The naked edge

33

At the open door to his room, wearing hastily put-on clothes, Rutherford squinted at his watch, his eyes puffy from having been wakened. "Maybe he just went for a walk."

"At one in the morning?" Jamie asked skeptically.

"It was a tough night and day. He must have a lot on his mind, a lot to rethink."

"He's gone to the park."

"You don't know that for a fact."

"I know him. There isn't anywhere else he'd go."

"What do you expect me to do, tell those thousand men to go back to the park? Even if I wanted to, I couldn't get them organized before dawn. Did you watch the evening news? Did you see how foolish we looked? For sure, Mosely would demand my resignation if I repeated today's farce."

"No," Jamie said, "I don't expect you to tell those thousand men to go back to the park."

"Thank heaven."

"I expect that you and I will go to the park."

"Shit," the Southern Baptist said.