“I don’t know if he does or not.” She nibbled at a fingernail. “What a lot of people say, what they’ve been saying all along, is that someone like that does more harm than good. Because he’s on your side, you know, he really is, it’s not bullshit, he means it. And he’s part of the system. And what he says and does makes people think maybe there’s hope working through the system.”
“And there isn’t?”
“Well, is there? The Democrats wouldn’t nominate Drury, and if they did, he wouldn’t win, but suppose he did. So he takes office, J. Lowell Drury of New Hampshire, and the first day the generals take him aside and whisper in his ear, and the next day the businessmen take him aside and whisper in his ear, and if he’s lucky the CIA takes him aside and whispers in his ear, and like he’s part of the Establishment and he can’t turn his ear off when these people whisper in it, and so the third night he goes to bed in the White House and when he wakes up in the morning he’s not J. Lowell Drury anymore, he’s Hubert Humphrey.”
And, a few moments later. “I don’t know. I like Drury. I see him on television and I like him.”
“But you wonder if the country would be any worse off than it already is without him.”
“Right.” Eyes wide, empty. “And I can’t see how it would.”
“It really helped to talk to you, Miles. You’re the only older person I know that I can rap with. And I can get a better set on things from talking with you. The other kids. We always say the same things to each other.”
“It does me good to talk to you.”
“How could it?”
“In precisely the same way. And because I would find your company enjoyable in and of itself if we talked of nothing more profound than baby birds.”
“Baby birds can be profound.”
“I know.”
“There was a book in our high school library called A Mouse Is Miracle Enough. I never read it, but I flashed on the title.” In German she repeated the title. And in English again, “I like just talking with you, too. In any language, and about anything.”
“Forget about the lessons,” he said. “I’ve felt uncomfortable taking money from you for weeks now. And my schedule is going to be chaotic for the next few months. Come over whenever you feel like it. If I’m home, we’ll talk. In German, in English.”
She looked intently at him. He wondered if he had said more than he should have. The next instant her face melted into a rich warm liquid smile.
“You were my teacher,” she said, “and now you are my friend.”
“Miles? I was just thinking. You really got into what happened in Washington in a heavy way. I was surprised.”
“Oh?”
“I always had this impression of you that you really weren’t a political person.”
“I’m not. I was politically concerned in Europe for many years. When I was able to settle comfortably in America, I thought one could remain uninvolved.”
“But today—”
“Perhaps it was that a victim was a boy from the college here. Yerkes. When I saw that in the paper—”
“I can imagine.”
“I felt an involvement for the first time. Or perhaps I should say a concern.”
“Right,” she said. “That’s it. When it reaches out and touches someone close to you, that’s what brings it all home, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
Five
Dorn flew to Boston and rode buses North. On the Caldwell campus in Maine, a student told him that the newspaper office was in the Student Union, and another student told him where the Union was. In the office of the Caldwell Clarion there were two girls at large black typewriters and a long-haired boy reading Cat’s Cradle. One of the girls asked Dorn if she could help him.
“I called before,” he said. “Somebody said if I came down, I could pick up copies of the last half-dozen issues or so. See, I have this pizza stand on the highway and I was thinking about maybe running an ad.”
“Our advertising manager isn’t here now—”
“Well, I would just want to look at the papers and then I would get in touch later.”
“I can certainly help you there,” she said. There were rows of newspapers stacked on a long table. She walked the length of the table, taking a paper from each stack. She said, “Will this be enough? And I’m giving you a rate card, too. The rates are printed in each issue, but the information on the card is more complete, the cost of running cuts and everything.”
“This’ll do it, then.”
“And if you’ll give me your name, I’ll have Dick get in touch with you as soon as he comes around.”
“Oh, never mind about that. It’s easier for me if I get in touch, with my hours and all.”
“I’m sure an ad in the Clarion would be profitable for you.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what I was thinking. Pull in business and all.”
“I would certainly think so. What was the name of your pizza place? I don’t think I got it.”
“You know the one. Right out on the highway.”
“Oh,” she said. “That one. Uh-huh.”
From the hallway he heard the boy say, “Now why in the hell would you do an immoral thing like hustle that poor guy for an ad? I don’t get it.”
“He wanted to advertise.”
“‘I’m sure an ad would be profitable for you.’ What utter bullshit! ‘Let’s go out for a slice of pizza, I saw this outasight ad in the Clarion.’ Jesus Christ.”
“Somebody has to pay for the fucking paper.”
“Yeah. What pizza place on the highway?”
“You know the one. Come on, Paul. Who cares what pizza place on the highway? Who cares what highway?”
From an issue of the Caldwell Clarion:
“Administration sources disclosed today that Caldwell commencement exercises would be moved up to the second weekend in May to facilitate the appearance of Sen. J. Lowell Drury of New Hampshire. Arrangements have already been made for Senator Drury to deliver the commencement address. Much in demand on the graduation circuit, the New Hampshire liberal...”
From another issue of the Caldwell Clarion:
“Burton Weldon, former chairman of the now disbanded Caldwell chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) yesterday attacked the selection of Sen. J. Lowell Drury as commencement speaker. ‘Drury has no relevance whatsoever to the current situation. He wants us to love him because he’s a liberal,’ Weldon told the Clarion. ‘I see no reason why anyone whose head is together would waste time sitting through his speech. All he’ll do is put a sugar coating on the same old Establishment pill. It’s a special kind of pill. You take it when you’re feeling good, and it makes you sick.’ Pressed for his ideal choice for commencement speaker, Weldon said, ‘There’s nobody. Everybody worth hearing is in jail.’ Asked about rumored plans to disrupt the exercises, Weldon sharply shot down the rumor. ‘The world is past that stage,’ he avowed. ‘What good are signs and slogans when the Establishment is using guns?’”
From a third issue of the Caldwell Clarion:
“Campus radical Burton Weldon refused to confirm or deny imputations that his comments criticizing Sen. J. Lowell Drury constituted the implicit endorsement of violence. ‘I stand by my words,’ the former chairman of the now disbanded Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) announced. ‘People can read into them whatever they want. After all, they’re just words. They aren’t bullets.’ Speaking in sharp rebuttal, Harry Isenberg of the Caldwell Liberal Alliance for Peace (CLAFP) termed his phrases ‘irresponsible, inflammatory, and...’”