‘A vote’s a vote,’ said Fletcher.
‘Not in this particular case,’ said Jimmy, ‘because while the rest of the state now votes electronically, Madison remains the single exception. They are among the last districts in the country who still prefer to mark their ballots with a pencil.’
‘But that doesn’t stop their votes being valid,’ insisted Fletcher.
‘True, but in the past those votes have proved irrelevant, because they don’t begin the count until the morning after the election, when the overall result has already been declared. It’s a bit of a farce, but one of those traditions that the good burghers of Madison are unwilling to sacrifice on the altar of modern technology.’
‘And you still want me to spend a whole day there?’
‘Yes, because if the majority were less than five thousand, suddenly Madison would become the most important town in the state.’
‘Do you think it could be that close while Bush still has a record lead in the polls?’
‘Still is the operative word, because Clinton’s chipping away at that lead every day, so who knows who’ll end up in the White House, or in the governor’s mansion for that matter?’
Fletcher didn’t comment.
‘You seem a little preoccupied this morning,’ said Jimmy. ‘Anything else on your mind that you want to discuss with me?’
‘It looks as if Nat’s going to win by a mile,’ said Julia from behind the morning paper.
‘A British prime minister once said that “a week’s a long time in politics”, and we’ve still got several more of them left before the first vote is cast,’ Tom reminded his wife.
‘If Nat becomes governor, you’ll miss all the excitement. After all you two have been through, returning to Fairchild’s may turn out to be something of an anti-climax.’
‘The truth is that I lost any interest in banking the day Russell’s was taken over.’
‘But you’re about to become chairman of the biggest bank in the state.’
‘Not if Nat wins the election, I won’t,’ said Tom.
Julia pushed the paper aside. ‘I’m not sure I understand.’
‘Nat has asked me to be his chief of staff if he becomes governor.’
‘Then who will take over as chairman of the bank?’
‘You, of course,’ said Tom. ‘Everyone knows you’d be the best person for the job.’
‘But Fairchild’s would never appoint a woman as chairman, they’re far too traditional.’
‘We’re living in the last decade of the twentieth century Julia, and thanks to you, nearly half our customers are women. And as for the board, not to mention the staff, in my absence most of them think you already are the chairman.’
‘But if Nat were to lose, he’ll quite rightly expect to return to Fairchild’s as chairman, with you as his deputy, in which case the question becomes somewhat academic’
‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that,’ said Tom, ‘don’t forget that Jimmy Overman, Connecticut’s senior senator, has already announced that he’ll not be running for reelection next year, in which case Nat would be the obvious choice to replace him. Whichever one of them becomes governor, I feel sure the other will be going to Washington as the state’s senator.’ He paused. ‘I suspect it will only be a matter of time before Nat and Fletcher run against each other for president.’
‘Do you believe I can do the job?’ asked Julia quietly.
‘No,’ said Tom, ‘you have to be born in America before you can stand for president.’
I didn’t mean president, you idiot, but chairman of Fairchild’s.’
I knew that the day we met,’ said Tom. ‘My only fear was that you wouldn’t consider I was good enough to be your husband.’
‘Oh, men are so slow on the uptake,’ said Julia. I made up my mind that I was going to marry you the night we met at Su Ling and Nat’s dinner party.’ Tom’s mouth opened and then closed.
‘How different my life would have been if the other Julia Kirkbridge had come to the same conclusion,’ she added.
‘Not to mention mine,’ said Tom.
50
Fletcher stared down at the cheering crowd and waved enthusiastically back at them. He had made seven speeches in Madison that day — on street corners, in market places, outside a library — but even he had been surprised by his reception at the final meeting in the town hall that night.
Come and hear the winner was printed in bold red and blue letters on a massive banner that stretched from one side of the stage to the other. Fletcher had smiled when the local chairman told him that Paul Holbourn, the independent mayor of Madison, had left the banner in place after Nat had spoken at the town hall earlier that week. Holbourn had been the mayor for fourteen years, and didn’t keep getting re-elected because he squandered the tax payers’ money.
When Fletcher sat down at the end of his speech, he could feel the adrenalin pumping through his body, and the standing ovation that followed was not the usual stage-managed affair, where a bunch of well-placed party hacks leap up the moment the candidate has delivered his last line. On this occasion, the public were on their feet at the same time as the hacks. He only wished Annie could have been there to witness it.
When the chairman held up Fletcher’s hand and shouted into the microphone, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the next governor of Connecticut,’ Fletcher believed it for the first time. Clinton was neck and neck with Bush in the national polls and Perot’s independent candidacy was further chipping away at the Republican’s support. It was creating a knock-on effect for Fletcher. He only hoped that four weeks was enough time to make up the four-point deficit in the polls.
It was another half hour before the hall was cleared, and by then Fletcher had shaken every proffered hand. A satisfied chairman accompanied him back to the parking lot.
‘You don’t have a driver?’ he said, sounding a little surprised.
‘Lucy took the night off to see My Cousin Vinny, Annie’s attending some charity meeting, Jimmy’s chairing a fund raiser, and as it was less than fifty miles, I felt I could just about manage that by myself,’ explained Fletcher as he jumped behind the wheel.
He drove away from the town hall on a high, and began to relax for the first time that day. But he’d only driven a few hundred yards before his thoughts returned to Lucy, as they had done whenever he was alone. He faced a considerable dilemma. Should he should tell Annie that their daughter was pregnant?
Nat was having a private dinner with four local industrialists that night. Between them they were in a position to make a significant contribution to the campaign coffers, so he didn’t hurry them. During the evening they had left him in no doubt what they expected from a Republican governor, and although they didn’t always go along with some of Nat’s more liberal ideas, a Democrat wasn’t moving into the governor’s mansion if they had anything to do with it.
It was well past midnight when Ed Chambers of Chambers Foods suggested that perhaps the candidate should be allowed to go home and get a good night’s sleep. Nat couldn’t remember when he’d last had one of those.
This was the usual cue for Tom to stand up, agree with whoever had made the suggestion, and then go off in search of Nat’s coat. Nat would then look as if he was being dragged away, shaking hands with his hosts before telling them that he couldn’t hope to win the election without their support. Flattering though the sentiment might sound, on this occasion it also had the merit of being true,
All four men accompanied Nat back to his car, and as Tom drove down the long winding drive from Ed Chambers’s home, Nat tuned into the late news. Fletcher’s speech to the citizens of Madison was the fourth item, and the local reporter was highlighting some of the points he’d made about neighbourhood watch schemes, an idea Nat had been promoting for months. Nat began to grumble about such blatant plagiarism until Tom reminded him that he’d also stolen some of Fletcher’s innovations on education reform.