Red State Hero

Chapter 78 MILLENNIUM

By the time they reached West Virginia the sun was out and the sky was clear. They drove through the late afternoon until they reached the Reeves homestead and found themselves immediately witnessing a spat between Dorothy and Glenn. David made a face and fell asleep in a guest room.

"He just treats me like a dog," Dorothy said as Glenn grinned in embarrassment.

After a few more minutes of this Glenn motioned Daniel into the dining room. They stopped by the refrigerator on the way and retrieved a large chunk of cheddar cheese, some crackers and orange juice.

"I thought you weren't supposed to eat cheese, Glenn," Daniel said with a grin on his face.

"I'm not," Glenn replied, "I'm not supposed to do anything."
Then he lowered his voice into a whisper and said, "Your mom's been raising hell all day."

"What's she mad about?"

"Nothing, nothing important leastwise. You know something, Daniel, with my heart the way it is I can't do anything for her to get mad about."

They ate the cheese and crackers in silence for a couple of minutes listening to Dorothy 's complaints wafting in from the family room then Glenn said, "You know you can't please her no matter what. Did you notice the fireplace was gone?"

"The what?" said Daniel in astonishment.

"Yeah, when we're finished in here take a look; you won't see a fireplace. Your mom got up one morning, stubbed her toe on the fireplace and it had to go. It cost seven thousand dollars to take it down and seal up the wall."

And so it was that after an hour of bitching on Dorothy 's part and an hour of sad recounting on Glenn's part everyone went to bed except Daniel who was wide awake watching a covey of deer beside his bedroom window.

The first thing Caroline said in the morning was, "I want to go to my parents' today. I know we planned to go tomorrow but I can't put up with the bickering and arguing this week. I'm spending vacation time on this." And so over much protesting from Glenn and Dorothy, Daniel set out at 9:00 for Huntington. He protested too, he was exhausted from the long trip down from Cape Cod and he knew his parents and he knew that this abrupt change of plans would not go down very well in a political sense.

"Well, I don't want to kiss their ass," said Caroline.

"But we're expecting them to give us a car, a one year old low mileage car, a Mercury."

"Why do you think that?"

"Well, my mother inferred it; she didn't say it straight out, but you know that over the years Glenn gave me a Cadillac-the one I had when I met you and he gave me a Lincoln."

"If they're going to give us a car, they'll give us a car," Caroline said.

But Daniel knew his parents better than that and he wasn't so sure. The round trip to Huntington including a polite interval at Caroline's parents took seven hours and Daniel returned to Sterling thoroughly exhausted and soon to be depressed. He had a radar for his parents and he knew that their mood had changed. There was nothing he could do about it. He became really concerned prior to dinner when Glenn said he had to go to Metro City.

"Do you want me to come along?" he asked.

"No, no you stay here with your mother we'll take a ride tomorrow and get caught up on things."

The sinking feeling increased when Dorothy said, "I haven't been well enough to do any cooking or fix anything so we'll have to get by on soup."

Daniel took note of the fact that Matty, the maid, heated the soup and served it before she left for the day. He realized his mother was serious. There was soup and bread and butter and macaroni salad that was left over from Sunday's dinner. Daniel somehow knew then that he wouldn't get the car. Dorothy topped off his dreadful feeling by going to bed at 7:00.

The next day he awoke to pounding on his bedroom door and Glenn's voice saying, "Get up, Daniel, we gotta go."

Daniel was soon dressed and offered toast and tea by his mother. "Here's bread," she said, "here's the toaster and here's a pot of hot water for your tea."

Daniel remembered that coffee didn't exist in the Reeves' household but that's what he needed more than anything. He passed on the Wonder bread toast but retrieved another chunk of cheddar out of the refrigerator. He soon learned that he was expected to sit in the back of the car and hold Missy, the dog, all the way to Ripley.

"We've got to get her to the vet," said Dorothy. "She's been throwing up and she has diarrhoea."

"Do you have a towel or anything that I can put on my lap?" asked Daniel in a plaintive voice.

"No, she won't do anything between now and the time we get there," said Dorothy.

"Naw, she'll be all right," seconded Glenn.

Daniel was worried considerably but Missy kept turning her head up toward him and giving him reassuring glances.

"How odd," Daniel thought, "that this animal has always liked me in spite of my indifference.

Once Missy was left at the vet's, Glenn drove to the Long Horn Steak House. After endless soup Daniel was ready for a good steak but once inside Glenn informed him that they no longer ate red meat but were there for the great "salad bar".

"But I want a steak," Daniel thought and yet he gave in to his lifelong habit of acquiescing to whatever Glenn said. Of course the irony of it all was that Glenn got into the "Mexican selection" at the salad bar-tidbits filled with ground round and refritos.

Next came Wal-Mart. Dorothy was going to commandeer a motorized chair to get around Wal-Mart but she met Betty Bush at the entrance and decided instead to stay at McDonalds and have tea with Betty. Besides the whole Wal-Mart thing was about Daniel wasn't it. He wanted to try and find some hats similar to those that he purchased on a previous trip. Daniel had determined that the availability of hats; that is to say-lower priced hats was a regional thing, you could find them in the south. In Massachusetts any hat worth wearing cost four times as much. He was amazed at how quickly and confidently Glenn walked behind his shopping cart. On the previous day he had had trouble walking around the house but now his energy was boundless as he pulled item after item off the shelves. This went on until the shopping cart was full and in the process Daniel bought two fine looking hats, a grey fedora for twenty-two dollars and a brown western hat for seventeen fifty. These would be added to twelve others that he had at home including three graceful straw hats that he wore in the summer time.

Daniel believed, and justifiably so, that he had influenced the wearing of hats in Hyannis. He noticed that each year he saw more and more hats on the street. When asked about it he explained to people that he wore hats because of the distribution of mass. His girth required a counter mass on his head, otherwise he resembled a football. But the hat and the beard and his occasional cane gave him a distinguished mien.

When they got to the pharmacy, Glenn retrieved a stack of prescriptions from his wallet and was told they would all be filled in a half an hour.

"Take care, Glenn," the pharmacist said.

"You see this is one of the best things about the Wal-Mart, Daniel, these prescriptions are a lot less than they are in any of the little drug stores back in Sterling; and when they put up that Wal-Mart that they've got planned for Sterling, it's gonna drive all those guys out of business. In a way it's a bad thing," he said in the checkout line, "everything we got in this shopping cart practically is made in China and every bit of it is putting Americans out of work and in the long run that's a bad thing. But guys like me and the people that shop here aren't worried about that cause you can't beat these prices.

Later Dorothy and Glenn went on and on about Missy as if she were a human but the vet brought the mystery to an end. He had given Missy an enema which had dislodged the result of eating table scraps.

"I've told you before you shouldn't feed her table scraps," he said to Dorothy.

"I know, I know," Dorothy replied, "bust she just begs and begs; you should see the look on her little face."

"Yeah, she just begs and begs," Glenn repeated.

"And you should see the look on her little face," Daniel said in jest.

Glenn didn't think he was funny and flashed him a frown.

Dorothy dozed off on the way back to Sterling and Glenn had little to say except during a short period when he talked about his car telephone. Daniel realized that this was the first time he had ridden in the Mercury. He would gladly accept the car as a gift but there was nothing attractive about it. It was painted grey and had a grey interior-so different from Glenn's Lincoln that he could not get his mind around the contrast or the reason for it.

It wasn't until they got home that Daniel understood Glenn's silence; he was having chest pains. The drive had been too much for him. Dorothy fumbled in her purse for nitro glycerine and put a tablet under Glenn's tongue. Glenn sat still until the nitro did its work and then he said, "I'm ok now."

Daniel helped him into the house and onto his bed. "Give me another nitro," he said.

After the second nitro Glenn removed his jacket and lay back as if exhausted. This was the first time Daniel realized how serious his heart condition was. "A man can't do anything," Glenn said, "not a gall darn thing."

Then he dropped into sleep. Daniel took his pulse and it was fifty-two weak beats per minute; he sat with him for a while and as he left the room Glenn blurted out, "I'll be all right." Then he fell back into a snoring sleep.
Dorothy did not seem upset by any of this.  "He should have let Matty take me but he had to show off."

Daniel felt bad for Glenn. He realized that Glenn had no source of sympathy.

He phoned Caroline that evening and made it clear that she needed to spend Thanksgiving in Sterling. "Things aren't good here," he said, "I don't feel confident."

"What is it you don't feel confident about?" she demanded.

"You know what I mean," said Daniel but she would have none of it. She would have Thanksgiving dinner with her family and then return to Sterling.

"Baby, that ain't gonna work."

"Thinks are not good here. For one thing Glenn is a lot sicker than I thought he was and there's not going to be anyone here but us."
A long silence followed then Daniel said, "You family won't be alone, Richie and your sisters and their families will all be there but the situation here is like a death watch. I'll pick you up at 1:00 on Thursday. That'll give you time to have Thanksgiving lunch. We'll get back here between 3:00 and 4:00 and make Thanksgiving dinner. That's the way its got to be.

The next morning Daniel shopped for Thanksgiving dinner. Glenn insisted upon coming along and he insisted upon buying two chickens instead of a turkey. "We don't need a turkey and your mom won't be able to lift one."

"Well, what about Matty?" Daniel asked.

"She's taking the weekend off," was Glenn's answer.

"How strange," Daniel thought, "this woman who made a good living off of his mother, who was more of a companion than a maid anyway because there was nothing in the house that needed to be cleaned more than once a week; somehow she can't be there throughout the entire weekend and somehow after making some of the best wages in Sterling during the past week, can't manage to prepare food past a huge vat of vegetable soup and endless servings of macaroni salad.

Daniel brought this whole matter up with Caroline on the way back from Huntington. "I don't know what to think this vegetable soup and macaroni salad regimen means. When Leah or Jonathan or Prince come to visit us we celebrate them; we feed them, we wine them and dine them and fuss over them and make them feel welcome."

"When I grow up and come to visit, you better not give me soup and macaroni," said David from the back seat."

"We won't," said Caroline.

Until that moment, Daniel had been barely aware of David's presence. He had been so quiet on the drive to West Virginia and he had been with his mother since then.

"I don't know what the fuck the attitude on the part of my parents' means. This isn't the first time my mom has done this; if you'll recall in the past we always got one good meal and then we're put on the left-overs until we get the hint and leave."

"It's no mystery," Caroline said, "you put up with this because you suck up to them like I can't believe because you're hoping to get a car."

"That's true," said Daniel, "I'm a half-ass broken down musician and writer who will definitely suck up to get a car even if I have to eat gallons of vegetable soup and a ton of macaroni salad."

When they arrived in Sterling Dorothy was going through the motions of making Thanksgiving dinner and complaining loudly of the pain in her back and legs. Glenn was asleep in his bed. Caroline took charge of the situation and with Daniel's and David's help had set a Thanksgiving table by 6:00-just in time for Dan Rather. Thanksgiving would not stop Glenn from watching the news.
It was only after dinner and after the dishes had been washed and the kitchen cleaned up that everyone gathered in the parlor for what was one of those ceremonial episodes that were so familiar in the Reeves' household. Glenn reached into his pocket and looked at Daniel and said, "I've got something for you," Daniel's heart nearly skipped a beat. He was prepared to be handed the key to the Mercury but instead Glenn gave him a crisp one hundred dollar bill with the words, "This will help with your gas on the way back."

Daniel could only smile but Caroline had tears in her eyes. All in all the trip in the rented car would cost a thousand dollars plus a week of vacation time.

Later lying abed Daniel analysed the whole situation. In a normal family, the attitude of him and his wife would have been considered selfish but he rationalized their behavior in light of their economic situation and his parents' millions.

There were more surprises in store; at breakfast the next morning the maid was not only in attendance but she was acting like a real maid. There were eggs and sausages and homefries and slabs of ham and hot biscuits from the oven with jellies and jams. Pitchers of orange juice and cranberry juice and apple juice sat amid table. It wasn't until cousin Jason and his wife, Maudy, sauntered into the dining room that it made sense.

"How you doin', cousin?" Jason said in his best Dale Carnegie voice. "Oh, my God," he said suddenly and with great drama, "you've never met Maudy-my new bride."

With that Maudy flashed a beautiful smile and stood up to her full height showing off her slender body. "I know you," she said to Daniel still smiling, "you used to be the band at Ernie's Esquire when I was the manager of the Avenue Club."

"Well, I remember meeting the manager of the Avenue Club once but with ....."

"But," said Maudy holding her right forefinger aloft, "I was a brunette then." Whereupon she gave Daniel a rather personal hug.
Jason seemed perturbed by this. He had suspected Daniel of having an involvement with his first wife and though that was not the case, his first, second and third wives liked to pull his chain. Daniel was one of Jason's soft spots, he had always been the older cousin-taller and good looking and now approaching his sixties he had managed to stay young. Jason had been a smoker and a drinker and it showed in his face and in his greyness.

In the hours that followed a flood of relatives found their way to the Reeves' home. Glenn's sister, Belinda, took Daniel aside and said, "You know, big brother doesn't think he'll live until the millennium. Of course you mom thinks the world is coming to an end so that's why we've all been invited here.

"But Glenn looks pretty good to me," Daniel said, "for a guy that's dying."

"Daniel, he's in bad shape; he pops those nitro-glycerine tablets like candy and two or three times in the past year his lungs have filled up with fluid."

"Well, no one told me that, Belinda."

"I know, I know, they didn't want to worry you but everyone will be here by Sunday and they'll take photographs. I think they've got a photographer coming and they'll say all the things that need to be said. They've been planning this for a long time." So Daniel was not surprised when Derrick and Lauren drove in from Florida and Meghan and her husband arrived from Houston and Cheryl came from Illinois and Edith from Arizona and Jason's son, Ronnie, drove down from Pittsburgh and Lyle drove in from Pennsylvania but Daniel was amazed when Leah called from the Metro City Airport and asked to be picked up. Daniel and Caroline were glad to get away and drive to Metro City. "Maybe we can get something to eat," Daniel said jokingly.

They met Leah an hour later and bundled her off to the nearest Cracker Barrel where Daniel and David had barbeque and Leah and Caroline had chicken. "you better eat all you can," Daniel said to his daughter because there hasn't been anything to eat in Sterling for a week."

On the way back Leah said, "I heard Grandpa was dying."

But Daniel dissuaded her from that notion. "If I can just get him to come up to Boston, he's gonna live for several more years. You know where I walk along the Cape Cod Canal don't you? Well, I met a Mrs. Burton on the Canal and her husband was one of the first people to receive gene therapy in America. He had terminal heart disease and now he's been alive over fifteen years from this procedure and by using my Cantorial title to its fullest extent I've been promised by a doctor at Harvard Medical to see Glenn and evaluate him. "If I can just get him to come up to the Cape."

"But grandma sounded like he didn't have long to live."

"Well, I don't really know, sweetie pie, but the guy that I bought my second house on Cape Cod from-Ernie Newsome-was taking up to ten nitro-glycerine tablets a day and he lived at least three more years. Glenn says he takes two or three a day and he drove your grandmother and I to Ripley three days ago; I don't think he's gonna die just yet."

By Saturday night the house was full of people, people sleeping everywhere, people sleeping in the guest house over the garage and a handful of the kids were sleeping on the fire truck that was parked where the RV had been. Showing off this toy was one of Glenn's delights. "The town kept working on this engine until I told them I'd talk to Dave Brooks and Dave and I bought ‘em a new one, a brand new fire engine and so they gave me this one here."
Glenn was proud of his red toy. In Daniel's heart he knew that it made up for some red toy that Glenn never got as a child. In his own case he had always wanted a red MG convertible to make up for the little red Aero flyer he never had.

That evening the entire assemblage sat for photographs in various combinations while Daniel recorded everything on video. The conversations ranged from dance contest-Jason's son, Ronnie, constantly won first place. "This is ballroom dancing?" someone asked.

"Yes," said Jason, "Ronnie specializes in Latin dances-the Tango, the Maranga, the Samba."

"And best of all," said Ronnie, "the Paso Double."

In a pre-planned set up Dorothy asked, "Meghan, isn't there something you wanted to tell everyone."

With light in her eyes Meghan announced that she had given her life to Christ. She ended her declaration by saying, "I'm looking forward to voting for the good Christian Governor of Texas, George Bush."

"God help us," said Jason with great brio.

"There'll be no hanky panky in the white house if he's elected," said Glenn in a scolding tone of voice.

To change the subject Dorothy said, "I know what we'll do; we'll have a sing-along. Daniel can play the piano for us."

Daniel happened to be sitting on the piano bench at that very moment and he tried to become invisible but a minute later he was laying down the chords to Leaning on the Everlasting Arms only to be begged afterwards to accompany When Irish Eyes are Smiling so that Dorothy could indulge her Irish fantasies.
Daniel thought, "Oh, how the wicked Dickens clan haunts us-the unreality of it all. If only he could get his mom to South Boston for one weekend, Scarlett O'Hara could be put to rest."

The last chord brought him such a feeling of alienation and unreality that he felt drugged and this led to a sensation of being part of a surrealistic opera. Jason's bosso profundo announcements, Glenn's demurring lines and the crackling soprano of the wives. Dorothy had her part-full of warnings and scoldings; and so it went until supper.

Soon afterward Dorothy approached Daniel with a large garbage bag which she opened to let him peek inside. "It's a comforter," she said, "and it needs to be washed so Leah will have something to keep her warm."

Leah was nearby and she said, "Yes, daddy, can we go wash this somewhere?"

"There's a Laundromat right down by the State Liquor Store," said Dorothy, "It's gonna take about five dollars to do this because you'll have to put the comforter in the drier twice."

It was already 7:30 and Daniel could see the heart of the evening being spent with folks who didn't own washers and driers. Of course the comforter couldn't be handled by a standard sized washer, it would take a big industrial size to do the job. So they set out and Leah said, "This will give us some time to talk daddy."

Daniel felt that this was a lovely prospect; he hadn't seen Leah since her mother died two years previously; then she had arrived on the Cape with her half-brothers, Jonathan and Prince in tow. That was the first time Daniel had all of his family together in nearly twenty years.

"How are your brothers doing?" he asked.

"Well, you know Jonathan's doing fine, he's going for a Ph.D. and he's president of the Teachers' Union."

"Yeah, he told me that; if fact, every time I talk to him he tells me more about the Teachers' Union than I really want to know but I'm proud of him. I'm proud of his sense of responsibility. You know the "Union thing" runs in the family; your cousin, Jason, is a lobbyist in D.C. for a Union and I'm sure before the night's out we'll hear about it."

"Well, I never knew exactly what he did. I knew he was a Union official of some kind."

"And how's Prince."

"Well, you know Prince, dad. He's living on a boat at Marina del Rey and raising pot in the hull."

"I hope he doesn't get busted."

"I don't think he will, he's pretty careful."

Daniel had no comment, he drove in silence til they pulled up in front of Sterling's only Laundromat-the Sterling Mat."

After the comforter began to wash, Daniel turned to Leah and asked, "So when you're talking about the Dalai Lama are you talking about the whole Hollywood thing with Richard Gere and that crowd?

Leah laughed and said, "Are you trying to put me down, daddy?"

"No, baby, I'm not putting you down I'm not putting any of it down. A lot of celebrities ride causes, there's nothing new about that. I mean, you know my Jerusalem Album was all built around Sadat's trip to Jerusalem and the Camp David Peace Talks. When I presented a copy of the album to Begin-Prime Minister of Israel, he leaned in and whispered in my ear, ‘Make a million.' I mean he was on to me from the get-go. Sadat took the whole thing more seriously as if I weren't just trying to sell records. Actually I think he had me confused with some pop star. He suggested I lead a Peace March across the Sinai. He said he would supply a couple of tanks and some troops to accompany the marchers."

Leah was laughing now as she said, "Daddy, daddy," then she asked, "So what happened in the end?"

"Well, you know what happened. I got a nice letter from Sadat which is hanging on my living room wall."

"The one with the black frame around it?"

"Black and gold, the frame was made in Egypt and it's as nice as the letter."

After a long pause Leah said, "Well the Dalai Lama thing that we're doing has nothing to do with Richard Gere or Hollywood. It was commissioned by the Dalai Lama.

At that Daniel leaned over and kissed his daughter on the cheek, "I'm very proud of you sweetie pie. I couldn't be prouder. I tell everyone I meet that my daughter's a film producer in Hollywood."

"Oh, daddy."

They stopped talking for a while and Daniel watched the folks from West Virginia doing their clothes-every day people, people that didn't have washers and driers.

"There's a lot of obesity in this state," he thought but one young blond caught his eye. Of course everyone had been watching him and his exotic daughter. He thought about the lives of these people and the way they lived-looking forward to food and sex and television, most of them firm in their belief in the Lord and just as firm in their belief that their lives; lives of some work, some love and some modest effort would be rewarded in the end with billions of dollars of riches in heaven and eternal life.

On the way back they stopped at Wendy's, the center of Sterling's nightlife. "Open til Midnight," the display sign said and underneath were the words, "Their is nun better".

"Check the spelling," said Leah.

Inside Daniel told Leah about the time he met Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's. "It was back in the seventies and I was playing at Calavini's in Ohio and Dave pulled up in a Winnebago with his daughter, Wendy's" picture on the side. He knew Tom Calavini. I was setting up the bandstand and listening to them talk and Dave said he wanted to bring back the old fashioned, small town, all-American burger. Those were his exact words. So what do you think, are these small town, all-American' burgers."

"I'll give it a test," said Leah as she took another bite out of hers.

"Do you remember the Eigiku Café?" Daniel asked.

"The sushi restaurant in Little Tokyo?"

"Yeah, that was it. You know I played there one New Year's Eve. I had just gotten back to L.A. from New York. It was the only gig I could find. We were all "pickup musicians"-Ronnie Cole on piano, Al Croce on drums, Fred Carter on bass and Gabe Balazar on sax. Gabe had just come off of a tour with Kenton. No rehearsal, we just agreed on standards and keys. We all played our asses off that night for thirty-five dollars. My drinks cost thirty-five dollars; it was so depressing."

"And that was at the Eigiku Café, dad?"

"Yeah, I played there again the following year. I actually sang in Japanese there.

O yo bonu kototo
kay r amay mashita e key yo
mano herato."

Leah smiled and sang a little of the second verse.

"Your mom used to sing that you know."

"Yes, I remember."

"Did you know that when I worked at the Mama Lion in Hollywood she sang with the band?"

"You're kidding me."

"No, baby. Your mom came down to the Mama Lion and sang all kinds of Japanese songs."

Tears filled Leah's eyes. "I miss her, daddy. I miss her so much."
"I know you do. She took good care of you. She loved you with all her heart."

"When I think about how she died I just want to scream."

"Well, baby, there's nothing you can do about it now." Daniel took a napkin and dabbed his daughter's eyes. "It doesn't pay to cry over the past. I know the circumstances of the way she died were very questionable."

"Well, daddy, I'm glad we all got together in Hyannis."

"When your mother died and when David had his Bar Mitzvah-it's amazing that we had never been together in the same place since we all lived in L.A. Remember those times in Griffith Park. You mom liked to play with the boys, she mothered them like they were her own."

Leah's eyes teared up again and Daniel said, "Ok, we gotta change the conversation. When are you gonna make me a grandfather?"
Leah reached out for her father's hand and started laughing, "That's what mom used to say all the time."

"Well, your mom was the last of the Iguchi's. Her brother couldn't have children and they are the only ones who survived the war so when you have a boy or a girl they'll continue your mother's line."
Leah looked hard into her father's eyes for a few seconds and said, "I'll give that some thought."
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In the second act only the principals remained sitting around the dining room table and one of these-the center of attention-begged off. "My heart tells me to go to bed boys and girls," and so with a final smile of resignation mixed with sadness and disappointment Glenn took to his bed.

Dorothy stood bent over the corner of the table nearest the kitchen, "I'll be back but I have to go take care of him. I want to tell you all how much I appreciate your coming; tonight meant so much to him." And then with her chin crinkling she said, "So much love."

For reasons that bore no relationship to logic, Maudy asked David if he was still a virgin and his embarrassed response led to a reciprocal question, namely "Are you still a virgin?"

Maudy's answer was that she was still a virgin even though it was hard on her marriage."

"Yeah, it's hard on me all right," said Jason with a big laugh.

This evoked a landslide of laughter that was still boiling over when Dorothy returned.

"I know what you're talking about," she said harshly, "and if you were the kind of parents you should be," she said directly to Caroline and Daniel, "you wouldn't be kidding around about a subject like that with your little boy present; and that goes for you too," she said to Jason and Maudy. "Because I know Ronnie is a sweetheart."

She had more to say along these lines and soon the laughter was only a memory. Dorothy seemed to be evening the score, Glenn had gotten all the attention and everyone was there because of Glenn and now she weighed in with Jesus on her side. It made Daniel angry to realize that she always did this.

After she had gone to bed Daniel said, "You know it's really ironic that mom does this religious stuff all the time. When David and Ronnie go to bed I'll tell you why it's so self-righteous."

As if on que the two cousins got up and headed for their sleeping bags. When no one was left at the table but the three men and their wives Daniel said, "I don't know if you guys know this or not but mom was pregnant when she married my dad."

Jason and Derrick both looked shocked.

"That's right," said Daniel, "they got married in the summer time and I was born in January so go figure."

"Incredulous" was the word for the expression on Jason's face. "You mean she was pregnant when she got married?"

"That's right. Let me explain this to you. Mom went out to live with her half brother, your Uncle Fred Dickens in St. Louis. While she was there she met Virginia Mayo-you know the actress that was big in the 40's and 50's, did lots of western movies with Joel McCray."

"I don't remember anyone named Joel McCray," said Derrick, "or anyone named Virginia Mayo."

"Well, it's before your time I guess. But they were big time in their day in the post-war era. In any case, Virginia Mayo was a teenager the same age as mom and she played the accordion and your mom sang and they made little appearances in Lodge Halls and Churches and things of a public nature-like something with the local firemen or policemen or whatever. But mom came to Fairhaven that spring and got herself knocked up."

Once again expressions of disbelief ringed the table. That's why she's always had it in for me. From her point of view I ruined her life and on top of it all I weighed ten pounds and eleven ounces and she was a little seventeen year old girl the morning I was born-ouch.

Daniel's pronouncements stunned everyone into silence. Finally Derrick asked Jason, "How's your health?"

"You talkin' about my heart problems?" Jason said,
"Well, we're in the right place to talk about heart problems," Derrick said, "dad being in the condition he's in; and it's a lot worse than most people think," said Derrick as he looked into Daniel's eyes.

"Well, I know that now," said Daniel, "In the past week he had to take a lot of nitro and go into the bedroom and lie down. I didn't know he was in that kind of condition."

"Well, what worries me about all this," said Derrick, "is that I feel that I'm in a slot to follow him. It's been over five years since I had my open heart."

"Well, I haven't had open heart," said Jason, "but something's wrong with me. All of a sudden my blood pressure will just drop down to nothing. Two weeks ago I passed out and Maudy took my blood pressure and it was seventy over forty."

"Jesus," said Daniel, "what's being done about this; what's causing it?"

"Stress," said Maudy, "Jason's fighting for his life every day he goes to work. He thought he was next in line to be president of the Union and six months ago they bumped him, brought in a guy from New York."

"Lots of stress," said Jason in his overly dramatic way. "I don't know if I can stand it; some days I want to load up my Smith and Wesson and take it into the office."
Daniel heard echoes of his uncle in Jason's voice. The kind of heavy pronouncement that he didn't really mean but at the same time the kind of pronouncement that is worrisome.

"Why don't you do what you told me you wanted to do fifteen years ago? You said you wanted to take up painting; why don't you do that? Move out on the Cap, go up to Provincetown, take some classes, forget about the whole Washington-K Street, lobbying bullshit"

Jason looked at Daniel like he was an idiot. "You know why I don't give it up?' he said once again in his theatrical way, "it's because I like being important."

Now they traded expressions and Daniel looked at Jason like he was an idiot but he never said anything. He begged off and went to bed. Caroline stayed up a while longer and from the bedroom Daniel could hear laughter and intervals of Jason's bombast; but this did not stop him from falling asleep.

Soon afterward Leah, Melissa and Meghan came in from trying to find something to do in Sterling.

"The Pizza Hut was where all the action was," Leah said, "There was a bar off of Main Street but it looked really rough."

Daniel sat up and took a faded letter out of his horn case.

October, 1976 "Dear Daddy," began Leah's letter, "I wish I could come up to New York to see you but since I can't I'm writing this letter to tell you about my trip to grandma and grandpas. I got off the plane in Pittsburgh and Jason was waiting for me with Melissa. Sometimes I have trouble thinking of her as my cousin because we're so different but she was very friendly. I guess she's a typical girl from a small town in Illinois and I guess I'm a typical girl from L.A. So at first we didn't have much to talk about but as I said she's very sweet. Jason is nice too and he drove us down to West Virginia all the way to Sterling and the first day I was there I went to the schoolhouse to the tennis court to knock a few balls around and this pickup truck pulled up beside the tennis court and there were two guys in it and they started yelling at me and calling me ‘nippy' and just about that time Uncle Jason drove up with Granddad and they took me back home and I could tell they were both upset and Granddad said, ‘You have to be careful around here; we have lots of fools and idiots running around loose.' And that night we drove into Metro City and had dinner at the Daniel Boone Hotel and there was a guy playing the organ named Mike Fowler and he said he knew you. He played really well and the next day we went out on the boat on Sutton Lake but before that in the morning we went to church and Grandma kept introducing me as ‘my little Japanese grandchild' and that made me feel strange; especially when she would say, ‘I love her just as much as I do any of my other grandchildren.' I wished you had been there, daddy, I really wished you had been there. But I'm ok I know Grandma and Grandpa Glenn will take good care of me so I'm not worried about anything like that. Actually I'm dreading the plane flight back to L.A., the airport in Metro City sits on the top of a mountain. It's not a very reassuring place for a runway. The other night when I was cutting up vegetable for a salad, Grandpa Glenn came up behind me and began to play with my hair and talk about how beautiful my hair was. I felt kind of uneasy about that."

This letter had been written when Leah was a teenager; now she was forty and in the next room.
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Waking her dad up with a cup of coffee the next morning, Daniel asked, "Why am I drinking McDonald's coffee?"

"Because Lauren and Meghan just made a run to McDonald's and brought breakfast for everyone."

Daniel got dressed and went out to the dining room where the table was covered with sausage and egg croissants, hashbrowns and small containers of orange juice.

"This must have cost a hundred dollars," he thought to himself. There was something wrong with this picture with all the women present or the men for that matter why wasn't a proper breakfast made and served. It was like a sea change; there was something cold and resigned about it. Daniel felt a need to get out of the house. He checked the oil and tire pressure of the rental car just as Glenn came out alone.

"You like this car?" Glenn said.

"Yeah, it's ok, it's a rental."

"It's a rental?" said Glenn, "I thought it was your car."

Daniel was at a loss for words, had the whole trip been a big misunderstanding? He was further surprised to see Caroline emerge from the house along with David and all their luggage.
"Time to go," Caroline pronounced in a stern voice.

"What's going on?" Daniel wondered.

Glenn seemed puzzled too but within minutes the entire congregation had lined up on the tarmac. Daniel took Leah to one side and said, "Christ, sweetie pie I wish I had known you were coming. I would have planned to spend more time with you."

"It's ok, daddy," she said in her always cheerful voice but there was a look in her eye that echoed her father's own disappointment. He offered to take her to Metro City but she said she was going with Meghan and Melissa; they were all three catching planes.

"Call me when you get to L.A., sweetie pie. You'll get home before I will," he said as he collected a kiss on the cheek and then he was in the driver's seat. Caroline and David were moving things around to be comfortable. The entire family stood peering into the windshield and Glenn especially had an expression of foreboding.

"He doesn't think he'll see us again," Daniel said under his breath and then he looked up to see his step-father's eyes locked on him. He smiled and waved; and Glenn, barely able to control his emotions, gave a sad smile and a little wave back and then they were gone.

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