Part 35 (1/2)

”Kennedy. Robert Kennedy. They've killed him.”

”Oh my G.o.d. Oh sweet G.o.d.” She could only stand and stare, horrified.

She remembered when the American president had been killed, and the

shocked world had mourned. Now his brother, his bright, young brother.

”We were rehearsing for the alb.u.m,” Brian began. ”Pete came in.

He'd heard it on the radio. None of us believed it, not until we'd

heard it ourselves. G.o.dd.a.m.nit, Bev, just a few months ago it was King,

and now this. What's happening to the world?”

”Mr. McAvoy ...” Alice started down the stairs, her face as white

as her ap.r.o.n. ”Is it true? Are you certain?”

”Yes. It should be just a nightmare, but it's true.”

”Oh, that poor family.” Alice wrung her ap.r.o.n in her hands. ”That poor

mother.”

”He was a good man,” Brian managed. ”He would have been their next

president. He would have stopped that b.l.o.o.d.y war, I know it.”

It disturbed Emma to see tears in her father's eyes. The adults were

much too involved with their own grief to notice her. She didn't know

anyone named Kennedy, but she was sorry he was dead. She wondered if he

had been a friend of her Dad's. Maybe he'd been a soldier in the war

her father always talked about.

”Alice, fix some tea. Please,” Bev murmured as she led Brian toward the

parlor.

”What kind of a world have we brought our children into? When will they

understand, Bev? When will they finally understand?”

Emma went upstairs to sit with Darren and leave the adults to their

tears and tea.