The Swing Voter of Staten Island by Arthur Nersesian Read Free Book Online Page A

Carmen D. Sapio (C) reelected
    Howard Beach (Pigger) invaded
    1,335 Crappers, 1,332 Piggers
    Outcome: Crapper
    Councilman Newton Underwood* (P) removed
    Councilman Dwight Valone (C) elected Total Pigger districts: 16
    Total Crapper districts: 4
    Two changes from last election
    *Former President of the City Council
    The Crappers had won in both Howard Beach and Far Rockaway by only three votes. And in Greenpoint, they had beaten the Piggers by two votes. All were paper-thin victories. Yet the number of people killed in those three districts nearly mimicked the figures that Oric had been nervously barking out during the previous day’s trip through Brooklyn.
    The newspaper report set Uli’s thoughts into a paranoid tailspin: If that cross-shaped object buried in the back of Oric’s shaggy-haired skull was harnessing the man’s psychic abilities so he could predict the slim margins of Pigger victories, then the late Jim Carnival—the overzealous Crapper—could travel into the designated neighborhoods and “correct” the Pigger constituencies, disguising the casualties as typical crimes, thus altering the outcome of the local elections.
    And if Oric did have special abilities, this potentially answered the question of why the Flatlands pursuer had been coming after them.
    Uli reentered the sixteenth-stamp store and discreetly guided Oric out to the street, then delicately asked, “What exactly does correction mean?”
    Oric looked at Uli strangely. Without warning, the man bent over and grabbed Uli around the waist and playfully pulled him down.
    “What are you doing, Oric?” Uli said, shoving him away. “Stop it!”
    “Don’t worry, I won’t let go,” Oric replied.
    “Listen to me,” Uli tried to regain the challenged man’s attention, “what does correction mean?”
    Oric paused a moment, then pointed his chubby index finger at Uli and said, “Bam!”
    “What’s going on here?” Mallory asked as she came out of the store, seeing the incompetent man shooting off an imaginary pistol. While she fed the baby kangaroo a succession of celery stalks she had just purchased, Uli filled her in on his little theory.
    Taking a deep breath, she said, “The majority of this city is registered as Crappers, yet through strategic invasions and pork-barrel patronage, the Piggies under Shub have managed to stay in charge for the past decade.”
    Uli considered this, then asked, “Why are you sharing this with me?”
    “Well, since you openly stated you were programmed to kill Dropt, I can’t accuse you of guile. In fact, after risking your life to cover for me with Chain, and having monitored your actions over the past twenty-four hours, I think I can trust you.”
    “Trust me with what?”
    “I have to get back to Queens to turn in this Affidavit of Electoral Inventories by the 3 o’clock deadline, so that Dropt will have a shot at getting a fair election next week.” She held up her fat book. “This theory about Oric kind of changes things. I need you to bring him to the Manhattan Crapper headquarters in the Lower East Side pronto.”
    “You want me to bring him to the guy who I was programmed to kill?” Uli said, amazed.
    “You won’t be going anywhere near Dropt. You’ll just bring Oric to the heavily guarded building and then leave. And only because I have no one else to turn to. This bus fiasco has been a major setback. I’ve been trying not to show it, but I’m starting to really freak out about the election. I can give you some stamps to cover your expenses and put a little cash in your pocket.”
    “Sorry, but I can’t abide by the notion of murder to win an election.”
    “If that Carnival character was actually killing people, I guarantee it wasn’t sanctioned by us. We’re the party that wants people to make up their own minds. If we know we might lose by a slim margin, we can reallocate our funds, campaign harder in specific districts, and try to convince the wobbly margins to