The Insurance Policy

PROLOGUE

They were not your average First Family.  The President was a former lawyer, then judge, then senator.  His name was not linked to beautiful women, other than his wife and daughters.  He wasn’t a closet drinker, he had admitted to trying pot in his teens, and inhaling.  He hid nothing.  His investments, salary and tax reports were public knowledge.  Try as they might, the press could not find anything on him, only the fact that he held to his beliefs and worked for the people who elected him.   

The First Lady was just that.  First in her husband’s and children’s hearts, as they were first in hers.  She had attended college, majoring in human services.  Once graduated, she had married an up and coming lawyer.  Two children followed and, nine years later, two more arrived.  She had never used her degree, at least not for pay, and devoted her time to her children, and the issues that surrounded them.  The fact that she was devoted to her husband was taken for granted.  The same as breathing.

 Miranda, the oldest of the Worthington children at fifteen, was as beautiful as her mother, but nowhere near as content.  Being the teenage daughter of the President of the United States made puberty that much harder.  Though her parents had seriously discussed the events that would take place if her father ran for, and was elected, President, she could not have imagined the prison it would be for her.  Sleep-overs, dates, movies with her friends.  She could do all of the above.  As long as the Secret Service went along.   A fact, to her friends, that was cool.  But to Miranda, it meant she could not be herself.

 Curt, at fourteen, was not at all swayed by the Secret Service, or his father’s position in the country.  If it didn’t have to do with baseball, he simply was not interested.  He glided through his studies without batting an eye, all the while wondering which agent would be playing catch with him on the weekend.  His friends, though impressed by the Secret Service, were not envious of his life-style, but took it in stride.

Teddy, at five, was a lot like his brother, though not quite as obsessed by baseball.  If Curt was around, Teddy would become an avid audience to the facts and statistics which his older brother tried to bury in his brain.  But when Curt was away at school, Teddy’s time was spent on anything and everything.  Being curious had caused more than a few gray hairs for the Secret Service, but none of the men would have traded any of the time that they spent with Teddy.  For the immediate six-man team who were assigned to the First Family, looking over Teddy was never considered a job.

Kate, at three, would have easily been the biggest handful for the Service if her mother didn’t keep her constantly at her side.  Each one of the men thanked God for the devotion Mrs. Worthington had for her children.

A First Family of six.  All of different ages and interests.  To the men and women of the Secret Service, this tour was the toughest anyone could remember.  For  the six men who protected them day and night, it was a way of life.