Chapter 19 #6
“He doesn’t know how many of their ICBMs blow up on their launch pads in Siberia because their rocketry guys are incompetent.
He doesn’t know that over half the missiles our U-2 planes have photographed are actually painted trees with cardboard fins.
It’s sleight of hand, Sadie. It fools scientists like Johnny and politicians like Senator Kuchel, but it would never fool another magician. ”
“That’s… it’s not…” She fell silent for a moment, biting at her lips. Then she said, “How could you know stuff like that?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Then I can’t believe you. Johnny said Kennedy was going to be the nominee of the Democratic party, even though everybody else thought it was going to be Humphrey on account of Kennedy being a Catholic.
He analyzed the states with primaries, ran the numbers, and he was right.
He said Johnson would be Kennedy’s running mate because Johnson was the only Southerner who would be acceptable north of the Mason-Dixon line.
He was right about that, too. Kennedy got in, and now he’s going to kill us all. Statistical analysis doesn’t lie.”
I took a deep breath. “Sadie, I want you to listen to me. Very carefully. Are you awake enough to do that?”
For a moment there was nothing. Then I felt her nod against my upper arm.
“It’s now early Tuesday morning. This standoff is going to go on for another three days. Or maybe it’s four, I can’t remember.”
“What do you mean, you can’t remember?”
I mean there’s nothing about this in Al’s notes, and my only college class in American History was almost twenty years ago. It’s amazing I can remember as much as I do.
“We’re going to blockade Cuba, but the only Russian ship we’ll stop won’t have anything in it but food and trade goods.
The Russians are going to bluster, but by Thursday or Friday they’re going to be scared to death and looking for a way out.
One of the big Russian diplomats will initiate a backchannel meeting with some TV guy.
” And seemingly from nowhere, the way crossword puzzle answers sometimes come to me, I remembered the name.
Or almost remembered it. “His name is John Scolari, or something like that—”
“Scali? Are you talking about John Scali, on the ABC News?”
“Yeah, that’s him. This is going to happen Friday or Saturday, while the rest of the world—including your ex and your pal from Yale—is just waiting for the word to stick their heads between their legs and kiss their asses goodbye.”
She heartened me by giggling.
“This Russian will more or less say…” Here I did a pretty good Russian accent.
I had learned it listening to Lee’s wife.
Also from Boris and Natasha on Rocky and Bullwinkle.
“ ‘Get vurd to your president that ve vunt vay to back out of this vith honor. You agree take your nuclear missiles out of Turkey. You promise never to invade Kooba. Ve say okay and dismantle missiles in Kooba.’ And that, Sadie, is exactly what’s going to happen. ”
She wasn’t giggling now. She was staring at me with huge saucer eyes. “You’re making this up to make me feel better.”
I said nothing.
“You’re not,” she whispered. “You really believe it.”
“Wrong,” I said. “I know it. Big difference.”
“George… nobody knows the future.”
“John Clayton claims to know, and you believe him. Roger from Yale claims to know, and you believe him, too.”
“You’re jealous of him, aren’t you?”
“You’re goddam right.”
“I never slept with him. I never even wanted to.” Solemnly, she added: “I could never sleep with a man who wears that much cologne.”
“Good to know. I’m still jealous.”
“Should I ask questions about how you—”
“No. I won’t answer them.” I probably shouldn’t have told her as much as I had, but I couldn’t stop myself.
And in truth, I would do it again. “But I will tell you one other thing, and this you can check yourself in a couple of days. Adlai Stevenson and the Russian representative to the UN are going to face off in the General Assembly. Stevenson’s going to exhibit huge photos of the missile bases the Russians are building in Cuba, and ask the Russian guy to explain what the Russians said wasn’t there.
The Russian guy is going to say something like, ‘You must vait, I cannot respond viddout full translation.’ And Stevenson, who knows the guy can speak perfect English, is going to say something that’ll wind up in the history books along with ‘don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.
’ He’s going to tell the Russian guy he can wait until hell freezes over. ”
She looked at me doubtfully, turned to the night table, saw the charred pack of Winstons sitting on top of a hill of crushed butts, and said: “I think I’m out of cigarettes.”
“You should be okay until morning,” I said dryly. “It looks to me like you front-loaded about a week’s supply.”
“George?” Her voice was very small, very timid. “Will you stay with me tonight?”
“My car’s parked in your—”
“If one of the neighborhood neb-noses says something, I’ll tell them you came to see me after the president’s speech and it wouldn’t start.”
Considering how the Sunliner was running these days, that was plausible. “Does your sudden concern for propriety mean you’ve stopped worrying about nuclear Armageddon?”
“I don’t know. I only know I don’t want to be alone. I’ll even make love with you if that will get you to stay, but I don’t think it would be much good for either of us. My head aches so badly.”
“You don’t have to make love to me, hon. It’s not a business deal.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“Hush. I’ll get the aspirin.”
“And look on top of the medicine cabinet, would you? Sometimes I leave a pack of cigarettes there.”
She had, but by the time she’d taken three puffs of the one I lit for her, she was wall-eyed and dozing. I took it from between her fingers and mashed it out on the lower slope of Mount Cancer. Then I took her in my arms and laid back on the pillows. We fell asleep that way.
10
When I woke to the first long light of dawn, the fly of my slacks was unzipped and a skillful hand was exploring inside my underwear. I turned to her. She was looking at me calmly. “The world is still here, George. And so are we. Come on. But be gentle. My head still aches.”
I was gentle, and I made it last. We made it last. At the end, she lifted her hips and dug into my shoulder blades. It was her oh dear, oh my God, oh sugar grip.
“Anything.” She was whispering, her breath in my ear making me shiver as I came. “You can be anything, do anything, just say you’ll stay. And that you still love me.”
“Sadie… I never stopped.”
11
We had breakfast in her kitchen before I went back to Dallas. I told her it really was Dallas now, and although I didn’t have a phone yet, I would give her the number as soon as I had one.
She nodded and picked at her eggs. “I meant what I said. I won’t ask any more questions about your business.”
“That’s best. Don’t ask, don’t tell.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind.”
“Just tell me again that you’re up to good rather than no good.”
“Yes,” I said. “I’m one of the good guys.”
“Will you be able to tell me someday?”
“I hope so,” I said. “Sadie, those pictures he sent—”
“I tore them up this morning. I don’t want to talk about them.”
“We don’t have to. But I need you to tell me that’s all the contact you’ve had with him. That he hasn’t been around.”
“He hasn’t been. And the postmark on the envelope was Savannah.”
I’d noticed that. But I’d also noticed the postmark was almost two months old.
“He’s not big on personal confrontation. He’s brave enough in his mind, but I think he’s a physical coward.”
That struck me as a good assessment; sending the pictures was textbook passive-aggressive behavior.
Still, she had been sure Clayton wouldn’t find out where she was now living and teaching, and she’d been wrong about that.
“The behavior of mentally unstable people is hard to predict, honey. If you saw him, you’d call the police, right? ”
“Yes, George.” With a touch of her old impatience. “I need to ask you one question, then we won’t talk about this anymore until you’re ready. If you ever are.”
“Okay.” I tried to prepare an answer to the question I was sure would be coming: Are you from the future, George?
“It’s going to sound crazy.”
“It’s been a crazy night. Go ahead.”
“Are you…” She laughed, then started to gather the plates. She went to the sink with them, and with her back turned, she asked: “Are you human? Like, from planet Earth?”
I went to her, reached around to cup her breasts, and kissed the back of her neck. “Totally human.”
She turned. Her eyes were grave. “Can I ask another?”
I sighed. “Shoot.”
“I’ve got at least forty minutes before I have to dress for school. Do you happen to have another condom? I think I’ve discovered the cure for headaches.”