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October 18, 2010

Political Short Story: Little Pavel Approaches the Bench

A young volunteer learns that some prosecutors have finally noticed the problem of vote fraud in America...

Little Pavel Approaches the Bench
By John F. Di Leo

Pavel walked into 51st Ward HQ just as the Boss walked out ... and Pavel did a double-take.

The Boss, 51st Ward Committeeman Bill Marcy, was dressed in a tweed suit as always, no surprise there ... but the two men who left with him were decidedly unfamiliar, charging through the doorway like neither Pavel nor anything else should be in their way. Wearing crisply pressed charcoal pinstripe suits, just shooting their cuffs enough for the cufflinks to catch your eye, carrying fine leather briefcases instead of the ubiquitous laptop bags, they sure didn't fit in at this shabby old ward office!

Finding Pockets at his desk in the corner, Pavel Syerov, Jr. (Paul to his friends) plopped a fresh bag of honey wheat braid pretzels into the empty bowl on the collating table and greeted the old man. "Hello, Pockets! What's up?"

"Oh, nothing much," replied the old deputy committeeman. "Coupla cases of printing just came in, gotta collate them for a third class mailing; if you could gimme a hand with that, it'd be great, Paully. I'm just glad those suits are outa here at last."

Pavel headed back to the refrigerator for a couple of drinks - a diet cola for himself, a longneck for Pockets ... then headed back and opened up the pretzels."Yeah, those guys plowed out of here with the Boss like they were clearing an ice flow in the St. Laurence Seaway. Who were they? Candidates?

""Nah, Paully, even worse," chuckled Pockets. "Lawyers."

"Really? Why were they here? Something up?" Pavel fired up his memory bank as he could tell this might be a story worth telling his parents when he got home. The seventeen-year-old had been unable to find a summer job, so his parents convinced him that helping out at the local ward HQ over the summer would be more educational than summer school - and were they ever right! - so he had continued to stop by a couple times a week even after school started up again in the fall.

"Well, son, the higher-ups sent some lawyers around to talk with the bosses about what we do in the precincts. They didn't have two words for me, but they were closeted in with the Boss for two hours." Pockets cracked open his beer and took a swig. "Brother, of all the times for a lawyer visit, ya know? Middle of an election, the office fulla registration cards, pollsheets, mailings, bumper stickers, volunteers ... had five old ladies in here writing postcards while the lawyers were in the office with the Boss. They had me blasting NPR on the radio to make sure the old ladies didn't hear their conversation ... Dunno what for; the Boss had his office soundproofed when we moved here, years ago... Belt and suspenders, I guess."

Continue reading: Little Pavel Approaches the Bench

Posted by Richard at October 18, 2010 12:21 AM

• Political Short Story: Little Pavel Approaches the Bench - Oct 18, 2010