Edge of Eternity (53 page)

“A boy,” Dimka said. He looked at Nina. She smiled, weary but triumphant.

He looked at the baby. He had a lot of damp dark hair. His eyes were a shade of blue that made Dimka think of his grandfather Grigori. All babies had blue eyes, he recalled. Was it his imagination that this baby seemed already to look at the world with Grandfather Grigori's intense stare?

Masha held the baby out to Dimka. He took the little bundle as if handling a large eggshell. In the presence of this miracle, the day's dramas faded to nothing.

I have a son, he thought, and tears came to his eyes.

“He's beautiful,” Dimka said. “Let's call him Grigor.”

•   •   •

Two things kept Dimka awake that night. One was guilt: just when his wife was giving birth in bloodshed and agony, he had been kissing Natalya. The other was rage at the way he had been outwitted and humiliated by Max and Josef. It was not he but Natalya who had been robbed, but he felt no less indignant and resentful.

Next morning on the way to work he drove his motorcycle to the Central Market. For half the night he had rehearsed what he would say to Max. “My name is Dmitri Ilich Dvorkin. Check who I am. Check who I work for. Check who my uncle is and who my father was. Then meet me here tomorrow with Natalya's money, and beg me not to take the revenge you deserve.” He wondered whether he had the nerve to say all that; whether Max would be impressed or scornful; whether the speech would be threatening enough to retrieve Natalya's money and Dimka's pride.

Max was not sitting at the pine table. He was not in the room. Dimka did not know whether to be disappointed or relieved.

Josef was standing by the door to the back room. Dimka wondered whether to unleash his speech on the youngster. He probably did not have the power to get the money back, but it might relieve Dimka's feelings. While Dimka hesitated he noticed that Josef had lost the threatening arrogance he had displayed yesterday. To Dimka's astonishment, before he had a chance to open his mouth Josef backed away from him, looking scared. “I'm sorry!” Josef said. “I'm sorry!”

Dimka could not account for this transformation. If Josef had found out, overnight, that Dimka worked in the Kremlin and came from a politically powerful family, he might be apologetic and conciliatory, and he might even give the money back, but he would not look as if he were afraid for his life. “I just want Natalya's money,” Dimka said.

“We gave it back! We already did!”

Dimka was puzzled. Had Natalya been here before him? “Who did you give it to?”

“Those two men.”

Dimka could not make sense of this. “Where is Max?” he said.

“In the hospital,” said Josef. “They broke both his arms, isn't that enough for you?”

Dimka reflected for a moment. Unless this was all some charade, it seemed that two unknown men had beaten Max severely and forced him to give them the money he had taken from Natalya. Who were they? And why had they done this?

Clearly Josef knew no more. Bemused, Dimka turned and left the store.

It was not the police who had done this, he reasoned as he walked back to his bike, nor the army nor the KGB. Anyone official would have arrested Max and taken him to prison and broken his arms in private. Someone unofficial, then.

Unofficial meant gangland. So there were nasty criminals among Natalya's friends or family.

No wonder she never said much about her private life.

Dimka drove fast to the Kremlin but still he was dismayed to find that Khrushchev had got there before him. However, the boss was in a good mood: Dimka could hear him laughing. Perhaps this was the moment to mention Vasili Yenkov. He opened his desk drawer and took out Yenkov's KGB file. He picked up a folder of documents for Khrushchev to sign, then he hesitated. He was a fool to do this, even for his beloved sister. But he suppressed his anxiety and went into the main office.

The first secretary sat behind a big desk speaking on the telephone. He did not much like the phone, preferring face-to-face contact: that way, he said, he could tell when people were lying. However, this conversation was jovial. Dimka put the letters in front of him, and he began to sign while continuing to talk and laugh into the mouthpiece.

When he hung up, Khrushchev said: “What's that in your hand? Looks like a KGB file.”

“Vasili Yenkov. Sentenced to two years in a labor camp for possessing a leaflet about Ustin Bodian, the dissident singer. He's served his time, but they're keeping him there.”

Khrushchev stopped signing and looked up. “Do you have some personal interest?”

Dimka felt a chill of fear. “None whatsoever,” he lied, managing to
keep the anxiety out of his voice. If he revealed his sister's link to a convicted subversive it could end his career and hers.

Khrushchev narrowed his eyes. “So why should we let him come home?”

Dimka wished he had refused Tanya. He should have known Khrushchev would see through him: a man did not become leader of the Soviet Union without being suspicious to the point of paranoia. Dimka backpedaled desperately. “I don't say we should bring him home,” he said as calmly as he could. “I just thought you might like to know about him. His crime was trivial, he has suffered his punishment, and for you to grant justice to a minor dissident would accord with your general policy of cautious liberalization.”

Khrushchev was not fooled. “Someone has asked you for a favor.” Dimka opened his mouth to protest his innocence, but Khrushchev held up a hand to silence him. “Don't deny it, I don't mind. Influence is your reward for hard work.”

Dimka felt as if a death sentence had been lifted. “Thank you,” he said, sounding more pathetically grateful than he wished.

“What job is Yenkov doing in Siberia?” Khrushchev asked.

Dimka realized that the hand holding the file was trembling. He pressed his arm against his side to stop it. “He's an electrician in a power station. He's not qualified, but he used to work in radio.”

“What was his job in Moscow?”

“He was a script editor.”

“Oh, for fuck's sake!” Khrushchev threw down his pen. “A script editor? What the hell use is a script editor? They're desperate for electricians in Siberia. Leave him there. He's doing something useful.”

Dimka stared at him in dismay. He did not know what to say.

Khrushchev picked up his pen and resumed signing. “A script editor,” he muttered. “My arse.”

•   •   •

Tanya typed out Vasili's short story, “Frostbite,” with two carbon copies.

But it was too good merely for samizdat publication. Vasili evoked the world of the prison camps with brutal vividness—but he did more. Copying it, she had realized, with an ache in her heart, that the camp
stood for the Soviet Union, and the story was a savage critique of Soviet society. Vasili was telling the truth in a way that Tanya could not, and she burned with remorse. Every day she wrote articles that were published in newspapers and magazines all over the USSR; every day she carefully avoided reality. She did not tell outright lies, but she always skirted around the poverty, injustice, repression, and waste that were the actual characteristics of her country. Vasili's writing showed her that her life was a fraud.

She took the typescript to her editor, Daniil Antonov. “This came to me in the mail, anonymously,” she said. He might well guess that she was lying, but he would not betray her. “It's a short story set in a prison camp.”

“We can't publish it,” he said quickly.

“I know. But it's very good—the work of a great writer, I think.”

“Why are you showing it to me?”

“You know the editor of
New World
magazine.”

Daniil looked thoughtful. “He occasionally publishes something unorthodox.”

Tanya lowered her voice. “I don't know how far Khrushchev's liberalization is intended to go.”

“The policy has vacillated, but the overall instruction is that the excesses of the past should be discussed and condemned.”

“Would you read it and, if you like it, show it to the editor?”

“Sure.” Daniil read a few lines. “Why do you think it was sent to
you
?”

“It's probably written by someone I met when I went to Siberia two years ago.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “That would explain it.” He meant
Not a bad cover.

“The author will probably reveal his identity if the story is accepted for publication.”

“Okay,” said Daniil. “I'll do my best.”

T
he University of Alabama was the last all-white state university in the USA. On Tuesday, June 11, two young Negroes arrived at the campus in Tuscaloosa to register as students. George Wallace, the diminutive governor of Alabama, stood at the doors of the university with his arms folded and his legs astride, and vowed to keep them out.

At the Department of Justice in Washington, George Jakes sat with Bobby Kennedy and others listening to telephone reports from people at the university. The television was on, but for the moment none of the networks was showing the scene live.

Less than a year ago, two people had been shot dead during riots at the University of Mississippi after its first colored student enrolled. The Kennedy brothers were determined to prevent a repeat.

George had been to Tuscaloosa, and had seen the university's leafy campus. He had been frowned at as he walked across the green lawns, the only dark face among the pretty girls in bobby socks and the smart young men in blazers. He had drawn for Bobby a sketch of the grand portico of the Foster Auditorium, with its three doors, in front of which Governor Wallace now stood, at a portable lectern, surrounded by highway patrolmen. The June temperature in Tuscaloosa was rising toward a hundred degrees. George could visualize the reporters and photographers crowded in front of Wallace, sweating in the sun, waiting for violence to break out.

The confrontation had long been anticipated and planned by both sides.

George Wallace was a Southern Democrat. Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves, had been a Republican, while pro-slavery Southerners
had been Democrats. Those Southerners were still in the party, helping Democratic presidents get elected, then undermining them once in office.

Wallace was a small, ugly man, going bald except for a patch at the front of his head that he greased and combed into a ludicrous quiff. But he was cunning, and George Jakes could not figure out what he was up to today. What result did Wallace hope for? Mayhem—or something more subtle?

The civil rights movement, which had seemed moribund two months ago, had taken wing after the Birmingham riots. Money was pouring in: at a Hollywood fund-raiser, movie stars such as Paul Newman and Tony Franciosa had written checks for a thousand dollars each. The White House was terrified of more disorder, and desperate to appease the protesters.

Bobby Kennedy had at last come round to the belief that there must be a new civil rights bill. He now admitted that the time had come for Congress to outlaw segregation in all public places—hotels, restaurants, buses, restrooms—and to protect the right of Negroes to vote. But he had not yet convinced his brother the president.

Bobby was pretending to be calm and in charge this morning. A television crew was filming him, and three of his seven children were running around the office. But George knew how fast Bobby's relaxed openness could turn to cold fury when things went wrong.

Bobby was resolved that there would be no rioting—but he was equally determined to get the two students enrolled. A judge had issued a court order to admit the students, and Bobby, as attorney general, could not let himself be defeated by a state governor intent on flouting the law. He was ready to send in troops to remove Wallace by force—but that, too, would be an unhappy ending, Washington bullying the South.

Bobby was in his shirtsleeves, bent over the speakerphone on his wide desk, with wet marks of perspiration under his arms. The army had set up mobile communications, and someone in the crowd was telling Bobby what was happening. “Nick has arrived,” the voice on the speaker said. Nicholas Katzenbach was deputy attorney general, and Bobby's representative on the scene. “He's going up to Wallace . . . he's handing him the cease-and-desist.” Katzenbach was armed with a
presidential proclamation ordering Wallace to cease illegally defying a court order. “Now Wallace is making a speech.”

George Jakes's left arm was in a discreet black silk sling. State troopers had cracked a bone in his wrist in Birmingham, Alabama. Two years earlier a racist rioter had broken the same arm in Anniston, which was also in Alabama. George hoped never to go to Alabama again.

“Wallace isn't talking about segregation,” said the voice on the speaker. “He's talking about states' rights. He says Washington doesn't have the right to interfere in Alabama schools. I'm going to try to get close enough so you can hear him.”

George frowned. In his inaugural speech as governor, Wallace had said: “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” But then he had been speaking to white Alabamans. Who was he trying to impress today? Something was going on here that the Kennedy brothers and their advisers had not yet understood.

Wallace's speech was long. When at last it was over, Katzenbach once again demanded that Wallace obey the court, and Wallace refused. Stalemate.

Katzenbach then left the scene—but the drama was not over. The two students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, were waiting in a car. By prior arrangement, Katzenbach escorted Vivian to her dormitory, and another Justice Department lawyer did the same for James. This was only temporary. To register formally, they had to enter the Foster Auditorium.

The lunchtime news came on television, and in Bobby Kennedy's office someone turned up the sound. Wallace stood at the lectern, looking taller than he was in real life. He said nothing about colored people or segregation or civil rights. He talked of the might of central government oppressing the sovereignty of the state of Alabama. He spoke indignantly about freedom and democracy, as if there were no Negroes being denied the vote. He quoted the American Constitution as if he did not spurn it every day of his life. It was a bravura performance, and it worried George.

Burke Marshall, the white lawyer who headed the civil rights division, was in Bobby's office. George still did not trust him, but Marshall had become more radical since Birmingham, and now he
proposed resolving the stalemate in Tuscaloosa by sending troops in. “Why don't we just go ahead and do it?” he said to Bobby.

Bobby agreed.

It took time. Bobby's aides ordered sandwiches and coffee. On the campus, everyone held their positions.

News came in from Vietnam. At a road junction in Saigon a Buddhist monk called Thich Quang Duc, doused in five gallons of gasoline, had calmly struck a match and set himself alight. His suicide was a protest at the persecution of the Buddhist majority by the American-sponsored president Ngo Dinh Diem, who was a Catholic.

There was no end to the travails of President Kennedy.

At last the voice on Bobby's speakerphone said: “General Graham has arrived . . . with four soldiers.”

“Four?” said George. “That's our show of force?”

They heard a new voice, presumably that of the general addressing Wallace. He said: “Sir, it is my sad duty to ask you to step aside under orders from the president of the United States.”

Graham was the commander of the Alabama National Guard, and he was clearly doing his duty against his inclination.

But the voice on the phone now said: “Wallace is walking away . . . Wallace is leaving! Wallace is leaving! It's over!”

There was cheering and handshaking in the office.

After a minute the others noticed that George was not joining in. Dennis Wilson said: “What's the matter with you?”

In George's opinion, the people around him were not thinking hard enough. “Wallace planned this,” he said. “All along, he intended to give in as soon as we called in the troops.”

“But why?” said Dennis.

“That's the question that's been bothering me. All morning, I've had this suspicion that we're being used.”

“So what did Wallace gain by this charade?”

“A showcase. He's just been on television, posing as the ordinary man standing up to a bullying government.”

“Governor Wallace, complaining about being bullied?” said Wilson. “That's a joke!”

Bobby had been following the argument, and now he intervened. “Listen to George,” he said. “He's asking the right questions.”

“It's a joke to you and me,” said George. “But many working-class Americans feel that integration is being shoved down their throats by Washington do-gooders such as all of us in this room.”

“I know,” said Wilson. “Though it's unusual to hear that from . . .” He was going to say from a Negro, but changed his mind. “From someone who campaigns for civil rights. What's your point?”

“What Wallace was doing, today, was talking to those white working-class voters. They'll remember him standing there, defying Nick Katzenbach—a typical East Coast liberal, they'll say—and they'll remember the soldiers making Governor Wallace withdraw.”

“Wallace is the governor of Alabama. Why would he need to address the nation?”

“I suspect he will oppose Jack Kennedy in next year's Democratic primaries. He's running for president, folks. And he opened his campaign today on national television—with our help.”

There was a moment of quiet in the office as that sunk in. George could tell that they were convinced by his argument, and worried by its implications.

“Right now, Wallace leads the news, and he looks like a hero,” George finished. “Maybe President Kennedy needs to seize back the initiative.”

Bobby touched the intercom on his desk and said: “Get me the president.” He lit a cigar.

Dennis Wilson took a call on another phone and said: “The two students have entered the auditorium and registered.”

A few moments later Bobby picked up the phone to talk to his brother. He reported a nonviolent victory. Then he began to listen. “Yes!” he said at one stage. “George Jakes said the same thing . . .” There was another long pause. “Tonight? But there's no speech . . . Of course it can be written. No, I think you've made the right decision. Let's do it.” He hung up and looked around the room. “The president is going to introduce a new civil rights bill,” he said.

George's heart leaped. That was what he and Martin Luther King and everyone in the civil rights movement had been asking for.

Bobby went on: “And he's going to announce it on live television—tonight.”

“Tonight?” said George in surprise.

“In a few hours' time.”

That made sense, George thought, though it would be a rush. The president would be back at the top of the news, where he belonged—ahead of both George Wallace and Thich Quang Duc.

Bobby added: “And he wants you to go over there and work on the speech with Ted.”

“Yes, sir,” said George.

He left the Justice Department in a state of high excitement. He walked so fast that he was panting when he reached the White House. He took a minute to catch his breath on the ground floor of the West Wing. Then he went upstairs. He found Ted Sorensen in his office with a group of colleagues. George took off his jacket and sat down.

Among the papers scattered on the table was a telegram from Martin Luther King to President Kennedy. In Danville, Virginia, when sixty-five Negroes had protested segregation, forty-eight of them had been so badly beaten by the police that they had ended up in the hospital. “The Negro's endurance may be at breaking point,” King's cable said. George underlined that sentence.

The group worked intensely on the speech. It would begin with a reference to the day's events in Alabama, emphasizing that the troops had been enforcing a court order. However, the president would not linger on the details of this particular squabble, but move quickly to a strong appeal to the moral values of all decent Americans. At intervals, Sorensen took handwritten pages to the secretaries to be typed.

George felt frustrated that something so important had to be done in a last-minute rush, but he understood why. Drafting legislation was a rational process; politics, by contrast, was an intuitive game. Jack Kennedy had good instincts, and his gut feelings told him that he needed to take the initiative today.

Time passed too quickly. The speech was still being written when the TV crews moved into the Oval Office and began to set up their lights. President Kennedy walked along the corridor to Sorensen's room and asked how it was coming. Sorensen showed him some pages, and the president did not like them. They moved into the secretaries' office, and Kennedy started dictating changes to be typed. Then it was eight o'clock, and the speech was unfinished, but the president was on the air.

George watched the TV in Sorensen's room, biting his nails.

And President Kennedy gave the performance of his life.

He started off a little too formally, but he warmed up when he spoke of the life prospects of a Negro baby: half as much chance of completing high school, one-third of the chance of graduating college, twice as much chance of being unemployed, and a life expectancy seven years shorter than that of a white baby.

“We are confronted primarily with a moral issue,” he said. “It is as old as the scriptures and as clear as the American Constitution.”

George marveled. Much of this was unscripted, and it showed a new Jack Kennedy. The slick modern president had discovered the power of sounding biblical. Perhaps he had learned from the preacher Martin Luther King. “Who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed?” he said, reverting to short, plain words. “Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?”

It was Jack Kennedy and his brother Bobby who had counseled patience and delay, George reflected. He rejoiced that now at last they had seen the painful inadequacy of such advice.

“We preach freedom around the world,” the president said. He was about to go to Europe, George knew. “But are we to say to the world, and much more importantly to each other, that this is the land of the free—except for the Negroes? That we have no second-class citizens—except Negroes? That we have no class or caste system, no ghettoes, no master race—except with respect to Negroes?”