Carol King slowly dries her hands as she looks at herself in the mirror.  The bathroom is empty, but she knows that at any moment, other guests from the fundraiser could appear.

She wishes they would; King hates to be alone.  She hates the quiet.  But she forces herself to be mindful of her aloneness, and she feels a slight high in the quiet and the anticipation of someone else’s arrival.

As King exits the bathroom, she pulls the bathroom door with a little too much force. The sound of the door striking the wall startles a man walking by. He stops momentarily and looks at her, then moves on.

He is carrying two drinks, and he hands one to his wife as he rejoins a group of people talking with state Rep. Bob Marles.  Representative Marles acknowledges the man’s return with a broad, warm smile.

His name is Britt Collins, and he is one of the key players who helped bring Tesla to Texas.  Carol King does not know Collins personally, but as she walks past him, she recalls everything she read about him when she prepared for this fundraiser.

Collins – an engineer – had served as one of Tesla’s outside consultants, specializing in battery design. He is one of those rare engineers who can communicate his ideas to laypeople.

After helping Tesla establish their Texas operations, he opened a firm down the road that specialized in developing improved battery designs.  He and his partners hold hundreds of patents, and most of their revenue comes from licensing agreements with customers worldwide – including the Chinese government.  Collins’ contract with the Chinese was the subject of a congressional probe (although no conclusions or recommendations were ever issued).  That contract alone is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

In addition to being a prodigious financial contributor to politicians on both sides of the aisle, Collins often stirs up the hundreds of San Antonio-area engineers, chemists, and other professionals in his employ — calling on them to help accomplish public policy objectives for his Texas-based political friends.

After their awkward encounter outside the bathroom, King decides she will not approach Collins tonight (a lost opportunity that she regrets).  She is there on the Speaker’s behalf, and Collins is among the people she hoped to greet.  But Collins already has a good relationship with Speaker Garza, and Collins is sure to continue helping state Rep. Marles.  King sees no advantage in making a move tonight.

King’s ability to recall the intimate details of people’s lives is one of her many strengths.  As she joins a congregation of guests enjoying cocktails and appetizers, she greets everyone with a firm handshake, a knowing smile, and short questions that include personal touches, like their children’s names, their business interests, or the accomplishments of their parents.

When the greetings are complete, she falls silent, and the conversation picks up where it left off when she entered.  She is waiting patiently to talk to Victor Leal, the fundraiser’s host.

When there is a suitable break in the conversation, King will invite Leal aside to discuss the short address she’s been asked to deliver following Leal’s welcoming remarks.

When she has Leal away from the group, she will talk to him – as the Speaker requested – about the location selection process for the international law enforcement training facility that a coalition of state and federal law enforcement agencies want to build in Texas. Leal is working with other local leaders, trying to convince the site selection committee that San Antonio is an ideal location for the training center.

Leal knows that the DFW metroplex wants to build the state-of-the-art facility in their own backyard.

King has been instructed to assure Leal of the following: while the Speaker must publically support his Frisco-anchored district as Frisco and the surrounding communities continue their campaign to be chosen the training center’s home, the Speaker thinks that San Antonio is the better location.

King was directed to say that the training center’s placement in San Antonio is better public policy (an argument being made by the state’s law enforcement community). Additionally, she was to make clear to Leal that the Speaker will continue to help him and San Antonio in every back channel way possible.

As King waits for an appropriate lull in the conversation, she scans the room for other people with whom she should make contact before the opportunity expires.

She sees a man she met at a fundraiser years ago.  She smiles as she remembers his claims that his great, great, great grandfather had been a provisioner, of sorts, in North Texas in the mid-19^th century.  The man told King that his ancestor had given Big Nose Kate the gun she used to break Doc Holiday out of jail after he shot Ed Bailey.  Whether or not such a killing took place is a question still debated by historians, and King laughs to herself as she remembers the conclusion she reached when she first heard the man’s story: he has giant, P.T. Barnum-like balls.

King is still smiling when she sees someone else she knows.

Her smile disappears, and she crosses her arms.  Then she uncrosses them again quickly – desperate not to draw attention to herself.

King is terrified that if they make eye contact, he might remember her; but she can’t look away.

She had done so many humiliating things with her ex-husband.  And she had once loved the things he needed her to do.  But this man across the room – possibly the only person in the room whose name she did not know – had been part of her life, for one night, alongside her then-husband, a long time ago.

The excitement she had once felt fulfilling her husband’s desires had long since withered and turned bitter.  Even back then, her passion only lasted as long as his excitement was fully aroused and engaged.  Whenever he was finished with whatever scenario he had created for them, all that remained down deep in her brain’s most intimate, secret place was a slight, sickening shame and endlessly spinning, unproductive doubt.

King makes herself look away, and does her best to assure herself:  “If he recognizes me, it is meaningless.”  However, she knows that if he were to walk across the room and treat her like he’d done that night so long ago, she would be powerless to stop him.

King knows that there is nothing to gain by worrying about him.  She has a job to do, and the best thing for her to do is complete her responsibilities as ably as possible.

She tries to ignore the frightening, trembling warmness inside, and she interrupts the conversation to get Leal’s attention:

“May we discuss the comments I was asked to make tonight?”

Leal, who is a little tipsy and taken aback by her brusqueness, shows displeasure on his face as he steps aside to satisfy her request.