{"id":427,"date":"2015-09-19T17:10:20","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T21:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/?p=427"},"modified":"2015-09-19T17:10:20","modified_gmt":"2015-09-19T21:10:20","slug":"odd-man-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/?p=427","title":{"rendered":"Odd Man Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Oval_Office\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was the Chief of Staff who ended up running for the snack.\u00a0 The evening address on climate change was imminent, and the President insisted that he would not go on without something to settle his stomach.\u00a0 James Harsham, the President\u2019s right hand man, turned in a 360 degree circle to delegate the task, but found everyone in the Oval Office involved in some part of the circus that is a Presidential address to the nation.\u00a0 Seeing everything well in hand, he decided that a quick trip to the kitchen wouldn\u2019t hurt.\u00a0 Out the door, turn right, down the far staircase, through the intern\u2019s office (a desk in the hallway), past the restrooms, left again, then right, and suddenly Harsham found himself enveloped in steam from the dishwasher at the back of the kitchen.\u00a0 Stepping through the swinging doors, all conversation came to a halt.\u00a0 Twenty heads turned to look at him, as though he was some alien.<\/p>\n

The head chef came hustling up.\u00a0 \u201cMr. Harsham, is there something that I can get for you?\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t you just call?\u00a0 I would be happy to bring it up.\u00a0 Are you hungry?\u00a0 Does the President want something?\u00a0 Why are you here?\u201d<\/p>\n

Harsham patted the air.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s alright, it\u2019s alright.\u00a0 The President is going on in a few minutes, and he just wanted a small snack to settle his stomach.\u00a0 Do you have anything basic?\u00a0 Celery sticks?\u00a0 Carrots, anything?<\/p>\n

The chef whirled around and rushed to the walk-in fridge.\u00a0 \u201cA snack!\u00a0 Carrot sticks is what he always calls for at night.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have a bunch for you in just a sec.\u201d\u00a0 In a flurry of knife wielding, he presented a perfect crystal dish of carrot sticks, neatly sliced into uniform pieces and fanned out.\u00a0 Harsham grabbed the dish and retreated, and the chef collapsed against the edge of a sink, wiping his brow.\u00a0 \u201cA snack!\u201d<\/p>\n

Upstairs, the makeup person had finished and the sound man was checking the microphones.\u00a0 The President spotted his Chief of Staff coming through the door with the carrot sticks and waved him over.\u00a0 \u201cOh God, thanks Jim.\u00a0 I really needed this.\u201d\u00a0 The sound guy nodded and backed away.\u00a0 Carrot stick in hand, the President and his chief went over the talking points for the fifth time, selecting stress points and generally massaging the speech.<\/p>\n

Five minutes later, the camera crew counted down.\u00a0 At \u201cAnd\u2026 five..\u201d, the President swallowed his last piece of carrot stick half chewed.\u00a0 At \u201c..four..\u201d the carrot stick lodged itself sideways in the Presidents larynx, blocking the epiglottis and preventing it from moving.\u00a0 At \u201c\u2026three..\u201d the President\u2019s eyes started bulging, and his gag reflex kicked in.\u00a0 At \u201c\u2026two\u2026\u201d someone in the back of the room said, quietly, \u201cThere\u2019s something wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

At \u201c\u2026one\u2026\u201d the President swung his arm and knocked over the glass of water at his side, spilling it across the papers on the desk in front of him.\u00a0 As the crew member pointed to the President and the cameras went live to the nation, the President rose halfway out of his seat, coughed the carrot stick out of his mouth on live TV, and collapsed of a massive cerebral hemorrhage in front of the camera.\u00a0 The spike in his blood pressure had burst a major artery in his brain, and he was dead in three seconds.\u00a0 Blood flowing out of his ears and nose stuck the papers to the desk.<\/p>\n

The President\u2019s Secret Service detail immediately surrounded the body, picked it up and hustled it out of the Oval Office.\u00a0 Armed White House security guards entered the room and told everyone to stay right where they were, and to remain calm.<\/p>\n

James Harsham tried to follow the Secret Service out of the office, but the door was blocked by a guard.\u00a0 \u201cPlease, sir, it would be best if everyone just stayed here for now.\u201d\u00a0 Harsham spun around, gaping at the camera crew and his staff, and he collapsed into the President\u2019s arm chair by the fireplace.\u00a0 What now?\u00a0 Reaching out, he grabbed a carrot stick from the plate at his elbow and took a bite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  It was the Chief of Staff who ended up running for the snack.\u00a0 The evening address on climate change was imminent, and the President insisted that he would not go on without something to settle his stomach.\u00a0 James Harsham, the President\u2019s right hand man, turned in a 360 degree circle to delegate the task, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-promptedwriting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions\/428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}