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The Congresswomen

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The Congresswomen  Empty The Congresswomen

Post by MatthewJames7 Mon Apr 24, 2023 2:37 am

Sitting on a park bench one sunny morning, I was sitting next to my daughter Tara who held her hands in mine. Today was a special day for us, as Tara had become a freshly elected congresswoman which was the first time that a mother and daughter were both serving in the same congress, something of which I was extremely proud of, it meant that she and I could spend a lot more quality time together, not that we didn't spend time together. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was slightly nervous about it which was natural, one's first day is always nerve racking. "Sweetheart, I bought you a present to celebrate your special day." Handing her a mini bag from my handbag, I watched as she opened it, and to her amazement, she was taken aback when she noticed that it was a tie.Tara was a beautiful young woman of 23, her long black hair was like the colour of coal, and her clear blue eyes were like that of sapphires. When she was in school Tara was part of the school's soccer team as well as the athletic team which made her extremely fit and gave her a very muscular body. Whenever she and I had a free moment we would always do something fitness related, we loved working out together, and plus it was a great way to bond with each other as it was only the two of us after my husband died.


"Mum, it's amazing, thank you. Would you help tie it for me?" Nodding, I replied, "I would be honoured to, sweetie, I'm so happy you like it. Collar up for me, good girl." Putting up her collar, I placed the tie around her neck with the wide end on the right and the skinny end on the left, and positioned the wide end lower than the skinny end. I then crossed the wide end over the skinny end towards the left. Folding it up through the neck loop from underneath and then passing it down to the left side, I felt confident that it would be a fantastic knot when I was finished. Crossing it underneath the skinny end towards the right, it reminded me of when every morning I would tie my late husband's ties. I then folded it through the neck loop and then passed it down to the right side. Crossing it over the skinny end towards the left, I could see that the knot was beginning to take shape. Folding it up through the neck loop from underneath, it was looking more and more awe inspiring as I was tying her tie.  Passing it down through the loop I created in the knot, I have to admit I was rather proud of my daughter's immediate approval towards her new piece of formalwear. Pulling down on the wide end to fasten the knot, I then slid it up towards her neck where it rested snuggly against her collar, and then I turned down her collar once again, making sure to close her top button. "Voilà, your perfect tie, you look absolutely stunning sweetheart, and your father would be extremely proud of you today. Anyways, let's get a move on, we can't be late for your first day as a congresswoman." Tara was wearing a navy black skirt trouser suit, a white striped shirt and a grey coloured tie, whereas I was wearing a black pinstripe trouser suit and a matching tie. To add a little more flair to my suit, I added a pair of cufflinks to my shirt sleeves. 


Straightening my own tie, I walked along the footpath with Tara in the direction of the congress building, she was slightly nervous, but as we were walking I assured her that there was nothing to be nervous about and that once the first day is done, it would be easy from there onwards. Eventually we arrived at the congress building, and I noticed Tara taking deep breaths, "Tara, trust me, you'll be fine with me there too. Ok, before we head in, a couple of ground rules. 1. Speak only when spoken to. 2. don't use any foul language. 3. don't raise your voice. 4. Turn off your phone or put it on silent. 5. Attendees are to be dressed appropriately in the congressional chambers at all times. Understood?" Nodding, she replied, "yes." Kissing her on the head, I replied, "good girl. Anyways, let's go in, I want to introduce you to my fellow congress members." Straightening her tie one last time, we walked into the building which was full of people, and I noticed there were even some paparazzi taking pictures which I was rather disapproving of, paparazzi shouldn't be permitted inside the congress building whatsoever, but I was powerless to object. Noticing me, the paparazzi flocked in my direction like ravens, and several of them asking questions. "Congresswoman, what do you make of your daughter being a fellow member of congress, do you feel threatened by it in way?" "Congresswoman, what are your political policies?" 


Disgusted by their questions, I replied bluntly, "what a silly question to ask, I do not feel one bit threatened by my daughter being a fellow congresswoman, if anything I'm delighted that she is following in my footsteps. As for my policies, that is confidential information at this present moment." They went to ask Tara some questions, but I took hold of her hand and walked down the corridor, eager to escape the paparazzi. The corridor in question seemed to span for miles on end, but after twenty years in congress, I knew exactly where I was going. "I'm sorry you had to put up with all that, Tara, I reiterate my opinion, I am extremely proud of you being a fellow member of congress, we are the first mother and daughter congresswomen in this city's political history." 

Opening the door to the congressional chambers, this was the beginning of Tara's career in politics. Walking in, I looked around me, surveying the room. The chairwoman was sitting at the top of the room, she was a middle aged woman of about 60, and her hair was brown, but was beginning to grey at the tips of it. I noticed that she had a small scar down the left side of her neck which she had gotten as a child after being accidentally scalded with boiling water. A lot of the usual people were there, and spotting my political mentor Carole, Tara and I walked over to meet her. 


"Cecilia, how lovely to see you again, and who may I say is this extremely beautiful young woman?" Chuckling, I replied, "this is Tara, my daughter and the apple of my eye. Today is her first day as a member of congress." Impressed, Carole replied, "is that so? Well done Tara, I bet your mother is extremely proud of you. She was my political protégé, and now you are hers. Cecilia, I am retiring after today's meeting, I've had to take early road to look after my mother full time. She's gone slightly downhill lately so she needs around the clock care. Dementia I'm afraid." Wiping my eye, I replied, "oh, I'm so sorry to hear that, your mother was very kind to me over the years." Reassured by this, Carole found her seat and sat down waiting for the session to begin. Finding my own seat, I sat down with Tara. Her political journey was about to begin.

MatthewJames7

Posts : 640
Join date : 2016-08-09
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Post by MatthewJames7 Tue Apr 25, 2023 5:06 am

The chairwoman composed herself in her seat, exclaiming, "good morning to you all, what a wonderful day outside, the weather is fantastic outside, but anyways, we did not come here to discuss the weather. Before we get down to the nitty gritty, I would like to welcome Tara Harrison, daughter of our fellow congresswoman Cecilia. Today is Tara's first day as a member of congress alongside her mother, the first mother and daughter to serve in the same congress, and I want it to be a memorable one. Anyways, some ground rules for all of you. Attendees shall only speak when they are asked to do so, and will not interrupt a fellow member. Phones must be switched off or on silent, we have photographers here so they will do all the social media work for us. There shall be no raised voices, and finally, attendees shall be appropriately dressed at all times. Our first speaker shall be Mrs. Robins of the Republican Party." Marlene Robins was one of the more dangerous members of our congress, and rather disliked by many, even some of her fellow Republicans. She was a very rude and selfish woman who only cared about her own advancement in her career, though this never really happened as only a minority of people would vote for her.  


"Chairwoman, thank you for those kind words of welcome. Tara may be a new member of congress, but I don't see that much potential in her, she is only a young woman, she has no congressional experience so I don't think she's cut out for politics." 


Outraged by what she was hearing, Tara sat quietly, she was never one to lose her temper no matter what the situation was. 


Not remotely happy hearing Marlene's snide remarks, the chairwoman exclaimed, "Marlene, the congressional chambers are no place for you to make condescending remarks like that, and especially about Tara, many people said to me that they believed she has unlimited potential. We did not gather here to hear your thoughts about your fellow congress members."


Knowing that she was skating on thin ice, Marlene cleared her throat and resumed speaking. "The mayor wants you to believe that she is dealing with the unemployment situation, but it seems to me that this is not the case. Every day there are thousands upon thousands of dollars being spent on ways to deal with the situation, but progress is not moving quickly enough. Many people are currently unemployed, a minority of people are under the age of 30, which is a shambles. This is a situation that needs to be addressed quickly. The mayor is clearly inept at dealing with her policies and I call for a new mayoral election." 


I knew that this was just a ploy for Marlene to advance her career, though it was obvious that she would lose any election held, she always had. Luck in elections always seemed to elude her, and this would easily be no different, nearly everyone in the room knew it, even her fellow Republican members.


"Thank you Marlene for your input. Now we shall hear from the woman who is taking the political world by storm, Tara Harrison." There was a collective round of applause from everyone in the room, regardless of their political party, as Tara stood up from her seat. Straightening her tie, Tara exclaimed, "thank you chairwoman for those kind words of welcome, I am extremely excited to serve in congress alongside my fellow politicians, but especially my mother who has been my political mentor these last few months. As for Marlene's opinions, I have to disagree, the mayor is doing her very best to deal with the unemployment situation, and as we speak, she is setting up employment schemes to help combat unemployment. Marlene clearly has her head in the sand if she thinks the mayor is not doing enough to help reduce unemployment." There was a collective laugh around the room from both sides, and even the chairwoman suppressed a chuckle. Marlene went slightly scarlet, she had clearly been embarrassed by someone who was half her age. 


A little while later we decided to stop to have a lunch break, and while Tara and I were sitting down enjoying our lunch, I spotted Marlene walking in our direction. This was not going to be a good encounter one bit. Still looking embarrassed by Tara's opinions about her, Marlene aggressively picked Tara up from her chair and grabbed her by her tie. "Listen to me you little brat, I have been in politics my whole life, and if you cross me again, I will make you regret the very day you were born. You think you can just waltz in here in your designer suit and tie and just think you are the alpha around here, and I shall not stand for it. Cecilia, do me a favour and teach your brat some manners, she's clearly lacking them." The chairwoman spotted our encounter and marched over to us. "Marlene, take your hands off Tara this instant. I will not have you manhandling your fellow members." Walking away, Marlene was clearly at a loss for words and knew she was beaten. 


Facing me once again, the chairwoman exclaimed, "Tara, I must sincerely apologise for Marlene's behaviour, she is quite the volatile person. I hope it didn't sour your first congressional session. Your mother must be extremely proud of you for following in her footsteps. My apologies, I never introduced myself, I am Elizabeth Phillips. I'm from an English-American family, English on my father's side, American on my mother's side. It seems you're taking the political world by storm from what I read in the newspapers. Many see you as a future mayor, if not president of this country, despite your young age. If anything you have youth on your side unlike some of the others in this congress."

MatthewJames7

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Post by MatthewJames7 Wed Apr 26, 2023 4:10 pm

A little while later we were back in the congressional chambers, and looking around the room, I could see that Marlene was still rather irked by her reprimanding from Elizabeth. Marlene had joined congress the same year as I did, and she was not that bad at first, but after a while people saw through her with ease. They could see that she had a reason to join congress so that she could become mayor, which in her eyes meant she could brag about it to anyone who would listen. Marlene was a social climbing snob who only cared about her own advancements and looked down on anyone she felt was below her. Nobody in our neighbourhood liked her one bit, and we would often receive invitations to one of her dinner parties. More often than not we had no choice but to go, and then we'd be subjected to her talking about everything she could talk about. Her husband, on the other, hand was a rather outgoing and gregarious person, he was the polar opposite to Marlene, was usually quite embarrassed by her incessant bragging. He was a gentle soul in the neighbourhood, and everyone in our neighbourhood felt sorry that he had to put up with Marlene 24/7. 


When Marlene would have her dinner parties, she would always make sure to have some halal dishes because my best friend Sabrina was a devout Muslim. Sabrina and I became friends during our college years, and seeing as I was an only child, Sabrina was like an aunt to Tara throughout her life. I was truly blessed to have a friend like her during my time in college, and she had even treated Tara and I to dinner to celebrate Tara's graduation. Sabrina had become a renowned businesswoman after college and had made a lot of money very quickly which made her a quite frequent topic in Marlene's bragging.


Sitting down in her chair, Elizabeth exclaimed, "right, let's get back down to business. Now we shall hear from Mr. Pierce who has something to say about the fuel prices." Blake Pierce was one of the most renowned congressmen in the city and a fellow member of our Democratic party, and he strived every day to make sure that the city was thriving for everyone, but he had great interest in making it thrive for the younger generation so that they'd have a fantastic city to grow up in. I was always stunned by how handsome he was, and even more stunned when I had heard that he was single.


"Thank you Mrs. Chairwoman for those kind words. Ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you today to discuss fuel prices. Over the last few days I have had many emails from the people of this city who are quite disdained by the current price of fuel so they can top up their cars. The current price is $3.50 per litre which is absolutely ludicrous. I would like a legislative bill passed to reduce the price of fuel so that people are not worried about how much they pay for it." In my mind I was gushing over him, I felt that he was the right guy for me to go out with.


A little while later we had finished our session for the day and we walked outside to have some chitchat with our fellow congressmen and congresswomen. Spotting me, Blake walked over to me with a smile on his face, something told me that he knew my feelings for him. "Cecilia, how wonderful to see you again, and this must be the famous Tara, your mother speaks very highly of you, welcome to the world of congress, I see great things about you in the long run. While I have you here Cecilia,  I wanted to ask you about something that has been on my mind lately, I was wondering, and you're perfectly entitled to say no, but I was wondering if you and Tara would like to go out to dinner with me tonight?" I'm taking my daughter Amelia out with me because she's home for a few days from work so I thought we could double date and the four of us could go for dinner." 

MatthewJames7

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Post by MatthewJames7 Fri Apr 28, 2023 5:27 am

What do ye think so far?

MatthewJames7

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Join date : 2016-08-09
Age : 26

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Post by MatthewJames7 Sat Apr 29, 2023 1:17 am

Any plot twists or additions or anything you want me to add?

MatthewJames7

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