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August 19, 2008
Batesville Installment Fifteen
Andrew doesn’t do lunch. He’s more a fan of big breakfasts and good dinners. If he does eat anything for a mid-day meal it will be during a lunch meeting, which he can normally avoid by sending someone else in his place. It’s not that he has anything against lunches, it’s just that it’s not his thing. He does normally have a tea in the middle of the day, though. He quit coffee a few years back by doctor’s orders, following his first heart attack. He replaced the coffee with green tea, which he drinks all day long. He’s in the break room filling up his mug where he runs into one of his writers.
“Hey Bryan, I need to see you in my office when you’ve got time,” Andrew says while pouring hot water into his radio pledge-drive mug from the coffeemaker.
“I can come in now, if you’d like. I was just taking a rest before I call up Raytown’s police department,” Bryan replies while washing his fork in the sink. Andrew doesn’t see any plates or food sitting around and figures that Bryan was eating at his desk again. “I wanted to get a few quotes from them about the restaurant shooting.”
“How’s that developing?” Andrew asks as they walk through the cube farm back to his office.
“It’s awful, man. The hospital says the girl lost her baby and may be crippled. Just awful.”
“That’s the world we live in, B.” They step into the office and Andrew walks behind his desk and takes a seat. Bryan sits in one of the uncomfortable chairs opposite, still holding his fork. “Anyway, I need you to do a write-up on the mayor’s office.”
“The gay thing again?” Bryan asks, sounding worn out by the idea. Rightfully so, too. This will be the tenth story he’s had to do on the fact that Kansas City’s mayor Alex Hannigan is gay. “Woodford’s really got a hard-on for this, doesn’t he?”
“Fuck Woodford. I want you to do a cover feature on the credit crunch and what the city’s doing about it. Hannigan’s having a press conference about it tomorrow at ten. I’ve got an interview for you with him afterwards.”
“Any idea on what he’s putting forth?”
“The rumor is that they’re putting a freeze on foreclosures.”
“No shit? How in the hell are they going to afford that?”
Andrew looks through some of the memos on his desk. “Beats me. That’s your job to find out.”
Bryan taps his fork on his knee. “You mean I actually get to, like, do investigative journalism?”
“I’m just fucking with you, B. I need another story on how Hannigan takes it up the ass.”
Bryan just stares at Andrew, then shakes his head while he stands up. He taps his fork on the palm of his left hand. “He’s ruining this paper, Andrew.”
The news editor doesn’t respond. He doesn’t have to.
Posted by Schamberger at August 19, 2008 06:54 PM