would be. She and Clara needed twenty minutes to work their way to the front. By then, Clara was fidgeting enough to convince Nellie she hadn't said she needed to go just to be annoying.
Many more people had come to the Mall by the time Nellie and Clara emerged from the museum once more. Nellie had to do some elbowing, and stepped on a couple of feet that didn't get out of the way fast enough to suit her. 'Watch where you're going, lady,' an angry man said.
'I'm so sorry,' Nellie answered, and stepped on him again, not in the least by accident.
Hal Jacobs wasn't a big man. Nellie began to wonder if she'd ever find him. She was starting to worry when Merle Grimes said, 'Hello, Mother Jacobs.' He and Edna and Armstrong stood with Hal.
'Hello, Merle,' she said. 'I'd've gone right past the lot of you if you hadn't spoken up, Lord help me if I wouldn't.'
'We're all together now,' Hal said. 'That's the way things are supposed to be.'
'That's right,' Edna said, a little louder than she had to. She clung to Merle's hand. They both wore their decorations, too. From what Nellie could see, things between them weren't quite the same as they had been before Merle found out about Nicholas H. Kincaid. They were tolerable, and Edna didn't seem actively discontented, but they weren't so lovey-dovey as before. Told you so, Edna, Nellie said, but only to herself.
A band began to play. Nellie stopped worrying about her daughter and son-in-law-and even about her other daughter and her grandson, who got along no better than they ever did-and watched yet another inauguration, yet another passing of the torch from one president to another.
This year, the passing was odd, as outgoing President Sinclair was about fifteen years younger than incoming President Blackford. It was as if the USA were moving backwards in time, something the country didn't do very often. Chief Justice Holmes administered the oath to Hosea Blackford.
Voice aided by a microphone, Blackford repeated the words that made him president of the United States: 'I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.'
A sigh ran through the crowd. Nellie had heard that oath every four years since 1881-not counting 1916. It made official what had happened five months before. Now the country had a new president. Now we see what happens next, she thought, as if it were a new chapter in a novel. And so, in a way, it was.
The most immediate thing that happened next was Blackford's inaugural address. Nellie got a good look at him up there on the stand. Behind him, his wife, who was much younger than he, tried to keep a little boy younger than Armstrong quiet. Robbing the cradle, Mr. President? Nellie thought.
'I am pleased to tell you how well off our country is today, thanks to the inspired leadership given over the past eight years by my most distinguished predecessor, President Upton Sinclair.' Hosea Blackford owned a ringing baritone. Nellie thought she remembered hearing he'd been a lawyer before going to Congress. He certainly had the voice for it. He led the applause for the president leaving office. Sinclair rose one last time from his seat behind the podium to acknowledge the cheers of the crowd.
As the new ex-president sat down again, Blackford went on, 'We are at peace on our continent. We extend the hand of friendship to both the Confederate States and the Empire of Mexico. We share a common heritage with the CSA, and I am pleased to note that Confederate President Burton Mitchel, a civilized gentleman, shares this view. May we see no more war in North America, not ever again!'
Nellie clapped as loud as she could. If war came, it would surely come to Washington, would surely come down on her head. She wanted peace for her daughter, peace for her grandson. She'd seen too much of war ever to want to know it again.
'To the north, the Republic of Quebec is our staunch ally,' Blackford declared. Even Nellie knew that meant the Quebecois would do as they were told. The president said, 'English-speaking Canada continues to recover under our guidance.' Even Nellie knew that meant the rest of the Canucks would damn well have to do as they were told. 'And Utah, long turbulent, looks toward the day when it shall be a state like any other.'
That drew scattered boos even from a mostly friendly crowd. Few people outside of Utah had much sympathy for the Mormons, not after two uprisings.
'Broad oceans protect us from foreign foes,' President Blackford said. 'The Sandwich Islands serve as a bastion against the Empire of Japan, while the Atlantic shields us against Europe's unending turmoil and danger. And let me note that I am completely confident the panics of the past ten days in Vienna, in Rome, in Paris, and in London will not affect the Empire of Germany in any important way, and that they cannot possibly cross the Atlantic and endanger our own well-being.'
Everyone applauded vigorously there. So far, the Berlin and New York exchanges had avoided most of the jitters afflicting the smaller European markets, though Richmond also seemed nervous. Beside Nellie, Hal murmured, 'If we can ride it out for another week, we'll be fine. The Austro-Hungarians cause so much trouble. If they hadn't called for repayment of that Russian loan…'
'Hush,' Nellie told him. 'I want to hear the president.'
Blackford seemed to have said everything he was going to say about foreign affairs. He switched to what he hoped to accomplish within the United States: 'We want no man hungry. We want no one able-bodied without work. We want no capitalists exploiting the workers of our great land. We want justice for all, and we intend to get it. We will not let the aged, who have worked hard all their lives, be discarded like so many worn-out cogs in our industrial machine.'
Nellie applauded that. She'd worked hard all her life, and looked forward to the day when she wouldn't have to any more. Old-age insurance sounded good to her-better than relying on whatever charity she might get from Merle and Edna, and perhaps from Clara and whomever she ended up marrying.
If Blackford can find a way for me to have enough to live on when I'm old, I'd vote Socialist forever-if I could vote at all. Women's suffrage was here, all over the USA-but not in Washington, D.C. Men were every bit as disenfranchised in the nation's legal capital. Now more than ever, that struck Nellie as monstrously unfair. Men had complained about it for as long as she could remember. It also affected her now, so she noticed it more. Hosea Blackford said not a word about votes for Washington.
X
Clarence Potter had to wait to see his broker. He spent the time in Ulysses Dalby's waiting room drumming his fingers on his thigh. To the outside world, he showed only impatience. He kept the fear and rage he felt bottled up inside. No one would have known from his stolid, impassive face the way his heart pounded or how cold and damp the palms of his hands were.
At last, the broker's secretary said, 'Mr. Dalby will see you now, Mr. Potter.'
'Thank you, Betty.' Potter strode past her without another word. She was a redhead whose generous contours could usually be counted on to distract male investors from their worries. Today, Potter was too worried to be distracted.
He closed the door behind him as he went into Ulysses Dalby's office. The broker was a few years older than he: a plump, gray-haired man with a jovial manner who wore sharp suits. He extended a well-manicured hand with a glittering pinkie ring for Potter to shake. 'Good morning, sir,' he said, his Low Country accent sweet and syrupy. 'What can I do for you this fine day?'
'Get me out,' Clarence Potter said.
Dalby raised an eyebrow. 'I beg your pardon, sir?'
'Get me out,' Potter repeated. 'Sell every stock I have, fast as you can do it, best price you can get, but sell. Richmond and New York exchanges both. I'll be back for the cash this afternoon.'
'Mr. Potter, I hesitate to carry out an order like that,' Dalby said. 'Are you sure you've considered carefully?'
'Maybe you'll call me a fool a month from now,' Potter answered. 'If I'm wrong, I can buy back in. But I'll have something to buy back in with. My opinion is that there's a fire in the woods. If I don't get out now, it will burn me out.'
'Panic selling, sir, will only make the fire worse,' Dalby said.
'Sitting around while the woods burn won't do me any good,' Potter said. 'I'll take my chances on the other.
