Chapter 34

That evening, I alerted the pilots that we wanted to go to Atlanta first, then to Washington, DC. Naturally, we’d avoid the big airports, and use the private airports that were all over the place near DC.

I called the White House the next morning, and asked for a meeting with President Powell for the following day. Nothing crucial, I just wanted to take a few minutes to discuss the economy. They’d see what they could do. I knew he didn’t have any emergencies on his agenda. Nothing crucial for him either, according to Red, just normal important stuff.

The Gore people had confirmed a meeting for the afternoon, before his speech at the Urban League. We, of course, quickly headed for a restaurant after the Whirlwind Two touched down. We’d missed not only elevenses but lunch too! Heavens above, we might blow away in a strong breeze.

...

Having fortified ourselves, we went to the Hyatt Hotel where Gore was meeting us. No problem with Gore’s finances, according to ‘my secret source.’ My three guys stayed at the door, chatting with Gore’s keepers. They, like Bush’s men, were Secret Service Agents. My crew had left their weapons on the Gulfstream so that wouldn’t be a problem.

I walked into the room, and greeted Gore. “Mr. Vice President, it’s good of you to make time to meet with me. I’m Lexi White Owl, my company has developed advanced solar panels and the fusion generating capacity. I’m very pleased to meet a fellow environmentalist.”

Al Gore came across the room to shake my hand. “Likewise, Ms White Owl. I’ve followed your company’s solar power developments. Spirit of the Hunter – quite a unique name. I understand it refers to the Great Spirit that supports the Navajo and Shoshone tribes – and other Native American tribes, of course. I hope you’ll be spreading the solar panel projects across the nation; they could be of enormous benefit to rural areas.

“As to electricity generated by fusion power, what an amazing development! And the successful conclusion to the torture test that Japan and Exxon’s FusionEx have run has proved that your claims are accurate...”

And he went on for nearly five minutes. Once you wound him up on the environment, that man could talk.

When I got a chance to talk, I said, “I understand you’ve got a tight schedule, so let me get to the point. I also represent Exxon today. We have a donation to make to your campaign, and I wanted to know whether you’d like to have it to your campaign coffers or to the Democratic Party generally.”

“Well,” he started. I hoped this wasn’t going to delay my supper. I was planning on a nice place in just two hours. “we’re limiting donations from personal and corporate donations to $1500 to the campaign. So anything above that would go to the Party. We hope to win some seats in both the Senate and the House.”

“Okay, then. Our total will be $500,000 in total, so we’ll spread that around to where the Democratic financial people feel will help the most.”

“That’s very helpful. We hope to gain some in Texas and North Carolina...”

And he was off.

Fortunately, his aide stuck his head in the door after ten minutes and that was my signal to get out. We shook hands and I rejoined my family – I mean my ever-watchful bodyguards. Looks like we have time for a nice meal in DC.

...

The next morning at 0845 hours we all marched into the White House. The appointment secretary had called us last night and said we could meet with the President if we didn’t mind joining him for his second breakfast. Second breakfast! Now that’s my kind of guy.

Seems the President rose early, at 0600, had his eyeopener meal and worked until 0900. Then he had his second breakfast until about 0930, and went back to work. We were shown to the small dining room in the West Wing. The valet was just laying out a half grapefruit for the President. Me and my family were standing by the doorway when Powell came in.

“Mr. President,” said an aide. He might have been a Chief of Staff for all I knew. “This is Ms Alexis White Owl. Her son James Bright Moon, and her bodyguards, Joshua Painted Rock of the Navajo, and Adam Sun Bear of the Shoshone.”

“Ms White Owl, and family, I am pleased to meet you. I hope you don’t mind an informal meeting here in the dining room. I find I need to eat every few hours to keep me sharp at my advanced age.” He offered to shake my hand.

“Oh, that won’t bother mom at all,” said our junior family member, Jim. He wouldn’t be put off by being in the august presence. Not our Jim.