Directly after taking office, President Adams and his Vice-President, John Carlson had a private talk over a glass of wine. “ President Adams, there is a lot of unrest; people feeling like your plans in handling the homeless situation are taking the wrong course.This is not going to give us any brownie points in our political career,” John said to President Adams. “Aren’t you concerned with that at all?”

  “I’m thinking that if we don’t solve the homeless crisis, it is only going to escalate to where the majority of the elderly will not have anywhere to go and where young people think twice about joining the military because they will have no future, no health care and no retirement. I’m thinking about the drug addicts who have given up and are no longer trying. I’m thinking, that unfortunately,we will be the first President/ Vice President to lay claim to the fact that the country we represent only cares for the rich and has basically disowned everyone who doesn’t have money.

  John, we have people’s very lives in our hands and I for one don’t want to face our Creator and tell Him I did nothing to care for the downtrodden when I was in a position to make a positive change. When we have ceased to serve the people we represent and instead are in office solely for what we will get out of it then we are no longer the right persons for the job.”

  The Vice-President backed off after the President shared his feelings, deciding to stand back and see what happened. He had a private lunch meeting later that day with the Secretary of Defence and updated him on what the new President had said.

  The Secretary of Defence said, “John, this is helpful, but I wish you could have talked the President into not acting so rashly. My main Generals are ready to take him out for touching their defence spending and I am not sure they are wrong. However, I have put a halt to any actions from my Generals for now. We will see the apartments get built and the sober homeless people get a new start in all of the major cities, but see what you can do about getting the President to budge on the addicts and their care.

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  Jim had learned to lead a group of outfitters, taking turns with Donald. After their initial training, the sled dogs made a fine team and were used regularly in the winter for outfitting. The lead dog, Bossy, had decided she would not go out with anyone except Max, so a second lead dog was being trained. Max was still too new to outfitting to take teams out by himself so when he went out he either went on Donald’s team or Jim’s. The goal was to eventually have three men able to lead the outfitting so they could trade off or even have three teams out at once! Donald’s generosity in taking in a lodge full of elderly persons had inconsequentially led to his business expanding so that more people than ever could take advantage of the outfitting he had to offer.

  Donald had Max get information on when the new apartments would open so he could make plans on when to take the part of his group who wished to return back to Portland. May 23, 2025 was the date set for the new apartments to receive his elderly, so their travel date was set for May 14. When Donald and Max explained the plans in a group meeting, there was a visible sigh. He hadn’t realized that his friends were worried about the details of returning to Portland and had been worried they wouldn’t be able to fit back in.

  Miranda Cummings had been in prison now for a month and was reflecting on the positive changes that had come about as a result of her demonstrations. She had caught a news special a few nights before highlighting the new build for the homeless in various US cities, showing pictures of the progress that was being made. Miranda felt that even if nothing more came out of the demonstrations she had spearheaded, having housing and jobs for the sober homeless made it all worth it.

  Another awesome outcome of the demonstrations was that Johnny Cooper, her photographer and videographer friend who had worked with her, had been offered a job by a big wig in Hollywood, after the man bailed Johnny out of jail! Miranda hadn’t been as fortunate as Johnny and had no idea how long she would be sitting in there. She hadn’t been idle however. Miranda had taken advantage of the great library in the prison and had been researching constitutional laws to determine her next direction.