“Joey, stop that. It’s bedtime.”
Joey began chattering. Ga-ga-ga-ga and ka-ka-ka-ka. Gurgling and drooling and humming.
“Joey, Uncle Ben has work to do tonight.”
Joey was on the floor now, crawling toward his toys.
“Joey! Tonight I don’t have time to play Pooh Bear.”
Joey stopped momentarily on hearing the familiar words. Then he continued crawling.
“I’m serious, Joey. I don’t have time.” He tried to scoop Joey up; instantly Joey began to wail at the top of his lungs.
“All right! All right, already! We’ll play Pooh Bear.”
Joey turned his head slightly. One could almost imagine that he was considering the proposition.
Ben scooped him back into his lap, sat in the chair, and began singing. “Winnie the Pooh—Pooh!” On the second Pooh, he poked Joey in the tummy. Joey stopped crying. “Winnie the Pooh—Pooh!” Ben poked him again. “Chubby little cubby …” Ben continued singing the song, stopping for a poke and a tickle on every “Pooh!” By the end, Joey’s displeasure had disappeared. Even if he didn’t make direct eye contact with Ben, he seemed much happier.
“All right, Joey, this time you poke me.” Ben pulled up his shirt, exposing his belly button. He sang the song again, pausing after the first Pooh.
Joey hesitated, still not looking directly at Ben. Then his eyes turned and he reached out and jabbed Ben in the stomach. Hard.
“Oof!” Ben laughed. He had to. He tried a few more verses, and with each Pooh, Joey supplied a strong and hardy poke, each time a little quicker. They had played out this routine several nights in a row now, and it seemed to get better each time. Although Joey never spoke and was still pretty much in his own world, this was as engaged as he had ever become with Ben.
After several more pokes, the routine ended. “All right now, let’s calm down. It’s bedtime, you know.”
This time Joey seemed willing to accept the proposition that the day was at an end. He nestled into Ben’s arms and closed his eyes.
“Do you know you’re the sweetest widdle boy in the whole wide world? Yes, you are!” Ben rubbed his nose against Joey’s. “You are the sweetest, smartest boy in the world, Joey. I love you so much!”
Joey smiled, turned onto his side. In a few minutes, Ben heard the soft rhythmic breathing that told him the child was finally asleep. He tiptoed over to the crib and gently laid him down.
Ben pulled the bedroom door to and joined Christina in the living room. “What are you up to?” he asked.
“Not much. Reading about our esteemed city council. Come here a sec.”
Ben’s eyebrows knitted. “Why?”
“Don’t ask questions. Just come.”
Ben walked over to the sofa. As soon as he reached Christina, she yanked up his shirt, poked him in the stomach, and chirped, “Pooh!”
Ben’s face flushed a bright crimson. “Ha-ha.”
Christina rolled over on her side laughing. Ben looked annoyed and started to walk away.
“Wait!” she said. “I want to do the whole song!”
“Fat chance.”
“Aw, Ben, don’t be a spoilsport.” She segued into baby talk. “You know I think you’re the sweetest widdle boy in the whole wide world.”
“You’re a laugh riot, Christina.” Ben opened his briefcase and removed his files. “I can’t believe you were spying on us. At bedtime, no less.”
“I was not spying. I sat here the whole time.”
“Then how—”
Christina pointed to the white plastic receiver on the coffee table. “You turned on the baby monitor, remember?”
Ben whipped open his files. “I hate that thing.”
Christina pressed her hands against her chest in mock offendedness. “How could you? I gave it to you.”
“Yes, and if I’d known you were going to use it for covert surveillance, I would’ve given it back. In fact, I think I will.” He grabbed the baby monitor and tossed it to her. “Here. Take it with you when you leave. The transmitter, too.
“Ben, it’s a safety device. So you can hear Joey crying in the night.”
“Are you kidding? He sleeps ten feet from where I do and he has lungs like a whale. I’ve never had the slightest trouble hearing him cry.”
Christina was still laughing. “Whatever you say. After all, you’re my pwe-cious, pwecious widdle baby boy!”
Ben threw his files down on the floor. “Why do I get the distinct impression we are not going to get any work done tonight?”
Christina gasped for breath. “Because you’re the sweetest, smartest boy—”
“Stop already!”
She smiled. “Next to Joey, of course.”
Chapter 25
THE NEXT MORNING, CHRISTINA led Ben and Loving through the confusing city hall building to the large room in which the city council held its meetings. At the front of the room, the members of the city council were seated behind a table and arranged in a semicircle, with the current chairperson in the center. Microphones amplified their comments and conveyed them throughout the room, as well as over the airwaves of the local cable channel that broadcast the meetings.
They took seats near the back of the gallery. Christina had brought the file she and Jones had assembled with background information on the current city council members.
Christina passed the briefs to Ben. “Since 1989, each member of the council has been elected by a separate Tulsa district. The city government was restructured that year. You may have heard something about it, even though I know you only take the paper so you can tell when movies start.”
“I recall overhearing some discussion at the time,” Ben said dryly.
“The restructuring came as the result of a thirty-five-year battle, not to mention an NAACP lawsuit. Voters finally approved a change most comparably sized cities had made years before. It was a major brouhaha. Under the old city commission system, the majority of the councilpersons came from affluent white south Tulsa. Now, under the mayor-council system, each equally apportioned city district elects its own representative to the council. This was supposed to make city government more representative and efficient and responsive, although as a practical matter, it hasn’t made a heck of a lot of difference.”
“Who are these people?” Ben asked, scanning the semicircle before him. “I expected the most prominent citizens in the city. The movers and the shakers.”
“The movers and shakers are out moving and shaking. City council is for politicians.”
“I don’t see any faces I recognize.”
“Yeah. Of course you probably wouldn’t recognize Hillary Clinton if she was up there. But you’re right; these are not, with a few exceptions, the rich and famous. Most were single-issue candidates with a particular political axe to grind. Something that got them elected, or something that made them want to run in the first place. After all, would you want to be on the city council?”
“Well … no.”
“Of course not. Who would? It’s a lot of work for little gratitude or satisfaction. You’ve got the press watching you all the time, only reporting when you do something wrong or they uncover some bête noire or lurid secret from your past. And the city council level is too small potato to attract any of the— what’s the right word?—benefits that accrue to politicians at a higher level.”
“Someone must be running. I see bodies up there.”
“Right. The zealots, the extremists, one-issue wonders. Socially accepted monomaniacs.” Christina pointed toward the stage. “See the guy on the extreme left?”
Ben noted the tall man with the shaggy hair and full beard. He wore a T-shirt and jeans with a hole over one knee. “The one who looks sort of like Grizzly Adams?”