She ran out of the room. He didn’t go after her, angry first with her, then with himself. Hehad jumped on her, if only because he had felt impatient with everything. He took up preparing his breakfast where she had left off.
While he ate, he heard another squabble in the yard, this time between his own children, and it made him wonder if there were not something really different about this day. Everyone, including himself, was at his limit. Johnny Loughlin took his coffee into the living room where the television set still played, waiting for company.
“—Just been handed a bulletin. Tempers apparently have flared in Grand Central Station, where a pitched battle has begun on the upper level platforms. Police are still trying to get through the crowds in the main concourse. So far there has been no panic, but there seems to be a grave danger of it. Thousands of people have been jammed inside the station for hours. There is no way to determine the extent of the fighting on the platforms, and we’ll just have to wait for further word.”
The camera zoomed back to include the commentator, who read, “Two-way communication has been established with the rebels in Johannesburg. There have been major uprisings in that city and in Durban. An army garrison was overrun in Durban just before dawn and the rebels, armed with artillery and at least five tanks, are advancing on an airfield seven miles northwest of the city. So far there has been no use of air power by the government, a move that has all observers baffled.” He took another paper from the desk. “Here’s more on Hong Kong. First, there’s an unconfirmed report of an army revolt inside China. Refugees report that, in some areas, the army is fighting itself. Now second, a major fire has broken out in a crowded slum district of Hong Kong. Five square blocks of ramshackle structures are in flames. The fire started in a cafe.”
“Johnny! Johnny, come upstairs, quick!”
He was on his feet before she finished speaking. There was something in his stomach, a solid warning. His nerves were fully attuned now; he dared not ignore them.
She was at the window of their bedroom. “Come here, quick! Look at that!” She jabbed her finger at an upstairs window across the road. There, in full view, sat Mary Ellen Phillips, tending a bloody nose. “I saw him hit her,” Cynthia said. “I heard them yelling all the way over here. She hit him first and then he punched her.”
“What were they yelling about?”
“Some woman and him. Do you know anything about that?”
“I know him. It’s not true. Look, I’m going down to the village. I’ll send the kids in. I want you to keep them in the house.”
“What are you going to the village for?”
“Your medicine, the newspapers. I’m going to snoop around and see if anything else has happened around here.”
“Hurry back. Call me if something happens, Johnny. Don’t leave me worrying.” She held him tightly for a moment. She was trembling.
“You take it easy, too, sweetheart,” he said.
He had no other reason for going into the village than her medicine. He knew that he was acting irrationally. She did not need her medicine and, in any case, he could telephone for it. He had wanted to get out of the house, do something — almost anything.
The village was empty, more like a Sunday than a Saturday. Johnny Loughlin parked in front of the drugstore and, after another unbelieving look around, went inside.
“Where’s the boss?” he asked the clerk.
“He went home. Are you going to wait for these pills? Come on in the back. Nobody’s come in for more than twenty minutes. I’ve been reading the paper.” Behind the counter, he went to the binders of prescriptions. “You know the boss? He’s one of those intuitively smart men. When we opened up, he said that he had a feeling about today. Usually he’s right, but a thing like this — who could believe him?”
“A thing like what?”
“No customers. On a Saturday. I’ll never understand it.” As he talked, Johnny Loughlin looked at the dateline on the newspaper. It was yesterday’s. The clerk had not heard the radio. “Murray said that he didn’t even want to come in this morning. That’s what he told me. What do you think could make himknow a thing like that?”
“I don’t know.” Just listening to him made Johnny Loughlin nervous. He got up and walked out to the front of the store and looked out the window. There was still no one on the street. The air seemed too still — the trees were not moving. Johnny Loughlin caught himself rocking on the balls of his feet, clenching his teeth.
“Ready,” the clerk announced. “That’s eight dollars.”
“I know, I know. Listen, can I buy these over-the-counter?”
“Oh, no, not without a prescription,” the clerk said. “These are dangerous tablets.”
“Still, they’d cost only half as much without a prescription.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised what we pay for these.”
“Yes, I’m sure I would,” Johnny Loughlin said.
At last the clerk got the drift, and his face masked over. Johnny Loughlin pocketed the vial and turned for the door. He went through as the telephone began to ring.
He had backed the car out of the parking space when the clerk came running to the sidewalk. “Hey! Telephone for you!”
Johnny Loughlin nodded. He was not going to say thank you. The clerk had not called him by name. He preceded the clerk to the back of the store. “Hello?”
“Johnny? Are you coming home?”
“I was. Is anything wrong, Cyn?”
“Senator Clinton is dead. They don’t know why yet. He seemed to be resting and then he just closed his eyes. I started to cry. I couldn’t help it. I scared the children.”
“All right, all right.”
“There was shooting in Grand Central, too. It’s terrible, Johnny, I mean it.”
“Well, make sure that the kids know you’re all right.”
“You can’t tie up that telephone for your own use,” the clerk said.
“Who was that?” Cynthia asked.
He didn’t answer her. He turned to the clerk. “Am I going to have trouble with you?”
“That depends on you,” the clerk said frightenedly. Johnny Loughlin turned away from him again.
“I’ll be right home, Cyn. Turn off the television set. I’ll see you in ten minutes.”
“No longer, Johnny, please.”
He hung up, glanced back once at the clerk, and walked out of the store. In the car, he hesitated, then drove down to the other end of the village. He parked outside the post office, still not knowing why. There was no one in sight. All he could hear was the soft churning of the car motor. The knot tightened in his stomach. He was afraid, very afraid, without knowing why. Almost in a panic, he turned on the radio.
“. . crowd is smashing windows and overturning cars as it moves down Forty-Third Street. It seems to be growing in size, picking up people as it moves along. The police and fire departments have determined to set up barricades at Sixth Avenue. To repeat the earlier reports, gunfire in Grand Central Station created a panic that sent thousands of already angry people stampeding into the streets. A series of seemingly unrelated incidents in and about the station forged the crowd into a mob. Hundreds have been injured. .”
Johnny Loughlin pushed the button to change the station. He had to gethome, but he couldn’t get going.
“Rebels in South Africa have gained control of the Durban airfield and have put at least five prop-driven fighter planes into the air. Indiscriminate strafing runs have been made over all quarters of the city. A gas tank has exploded and fires have. .”
He punched another button. His hand was shaking furiously.
“. . It’s as if tempers around the world have all snapped at once. People woke up this morning deciding they had had enough of the Cold War, oppression, arrogance and abuse. For nearly twenty years people have lived under an unbearable pressure. It’s amazing that this hasn’t happened before. Astronomers tell us that a star will generate tremendous pressure inside itself without visible effect, but then suddenly, without warning, it will burst. “