Ministerial arrangements

 Continued from here. Is this a story? A novel seed? Who knows. I might have to serialize it if I see any potential.

That evening I set up an audience with Madam. She had a couple of women from the neighborhood coming in for dinner with their daughters, and I was invited. The dinner was uneventful, except for the girls' attempts to make conversation, that sort of attention I didn't have much experience dealing with.

As the dinner ended and the guests were helped to their feet by the servants, I informed Madam that I had an important topic to discuss. She said she was all ears. We sat by the informal dining room next to the kitchen, the servants were dismissed until they were called, and I narrated the conversation I had had earlier in the day without explaining the source. Ma'am, I said, I have known you from before you were married to the Minister, and the minister has known be from even before his MP days, when he was still  a scientist trying to make a big name for himself in the country. I don't know if he has told you this, but I was the one who gave the idea to him to propose new arm manufacturing inside the country, with his skills and the group he could easily do so, I told him. For somebody to suggest that I might be at his throat his a huge disrespect for all the parties involved, and I would be unable to show my face to him or you if the situation continues, I said.

Silence.

Neither of us spoke for what seemed like an hour. I had nothing left to say. She needed to acknowledge the situation and free me from the grip of social awkwardness.

It is not that I haven't heard some of those rumors, she began. It is quite unfortunate for you to be in this awkward position, and both of us feel bad for you, truly. However, as it happens, this sort of rumor swirling around the town is...good for us. I don't want to go into details, but your Sir is involved in various other activities, and this rumor-mongering is actually helping take a lot of pressure of our shoulders. He says he has been the most relaxed in a year now that these rumors are spreading about...all of this. In fact, we are responsible for spreading some of the rumors ourselves, and as you can see it has worked out quite well, everybody just assumes it to be true. Because they only see conspiracies, they're blind enough to not see layers of conspiracies. They cannot comprehend that if you layer large lies with much spicier lies, the important lies get left in the wayside, and people think that they're the distraction away from the spicy lies. Nobody even cares about the truth anymore, because all they want is drama, excitement. So by setting up the current situation, we have protected ourselves for some time, she said.

I was lost for words, all I could say was, I hope he is not in a situation where he needs to be worried.

Oh don't you worry about that, she said, we have the military and police protecting us. Even beyond that, we have our own external security resources who won't let suspicious parties get even close to us, the sort of people we need to worry about. No, what we need right now is some sort of buffer from the public, and parliamentarians, so you can imagine this rumormongering takes their attention away. I'm terribly sorry that you have unintentionally been a part of this situation, this was not the goal, but it evolved to become one, and we didn't really quash what they were saying, because it was so goddamn useful.

Silence.

I was having trouble making words come out of my throat. "What...what should I do next," I said.

She began. It would be very kind of you, a great favor we hope to greatly repay one day, if you stayed, and acted like you were not aware of the circumstances, and didn't acknowledge it. We will make sure you are cared for well, and you have been getting quite the attention from the local girls too. If it suits your purpose, you should get a girlfriend, I can tell you about the girls. Even if for one or two weeks, that might be able to distract you. And while you are here, I'll arrange for all your travel needs, on us. Go to the mountains, go down south and see the wild animals, go to the water, go east and west. Go to South East Asia, all over, as our guest. I'll see if there's a way for us to get you a diplomatic visa, so you can travel like a true VIP. This is obviously nothing in comparison for all the pain and awkwardness we are putting you through, and our eventual repayment will be a thousandfold better, but for right now, that is what would be the best for us. A week there, and a week back here, so on and so forth. Just enough that it seems suspicious enough, but not too disinterested. We'll give you an aide-de-camp too for when you're going out of town, they'll arrange for all the logistics, you just tell them the name of the town, and the dates, they'll take care of all other details. Again, it is generally not how we treat guests, and this is a very unfortunate situation, and your assistance would be very much appreciated by both of us.

I nodded, a low soft grunt, looking at the floor. It was time for bed.