“How bad is it?” She peered through her black, thick-rimmed glasses as she shifted elegantly in the soft leather seat.
“Badly” Rai returned matter-of-factly.
“You okay?” Simone was as close to a guardian angel as they came. She knew instinctually when people were in pain, distress, or even slightly out of balance, and could time and finesse her approach within the person’s comfort configuration.
“Just the fear of failure, and even being concerned about that while I’m walking out of a building where five peoples’ lives were needlessly brought to an end.” Rai was taking his responsibility as a member of the citizen body seriously; for his part, to have influenced things in a better direction.
“I get it” Simone reassured him. I feel the same way, and I’m pushing myself to move past it to focus on this incredible opportunity. I know you will too.”
“We know you’re right. Thanks Sim.” The foundational philosophy of The Citizen Body, called OptEvo, used fluid leadership, rather than positional leadership and it was in full force between them. As First Chair Center Council, Rai had the highest positional authority in the organization, but the Spiritual Principles of their foundational philosophy put the best ideas in the lead role rather than just the idea of the highest authority. “It’s a pretty short ride to the White House from here. Ever been?”
Simone deftly balanced between working and making Rai feel like he had her undivided attention. “No actually. My work in politics never got me that high up.”
She had a smile like the spiritual sun beneath her stylish mask, he knew. Rai thought human beings, and their human energy were their own greatest resource and often marveled at how this has been overlooked by our philosophers and politicians. Simone, he knew was an exemplar of what well coded human energy can do – unite people, help people up, mentor and teach, always growing every member of tcb, as one of the fundamental and inextricable processes of life.
“So what do you think? Is he going to listen?” Simone looked sideways as they both rode in the back seat. Her energy always knew when to heat the air to elevate and when to cool it to descend from runaway emotion. They both knew that TCB wouldn’t exist without her, and they both held the appreciation sans ego.
“Major amount of active uncertainty. We are here and this is light years ahead of where we thought we’d be right now.” Rai was in a surreal state, a bit overwhelmed but energized for the authenticity of performance required to affect the energy of a person like Donald Trump.
“You got this.”
“We” Rai quickly murmured.
“You know what I mean, this is your baby.” Simone took less credit than she deserved. Her elegance and charisma understated but complex, like many human beings. But the fact her frequency was attuned to the new concepts that the human race so badly needed made her special in this growth. A body starts when two cells come together and form one, and then those cells just keep dividing into more and more until you get trillions and a full grown human being. She attracted many physically, but for philosophic technology to advance, and do any good, she was untouchable outside of her role.
“Our baby, all of us, we’re just the cells that are growing more and more … eventually we’ll be a full functioning body of all of us. By the way … this is why I can’t get any dates.” Rai managed to slip some humor into a very nerve-racking moment. Here they were, two non-connected, regular citizens not of any particular wealth or status, to speak with the most powerful man in the world, who had split it into two camps, and he had asked for them. “Sim this is crazy.”
“Beyond … but you worked hard.” Her natural hair and features, which caught his attention momentarily, reinforced the spirit of authenticity they came touting.
“We … all of us.” Rai was careful to keep correcting that he is merely representing TCB, not a stand-alone guru or shaman.
“But as you do this … you are speaking for all of the people … and you have at the moment their interests entrusted. Let’s be real, I don’t even know if they want me in there with you.” She could have done it just as well, but something in her beyond his position, was telling her it should be Rai’s doing. Trump would trust a white middle-aged guy more than a black middle-aged woman for sure, but Rai wondered if part of the strategy should be to insist that Simone be present. She shifted her attention back to her tablet, always diligent in her mannerisms, her commanding fingers dancing gracefully on the clean screen.
“What do you think? We didn’t really clarify it with Emma Doyle.”
“Didn’t you say he’s a lot like that old mentor you had? The limo guy?”
“Yeah, Steve Wheeler. Exactly. Him, Gordan Gekko, Trump, all the same kind of guys.”
“So what would Wheeler respond to?” Simone was operating just as he liked, helping him think better.
“He’s so many steps ahead of you when you’re talking to him. It’s not about what’s being said so much as the position he’s got you in already.” Rai couldn’t believe he was figuring out his strategy and talking points minutes before the meeting with the president of the United States, just after a historic armed insurrection took place in the Capitol Building … and many murmurings of more violence or war … and in full detail to their driver who could relay everything being said. But that was the thing about the OptEvo philosophy – everything, almost, is out in the open. And Simone and Rai knew what they needed to deliver, but they weren’t sure how to present it.
“You could go two ways – a conversation, or a session.” She pointed her two fingers up and then just the index indicating opting for either option.
“That’s it, I know. Both of us, and we do a conversation, and then a session.” His enthusiasm was evident now.
“How much time do we have?”
“I told them it could take all day. Okay, got the outline. The usual trust establishment, through rapport, then common ground, then we explain how the technology works, and why it can only help him. But, and here’s the main but, we have to get him to agree that self-sacrifice is a part of this. It’s the thing he has to give up to give something greater to the American people that he will struggle with.” Rai felt some small relief in deciding the mental outline. “But be ready for anything including him talking non-stop, or trying to just talk to me … anything.”
“Oh, believe me. I’m ready to go ninja because they’re gonna try to escort me out – you watch.” Simone’s street sensibilities were not absent.
“Never had a doubt. But I won’t allow it. The game has changed.” Rai then leaned forward and addressed Craig, the driver. “Excuse me Craig, my apologies we are talking like this … this is all a bit quick and new … but we’re not trying to hide anything. And we just have to prep now because we didn’t have time because we basically slept on a bus to get here.”
“Not at all Mr. Linchman, all good with me.” Craig demonstrated the professionalism you would expect as a chauffeur in the service of the highest office in the land.
“Rai, Craig. Please call me Rai.”
“Yes sir, Mr. Rai.”
Rai chuckled inside and shifted focus back to the work at hand. He didn’t care either way, because having a strategy revealed only helped him. This was going to be so foreign an experience and concept to Trump that it was almost better to have information leaked about him to build trust. Trump respects money and fame, and if a person isn’t a billionaire or a celebrity they’re not going to get his respect – but he was also desperate. The epiphany the world needed him to have wouldn’t have even been a possibility to precipitate from a person of Rai’s worldly status until, maybe, now. But if his eyes were to be opened, it would have to come from the unlikely source he never knew existed, or believed wasn’t capable. Rai and Simone would have to go beyond the achievement of Jacob Marley and the three other ghosts, but without the aid of apparitions, and in less time.
The Citizen Body 