The Willard (34 page)

It wasn’t everything either of them wanted to understand, but somehow it was enough.

Later that afternoon Calvin said goodbye to Chase and caught a flight back to Chattanooga. The kids were glad to see him, but his wife noticed he was strangely quiet. He’d been struggling all the way home with whether or not to tell her, or anyone, about what had happened to him. It was all just too much for the human mind to comprehend and he was already convincing himself it had been a misunderstanding of some sort. He just couldn’t make two and two add up to ten.

After dinner when the kids could stand it no longer, he went upstairs and changed into his casual shorts and shirt before
hauling his suitcase up onto the bed. He unpacked the football jersey, miniature mobile, and the King statue replica. He was getting ready to go back downstairs to bestow the loot upon the waiting kids when he saw something sticking out from under his gray suit. He reached in and pulled out several sheets of paper. They were the handwritten notes Dr. King had allowed him to keep. He reread them, taking in the prose with new eyes. Tears were welling up in his eyes when his wife walked into the room. He didn’t care whether it had been real or not. Something profound had happened to him.

He wiped his eyes and stood to greet his wife. As he did he noticed the ugly scars on his legs. He realized his wife had no visible reaction to them. She acted like they had always been there. He had a thought.

“Babe, did I ever tell you how I got these scars?”

“Only about a thousand times. I will say the story has worked wonders at keeping Will from the edge of the rocks.”

“How so?”

“
How so
? Calvin, the boy loves his daddy, but he doesn’t want to walk around with scars the rest of his life like you have.”

He needed her to fill in the blanks. “And how exactly have my scars kept Will safe?”

“Baby, those ugly scars taught our boy that climbing on the rocks at Lookout Mountain is dangerous! But don’t you worry. I’ve always thought they made you seem a little dangerous, which every girl secretly wants of course.”

She laughed over her shoulder and left the room. Somehow history had been rewritten, and yet everything that mattered had remained the same. Calvin gathered up the souvenirs and headed for the bedroom door. He could hear the girls teasing their brother that dad had probably forgotten the football jersey. He listened to them for a minute and then started down the stairs.

Yes,
Calvin thought as the kids gathered around him to get their goodies.
Climbing Lookout Mountain can be dangerous. But the view from the top, not to mention the sound of freedom, is so worth it
.

C
HAPTER 82

OLIVIA FORDHAM

2016

“Olivia. Olivia, it’s time to wake up.”

Olivia heard Jane’s voice and felt her friend place her hand on her forehead as if to check for fever. She opened her eyes.

“What time is it, Jane?” Olivia asked as she sat up in bed.

“It’s seven-thirty. Are you feeling alright?”

“Just a little groggy, that’s all.”

“I was so worried. When you didn’t call last night I used my key and came to check on you. I’ve never known you to go to bed so early, but you were sleeping comfortably so I left you alone. Just to be safe I came back around ten o’clock and you were tossing and turning and calling out names I’m unfamiliar with.”

“What names?”

“Victoria and James. And you kept talking to Edward so I went to find Mr. Chase, but he was not in the hotel overnight. I wasn’t able to wake you so I called Dr. Goodwin in New York. He thought there was no cause for alarm. He said your body would be more tired and need more and more sleep as the tumor grows so he urged me to leave you be. I checked on you all during the night and you were at times peaceful and agitated. You seemed to be having very vivid dreams.”

They just think they’ve had a dream or others assume they had too much wine with dinner or some bad fish
. Wasn’t that what Edward had said? But there was no way what had happened was just a dream. Olivia threw the covers back and hurried to the closet with Jane at her heels. The clothing hanging there was what her maid in New York had packed. There were no Edwardian dresses or elaborate hats. She walked to the bedroom window and looked out. The cars were normal, late model sedans and the ubiquitous taxis.

Jane knew all about the episodes Olivia had and she was accustomed to caring for her through them be it a few hours or several days. She could tell Jane what happened and she knew her friend would understand. But something held her back. This time had not been like the others and she wasn’t sure she could explain it. She also wasn’t sure she
wanted
to explain it. Unlike the other times, she didn’t want this one to be explained away by her medical condition. It was too personal and too real.

“I was exhausted yesterday afternoon and decided to turn in early. I’m so sorry I worried you, Jane.”

Jane wasn’t convinced Olivia was telling her the whole story, but she was sensitive to her friend’s feelings about what she was going through. Olivia had been a strong, independent woman for as long as Jane had known her and she knew these episodes and the life she was facing were hard for her to reconcile. She decided to let it go. Olivia looked none the worse for wear after her difficult night.

“I’m going to get dressed. What is the first item on our agenda today?”

“You have a meeting with the Smithsonian representatives here at nine o’clock and then a luncheon with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation folks at noon.”

“Wonderful. Please have coffee and tea service and pastries sent up for the morning meeting.”

The meeting went according to plan and when the representatives from the Smithsonian left Olivia was satisfied that everything was on track for the upcoming announcement. She had just enough time to freshen her makeup and head over to the luncheon. Jane had talked with Mr. Chase and the car was waiting.

Olivia stared into the mirror, freshening her powder and lipstick without conscious thought. Her mind was miles away, years away in fact. She was walking the streets with Victoria and listening to James say things that would have been unheard of a hundred years later. She was listening to women argue for rights she herself had always enjoyed, and she was watching as her family history was being written. It couldn’t have been a dream. She knew that it wasn’t. Perhaps it was the tumor. She struggled with the possibilities, but knew she could never ask Edward Chase. The likelihood that the entire experience was yet another “episode” was too high and she didn’t want him to think her mad. She ran a comb lightly over her silver hair and called out to Jane that she was ready to go.

As she crossed the lobby of the hotel she heard her name called and she saw that Edward was standing behind the concierge desk motioning for her to join him. She sent Jane ahead to the car and walked over to speak with him. He was helping another guest and she stood to the side waiting for him to finish.

While she waited, she looked around her at the furnishings and thought how different they looked now. Her eyes eventually settled on the wall of cubbies behind where Edward was standing. She glanced across them until something caught her eye. It wasn’t obvious, just something that didn’t seem to fit. It was a tiny cubby, unlike the others in that it was slim enough for just a single message to be held there. It was nearly invisible to the naked eye but Olivia had always had an eye for symmetry so she noticed the simple difference.

While she thought about what that could mean Edward finished with his guest and came to speak with her.

“Did you have a pleasant evening?” he asked.

She looked for anything in his expression that might indicate he knew about her experience, but there was nothing there besides his normal, professional demeanor.

“Yes. I was more tired than I realized and I slept soundly.”

“That’s excellent news. I trust you have a full day planned?”

“Very full. I’m on my way to a luncheon now.”

“Yes, of course. I wanted to let you know I have a package here for you. Since you’re going out I’ll have it sent up to your room. One of the maids found it last night here in the lobby and recognized that it belonged to you. Would you like to see it before you leave?”

“Yes, please.”

He reached under the desk and pulled out a large box. When he opened it Olivia pushed aside the tissue paper and what she saw took her breath away. It was the yellow silk hat she had worn the day of the march, the last time she had spent with Victoria and James. She looked up and saw that Edward knew exactly what it was. They exchanged a look that spoke volumes.

“Shall I send it up to your room?”

“Yes, Edward, please do. It is one of my greatest treasures.”

C
HAPTER 83

TOM KELLY

2016

Tom stood dripping on the bathmat in his suite at the Willard. After his return trip from New York he found that Ethan had removed all the communication equipment from the suite and left a note thanking him for all he had done to avert disaster. In the note he said he would come by to see Tom the next morning and urged him to get a good night’s sleep. Tom did just that, and when he woke up the next morning it was to a wake-up call from Edward Chase telling him his reservations for lunch with his investors were all set and that he would have a bottle of champagne standing by for what he knew was bound to be a celebration. He was back to his normal life and everything that had happened over the past few days seemed to be only a dream. He couldn’t even find the note Ethan had left. It was like none of it had ever happened. He decided to give the bath salts another try but vowed not to fall asleep this time.

During his long, lavender soak he thought about all that had happened. Anatoly/Hamish/Boris and the near-disaster of nuclear war. Ethan and his mother, an intern pouring through classified documents, and finding the lynchpin of the problem. The two Kennedys and their reliance on him during the crisis. The whole thing was crazy and by the time he was drying off to get ready for his meeting Tom decided it had all been a very elaborate dream. He wanted to sit down at his laptop and look
up everything he could find on the crisis, but there was no time. He dressed in his best suit, which meant the one that was the least wrinkled from his travels, and went downstairs to meet his potential investors. The dog and pony show was on.

Chase had arranged for a private table in a corner of the restaurant and Tom met Scott Langdon there a few minutes before the others were scheduled to arrive. They caught up on everything Tom had uncovered on his scouting trip and Langdon was blown away by the photos from Abu Dhabi. He let Tom know that he would only have to impress one person today instead of two. One of the potential investors had told Langdon that he couldn’t make the meeting, but that if he got a good report from the person coming today he would be in for $250,000. That meant Tom had to pull out all the stops to make this meeting go well.

Right on time a well-dressed woman in her thirties walked in trailed by a couple of men in suits. It was clear she was the one in charge. She had shoulder-length blonde hair and piercing eyes and when she smiled at him Tom thought he could feel a blush creeping into his cheeks.

Shit
, he thought.
I was planning to pitch to an old crusty soldier-type
.

He knew he would have to get past his attraction to her and stay on script, although the script would have to be altered a bit. All he had been told about the investor was that he (Tom had
assumed
he’d be dealing with a man, mistake number one) represented a company that does business in both the public and private sector and has significant Defense Department contracts in play. Tom was pretty sure this woman wouldn’t be as open to
the boy’s club way of thinking he was prepared for, given the three amigos who had recommended her company.

She accepted a warm hug from Langdon and stuck her hand out to introduce herself to Tom.

“Hello, I’m Emily Travers from PCS.”

“Tom Kelly,” he said as he shook her hand.