do.”
“Like with the blacklist,” Mitch said, sopping up the last of his gravy with a chunk of bread. “People are interested in how we let that whole, awful episode happen. And they should be. Because if we forget, it could very easily happen again.”
“It has happened again,” Ada said sharply, glaring at Aaron. “Because fear never goes away. Nor do the self-proclaimed patriots who fan that fear and twist it and profit from it.” She paused, wetting her thin, dry lips with a pale tongue. “Were they right about Luther and me? Of course they were. Not only were we active in socialist causes in the thirties, we were proud of it. I’m still proud. This country was falling apart. Capitalism was failing. Millions were out of work. Spain was falling. Hitler was on the rise. My God, we almost didn’t make it in this country. And if it hadn’t been for Franklin Roosevelt, we might not have. But we pulled together. We fought. And we prevailed.”
“And then Roosevelt gave half of Europe away to Stalin,” Aaron cracked. “Just a little parting gift from one comrade to another.”
“Franklin Roosevelt was a great president, Aaron,” Norma objected. “He saved this country, whether you wish to admit it or not.”
“He can’t admit it, Norma,” Ada said. “He and his so-called friends are too busy trying to dismantle the government that FDR worked so hard to build. Let me tell you something, Aaron. You people were wrong about the New Deal seventy years ago and you’re still wrong now. But you won’t let up, will you? Not until you’ve destroyed every single public agency that exists for the common good in this country.”
Des’s napkin slipped from her lap onto the floor. She bent down to retrieve it, briefly ducking her head under the tablecloth. Mitch could have sworn she’d done this on purpose. When she sat back up, napkin properly restored, he looked at her curiously. Her face betrayed nothing. She was a lovely, impassive sphinx.
“You’ve been out of this country for too long, Grandmother,” Aaron lectured her. “You’ve lost touch with average people. I am simply espousing mainstream American values.”
“What in the hell do you know about mainstream Americans, Aaron?” Ada demanded. “For your information, mainstream Americans will be living out of mainstream garbage cans after you and your band of greedy jackals have your way. Besides, I am not out of touch. To live overseas is to see us for the bullying, rampaging hypocrites we really are. We are positively awash in self-delusion. We steal peoples’ lands and tell ourselves we’re ‘liberating’ them. We lecture other countries about human rights even as we stage public, state-sanctioned executions of our own mentally handicapped. We preach equal opportunity, yet we’ve never, ever practiced it. Just ask anyone of color.” Ada glanced at Des. “No offense, dear.”
“None taken,” Des said quietly, as the frozen, windblown rain continued to pelt the windows.
“Now you just hold on one second, Grandmother,” Aaron countered. “I have allowed you your say-”
“You have allowed me nothing, you little twit.”
“But I don’t believe I should have to apologize for living in the greatest country in the history of the earth.”
“I think that we in the studio audience are now supposed to clap our hands like seals,” Ada jeered.
“This is the land of opportunity,” Aaron pronounced, his voice resonant and assured. “Everyone is free to make his or her own way, however they choose. The only thing holding them back is their own damned government robbing them blind to pay for bloated bureaucracies such as Social Security, which is nothing more than a spectacularly failed Ponzi scheme that was forced upon us by dreamers and fools.”
“Dreamers and fools,” Ada said, nodding her head. “That’s what we were. Some of us still are. Not you, though. You are a true, red-meat American, Aaron. And good for you, I say. But do me a small favor, will you? Give me an example of one moment of pure joy that it’s brought you in your entire adult life. One moment that wasn’t based on the manipulation and misfortune of others.”
Aaron sat there with his mouth open, at a loss for words. Which Mitch felt had to be a first.
“You can’t, can you?” Ada went on. “And that’s terribly sad. Because I can think of a hundred moments, a thousand moments. We had passion, Aaron. We cared about other people. You don’t. All you care about is sounding clever on national television.” She raised her chin at him, her eyes fierce. “My God, if your father could see you now…”
“My father was a loser,” Aaron snapped.
Norma let out an astonished gasp.
“You are way out of line, buddy,” Teddy said angrily. “My brother was a great man, and you’re not going to run him down-especially in front of your mother. Try that again and I’ll take you outside and pop you one.”
“Oh, go play your stupid piano, Teddy,” Aaron said to him savagely. “No one is interested in what you have to say.”
From across the table, Des locked eyes with Mitch. Behind those heavy horn-rimmed glasses, hers were wide with amazement. She had a few months of service in Dorset under her belt, but she still could not get used to this-wealthy white people behaving badly.
“Hey, come on now,” Les interjected, forcing a cheery smile onto his smooth pink face. “Let’s all relax and enjoy our meal, okay?”
Carly stayed out of the line of fire entirely. Just kept staring bale-fully across the table at Hannah. Mitch wasn’t sure why. He did know that Hannah was growing very uncomfortable under her gaze.
“I feel bad for you, Aaron,” Ada went on. “You’re my grandson, and I love you, and you have no idea how they’re exploiting you.”
“And just exactly who is they?” he demanded, seething.
“Why, the ruling class, of course. You’re not one of them, Aaron, and you never will be. You’re merely their court jester, all dressed up on television in your little bow tie. Should you displease them, they will unplug you. And you will cease to exist. You do know this, don’t you? You are such a realist you must realize this particular fact of-”
“Why did you even come back?” Aaron erupted at her. “You’re a horrible hateful woman! I wish you had stayed in Europe. And I’m sorry I schlepped all the way up here to see you. Carly made me. She said I’d be sorry if I didn’t. Well, guess what? I am sorry. I am really, really-” Aaron jumped to his feet, kicking over his chair, and fled from the table.
“Does the truth frighten you that much?” Ada called after him as he went charging across the dining hall, his footsteps heavy and clumsy.
“Leave him alone, Mother,” Norma pleaded. “He’s very young.”
“He’s an ass,” Ada shot back.
Teddy shook his head at her in amazement. “You haven’t changed a bit, have you, old girl?”
“And why should I?” she demanded.
“No reason,” he said, smiling at her. “No reason at all.”
The commotion brought Jory out of the kitchen. She righted Aaron’s chair, then refilled the wineglasses with the last of the Cotes-du-Rhone they’d been drinking.
“We’ll be needing another bottle, Jory,” Les said. “Would you mind getting one from the cellar?”
“Be happy to,” she said brightly, heading back through the kitchen door.
“I’d better see to dessert,” sighed Norma, massaging her temples with her fingers.
“You seem tired tonight, dear,” Les observed. “Let Jory take over.”
“I’m quite all right,” she insisted.
“Always the steady little plugger, my Norma,” Ada said, needling her. “Always the one to keep her troublesome personal feelings bottled up inside.”
“Yes, Mother,” Norma said irritably. Ada had pricked a tender nerve.
Mitch was wondering what that particular nerve might be when a tremendously powerful gust of wind rattled the dining hall windows, followed almost at once by a sharp, frighteningly loud crackle somewhere outside-and then by a thud that practically shook the castle to its foundation.
“My God!” Hannah cried out in alarm. “What in the hell was that?”
“That, my dear, was the sound of a very large tree coming down,” Les responded quietly.
Hannah shook her head in disbelief. “But why did it…?”
Another crackle interrupted her-and a second tree crashed to the ground. This one seemed even closer.
This one also plunged the entire castle into darkness.
