The next time we saw Josh, though, he was fine, so neither one of us brought it up with him.
Now, I didn�t understand his reaction, but I didn�t really care because, if it had been a real fire he would have gotten Peter and Miranda to safety and I was so incredibly thankful for that that I didn�t think about it until months later when Ronna mentioned that Josh had reamed out the manager at some dumpy motel that the interns were being put up in for not having more precautions in case of fire. Donna was with us, a bottle of white wine sitting on the table with our three glasses at different levels of fullness, and she tensed up, biting her lip nervously until Ronna and I pressed her for information that it was clear she had.
�Josh was five,� she said, �and his sister, Joanie, was babysitting him while his parents were at a party that Noah Lyman�s law firm, Debevoise and Plimpton, was having for the partners. There was a fire� I don�t think Josh even remembers how it started, to be perfectly honest. Josh ran out of the house� but Joanie didn�t make it out in time. His mother said that the investigators think that Joanie tripped on something and couldn�t get back up. Ever since�� she trailed off, uncharacteristically unsure of how to put voice to her thoughts. �Josh has lost a lot of people that he cares about. He thinks he should have saved Joanie. He knows that he couldn�t have done anything, that he was five and that running out of the house was what he was supposed to do, but� sometimes I think he�s trying to save his sister retroactively.�
I wanted to ask more, wanted to quench my perverse desire to know the gritty details of Josh Lyman�s life, but Donna�s clear blue eyes filled with tears and she excused herself and walked outside where the hotel had a beautiful rose garden that she had mentioned reminded her of the Rose Garden at the White House�a place she said always made her feel safe and happy.
I didn�t know that Josh had even had a sister. He never talked about himself, or his family. I knew from Leo that Josh�s father had died eight years earlier, a pulmonary embolism�I commented that at least it was quick, and Leo replied that Noah had been battling cancer for several years before something that no one was prepared for had killed him�and I knew that Josh�s mother, Rachel, lived in Palm Beach, though when we swung through Florida he didn�t even mention wanting to take some time to visit with her.
There was a day that Donna woke up and found that she had no voice, probably resulting from the tongue-lashing she had given to the press the night before, or possibly because she had finally caught the cold that had been going through each person on the campaign staff for the last month. The problem with her lack of voice was that she was due to meet with several people, including President Bartlet, and there was no one else that Josh and Lou, not to mention Matt, trusted to deal with everyone from Mary Marsh and the Christian Right to Mark Godfried on Capitol Beat to the many bands that wanted in on the playlist for Rock The Vote as well as some campaign stops. Donna insisted that she could make it, though she couldn�t be very forceful while writing everything down on bright pink Post-It notes.