Chapter 52: Budget Bureau

Pierce’s eyes burned as he stared at Arthur’s smiling face in the arena.

“…he used a replica of Coolidge’s deceased child to distract her during the fight?”

He crushed the railing in front of him between his fingers.

“I’ll kill that man…I’ll kill him dead!”

“Easy,” Roosevelt said, placing a hand to his back and pulling him back slightly. “You getting angry here won’t do anyone any good.”

“I know that,” he replied, loosening his grip. “But it’s just too cruel!”

“It is,” Roosevelt admitted, giving a sharp glare in Arthur’s direction before turning to Coolidge. “That it is…”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Hurry, mama!” shouted a young Calum Coolidge as he ran through the forest. “I wanna find a bunny!”

Coolidge jogged behind her son, glancing to his bare feet.

“You sure you don’t want to put on any shoes, Calum?”

“Nahh.”

Coolidge shrugged and continued with her run. After all, it wasn’t her place to regulate her son’s life.

“I see it!” Calum squealed, spotting a rabbit ahead, “It’s a bunny!”

Calum increased his speed, only to stumble over himself and fall to the ground, breaking into tears as his mother reached his position.

“There, there,” Coolidge said, lifting her crying son into her arms. “Tell mama where it hurts.”

The sobbing boy pointed to his feet. Coolidge looked down, gasping at the sight of a hideous splinter stabbing into the boy’s toe. She moved her hand to the shard and plucked it from his body, invoking a further round of wails.

“Let’s go and get this bandaged,” Coolidge spoke calmly. “I’m sure it’ll feel better in no time.”

But his wound would not get better, for despite Coolidge’s best efforts to heal her son, the infection from Calum’s foot continued to spread throughout the young boy’s body.

Desperate to do something of use, Coolidge went back into the forest, catching a small, snow-white rabbit for her son.

“Look, Calum! I got a bunny, just like you wanted!” She placed it in his arms, smiling as he brought It to his face. “Now, what would you like to name him?”

“Hmm,” the boy pondered as he stroked its fluffy fur. “Since he’s a bunny, his name ought to start with `Bu’.”

He paused, then gave a toothy grin.

“Budget Bureau!”

Coolidge broke into a warm laugh.

“An excellent name! Budget Bureau it is!”

Encouraged by her success, Coolidge rushed back into the forest and brought another animal, then another, and another. She would have carried him the whole of the forest, a handful at a time, if it would have done him any good. But before long, not even this was enough to lift his darkening spirits.

“Mama,” the boy spoke faintly as he put away his newest starling. “Can’t you make me better?”

“I’m sorry,” Coolidge said, clenching up her fists. “I can not.”

“…oh,” Calum replied, looking out his window without saying a word.

The next day, the boy shut his eyes for the last time.

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Coolidge’s Flashback I. The portion of the flashback involving Coolidge’s son is mostly accurate. While he didn’t injure his foot in quite this way depicted here (it actually came from playing tennis without putting on socks), Calvin Coolidge Junior did indeed die at a very young age due to a blister on his foot degenerating into sepsis.

Calvin Coolidge also really did catch a rabbit and brought it to his ailing son, after which someone remarked “he would have carried him the whole of the White House grounds, a handful at a time, if it would have done any good.” This rabbit was not actually named “Budget Bureau,” but Calvin Coolidge did at one point receive a pair of lion cubs which were named Budget Bureau and Tax Reduction.