-offs.
"No." Derek said with a frown. "Davey had to go and rub it in again that they weren't going."
"I did not!" I protested. "I just said that they'd have to do the books on this week's movie rentals while I was gone."
"Which reminded them that we were going to State while they were stuck back at home." Derek pointed out and we all shared a laugh. We finished off our lunch and headed back down the street to where the bus was parked in a shopping center parking lot. Highway 50 went through the center of town here like it did in Eureka, but the town was a lot bigger.
"I wonder if we'll get a McDonalds or Burger King now that we have a military base too." Derek said as if he was echoing my own thoughts.
"Naw, the base isn't big enough to support one of those." David countered.
"Yeah, even at full operation they'll only have how many people there, Davey?" Sam asked me.
"Four hundred and thirty-six is the currently planned complement." I answered automatically. Considering the number just about doubled the population of the area, it wasn't insignificant, but neither was it enough to support a fast-food joint. That number was still about two years off, and by then there'd be enough base housing for most of them.
"You're not giving away classified information there, are you Mr. Jones?" A deep, booming voice rang out from right behind us and we all turned around in surprise. Admiral Langsworth stood there, with his blond-haired wife, who was pushing a shopping cart of groceries. They'd just come out of the grocery store we were passing on the way to the bus and for a second his question worried me. It only worried me for a second though, because the information about the base was common enough among the adults in Eureka where conversations about the impending population explosion had been discussed in a recent town council meeting.
"I am just sharing my information vith my KGB handlers, Admiral." I said in a heavy Russian accent, eliciting a laugh from him, a frown from his wife, and looks of horror from Derek and the twins.
"That's a good one!" Admiral Langsworth laughed loudly before smiling at me and holding his hand out for me to shake, which I did. "I don't believe you've met my wife, Ellen."
"No, sir, I haven't." I answered, although I had met her in the previous lifetime when I visited her to pay my condolences on her husband's death. "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am. I'm Davey Jones."
"You're from Eureka?" Mrs. Langsworth asked as I shook her hand after releasing the Admiral's.
"Yes, ma'am, I am." I said politely. "Admiral and Mrs. Langsworth, let me introduce my friends, Derek Mulkey, David Wells, and his brother Sam Wells."
"It's a pleasure, young men." Admiral Langsworth said with a nod to my friends who were staring at him and at me with a hint of awe. "If I remember correctly, you boys are off to the state championships."
"That's correct, sir." Derek said slowly.
"Well, best of luck to you." The Admiral said with a grin. "Davey, do you have time to help us load the groceries in the car?"
"Sure, Admiral." I said with some surprise and turned to my friends. "Let coach know I'll be back at the bus in a few minutes, please."
"Sure." Derek said while the twins stared at me, their mouths half-open as if offering to help. I smiled and turned quickly before they could voice their offer of help and followed the Admiral to their car. The Admiral whispered something to his wife while he opened the trunk and she got in the car, leaving us to talk alone.
"How have things been going for you?" The Admiral asked me as we loaded several bags into his car's trunk.
"Fairly well, sir." I said softly. "No major problems have come up recently."
"That's good to hear." Langsworth said with a genuine hint of concern in his voice. "I was actually hoping I'd run into you around here today. There are some things coming down the pipeline that you probably haven't heard about yet. They're only being released to the flag-level officers, and I have a strong feeling you won't like it at all. I saw a request this morning for your schedule, and it came from the White House. You should probably expect a call when you get back."
"Thanks for the heads-up, Admiral." I said as we finished loading the groceries in the trunk. He shut it and shook my hand with a very serious expression on his face.
"You're welcome young man." He said kindly. "I've liked what I've seen of you so far, and I hope to see you in uniform one day."
"We'll see, Admiral." I said with a grin, shaking his hand quickly before taking off at a jog back to where the bus was parked. What the Admiral had warned me about, I had a fairly good idea of, and if it was accurate, I was not going to be a happy camper. No one deserved what was going to happen if the federal government went that route. It slid from my mind, though, as I boarded the bus, the last player to do so, and sat in the seat next to Derek's. He was talking it up with the twins, who sat across the aisle from us, and I was quickly absorbed into their conversation about who'd win the next Super Bowl.
I picked the 49ers of course.
It was something I always found amazing how teenagers, or close-to-teenagers, could spend hours talking about something and time would just flow by so quickly they didn't realize it was happening. This was another example of that because we were pulling into the Holiday Inn in Carson City before I realized we'd done more than pull on the highway and left Fallon. The drive was about three and a half hours, and it'd gone by very fast.
The first order of business was checking everyone into the hotel. We had eight students playing on the team (only Derek and I were from the seventh grade while everyone else was from Sam and David's class), and we were each sharing a room with one other person. Derek and I had teamed up with a room together, and the twins had managed to finagle coach into putting them into a room with a connecting door to ours. Mr. Latham was one of the English teachers and had drawn the duty of coaching the 'little' team when Mr. Crutchley stated he'd be too busy with the Varsity and JV teams this year.
Neither of those teams had made it to the playoffs, and the thin, weedy-looking Mr. Latham had refused to let Crutchley take over.
"I expect you four to get to sleep before midnight." Mr. Latham reminded us as he handed us our room keys. "There'll be a room check at eleven, and don't think I won't consider doing a spot check later if I think you'll be trying to sneak out. For now, go get your gear off the bus and into your rooms, and meet us for dinner in the hotel's restaurant."
"We'll be there." Derek said with a firm nod of his head. The four of us moved in a group back to the bus, where the driver Monique was just opening the cargo bays along the bottom. She was also the school bus driver for the Diamond Valley route (which I had not yet ridden in this lifetime), one of the town's three emergency medical technicians and ambulance drivers, and owned one of the town's three motels. Her son Paul was a freshman like Scott Raines. She gave us a nod as we took our bags off of the bus and happily made our way to the rooms. It was a typical hotel room with two full-size beds, a television, and a bathroom.
"Cool, they actually have cable here." Derek said happily as he started flipping through television channels after throwing his bag on the bed closest to the bathroom. It had that typical cheesy hotel floral print spread and I just let out a sigh as I began to unpack my bag into the dresser. We were only here for a night, but I always liked to have my bag unpacked. A knock at the door connecting our room to the twins' room announced they wanted to visit already.
"Cool, it's just like ours only reversed." Sam said with a broad smile after they had checked out our rooms. Derek had spread out on his bed, facing the television and David jumped on his bed and pushed Derek's bag onto the floor. Sam sat on the edge of my bed, also absorbed in the television, which was showing a news program from Reno. We watched that for about twenty minutes before it was time for dinner, and we headed out to the restaurant.
Dinner was a fun affair, with a lot of bravado about the upcoming games tomorrow. As I carefully ate my way through a New York steak cooked rare just as I liked it, my mind wandered back to the brief conversation with Admiral Langsworth. He was a good man, but his words disturbed me greatly. I'd been arguing against the proposal he obviously referred to for three months now, and I'd been fairly sure that the President was leaning towards my arguments. Having known him fairly well in the last timeline, I'd been confident I knew what to say to convince him I was right.
After dinner, I made my way back to the room with Derek and the twins. We all entered through the door to the room I shared with Derek, and the two of them made themselves comfortable while Derek took the ice bucket out to fill it up. There were plenty of snacks and sodas in our luggage, purchased far cheaper than from the local vending machines. The twins chatted amiably while Sam flipped through the channels. To my surprise, he stopped on a channel that was premiering a movie that had come out in 1980.
While they talked excitedly, and Derek joined in the excitement over watching the movie, I did my best not to laugh. The movie was "The Final Countdown." I remembered the movie from both previous timelines, and felt a kinship to it because the main plotline was about time travel. In the movie, an aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Nimitz, traveled back in time to the day before Pearl Harbor. The primary conflict in the movie was should the United States warship, which was cruising off the coast of Hawaii, launch a pre-emptive strike on the Japanese fleet that was preparing to launch the December 7, 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
In the first timeline, I'd watched this movie with my mother while we were living in Eureka, albeit around 1984, not 1981. Her and I had argued about the premise of time travel, and the altering of future events all night. Dad had woken up the next morning to find us still arguing and had angrily stated that the discussion was over, we were both wrong, and then he sent us to bed.
It was an enjoyable movie, and I couldn't help but chuckle at some of the scenes where the main characters were arguing about changing the past, and the future. I'd already done it once, and was doing it again, and made and heard most of the same arguments in real, serious conversations. David, who was lying on the bed next to me kept on giving me weird looks whenever I chuckled, so I tried to keep quiet through the rest of the movie. During commercials, we'd go to the bathroom, get some more soda or chips, but everyone came back to see the movie when it came back on the screen. No sooner had it ended then coach knocked on the door for bed check. He seemed happy that we were all there, and gave us a calm 'good night' before heading off. Derek turned off the television, plunging the room into near darkness except for the lamp in between the two beds. He sat down on the bed next to Sam while David and I sat facing towards them.
"So, what were you laughing at during the movie?" David asked me with a smirk on his face.
"Oh, just some of the things they were saying were kind of funny when you think about it all." I said carefully. One of the things I hated was lying to friends, so I avoided situations where I'd be forced to lie.
"Dude, time travel isn't something to laugh at." Derek said with a frown. "Just imagine if you went back into time and could change things for the better. Wouldn't that be a good thing?"
"What if you were married, in love, had a family that you cared about, and had to give it all up in order to go back and fix something?" I asked in return with a lot more bitterness than I expected. That bitterness earned me some sharp looks from my friends.
"Dude, it's just a television show." Sam said with a short laugh that fell flat.
"Yeah, it's just a show." I agreed with him.
"But still, you never know what can happen in the future." Derek insisted. "Think about it, all the things that are happening now. We could have time travel in twenty years! We have to think about these things now because we'll be the adults making the decision on them when it happens."
"Dude, we're here to play a basketball game." David said at Derek's insistent tone.
"David's right." I said with a grin, glad for the change in topic. Time travel was not something I really wanted to be discussing with these guys.
"What's the big deal about talking about time travel?" Sam spoke up, throwing me for a loop. He hardly ever disagreed with his twin. "I think it's a cool idea. Imagine being able to go back in time and change things. What if those planes hadn't been called back? What if they'd gone ahead and blown the Japs out of the sky?"
"Yeah, how much better would the world be for that?" Derek agreed with Sam. I felt irritated at their shallow thinking, but really they were just twelve and had no experience in time travel at all.
"What if the intervention of the advanced ship gave Roosevelt reasons to keep the United States out of World War Two longer?" I countered Sam's argument. "It was the total devastation of Pearl Harbor, the image of our entire fleet of battleships burning in their anchorage, the Arizona being lost with nearly all hands that galvanized the United States into war. Before that happened, most people here thought we shouldn't be involved in the 'European problem'. Germany joined Japan in declaring war only after they saw that the Japanese had achieved a great victory. If Pearl Harbor had been a defeat instead, Germany may not have declared war. Then the United States might have just concentrated on the Pacific theater instead of also concentrating on reinforcing Great Britain. Without the added assistance of our help, the British might very well have lost their battle against Germany and by the time we mopped up the Japanese, we'd have faced a Europe totally under the control of the Nazis. Then Hitler could have focused on the Russians the next Spring and by the time we got around to going to war with him, he'd have been too strong to defeat. Plus, he'd have had time to build an atomic bomb to match ours."
"Where do you get that idea from?" Derek asked with inquisitiveness. There was a strange passion burning in his eyes that was almost scary.
"It's the Law of Unintended Consequences." I stated firmly. "For every action there are at least two consequences that were totally unintended. That's the problem with messing with time, you never know quite how it's going to turn out."
"So you're saying that if you travel back in time you should change nothing?" Sam asked and I gave up resisting the discussion.
"No, not at all." I said carefully while drawing my feet up under me. I had all three of them looking at me now, waiting for what I was going to say. "What I'm saying is that when you travel back in time you have to be careful about what information you release, and what you do change. Every change is going to have consequences you don't think about, and you have to be careful that those consequences don't hurt things in the long run."
"Like going back and keeping your parents from meeting, or killing one of them." Sam said with a knowing nod of his head. It wasn't quite what I'd meant, but it was close enough.
"But then you'd never be born and you'd never be able to go back in time." David stated with a frown. "That's a…um…what's the word?"
"Paradox." Derek said quickly, but his eyes were locked on me. "So, Davey, what would you change if you could go back in the past?"
"Only what was necessary to improve the security of the United States." I said firmly.
"Why the country and not the world?" Derek pressed on and it was my turn to stare at him. I'd always known he was smart, but this was almost uncanny.
"I would say mostly because I'm an American and that's where my first loyalties lie." I answered honestly. "Also, I say that because while the United States hasn't been perfect, and we've done some harm, we're also a lot better than any of the alternatives out there. Sure, England's pretty good, but they don't have the resources and capabilities that we possess. We can do more, and so I stick to making the United States a better place."
"You stick to making the United States a better place?" Derek quoted my words with a questioning look.
"I meant to say 'I would'." I countered around a fake yawn. "Sorry, I'm tired."
"Well, I'm not." Sam said with a frown.
"I'm tired too." David said and I felt grateful for that.
"Let's go in the other room and keep talking." Derek said to Sam, who nodded his agreement at the idea. "David, you can use my bed."
"Sounds good to me, dude." David said with a nod. When the other two had gone into the other room, David pulled down the covers of his bed while I did the same with mine. He had a nasty grin on his face when he looked over at me as I was undressing. "So, Davey, do I need to go to the bathroom or can I jerk off out here?"
"Go get two washrags." I said with a hint of a smile. Sure, I'd kept myself from touching him or his brother, but some lines had been blurred in the last few weeks. David was grinning widely in the dim light as he went and got two washrags from the bathroom. He threw me one as I climbed into the bed and pushed the covers aside. I was a little surprised when he turned the light out before climbing in his own bed. A little light leaked through a crack in the curtains over the window, and as my eyes adjusted I could make out his glistening skin in the dim light. He was lying on top of the bed, covers thrown back, and was already massaging his erection. That sight got me going, and the room filled with the soft sound of two young boys masturbating. I closed my eyes, after the first few minutes and let my memories of Brian fill my mind. It didn't take long for me to reach that sweet moment of release, nor much longer to clean up the result with the washrag, which I dropped on the floor. From the sounds coming from David's bed, he'd just finished as well.
"Good night, Davey." David whispered out loud as he got comfortable in bed.
"Good night, David." I answered back, pulling the covers over me. At least with the light out he couldn't see the tears forming in my eyes as the pain of missing my Brian filled me as it usually did. When sleep came, I was thinking about him again, remembering that night we'd hired a yacht for a cruise around several Greek islands. It had been a glorious week, spending each night with him in the yacht's main cabin, and one of the happiest memories I had.
The sound of a phone ringing brought me out of a dream that quickly slipped out of mind. It had something to do with Brian, but that was all I could remember as the phone rang again. I groaned aloud as I fumbled for the offending object, slightly disoriented from being in a strange room. Someone else was quicker though, and I heard David's voice as he picked up the phone.
"Hello?" David said crossly. "Yeah, this is David, who is this? I don't…what? Yeah, whatever."
"Who was that?" I asked as David slammed the phone down.
"Someone playing a stupid joke." David answered crossly. "What time is it?"
"It's just after five." I answered. "What kind of a joke?"
"The lamest joke I've ever heard." David stated with an irritated sigh as he plopped back onto his pillow. "I would think it's one of the guys, but whoever it was sounded like an adult. He said his name was Mike something-or-another and that I was to be back in the room alone at 8:15 to receive a phone call from the President."
"That is lame." I agreed with David while allowing my eyes to go round in surprise. More than likely that had been Mike Andrews from the CIA, calling for me. Like the President, he'd been using the formal version of my name, not the familiar form, which meant he'd asked if it was 'David' on the phone, not Davey. Still, David had dismissed it as a joke. I just had to make sure I was here at that time to take the call, and that I was alone without raising any suspicions. We didn't leave the hotel until 9:30 this morning, with breakfast at 7:30, so it shouldn't be too bad. I let out a sigh and got out of bed. With everything that had gone on last night, and the phone call, I felt the urgent need for a run, although it would have to be short because of the games later today. "I'm going for a short run, I'll be back in an hour."
"Don't wear yourself out." David warned me as I grabbed a pair of shorts from my drawer and pulled them on. A tank-top, socks, and my tennis shoes followed and I picked up my room key before heading out. It was a crystal-clear morning sky that greeted me as I stretched briefly and took off for an early-morning run around the block.
Six miles later I stopped back in front of my room door. David was just stepping out of the shower when I entered the room and he gave me a wide grin. With a shushing motion, he indicated his brother and Derek were still asleep in the other room. To my surprise, he had me follow him as he opened the door, and I saw why immediately. Derek was spooned into Sam's front, with Sam holding on to him tightly. Without making a sound, we shut the connecting door and giggled.
"My brother got lucky last night." David whispered with glee.
"You two are going to sleep with half the guys in the school if you keep this up." I murmured around a giggle and David slapped me on the shoulder.
"We still haven't seduced you." David said. "Last night's the closest we ever get."
"Yeah, well, someone has to be able to say no to you two." I whispered back before stripping off my clothes, grabbing a clean washcloth (the last one), and a towel. Luckily there was still plenty of hot water as I got the shower going. David was a slob, so the floor was covered with wet towels and water, but I resisted the urge to clean it up. Instead I just focused on getting the sweat off of my body. The run had me feeling a little better and I thought about ways of sneaking back to the room in order to take the phone call without raising too much suspicion.
The phone rang again while I was in the shower. David poked his head in the bathroom and informed me that Coach wanted us to get up and get ready for breakfast. Apparently it was almost seven o'clock. I'd taken a lot longer on my run than I normally would, mostly because I wasn't use to having to cross streets with traffic lights anymore.
Despite the need to get moving to breakfast, I stayed in the shower for another ten minutes. David popped his head in again to say he was leaving before I even thought about turning the shower off. I wasn't really thinking about anything specific in the shower, just going in mental circles with jumbled phrases and thoughts popping in and out of my head. Intellectually I knew it was a sign of minor depression in me, but there was nothing that I could do about it all. So far, it hadn't really interfered with my life, and life wasn't that bad, but I really did miss my Brian.
Eventually I got out of the shower, put on a pair of gold sweat pants and gold sweatshirt with green lettering saying "Eureka Vandals" and headed down to the hotel's restaurant for breakfast. I was the last to arrive, and earned myself a warning glare from the coach. It was a breakfast buffet, so I filled a plate with fresh fruit, some eggs, and some sausage before sitting down in the chair David had left vacant next to him. It wasn't the best breakfast in the world, but I ate enough to give me the energy I'd need for the game. For game days, it was also important not to overeat, as at least two of our teammates were doing right now. A careful glance at my watch showed it was nearly time for me to head back to the room just as the coach spoke up.
"Okay guys, we have about twenty minutes before we have to leave." He said in a voice loud enough to cut through the chatter. "You guys left the bus a mess last night so I want to see the lot of you out there picking it up before we leave."
His announcement was met with a round of groans as guys began to get up and head to the bus. I'd expected something like this, so I went over to the coach right away. He gave me a dirty look at the explanation that I needed to use the bathroom, but he did excuse me from the cleanup duty. Besides, I'd been the only person carrying my trash off the bus with me last night. I managed to get into the room just as the phone started ringing.
"Jones speaking." I said as I picked up the phone.
"David, good, you got the message this morning." President Reagan's voice was slightly cheerful and I smiled to myself.
"Actually, I got the message from my friend, sir." I responded and almost laughed at the sudden intake of breath I could hear.
"Your friend?" President Reagan asked in a surprised tone.
"Yes, my friend 'David' answered the phone this morning, sir." I explained. "Luckily, he thought it was some weird joke our teammates were playing on us."
"I see." President Reagan said slowly. "I'll have to have a talk about making sure it is you on the phone in the future. Are you ready for the big game today?"
"Yes, sir, we'll be leaving for the gym in about fifteen minutes." I answered. "The team's cleaning out the bus from our trip out here so I'm alone, but the line is still unsecured."
"I understand, and I seriously doubt there's some Soviet agent tapping these lines in hopes of overhearing this conversation." The President replied with a slight chuckle.
"Understood, sir." I answered with care.
"I'm going to assume that you already have guessed the purpose of this phone call." He continued quickly. "Four days ago the Center for Disease Control informed me that they'd successfully completed your instructions for conducting blood tests to detect HIV. Since then I've been meeting with my best advisors, and we've been discussing our options now that we can detect the virus. You've more than made your position clear, and I know you won't like what has been decided."
"You're going with isolation." I said while my heart dropped down to my feet.
"Not exactly, but essentially, yes." The President confirmed, piquing my curiosity.
"I appreciate your informing me of this, sir." I said, unsure if any questions would be answered.
"David, I know you don't like the thought of using force to isolate infected or at-risk individuals, but we believe it is the best thing for this nation, and for the world." President Reagan explained carefully. "I want your full cooperation and support in this, David, so I'm telling you about this personally, before my public announcement tonight."
"You're moving forward with this so fast?" I asked in total shock. "Mr. President, you can't just announce you're going to scoop people off the streets and expect them to go without fighting. Yes, many of them are gay, but that doesn't mean they're going to let you do that without a fight."
"David, you're assuming many things here." President Reagan said. His next words told me I hadn't just said those words, but practically yelled them. "Take a deep breath and calm down. You've explained several times the physiological differences in teenagers and I believe you, just like I believe all the other wonderful information you are providing for us. Hear me out, and if you have any further suggestions I'll give them the consideration you have earned."
"Yes, Mr. President, and I apologize for raising my voice." I said after taking a deep breath.
"That's fine, David." Reagan said with a full chuckle this time. "Now, I'm going to ask you some questions to help frame the decision we've reached. How many people were infected by this disease in 2004 of your last lifetime?"
"Nearly twenty million, sir."
"And your first lifetime?" The President asked.
"Nearly forty million." I answered.
"In either lifetime was a cure found or even a vaccine?" He asked me and I let out a sigh.
"No sir."
"How many people do you estimate are infected in the United States and the world respectively at this very moment?"
"At the most, ten thousand in the United States." I answered honestly. "Worldwide, maybe thirty or forty thousand."
"How much money was spent on the AIDS epidemic in the last timeline?" Reagan asked me gently.
"Nearly two-hundred billion dollars." I answered with a sinking feeling.
"If we isolate and test all high-risk groups right now, how much do you think we'd spend?" The President of the United States asked me in a voice that conveyed a sense of formality and grave interest.
"One or two billion, probably, over a five year period." I answered, remembering a study that had suggested that in the last timeline. Out of a sense of fairness, I'd included as much of that study as I could remember in my early reports in this timeline.
"Well, I have just signed off on a plan to spend five billion over the next two years." The President stated and I couldn't help but feel curious. Fortunately, he didn't leave me hanging, but proceeded to answer my unspoken questions. "As I'll say in my speech later tonight, the men and women who are infected or at-risk are Americans. They deserve the very best from this country if we are going to violate their civil rights to protect others. As President, I swore to protect the Constitution of this country, and I don't lightly make the decision to put aside any part of that document."
"But the Constitution is not a suicide pact." I quoted a famous Supreme Court Justice.
"Right on the mark, David." President Reagan said with a strong tinge of approval. "I hoped you'd see that point. If we take strong, decisive action right now, we can keep this disease from claiming millions of lives, not just lives of people around the world, but of Americans as well. To me, that is a laudable goal. Not everyone who is a member of a high-risk group will have to be isolated. We're going to require anyone who is a member of a high-risk group to be tested twice a year for the next two years. They will be paid one thousand dollars each time they are tested, as compensation for forcing them to take the test. If they test negative after the fourth time, they will be removed from obligatory testing. Should they desire additional testing, they may chose to be tested twice a year, for free. Everyone who is tested will be guaranteed confidentiality so long as the results turn up negative."
"How will you actually get people to do the tests?" I asked him with some curiosity. It isn't like you could tell a gay person from a straight person most of the time.
"Well, that's the hard part and where we have to apply a stick and not just a carrot." Reagan answered with another chuckle. "The stick is going to be the punishment if someone turns up positive without having registered and taken the semi-annual tests. This part will not be announced, but every time someone visits a hospital, their blood will be taken for a test. This should catch most of the people who are positive and slip through the net. Anyone found to have been engaging in high-risk behavior without having registered for testing will face a federal felony charge with a prison sentence of twenty-five years to life in prison without parole. The maximum sentence will be reserved for people who infect others, knowingly or unknowingly."
"What about those who are infected?" I asked carefully. To be totally honest, I could live with what he'd expressed so far. I sat down on the bed and stared at my feet as he answered my question."
"Well, David, that's the hard part of all this. Son, you yourself have told me that those who are infected pose a danger to this country."
"Excuse me, President Reagan, I have never, ever said someone with AIDS poses a danger to those around him." I interrupted him angrily. Some switch inside my head turned off and rage flooded through me at the implication of his words. "HIV is actually very hard to transmit. It requires body fluid to body fluid contact. You can eat off of the same dishes as someone who is positive after washing them."
"Can you assure me that an infected person won't go out and have unprotected sex with someone who is not infected?" President Reagan's tone was angry now. "Will you promise me that an infected drug user won't share his needle with someone not infected? Can you promise that an infected prostitute won't give blood because she didn't get enough customers that night, or that her last customer who didn't use a condom won't go home and get his wife infected, or worse, pregnant and infected? These are all scenarios you point out in your own reports, David."
"No, I can't Mr. President." I said with a defeated sigh.
"That is why everyone who is infected will be treated with the utmost respect, given reasonable quarters, and kept away from the rest of society." President Reagan continued.
"Yes sir." I said calmly. "But the question I have is will they really be treated with respect?"
"Well, that's up to you." The President said, surprising me again.
"How is that up to me?" I asked quietly.
"I know that you have strong feelings on this." The President explained. "I am also aware that these people will have no better advocate than you. That is why I will be inviting your father, as a commissioned Chaplain, to tour these facilities during your upcoming Christmas Break. He will, of course, bring his son along. If you see something you don't like, or something that you believe needs to be changed, you will report it to me and I will give it all due consideration. Your report will go directly to me, without going through anyone else's hands. What you have to say I will read, unedited, and if you believe it important enough, don't wait to write it out, call me directly and we will fix things."
"Mr. President, I…uh…thank you." I said with some relief. I didn't like this, but like so many other things it was something I could live with.
"Watch my speech tonight, David." President Reagan said calmly. "We'll talk more in the upcoming week. I'm going to invite your family out to the ranch over the Lincoln holiday in February and we'll discuss this and some other things a little more. For now, go win that game of yours."
"Thank you, Mr. President, and I'm sorry once again for raising my voice." I said and was answered by a short chuckle.
"Take care and good luck, David." He said before hanging up. I noticed that there were tears in my eyes as I raised my head from looking at the floor. That was why my vision was a little blurry as I moved my head to the left, towards the connecting door, and saw three very surprised faces looking at me.
"Oh Shit."
