Mitch and Emmit enjoyed their coffee shop sandwiches and Emmit felt generous enough to buy President Franklin Pierce a large cup of coffee, which was actually the smallest size. Pierce regaled the boys with stories that struck them as surprisingly familiar. There was the one night when Pierce and his buddy Nathaniel Hawthorne just got absolutely shit-faced and egged the Capital building. Those were the good old days.
The place was still pretty busy but nobody bothered the guys. Pierce found this the most incredible experience. He could be in public and not feel like he had to put on a show. Even if people knew who he was, there was nothing they could do to his reputation or career—he had been dead for over a hundred years. Piece stopped at this, now wondering if he wanted to know how he was going to die. He needed a drink and not the coffee that was shaking in his hand.
Mitch, also now thinking about mysterious deaths, got up and went to the restroom. He walked around a corner into a hallway leading to the back exit, two restrooms and the manager’s office.
-Stop there.
-What?
Mitch turned around and immediately noticed his hat that had been stolen. Then he noticed the stealer: President James Polk. Polk explained that he needed Mitch’s help to find President John Quincy Adams. Mitch agreed, saying that JQA was the only missing president now; but everybody was kind of getting tired, so they’d have to pick up the search tomorrow. This was unacceptable to Polk, who said he was too close to finding JQA to give up now, especially when he is the most dangerous president to be unaccounted for.
-You should give me my hat back.
-I need this hat to blend in.
-So do I!
-What?
-You know, to blend in with cool people. It’s a good hat.
-Fine, take it.
Polk took off the fedora and gave it back to Mitch.
-Fine, Polk, I’ll get the others. We’ll keep searching.
-No. You people move too slowly. It should just be myself and one other person who can help me figure out this world.
-Then you want Seph.
-I don’t know who that is.
-Then you should stay with me, Polk.
-Only if you try finding John Quincy.
-Forget about the damn president!
Mitch slammed his hand against the wall, letting his anger immediately vanish. John Quincy wasn’t the only person missing. Seph was, too. Mitch had just dangled off the side of building and there was no reason to think Seph had not been in a similar situation. Mitch, like the others, had to assume Seph was willfully out of communication, but there was no promise. If Seph was dead somewhere, there was no way Mitch would know but if Seph was alive somewhere, Mitch didn’t know that either. Mitch simply could not look for the remaining president anymore.
-Why?
-I need to find Seph.
-Who is Seph?
-He’s my best friend.
Look for a best friend or a worst enemy? They though about it.
-Okay, Mitch. We’ll find Seph.
-Thank you, Mister President. But I got to take a leak first.
Mitch walked into the men’s restroom. Polk, unsure of what Mitch meant, followed.
-What the hell, stammered the president, look at this. This is incredible!
-Yo, said a man at a urinal, you’re way too close!
Moments earlier, Lily and Blair entered the coffee shop and sat down with Emmit and President Pierce, who was more surprised and excited than Emmit by the girls’ arrival. Lily smiled and introduced herself and Blair. Lily immediately wondered where Mitch was but figured he didn’t just go somewhere. Then she really noticed the haggard 1850s president. He didn’t look like the other presidents. He looked more like a movie star. A movie star about a week before checking into the Betty Ford Clinic. A movie star that could emerge years later in some independent movie, giving a realistic performance of a broken man.
Blair didn’t even remember which president was sitting with Emmit after sitting down herself. The girls hadn’t discussed it, but Blair knew she was the one who had to tell Emmit that Bogart ran away. So she did.
-What.
-I’m sorry, Emmit. We didn’t know what to do.
-He might still be in the neighborhood. We have to go now.
-What about the president?
-Lily, can you take Pierce back to the museum?
-Sure.
Pierce said this plan was fine with him, too.
-But where’s Mitch, asked Lily.
-He’s been missing for a while, said Pierce.
Lily called Mitch’s phone only to hear the ring startlingly close. Pierce pulled Mitch’s phone out of his pocket, unsure of how it was making noise. Lily hung up and the phone stopped ringing.
-When did you get that, asked Blair pointing to the phone.
-When your friend and I were hanging off the edge of a building.
-Oh. Wait. What?
-Guys, panicked Emmit, can we go? We need to find Bogart!
-Lily, take a cab, get Pierce to the museum.
Emmit pushed Blair to her car and Lily and Pierce got into a taxi. Lily kept thinking her friends were getting picked off one-by-one. Maybe they were ditching her. She was tired and tired of being alone. Physically she was still riding in the back of a taxi with a former president hopped up on caffeine, but the unusualness of the day made this ride back to the museum feel more tedious than anything. Lily was going to the museum, then she was going home.
Unbeknown to Lily, Mitch and Polk were on the same road, going in the opposite direction. After sneaking out of the back of Big Coffee Place, the guys hopped on a bus—which Polk was able to pay for—and rode to another bus stop. The ride gave Mitch time to speculate why nobody had seen him and Pierce hanging off a four-story building. Polk knew, though.
-You’d be amazed at what people miss when they don’t know what to look for.
Made sense, thought Mitch. Wait. Did Polk see them? Not exactly. He didn’t see the adventure; he saw them in the coffee shop. As soon as Polk had found out that JQA was still missing, he knew the former president would try to re-establish his political power. When he understood the magnificence of television, he knew that’s where JQA could be found. After some time Polk was able to find televisions at a store in the downtown area and even saw JQA.
-What? The president was on TV?
-I’m sure it was him in the box.
-What was he doing?
-Talking to other people at a large desk.
Polk had tried to refute JQA’s broad political sentiments but nobody in the television seemed to hear him. President Polk didn’t have much time to figure out which setting, measurement or telematrix on the box was wrong because he was then kicked out of the store. However, the employee said something along the lines of, “What is with all the weirdos today?” While Polk didn’t know what a ‘weirdo’ was, he had a feeling it meant ‘president’—further confirming Polk’s assumption that other time-traveling presidents were trying to get in the television.
-If he becomes powerful in your time Mitch, JQA will never willingly go back to his time.
-Why?
-This television technology will let him spread his influence with no detractors.
-Yeah, but they don’t just let anybody say their opinions on television.
-John Quincy Adams is a contentious lawyer who switches political parties for the sake of his career and isn’t above making corrupt bargains and slandering another man’s wife.
-My God, said Mitch. They’ll give him his own show.
The last time Seph had gone off without Mitch was to the television studio and then the senator’s office. Those were Seph’s own adventures that everybody else could only see in a rearview mirror. Mitch didn’t find out until they were playing foot-bag later. Mitch didn’t want to find out Seph’s latest adventures over another game of foot-bag. Especially if Seph is hurt or dead. Though Mitch did want to play foot-bag again like Seph said they would.
Polk didn’t mention it to Mitch, but he was bothered by the fact that JQA had gotten in the television so much faster than himself. How was that possible?
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