The Fourth K

From a lifetime of experience she disdained the theories that men and women should be more alike; she celebrated their differences. The difference was valuable in a moral sense, as a variation in music is valuable, as a variation in gods is valuable. Oh, yes, there was a difference. She had learned from her political life, from her years as a district attorney, that women were better than men in the most important things in life. And she had the statistics to prove it. Men committed far more murders, robbed more banks, perjured themselves more, betrayed their friends and loved ones more. As public officials they were far more corrupt, as believers in God they were far more cruel, as lovers they were far more selfish, in all fields they exercised power far more ruthlessly. Men were far more likely to destroy the world with war because they feared death so much more than women. But all this aside, she had no quarrel with men.

On this Wednesday, Helen Du Pray started ru

They had a rough time until the chief of security detail, losing patience, recruited champion ru

The higher she rose on the political ladder, the earlier in the morning she got up to run. Her greatest pleasure was when one of her daughters ran with her. It also made for great photos in the media. Everything counted.

Vice President Helen Du Pray had overcome many handicaps to achieve such high office. Obviously, the first was being a woman, and then, not so obviously, being beautiful. Beauty often aroused hostility in both sexes.

She overcame this hostility with her intelligence, her modesty and an ingrained sense of morality. She also had her fair share of cu

She was, in short, the very model for the first woman President of the United States. Which she must become if she signed the declaration on her desk.

Now she was in the final stage of her run, emerging from the woods and onto a road where another car was waiting. Her detail of Secret Service men closed in and she was on her way to the Vice President's mansion.

After showering she dressed in her "working" clothes, a severely cut skirt and jacket, and left for her office-and the waiting declaration.

It was strange, she thought. She had fought all her life to escape the trap of a single-fu

As Vice President she had to tidy up after her political 'husband,' the President, and perform his menial tasks. She received leaders of small nations, served on powerless committees with high-sounding titles, accepted condescending briefings, gave advice that was accepted with courtesy but not given truly respectful consideration. She had to parrot the opinions and support the policies of her political husband.

She admired President Francis Xavier Ke

But today she could become a political widow and she certainly could not complain about her insurance policy, the presidency of the United States of

America. After all, this had become an unhappy "marriage." Francis Ke

By signing this declaration she could get all the loot. She could take his place. For a lesser woman this would have been a miraculous delight.

She knew it was impossible to control the exercises of the brain, so she did not really feel guilty about her fantasies, but she might feel guilty about a reality she had helped to bring about. When rumors floated that

Ke

Now she had to clear her mind. The declaration, the petition, had already been signed by most of the Cabinet, the Secretaries of State, Defense, Treasury and others. CIA was missing, that clever, unscrupulous bastard Tappey. And of course, Christian Klee, a man she detested. But she had to make up her mind according to her judgment and her conscience. She had to act for the public good, not out of her own ambition.

Could she sign, commit an act of personal betrayal and keep her self-respect? But what was personal was extraneous. Consider only the facts.

Like Christian Klee and many others, she had noted the change in Ke

Not doing these things had been a fault in Ke

She believed, and hoped, she was not regressing into an outmoded female sentimentality, that the death of Ke

She herself had been born to politics but she had always thought that

Ke

The Congress, both houses, had waged brutal war against the executive branch, and usually won the war. Well, it would not happen to her.