Tall Tail

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Sam Holloway lay back in his recliner. The ex-governor fell in and out of sleep. Although a lifelong Virginian, and one would think he’d root for the Orioles or the Nationals, but he’d always been a Phillies fan. But even Sam’s beloved Phillies couldn’t keep him alert, although a double play brightened his outlook, before he fell back asleep.

Outside, the high humidity and a high temperature convinced even the insects to slow down or sleep. Maybe Sam was following suit.

Penny peeked in. His wife knew better than to turn off the TV when a baseball game was on. She also knew better than to say too much about her favorite team, the Kansas City Royals.

For their generation, baseball was the game; football followed second.

Walking back to the air-conditioned sunroom where she’d been working on a needlepoint pillow, her daughter ducked in. Millicent Grimstead came to the house each day and stayed most of the day to help her mother and cheer her father.

“You’ve made progress.” Millicent dropped in a chair. “Wendell, here.”

The dog came over and Susan gave him a new Wubba.

Penny thought the toy looked strange. “Where did you get that thing?”

“PetSmart. It is strange. But it’s supposedly indestructible. PetSmart isn’t making that claim for the canvas streamers at the end of the Wubba, but they do say the ball itself is tough.”

“I’m sure Wendell will give it a try.” Penny smiled as the handsome dog happily took his new toy politely from Millicent’s hand, then ran out of the room.

“Where’s he going?”

Her mother replied, “Oh, he has a stash. Well, he has a few. Under the bed. Behind the old tack trunk in the mud room. He’s good at hiding things.”

“How’s Dad?”

Penny hesitated. “That ruckus with Eddie took something out of him. He’s quieter, withdrawn. And withdrawn is not your father.”

“No. Daddy wasn’t even that upset when I wrecked the truck when I was seventeen.”

Penny dropped her hands in her lap, the needle with the red thread still in her right hand. “He was rather composed over that, but as I recall he stomped around quite a bit for days. I could hear him, thump, thump, thump. He’d talk to the insurance agent, thump, thump, thump.” She laughed.

“Mother, what’s wrong with Eddie? He’s not right.”

“Ask your sister, who is conveniently in Montana. I called her and reported the fray. She’s torn, which is natural. She defends her son, even if she thinks he was in the wrong. She says he’s under pressure.”

“Who isn’t?” Millicent shot back.

“There is that.” Penny sighed, picking up her pillow and carefully inserting the needle.

“Mother, how do you have the patience to do needlepoint?”

“I raised you.” Penny winked at her eldest daughter. “That’s where I learned patience.”

Millicent said, “And I raised your granddaughter. Our Susan is one step ahead of a running fit over this country club golf championship, which is only a month away. I think it’s a month away, and I should know because Susan is obsessed with this. She’s been runner-up two times, finished in the top four for over a decade.”

“She wants her name on that huge silver trophy,” said Penny. “Mary Pat Janss. Susan wants to be up there with her mentor.”

“Another good person gone. Boy, you always knew where you stood with Mary Pat.”

Penny laughed out louder than she’d planned. “That woman’s speech could rust a cannon. Oh, I do miss her. I miss so many of my old friends and new ones. It seems to me that so many young people are dying. Cancer. It’s always cancer.”

“Mother, sixty is young to you.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Penny pointed a finger at her daughter. “You’re sixty-seven.”

“Some days I feel it and some days I don’t.” Millicent heard Wendell throwing his new toy around. “Back to Eddie, I’m embarrassed.”

“Ambition is outstripping good sense and good behavior. Your nephew doesn’t just want to be senator, he wants power, more power than he has now in the statehouse. Eddie wants to go to the Senate or be tapped for a vice presidential slot in the future. Virginia has become a pivotal state, far more critical than when Sam and I were in the governor’s mansion. Virginia was Democratic and that was that.” She looked up from her pillow. “Now they call it a purple state. Each party has to fight and fight hard not just every four years but for Senate elections, seats to the statehouse. It’s relentless, ruthless, and Eddie wants to be the big dog.”

“Mother, he can’t hold a candle to Daddy.”

“Who can?” Penny then softly added, “Truthfully, Millicent, if your father were young today I don’t think he would run for office.”

“I’m surprised that that Ned Tucker did,” Millicent remarked.

Penny laughed. “Not as surprised as his wife, but don’t you think that was a fluke? A seat became available in the House of Delegates and he ran for it almost on a whim.”

“Now he’s got it, but I must say, he’s rather a good public servant and Susan almost flourishes. Within reason, Mother.” She smiled slightly at the thought of her daughter.

“I will tell you one thing that disturbed me. Eddie visited Dr. Fishbein, the hematologist, as well as Sam’s oncology doctors. He wanted to know all about Sam’s condition, the effects of leukemia, and he wanted to know, can it affect the mind? I found that odd. Eddie wanted a prognosis. In other words, he wanted to know how long Sam has to live.”

“I hope Dr. Fishbein and the others didn’t tell him.”

“Of course not. Ethically, they can’t. Dr. Fishbein wouldn’t anyway. He and the team over there at Martha Jefferson have been wonderful. We all know how this will end. We just don’t know when.”

“Mother.” Millicent hesitated. “How long do you think?”

Penny put down her pillow. “Honey, I don’t know. Some days I think we’ve got three months and other days much less. And until Sam was diagnosed with the final stages of leukemia, I had no idea how painful it can be. He bears it with great fortitude. He doesn’t speak of it and he tries hard not to show it. Sometimes I look at him and I see that young, oh so handsome man I married and I can’t believe he’s leaving us. Back then Sam seemed indestructible. Even during the whole awful segregation mess, the death threats from both directions, he never wavered. He might have been wrong, well, he was wrong, but he never wavered. It breaks my heart that that’s what he will be remembered for first. And it breaks my heart to see him weaken.”

“Me, too. Daddy could handle anything. Mother, Harry mentioned something when I was over at Susan’s. She’s been caddying for Susan and they’d come back from the golf course. Anyway, Harry said, ‘Who has the most to gain by the governor living and who has the most to lose?’ ”

“Hmm.”

“Harry comes at things sideways and she sees things we don’t. I’ve been thinking about that and thinking about Eddie. Forgive me, but Eddie does stand to gain when Daddy dies. Then he can mourn front and center, if you will, and he can make emotional pledges about continuing Daddy’s legacy.”

Coolly, Penny appraised this. “He also has a great deal to gain by Sam living. He can ride on his coattails, use the old political machine unless Sam pulls back their support. Oh, yes, Eddie will get a boost when Sam goes, but as long as his grandfather lives he can say he speaks with him daily, et cetera, et cetera. Harry, though, has hit the nail on the head. Eddie is out for himself and only himself. I haven’t wanted to face it. Now I must.”

A knock on the doorjamb, then Mignon stepped in the room. “I’m sorry to disturb you, but Edward just called me. He asked to read what the governor and I have written so far. He says he wants to help. Maybe we can move it along faster, to finish before—”

With no show of emotion, Penny pulled the thread tighter in the pillow. “Mignon, I’m sure you told him no.”

“Yes, Mrs. Holloway, I did. I also told him that to read work in progress without the author’s permission is considered bad manners in publishing.” She continued, “He said I was as much the author as your husband. He was persistent. I told him while I was working with the governor it was his life, I’m a jumped-up secretary. That ended the conversation.”

“I can’t speak for my grandson, who seems intent on upsetting everyone, but I am regretful that you had to be discomfited. Thank you for telling me.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Mignon left, returning to her small office next to the governor’s library/office.

Putting down her pillow, Penny walked to the edge of the room and looked down the hallway. “Millicent, come with me. I don’t want to shout for Mignon and wake Sam.”

Mother and daughter knocked, then entered Mignon’s makeshift office.

She rose. “Please sit down. You can have my seat.”

“No, dear. Allow me to ask you a question. Has Sam ever discussed his medical condition with you?”

“He has said he has leukemia. Nothing more.”

Penny’s next question surprised them. “Did Barbara Leader ever discuss it?”

“No. She only confirmed that he needed his medication at specific times. Well, she also confirmed that it is painful and that there’s not much more that can be done for him.”

“I’m sorry to trouble you,” said Penny.

“No trouble but may I make a suggestion?” Mignon pointed to her computer and the papers she had printed. “When I leave each day, I think we should secure the papers.”

“We don’t have a safe.”

“The next best thing would be the freezer. No one would think to look in the refrigerator. And if for some reason, not much of a possibility but should there be a fire, the refrigerator will still be safe,” Mignon suggested.

Millicent asked, “What about the computer?”

“I can put it in the trunk of my car, or perhaps somewhere else if you don’t want to have it off the premises.”

“Mother, why don’t I take it with me each evening?” offered Millicent. “Not that your suggestion is improper, Mignon, only that if someone wants to spy on your work they would think you had pages or the computer. At least, I think they would. No one would suspect me.”

“Good idea.” Penny nodded.