The Good Fight

by Danielle Steel

  Meredith hated to take time off from the campaign when she went back to law school for her second year. But every weekend, she turned up at campaign headquarters for at least one day and Adam came down from Boston to volunteer and see her. He could have worked on the campaign in Boston, but he liked spending time with her. They hadn’t decided if they were really dating or just fooling around. The campaign was the glue that held them together, and everything was secondary to that. They decided to figure it out later. They had too much to do now, keeping up with law school and helping Kennedy’s cause.

  By the beginning of October, Meredith was at campaign headquarters every night, Claudia and Thaddeus had decided to join her several nights a week, and Adam continued to come down from Cambridge every weekend. The rooms were crowded constantly with devoted hopeful Democrats, who were desperate for their candidate to win. Every speech he made, every appearance, made more people fall in love with him. He handled each situation with ease. He was the kind of man they wanted running the country, and despite Nixon’s political experience, his stuffy awkward style held no appeal for Meredith and her friends. There was even something very touching about seeing a pregnant Jackie campaigning for her husband. They were real people, with a family and unlimited charm. And John Kennedy had big dreams for the country, and solutions to their problems. He seemed to be the answer to their prayers.

  In the final weeks before the election, Meredith had never put so much energy into anything in her life. She was willing him to win, and every conversation with her father ended in an argument, so she stopped discussing it with him.

  The night of the election, Claudia, Thaddeus, and Adam were with her at campaign headquarters. They’d all voted, and all eyes were glued to the televisions set up in every room. There were TV cameras standing by to film all of them throughout the evening, and in case their man won.

  Meredith smiled at Claudia in a quiet moment. “It’s exciting, isn’t it?” Thaddeus and Adam had gone outside for a smoke. Thaddeus loved his Cuban cigars, and Claudia liked the pungent smell of them now.

  “It is exciting. What’s with you and Adam? I can never figure out if you two are an item or just friends.” Meredith always seemed to keep her distance. Her causes were more important to her than her men.

  “Neither can we.” She laughed in answer. “We can’t decide if it’s campaign fever or true love. We both have law school to finish, and he’s in Cambridge and I’m here. We’ll both have a lot of catching up to do for school when this is over. My professors have been pretty good about it, but I’ll have to make up the work I missed by the end of the semester. And so will he. He just broke up with some girl at Radcliffe a few months ago. It doesn’t sound like it’s over yet. My heart isn’t deeply engaged here. We’re just having fun together.”

  “Your heart is never deeply engaged,” Claudia commented, “except in the causes you care about. Don’t you want more romance in your life?” She was so happy with Thaddeus, and wished Meredith would meet someone like him. But he was older and more mature than the boys Meredith dated.

  She thought about it seriously before she answered. “Not now. I think a serious romance would slow me down. I’m not ready. I don’t want someone telling me what to do, that I can’t go to a protest or a march, or telling me something is too dangerous. It would be like dating my father. I hear enough of that from him. I have some battles to engage in first. I need to do that on my own.”

  “Don’t wait too long,” Claudia said gently. “When the right man comes along, grab him. It doesn’t happen every day.”

  “I don’t think Adam is that guy, for me anyway,” Meredith said honestly. She’d been considering it lately, as the election drew closer. “We have a good time together, but that’s not really enough. I have fun doing a lot of things. If I fall for someone, I want it to be someone really special. Maybe that’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and it hasn’t showed up in my life yet.”

  “It will someday,” Claudia reassured her.

  “What about you and Thaddeus? Are you thinking of getting married?” she asked, and Claudia looked pensive when she answered.

  “Not for now, and maybe never. I’m not sure he’s the kind of guy who’d want to get married.” It had already been almost two years and they steered carefully around the subject. The only thing that Claudia would have liked about it was being able to live together openly, instead of sneaking around for whatever nights they could steal or lie about, or having someone cover for her, the way Meredith did. Living with him would have been wonderful, but marriage seemed like a lot to take on, and Claudia wasn’t ready either. She wanted to finish her book first, and she knew her parents wouldn’t be thrilled if she married him. He was Jewish, but they wanted her to marry some nice conservative doctor or lawyer from Temple Emanu-El, and Claudia had never met anyone there she liked. Thaddeus was much more interesting than that and suited her better, but she didn’t want to upset her parents.

  The boys came back from their smoke then, and they all went back to watching the television sets that were starting to announce the results of the election. The tension was mounting, as the voting stations closed across the country and the results were tallied. It looked like it was going to be a close race, and Meredith was sure her parents were watching at home, cheering for Nixon.

  The New York Times declared Kennedy the winner shortly before midnight. The results were confusing at first, because Nixon had won more states but Kennedy had carried the electoral and popular votes. And the tally was extremely close. America had a new president, and it was John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the youngest president America had ever elected to office at forty-three. And the First Lady, at thirty, was only six years older than Meredith but seemed infinitely more sophisticated. Nixon made a speech at 3 A.M., implying defeat, but not officially conceding yet. There was jubilation around the country, especially in Washington, and the campaign workers went crazy at Kennedy headquarters.

  Adam kissed Meredith firmly on the mouth as soon as they saw the results on the screen and heard the news. They had worked hard for this together, along with so many others. And at the McKenzies’ apartment, Alex was doing a little jig in his bedroom, while his father turned the TV off in the living room and looked unhappily at his wife.

  “Well, we have a Democrat in the White House. God help us.” He was doubly grateful for his appointment to the bench only months before. It wouldn’t have happened with a Democratic president, since he was known to be a staunch Republican, but he was firmly entrenched on the federal bench now, and pleased to be there.

  Adam and Meredith went to Thaddeus’s apartment in Greenwich Village with Claudia and had a drink to celebrate. None of them could remember this kind of excitement when Eisenhower was elected. And they hadn’t had a Democratic president since Truman, and Franklin Roosevelt before him. They were happy to have the Democrats back, and so was most of the country.

  After they all relaxed and talked about it for a while, they left and headed uptown. Claudia had to go home that night. Adam and Meredith shared a cab, and she dropped him off at Penn Station. He was going back to Boston, but he had said a few days before that he’d come to New York again soon. Things seemed different tonight, as she looked at him and he kissed her.

  “Something happened, didn’t it?” She could see it in his eyes. “Is it the election?”

  He shook his head. “It’s Wendy. I saw her last week. She wants to give it another try, and I feel like I should. We had two years together. It’s hard to walk away from that, and she says she’s willing to make some changes.”

  Meredith nodded. She understood, and it didn’t surprise her. She figured something like that would happen. He had admitted right in the beginning that he wasn’t totally over Wendy, and she had had that sense about him. Her instincts had been right, and she had protected herself in case this happened. She was disappointed but not crushed or heartbro
ken. And she was glad she hadn’t slept with him. He hadn’t pushed it because of Wendy. “I’m sorry, Merrie.”

  “It’s okay. We had fun during the campaign.” He kissed her one last time and got out of the cab with a look over his shoulder.

  “You’re an amazing woman, Meredith McKenzie, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. When you’re ready, the right guy will come along. I don’t think you have a lot of room for one right now.”

  “No, I don’t.” She smiled ruefully at him. “Tell Wendy to treat you right, or I’ll come to Cambridge and beat her up.” She waved at him and the cab pulled away, and for a moment she was sad on the way home, and then she thought about the election. They had a new president that night, and he was going to be a great one. She’d lost a boyfriend she never really had anyway, but they had a hero in the White House. On balance, it was not too bad.

  Alex was asleep on her bed when she got home, and he woke up when he heard her. “We won!” he said ecstatically, and threw his arms around her.

  “We sure did! How pissed is Dad?” she asked, smiling.

  “Very.” He grinned.

  “I figured. The good times are coming, Alex. For us all.” She walked him to his bedroom, he kissed her good night sleepily, and she went back to her own room, smiling. She was going to miss Adam, but not too much. It had been a moment. That was enough. And now they both had to get on with their lives. She knew he had made the right decision to go back to Wendy. She wasn’t going to be ready for a serious relationship for a long, long time.

  Chapter Ten

  The morning after the election, Meredith’s grandfather called her from Washington.

  “How sweet is that?” he said when she came to the phone. He had offered his sympathy to Robert first, who was in deep mourning about a Democrat in the White House.

  “It’s very sweet, Grampa.” She was smiling as she said it.

  “I called to find out what you’re doing on January twentieth.”

  “I don’t know. Why?” The date didn’t ring any bells.

  “As a justice of the Supreme Court, I happen to have two tickets to the inauguration, and two tickets to the inaugural balls. Your grandma says she doesn’t feel up to going, with all the standing around and the crowds. Her hip is bothering her, and I wonder if you would do me the honor of going with me.”

  “Grampa!” She squealed into the phone, unable to believe her good luck and the opportunity. She couldn’t think of anything more wonderful than seeing those historical occasions and going with him. It was a dream come true. “I’d love it!”

  “Then you’re on, young lady. Buy yourself a dress for each occasion and charge them to me. Nothing too sassy for the balls, or the newspaper will say I was out with my girlfriend….On the other hand, maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Buy whatever you want. I think we’re going to have a lot of fun together.” She could hardly wait.

  It felt like a great day when she left for school, and she stayed late at the library that night to catch up on work. She thought about Adam for a few minutes and knew he had done the right thing for both of them. She had always suspected he’d probably go back to Wendy, who really wanted him, and Meredith was never totally sure she did. Something about him always made her hesitate, possibly the specter of Wendy.

  When she got home that night, she found an announcement from Ted and Emily on her bed. They’d had a baby boy on the first of November, eleven months after they got married. They hadn’t wasted any time. Now they were a family. For a minute, she felt sorry for him again. He was twenty-five years old with a wife and child, and he was a banker, which was everything he had never wanted and didn’t feel ready for. But he had done it to himself. She hoped that the baby solidified his marriage.

  It was weird to think about as she brushed her teeth and got ready for bed. Ted was her goofiest friend and now he was a father. She wondered what that felt like, and if she’d ever know. She could never visualize herself with children. Alex had been her baby when he was born when she was ten. She had experienced it with him, and that seemed like enough. She wasn’t looking to do it again with kids of her own, and he was even more fun now that he was a teenager. He was about to turn fifteen, and such a nice boy. She loved spending time with him, although their age difference made it difficult. She’d left for Vassar when he was eight, and in the six years since, she was either working, in law school, or pursuing her causes. And now he was in high school and busy with other school sports and activities of his own. Even living at home, she hardly saw him.

  She put Ted’s baby announcement on her desk, so she’d remember to send them a present, and was glad it wasn’t her.

  * * *

  —

  The swearing-in of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president of the United States, on January 20, 1961, was the most amazing event Meredith had ever been to. There was snow on the ground and the city looked magical. Kennedy wore a black top hat and full gray morning dress, and removed his top hat and overcoat for the swearing-in despite freezing weather. And his beautiful First Lady, Jackie, wore a fawn-colored dress and matching coat with sable collar, a sable muff and fur-trimmed boots, and a sable pillbox hat. Mrs. Kennedy had recently given birth to a baby boy, John-John, and looked stylish and spectacular. The president’s parents and family were there.

  Robert Frost read a poem, a first at an inaugural ceremony. Marian Anderson sang the national anthem. And Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as vice president. Eleanor Roosevelt was there, and important members of the arts, including Ernest Hemingway, Carl Sandburg, and John Steinbeck.

  It was an unforgettable moment in history. And Kennedy’s speech after he was sworn in was deeply moving. The words “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country,” rang in her ears for hours afterward, and felt like a message spoken directly to her. It was the question she had been asking herself all her life. What could she do for her country and her countrymen, the disadvantaged, the unfortunate, the persecuted, those who were discriminated against? They were the people she wanted to serve and find answers for. They were why she was in law school, and had gone to North Carolina to sit at the counter at Woolworth’s.

  It looked like the happiest day of Jackie Kennedy’s life, and it was certainly one of the best days of Meredith’s. Her grandfather could have chosen to sit on the platform, but since Merrie couldn’t, he sat in front-row seats with her so they could enjoy the events together.

  She clung to her grandfather’s arm and kept smiling up at him and thanking him for bringing her. There were five inaugural balls that night, and Merrie and her grandfather attended the one at the Mayflower Hotel and stopped briefly at the one at the National Guard Armory on the way home. Meredith wore a new black velvet gown and long white gloves and looked spectacular herself. As always, her grandfather was immensely proud of her. The balls finally ended at three A.M., and Merrie and her grandfather went home, happy and exhausted. He tucked her hand under his arm, and he looked handsome in white tie and tails. Jackie had worn a magnificent white satin evening gown made for her by Bergdorf Goodman. And there was something so dazzlingly handsome and aristocratic about the new president as he appeared at each ball with Mrs. Kennedy in her white gown covered with brilliants, and a matching floor-length cape. Meredith had never seen anything so beautiful. The First Lady looked like a queen.

  They got back to her grandfather’s house just after three in the morning. He said he’d had a fantastic time and made a date with her for all subsequent inaugurations. They both hoped there would be another Kennedy inauguration in four years.

  Meredith drifted up the stairs to the guest bedroom as she delicately peeled off her long white kid gloves, and her grandfather smiled as he caught a last glimpse of her. She was a beautiful young woman, and he’d had such a good time with her. It was an evening that he knew they would never forget, and even more s
o because they’d been together, and they shared a very special relationship. He was her mentor and her inspiration and role model as well as her grandfather.

  She hated to go back to New York the next day and said that she felt like Cinderella after the ball. The coach had turned into a pumpkin and the coachman into white mice. She had to clean the castle again and there was no sign of the handsome prince. But the handsome prince was in the White House now, and would be for the next four years. It was good news for all of them.

  Meredith sat dreamily on the train all the way back to New York, and told her family about it that night at dinner. She had called Claudia as soon as she got back. It had really been a magical night.

  “That’s why people voted for him, because he’s good-looking and he has a pretty wife,” her father said grumpily at dinner. “Nixon would have been a much better president. He’s got more experience.”

  “And he’s a Republican,” Meredith teased him.

  * * *

  —

  Everyone watched closely as Kennedy settled into the White House, to see what political steps he’d take and his position about Vietnam.

  The Kennedys gave spectacular, elegant state dinners, and heads of state came from all over the world to pay their respects and meet both of them.

  In May, Vice President Johnson went to visit South Vietnam, after the political fiasco of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba a month before.