Cynthia Powell part 1: Washington, D.C.

Cynthia is the shortest member of her family. Her father is a CPA and her mother owns an art gallery that features her own sculpture along with the work of other artists. Cynthia is the older of two children. George, her brother, is two years younger, and really got on big sis’s nerves as they were growing up.

The Powell family lives in Washington, D.C., where Cynthia and George go to public schools. The teachers think of the two of them as a matched set. Though neither is at the top of her/his class, each is a good strong student -- reliable, hard worker, good citizen.

Cynthia gets a scholarship to George Washington University, and majors in political science. At college she meets the charismatic, gonna-set-the-world-on-fire political scientist James Lowell Weber. After they graduate, they get married. Both are hired to work for a polling organization that is a front for right-wing fundamentalists. It doesn’t take Cynthia long to figure out that the fundies hired James and her because they “look” right for a public image (as Blacks) and are expected to have the right ideology as graduates of George Washington (i.e. be good conservatives). Finally, Cynthia discovers that James has no moral compass. He refuses to leave the organization because it looks good on his resumé, and also because he thinks it wouldn’t be “smart politics” on his part.

Cynthia leaves the organization and works at her mother’s art gallery.

James’ work hours expand more and more, until he is hardly ever home when Cynthia is. As much for protection as company during her morning run, Cynthia gets a chocolate Standard Poodle. She names him Gideon. At the running park, Cynthia overhears a conversation that can only be about her husband James, which solidifies her suspicions about his excessive hours away from home.


(continued)