What are you looking for? Semi-automatic? A shotgun? This is a Beretta 92. Easy to use. You can also take a Glock 17, generation 4, nine millimeters with an ergonomic handle, it allows a firm hand grip, you need to grasp it well, the thumb is placed there, the trigger is pressed with the cheekbone of the index finger, carefully, the weapon must always be at the level of the hand, when we shoot, we extend our hand, we need to control the surprise when firing, it remains to load the cartridge, when that is done, focus on the target and when it is in your sights, press it, it goes straight into her. Here, do you want to try it? See that big dog? Come on, aim at him.
A violent explosion, a complete combustion, it was sex and nothing more – the end of the mystification; Claire Farel understood this when, at the age of nine, she witnessed the breakup of her family, which was brought about by the unbridled attraction between her mother and a medical professor whom she met at a congress; she understood this when, during her career, she watched public figures lose in just a few seconds everything they had built their entire lives: position, reputation, family – social constructions whose stability required years of hard work, concessions – lies – promises, and the trilogy of marital survival – she watched some of the most brilliant representatives of the political elite compromise themselves for a long time, sometimes even irrevocably, for the sake of a fleeting adventure, the fulfillment of a fantasy – the uncontrolled needs of sexual lust: everything, now and immediately; she herself almost found herself in the middle of one of the biggest scandals in the history of the United States of America, she was twenty-three years old at the time and she was interning at the White House at the same time as Monica Lewinsky - the Monica who will be known for derailing the career of President Bill Clinton - and she did not find herself in the place of the ravishing brunette whom the president affectionately called "petite" solely because she did not fit the beauty standards in force in the Oval Office: a blonde with with braids, of medium height, a little thin, always in high-waisted men's trousers - she was not his type.
She often wondered what would have happened if the president had chosen her, a bright and impulsive girl of French - American descent who preferred to learn about life from books, instead of Monica, a lush brunette with a lustful smile, a little Jewish princess who grew up in posh neighborhoods like Brentwood and Beverly Hills. She would yield to the allure of power; she would fall in love like a hawk, she would sit in a hearing before Senator Kenneth Starr, forced to repeat the same story that would become the main topic of dinners in restaurants all over the world, as well as a four hundred and seventy-five page report that would make the flatterers of American power cringe, she would arouse the neurotic instincts of the people who, in a fit of disgust and disbelief, call for general moralization, and she would never become a respected intellectual who, ten years later, would meet that same Bill Clinton at a special dinner to celebrate the publication of his Memoirs and ask him directly: “ Mr. Clinton, why did you publicly agree to that humiliating demonstration of repentance and protect your wife and daughter, while showing no compassion for Monica Lewinsky, whose private life was ruined?” Ignoring the question, he replied in a tone of pretend indifference: “Who are you anyway?” He didn't remember her, which was perfectly normal, they had met more than twenty years ago, and even if he had once met her in the corridors of the White House, easily recognizable by her Venetian blond hair that gave her a Pre-Raphaelite look, he would never have said a word to her - the president has no reason to address an intern, unless he has the intention of getting laid .
Twenty-one years earlier, in 1995, the three of them had entered the White House thanks to numerous recommendations and exemplary academic success. The first, Monica Lewinsky, was just a meteor who, at the age of twenty-five, was thundering through the global media galaxy, while her only achievement consisted of fellatio and an erotic game involving a Cuban cigar. The second, the youngest of them, Huma Abedin, whose family of Indian - Pakistani origin founded the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs, was given a position in Hillary Clinton's office and over the next ten years became her closest associate. At the wedding of her protégé and Democratic representative Anthony Weiner, the first lady even uttered the following words, full of emotional charge: "If I had another daughter, it would be Huma." She also supported her when, a year later, her young husband mistakenly posted photos of himself on Twitter in suggestive poses - naked to the waist, his genitals visible in his underwear that did not hide his erection. She was there when Huma's naughty husband strayed again, this time engaging in erotic texting with a minor – and at a time when he was running for the Democratic nomination in the New York City mayoral race! While he was one of the most promising young politicians! Despite being advised to distance herself from Huma Abedin because of the damage to her political image, Hillary Clinton, now the Democratic presidential nominee, kept her by her side. Welcome to the Club of Deceived but Dignified Women, the high priestesses of American poker face – smile on your face, you are being filmed.
The only one of these three ambitious interns who managed to avoid scandal so far was Claire Davis - Farrell, daughter of Harvard law professor Dan Davis and French translator from English, Marie Coulier. According to family mythology, her parents met in front of the Sorbonne and, after a few months of long-distance dating, got married in the United States, in a Washington suburb, where they led a quiet and monotonous life - Marie gave up her dreams of emancipation in order to take care of her daughter and become what she always feared: a housewife whose only obsession is not to forget to take the contraceptive pill; she experienced motherhood as alienation, she was not made for such a thing, she did not recognize the revelation of maternal instinct, even after giving birth she fell into a deep depression, and if her husband had not found her some translation jobs, she would have ended her life on antidepressants, she would have continued to wear her fake smile and claim that her life was fantastic , that she was a fulfilled mother and wife, until one day she hanged herself in the basement of their small house on Friendship Heights.
Translated from French by Tea Mijan