There Will Be Fries: A Claire Mitchell Vignette

**This post is the first of three that introduces Claire Mitchell, the protagonist of my upcoming book The Pain You Seek. Each installment presents a different part of Claire’s backstory, a peek behind the curtain at an event that happens before the opening of the novel. My hope is that you will become intrigued enough to see how she later navigates the perils of her investigation into Medea’s world. The next installment will be posted in July. In the meantime, I will continue writing additional “musings” for you to enjoy.

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Claire rubbed her eyes and studied the essay in front of her—“The Authoritarian Populist: A Collision Between Personality and Politics in Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane”—and then contemplated her notes again. Too many sentences were scratched out for her liking.

She exhaled sharply before switching to the other tab in the browser. Welles as billionaire Charles Foster Kane stood on a massive auditorium stage during his gubernatorial campaign. On the twenty-foot-tall banner behind him was his face and powerful letters: K-A-N-E. He leaned on the podium and looked down into the camera. Directly at her.

Claire imagined interviewing him, surrounded by the indifferent eyes of cameras. She leaned in, daring him to answer. Will they elect you if they find out you are having an affair? Will your newspaper empire be able to spin that story? Or are you afraid the people will turn on you? He confronted her questions with a smug half-smile. She stared back, disgusted by how he exploited the people’s love. Claire waited.

She was about to press Play when a cup of coffee landed on the table next to her. She jumped and removed her earbuds.

“Aren’t you done with that yet?” It was her friend Marcus. He stood over her with feigned impatience.

Claire reached up to massage her temples and looked up at him despondently. “No—and it’s due by Friday. I’m not even through the movie yet, and I still need to figure out what I am doing with it. Not all of us can just whip together our final projects overnight,” she scolded him.

Marcus laughed. “Hardly overnight.” He looked down at the screen curiously. “Isn’t Citizen Kane like Journalism 101? I really can’t believe you have never seen this movie. You are a journalism major, right?”

“Stop it,” she reached out and smacked his arm. He recoiled as if he had been mortally wounded and pulled up a chair next to hers. The library around them was busy but quiet. Outside, a heavy truck bounced in and out of a pothole, punctuating the space between them with a deep clunk. The silence returned as Claire stared blankly at Kane. After a minute, she looked over at Marcus and smiled at him.

“Thank you for the coffee.” She blew the steam away before taking a drink. “Are you already done with your project?” she asked in disbelief.

“Yeah,” Marcus said a little sheepishly. He did not want to mention that he finished it yesterday. “We have it all buttoned up. We present tomorrow and then do a defense the next day. I just wish we could get it all over with at one time.”

Claire snapped at him condescendingly. “Oh, cry me a river. Theater set design? It’s not like—”

“You stop it,” he said and took a turn smacking her arm. “Listen here, girl, it’s your fault if you can’t write a simple analysis of something without turning it into a whole philosophical thing. Not everything has to be a big moral statement, you know. When you learn to control yourself, you can criticize my choice of study. Until then, better worry about your own ass.” He fixed his eyes sternly on hers.

She went to smile but stopped halfway. Wait—is he mad at me? I was just kidding. Her heart tightened from one heartbeat to the next as she looked for reassurance in his face. A wink. A raised brow. The twitch of suppressed laughter. Anything.

Suddenly, he gave her a playful, dismissive wave. Her smile shifted to an inward smirk. Marcus is right, Claire told herself. Everything he said was true. Her guilt was bile stinging the back of her throat. I should not have said that to him. That was unfair. I love the way he teases me without being mean. If he tells me to stop being a little shit, then I probably should.

Marcus saw Claire’s eyes glaze and go distant. He knew that look. She was lost in racing thoughts. He abruptly stood up and tapped her on the shoulder. “Let’s go,” he cheerfully demanded. “You need a change of scenery. Let’s get you out of this place. It’ll do you some good.” He unplugged her laptop and began coiling the cord.

“Marcus, I don’t know. I only have a couple of days to finish this. It’s not my only project.”

“Exactly why you need to take a break. Marshal your energy.”

She looked up at him doubtfully.

“When have I ever steered you wrong?” he asked her and opened his palms, looking around at an imaginary audience. “Oh, that’s right, never. Now c’mon. This bus is leaving the station.”

Claire couldn’t help but laugh, but uncomfortable thoughts hung beneath the surface. He lets me lean on him all of the time but never asks me to do the same. His heart carries us both.

“Fine,” she acquiesced, faking indignation as Marcus held open her backpack while she slid the laptop and notes inside. “Where are we going?”

He tapped his finger against his chin in thought. “You know Lemon’s?”

She scrunched up her nose. “You mean that club? Marcus, it’s not even open yet. Besides, we are not even—”

“Just relax,” he put a gentle hand on her arm as she stood up. “Two blocks down from there is an old-timey soda shop. They have humungous malts.” A devilish light came into his eye. She returned the look.

“And fries,” she insisted. “There will be fries.”

“Whatever she wants,” Marcus said and took her hand. Claire liked the warmth of his grasp.

She slung the backpack over her shoulder and grabbed the cup of coffee from the table. They bounced through the stacks, and Claire handed off the coffee to a bewildered freshman sitting alone in a chair. As they left the library, Charles Foster Kane was tucked neatly away. Claire knew he would be there later, with all of his dubious morality, but for right now all she wanted to do was sit with her best friend and laugh.