16
The speech wasn’t bad . But it also wasn’t anything groundbreaking.
Not that people went for groundbreaking. People liked reliable. Handsome, charming, and reliable.
He had a stronger focus on equal rights than anything Sam was saying, and that was something to build on. Beyond that, the words were different, but the gist was the same. The Soviets were the biggest threat to America, and we had to work to neutralize that without sacrificing quality of life at home, blah blah blah.
I grabbed a pencil and camped out at Claire’s desk—the interns were being lectured by Stuart.
No big changes yet. But I added in two jokes at his own expense and one at Sam’s. It was always better to let people laugh with you first. Otherwise, making fun of a veteran came across as mean. But if they saw that you could poke fun at yourself, they would enjoy a joke about someone else too.
“Claire?” I called, interrupting Stuart in the middle of some arm waving. With his grumpy face, he looked like a gorilla when he gestured too furiously, and I suppressed a smile. “I need you to type something for me.”
“Coming, Mrs. Diamond.”
“You work for me,” Stuart said.
Claire looked to me, unsure of what to do.
“Are you paying her, Stuart?” He glared at me. “I didn’t think so. Claire, darling, I need your help.”
She came over, and I stood, allowing her to sit at the typewriter. “Can you retype this for me with the added sections? Exactly as it is. I want it to look like the same document.”
“Of course, Mrs. Diamond.”
“Thank you,” I said. Then I strode over to Stuart’s little huddle. “I’m afraid I need to borrow the rest of them as well.”
“What did you even bring them on board for if you’re not going to let me explain how we do things here?”
I tilted my head. “How you did things wasn’t getting anywhere. Don’t worry. I’ll let you finish your lecture soon. Now, boys, a word outside, please?”
Paul leapt up to open the door for me. “Always a gentleman,” I said, reaching up to pat his cheek as I passed him. “But I was your babysitter, and it’s never happening.”
The other two boys laughed. “Can’t blame a fella for trying,” Paul said good-naturedly.
Safely on the street, George lit up a cigarette, and the other two quickly asked to bum others. George offered me one as well, but I declined. Just because I was living with my mother didn’t mean I needed to get back to my teenage bad habits when I wasn’t with her.
“Have you got friends?” I asked.
They looked at me in confusion.
“Listen,” I said. “Mr. Landau has a speech tomorrow night, and we need to fill that hall.”
“How big is it?”
“About two hundred fifty people,” I said. I only knew from listening to Larry talk about Sam’s venues. That would have been a small one for him these days. Insurmountably huge to Michael. “And we need it standing room only.”
“I can get my fraternity to come out,” Charlie said. “But most of us aren’t twenty-one yet.”
“That doesn’t matter,” I said, waving a hand grandly. And it didn’t. This was a test run. “But try to get them to bring their older brothers too. And parents. Grandparents. Neighbors. I want three hundred people there.”
“But the hall holds two fifty?”
I grinned. “Imagine the picture of a packed room and people in the doorway trying to see. No one needs to read the article attached to that to know he’s someone to watch.”
“I feel like we should be taking notes,” George said.
“Maybe you should.” I smiled at them. “Finish your cigarettes and go make some calls—from the pay phone down the street. I don’t want Stuart knowing what we’re up to yet.”
“He told us to tell him everything you said and did.”
“Well, we obviously won’t be doing that.” I laughed merrily, and they joined in.
When Claire finished typing the revised speech, I read through it once, then slipped it back into the manila envelope. If he read it before the event, I would have some explaining to do. But I had a feeling, if he was giving the same speech all over the state, I didn’t have to worry about that.
And at five, when I strode out of the office to catch the bus home, I smiled. It was the first honest day’s work I had done outside of the home in my life.
And even better, Larry was going to be furious when he eventually found out.