Death of a Political Plant Read Online Free PDF

skinny-dipped in the river.
    Her face flushed at the memory. When she looked over at Jay, his pale eyes were shining with the same devotion that she had seen there twenty years ago. “Louise, we would have been great together. Maybe I would have done better if only you’d been with me.”
    “Jay, we both know this is useless. Let’s just remember those lovely days, and not regret anything. You married, didn’t you? I thought I heard that.” She stopped, wishing she hadn’t brought up his marriage. Who knows what happened to it?
    His eyes changed, grew wary. “I married a wonderful Woman named Lannie Gordon; she was in law school atGeorgetown. We settled in Sacramento after Lannie got a job out there. She was very successful—became the youngest partner in her law firm. Meantime, I got into investigative reporting at the Sacramento Union. Specialized in death row cases that were faulty and got a number of people freed, too. If anything in life was satisfying, that was.”
    “Was?”
    “Lannie had a baby, and that meant getting a house, and Lannie wanted a pretty fancy house. I sure wasn’t able to carry my part of the financial load on a reporter’s salary, so I ended up joining a PR firm to make some bucks.” He attempted a smile that was more of a grimace. “I became expert at writing speeches for candidates; I’d write speeches for anybody, as long as they were a paying client.”
    “So you felt like a sellout.”
    The faded eyes looked at her from underneath the unruly brows. “Yeah. I was no different from Lannie.” Then he frowned down at the bar-finish table top. “Even with those concessions, I haven’t made the marriage work; that left our daughter Melissa squarely in the middle.”
    “And Lannie…”
    “She’s a big-time lawyer now. She’s here in D.C., a top litigator and lobbyist for the tobacco industry.”
    “I think I’ve seen her on television, speaking up for the tobacco companies. Shoulder-length red hair, very serious?”
    “Yes, that’s Lannie. We divorced five years ago, and a year after that, she moved to Washington for this new job and took Melissa with her. Like a dope, I went along with the idea, and that caused all the trouble. Melissa was nine then, thirteen now. She and I missed each other so much that I went to court to change things, and I succeeded beyond my wildest hopes.Lannie was upset, of course: She loves the girl just as much as I do. Melissa is wonderful and beautiful.”
    He strained for an image special enough for his daughter. “Just about as beautiful as that first day of spring. Loves to read and write, loves animals. She has a canny nature, and I like that because she reminds me of me, but maybe that comes from her mother, too.”
    “You were so idealistic. Was Lannie that way, too?”
    He stared off into space, remembering. “Yes, like we all were in the seventies: idealistic, but with our old values undercut by the confusion of the sixties. She may still be idealistic way underneath; it was the job and the success that changed her. Maybe it’s because she grew up on that pathetic little farm in southern Indiana, with so little in the way of material advantages, that she needs them so much now. Once her career got going out in California, it was as if we were two of the earth’s plates that drifted apart.”
    He shook his head. “The funny thing is, I still love her, and if she ever asked me to come back, I’d do it. But she’s heartbroken because of the judge’s decision: He gave me custody for all of the school year. What really wrenched her was that our daughter got on the stand and told the judge she prefers to live with me.”
    “What a thing for a mother to hear!”
    “I feel sorry for her, too, Louise, but what’s going to happen is for the best. In a week, Melissa drives back with me to California, and then will stay with her mother in Great Falls at Christmas and for three months during the summer.” His face clouded up