The Lincoln Highway

by Amor Towles

  When Emmett was eight, his mother learned from Mr. Cartwright at the hardware store that the town of Seward—a little more than an hour from Morgen—had quite a little celebration on the Fourth of July, with a parade in the afternoon and fireworks after dark. Emmett’s mother wasn’t interested in the parade. So after an early supper, Emmett and his parents got in their truck and made the journey.

  When Mr. Cartwright had said it was quite a little celebration, Emmett’s mother had imagined it would be like any other small-town festivity, with banners made by the schoolchildren and refreshments sold off folding tables by the women of the parish. But when they arrived, she was stunned to discover that the Fourth of July in Seward put to shame any Fourth of July that she had ever seen. It was a celebration that the township prepared for all year and to which people came from as far away as Des Moines. By the time the Watsons arrived, the only parking was a mile from the center of town, and when they finally walked into Plum Creek Park, where the fireworks display was to take place, every square inch of lawn had been claimed by families on blankets eating their picnic dinners.

  The following year, his mother had no intention of making the same mistake. At breakfast on the Fourth, she announced they would be leaving for Seward right after lunch. But once she had prepared their picnic dinner and opened the cutlery drawer to take out some forks and knives, she stopped and stared. Then turning around, she walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs with Emmett close on her heels. Moving a chair from her bedroom, she climbed up on it and reached for a short length of string that was hanging from the ceiling. When she pulled the string, a hatch dropped down with a sliding ladder that led to an attic.

  Wide-eyed, Emmett was prepared for his mother to tell him that he should wait right there, but she was so intent upon her purpose she mounted the ladder without pausing to deliver a cautionary remark. And when he climbed up the narrow steps after her, she was so engaged in moving boxes she didn’t bother to send him back down.

  As his mother went about her search, Emmett surveyed the attic’s strange inventory: an old wireless that was almost as tall as he was, a broken rocking chair, a black typewriter, and two large trunks covered in colorful stickers.

  —Here we are, his mother said.

  Giving Emmett a smile, she held up what looked like a small suitcase. Only instead of leather, it was made of wicker.

  Back in the kitchen, his mother put the suitcase on the table.

  Emmett could see that she was perspiring from the warmth of the attic, and when she wiped her brow with the back of her hand, she left a streak of dust on her skin. After throwing the clasps on the case, she smiled at Emmett again, then opened the lid.

  Emmett knew well enough that a suitcase stored in an attic was likely to be empty, so he was startled to find that not only was this one packed, it was packed to perfection. Neatly arranged inside was everything you could possibly need to have a picnic. Under one strap there was a stack of six red plates, while under another, a tower of six red cups. There were long narrow troughs holding forks, knives, and spoons, and a shorter one for a wine opener. There were even two specially shaped indentations for salt and pepper shakers. And in the recess of the lid, there was a red-and-white-checkered tablecloth held in place by two leather straps.

  In all his life, Emmett had never seen anything so ingeniously put together—with nothing missing, nothing extra, and everything in its place. He wouldn’t see anything quite like it again, until at the age of fifteen, when he saw the worktable in Mr. Schulte’s shed with its orderly arrangement of slots, pegs, and hooks to hold his various tools.

  —Golly, Emmett had said, and his mother had laughed.

  —It was from your great aunt Edna.

  Then she shook her head.

  —I don’t think I’ve opened it since the day we were married. But we’re going to put it to use tonight!

  That year they arrived in Seward at two in the afternoon and found a spot right in the center of the lawn to spread out their checkered cloth. Emmett’s father, who had expressed some reluctance about going so early in the day, showed no signs of impatience once they were there. In fact, as something of a surprise, he produced a bottle of wine from his bag. And as Emmett’s parents drank, Emmett’s father told stories about his penny-pinching aunt Sadie and his absent-minded uncle Dave and all his other crazy relatives back East, making Emmett’s mother laugh in a way she rarely laughed.

  As the hours passed, the lawn filled with more blankets and baskets, with more laughter and good feelings. When night had finally fallen, and the Watsons lay on their checkered cloth with Emmett in the middle, and the first of the fireworks whistled and popped, his mother had said: I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. And driving home that night, it had seemed to Emmett that the three of them would be attending Seward’s Fourth of July celebration for the rest of their lives.

  But the following February—in the weeks after Billy was born—his mother was suddenly not herself. Some days she was so tired she couldn’t even start the chores that she used to leave half done. Other days she didn’t get out of bed.

  When Billy was three weeks old, Mrs. Ebbers—whose children had children of their own—began to come every day to help keep house and see to Billy’s needs while Emmett’s mother tried to regain her strength. By April, Mrs. Ebbers was coming just in the mornings, and by June, she wasn’t coming at all. But over dinner on the first of July, when Emmett’s father asked with some enthusiasm what time they should head out for Seward, Emmett’s mother said she wasn’t sure she wanted to go.

  Looking across the table, Emmett didn’t think he had ever seen his father so heartbroken. But as was his way, Emmett’s father pushed ahead, buoyed by a confidence that wasn’t overly inclined to learn from experience. On the morning of the Fourth, Emmett’s father made the picnic dinner. He pulled down the hatch and climbed the narrow ladder in order to retrieve the basket from the attic. He put Billy in the basinet and brought the truck around to the front door. And when at one o’clock he came inside and called, Come on, everybody! We don’t want to lose our favorite spot! Emmett’s mother agreed to go.

  Or rather, she acquiesced.

  She climbed in the truck and didn’t say a word.

  None of them said a word.

  But once they arrived in Seward and had made their way to the center of the park and his father had billowed out the checkered cloth and begun to take the forks and knives from their troughs, Emmett’s mother said:

  —Here, let me help.

  And in that moment, it was as if a great weight had been lifted from them all.

  After putting out the red plastic cups, she laid out the sandwiches that her husband had made. She fed Billy the apple sauce that her husband had thought to pack, and rocked Billy’s basinet back and forth until he fell asleep. As they drank the wine that her husband had remembered to bring, she asked him to tell some of those stories about his crazy uncles and aunts. And when, shortly after nightfall, the first salvo exploded over the park in a great distending spray of colored sparks, she reached out in order to squeeze her husband’s hand, and gave him a tender smile as tears ran down her face. And when Emmett and his father saw her tears, they smiled in return, for they could tell that these were tears of gratitude—gratitude that rather than relenting to her initial lack of enthusiasm, her husband had persisted so that the four of them could share in this grand exhibition on this warm summer night.

  When the Watsons got home, as Emmett’s father brought in the basinet and the picnic basket, Emmett’s mother led him upstairs by the hand, tucked him tightly under his covers, and gave him a kiss on the forehead, before going down the hallway to do the same for Billy.

  That night Emmett slept as soundly as any night in his life. And when he woke in the morning, his mother was gone.

  * * *

  • • •

  With a final look
at the Palace of the Legion of Honor, Emmett returned the postcards to their envelope. He spun the thin red thread to seal them inside, and stowed them in Billy’s backpack, being sure to tightly cinch the straps.

  That first year had been a hard one for Charlie Watson, Emmett remembered as he took his place beside his brother. The trials of weather continued unabated. Financial difficulties loomed. And the people of the town, they gossiped freely about Mrs. Watson’s sudden departure. But what weighed on his father the most—what weighed on them both—was the realization that when Emmett’s mother had gripped her husband’s hand as the fireworks began, it hadn’t been in gratitude for his persistence, for his fealty and support, it had been in gratitude that by gently coaxing her from her malaise in order to witness this magical display, he had reminded her of what joy could be, if only she were willing to leave her daily life behind.

  SEVEN

  Duchess

  It’s a map! exclaimed Woolly in surprise.

  —So it is.

  We were sitting in a booth at the HoJo’s waiting for our breakfast. In front of each of us was a paper place mat that was also a simplified map of the state of Illinois showing major roads and towns along with some out-of-scale illustrations of regional landmarks. In addition, there were sixteen Howard Johnson’s, each with its little orange roof and little blue steeple.

  —This is where we are, Woolly said, pointing to one of them.

  —I’ll take your word for it.

  —And here’s the Lincoln Highway. And look at this!

  Before I could look over to see what this was, our waitress—who couldn’t have been more than seventeen—set our plates down on top of our place mats.

  Woolly frowned. After watching her retreat, he nudged his plate to the right so that he could continue studying the map while he pretended to eat.

  It was ironic to see how little attention Woolly paid to his breakfast, given how much attention he had paid to ordering it. When our waitress had handed him the menu, he looked a little unnerved by its size. Taking a breath, he set about reading the descriptions of every single item out loud. Then, to make sure he hadn’t missed anything, he went back to the beginning and read them again. When our waitress returned to take our order, he reported with self-assurance that he was going to have waffles—or make that scrambled eggs—only to switch to the hotcakes when she was turning to go. But when his hotcakes arrived, having decorated them with an elaborate spiral of syrup, Woolly ignored them at his bacon’s expense. I, on the other hand, who hadn’t even bothered to glance at the menu, made quick business of my corned beef hash and sunny-side ups.

  Having cleaned my plate, I sat back and took a look around, thinking if Woolly wanted to get a sense of what my restaurant was going to be like, he need look no further than a Howard Johnson’s. Because in every respect it was going to be the opposite.

  From the standpoint of ambience, the good people at Howard Johnson’s had decided to carry the colors of their well-known rooftop into the restaurant by dressing the booths in bright orange and the waitresses in bright blue—despite the fact that the combination of orange and blue hasn’t been known to stimulate an appetite since the beginning of time. The definitive architectural element of the space was an uninterrupted chain of picture windows, which gave everyone an unimpeded view of the parking lot. The cuisine was a gussied-up version of what you’d find in a diner, and the defining characteristic of the clientele was that with a single glance you could tell more about them than you wanted to know.

  Take the red-faced fellow in the next booth who was wiping up his yolk with a corner of whole wheat toast. A traveling salesman, if ever I saw one—and I’ve seen a lifetime supply. On the family tree of unmemorable middle-aged men, traveling salesmen are the first cousins of the has-been performers. They go to the same towns in the same cars and stay at the same hotels. In fact, the only way you can tell them apart is that the salesmen wear more sensible shoes.

  As if I needed any proof, after watching him use his command of percentages to tally his waitress’s tip, I saw him annotate the receipt, fold it in two, and stow it in his wallet for the boys back in accounting.

  As the salesman stood to go, I noticed from the clock on the wall that it was already half past seven.

  —Woolly, I said, the whole point of getting up early is to get an early start. So why don’t you tackle some of those hotcakes while I go to the john. Then we can pay the bill and hit the road.

  —Sure thing, said Woolly, while pushing his plate another few inches to the right.

  Before going to the men’s room, I got some change from the cashier and slipped into a phone booth. I knew that Ackerly had retired to Indiana, I just didn’t know where. So I had the operator look up the number for Salina and put me through. Given the hour, it rang eight times before someone finally answered. I think it was Lucinda, the brunette with the pink glasses who guarded the warden’s door. Taking a page from my father’s book, I gave her the old King Lear. That’s what my father would use whenever he needed a little help from someone on the other end of the line. Naturally, it entailed a British accent, but with a touch of befuddlement.

  Explaining that I was Ackerly’s uncle from England, I told her that I wanted to send him a card on Independence Day in order to assure him there were no hard feelings, but I seemed to have misplaced my address book. Was there any way that she could see to helping a forgetful old soul? A minute later, she returned with the answer: 132 Rhododendron Road in South Bend.

  With a whistle on my lips, I traveled from the phone booth to the men’s room, and who should I find standing at the urinals but the red-faced fellow from the neighboring booth. When I finished doing my business and joined him at the sinks, I gave him a quick smile in the mirror.

  —You, sir, strike me as a salesman.

  A little impressed, he looked back at me in the reflection.

  —I am in sales.

  I nodded my head.

  —You’ve got that friendly man-of-the-world look about you.

  —Why, thanks.

  —Door-to-door?

  —No, he said, a little offended. I’m an account man.

  —Of course you are. In what line, if you don’t mind me asking.

  —Kitchen appliances.

  —Like refrigerators and dishwashers?

  He winced a little, as if I’d hit a sore spot.

  —We specialize in the smaller electric conveniences. Like blenders and hand mixers.

  —Small but essential, I pointed out.

  —Oh, yes, indeed.

  —So tell me, how do you do it? When you go into an account, I mean, how do you make a sale? Of your blender, for instance?

  —Our blender sells itself.

  From the way he delivered the line, I could tell that he had done so ten thousand times before.

  —You’re too modest, I’m sure. But seriously, when you speak of your blender versus the competitions’, how do you . . . differentiate it?

  At the word differentiate, he grew rather grave and confidential. Never mind that he was talking to an eighteen-year-old kid in the bathroom of a Howard Johnson’s. He was gearing up for the pitch now and couldn’t stop himself even if he wanted to.

  —I was only half kidding, he began, when I remarked that our blender sells itself. Because, you see, it wasn’t so long ago that all the leading blenders came with three settings: low, medium, and high. Our company was the first to differentiate its blender buttons by the type of blending: mix, beat, and whip.

  —Ingenious. You must have the market to yourself.

  —For a time, we did, he admitted. But soon enough our competitors were following suit.

  —So you’ve got to keep one step ahead.

  —Precisely. That’s why this year, I’m proud to say, we became the first blender manufacturer in America to introduce a fourth stage of
blending.

  —A fourth stage? After mix, beat, and whip?

  The suspense was killing me.

  —Puree.

  —Bravo, I said.

  And in a way, I meant it.

  I gave him another once-over, this one in admiration. Then I asked him if he had fought in the war.

  —I didn’t have the honor of doing so, he said, also for the ten thousandth time.

  I shook my head in sympathy.

  —What a hoopla when the boys came home. Fireworks and parades. Mayors pinning medals on lapels. And all the good-looking dames lining up to kiss any putz in a uniform. But you know what I think? I think the American people should pay a little more homage to the traveling salesmen.

  He couldn’t tell if I was having him on or not. So I put a hint of emotion into my voice.

  —My father was a traveling salesman. Oh, the miles he logged. The doorbells he rang. The nights he spent far from the comforts of home. I say to you that traveling salesmen are not simply hardworking men, they are the foot soldiers of capitalism!

  I think he actually blushed at that one. Though it was hard to tell given his complexion.

  —It’s an honor to meet you, sir, I said, and I stuck out my hand even though I hadn’t dried it yet.

  * * *

  • • •

  When I came out of the bathroom, I saw our waitress and flagged her down.

  —Do you need something else? she asked.

  —Just the check, I replied. We’ve got places to go and people to see.

  At the phrase places to go, she looked a little wistful. I do believe if I had told her we were headed for New York and offered her a ride, she would have hopped into the back seat without taking the time to change out of her uniform—if for no other reason than to see what happens when you drive off the edge of the place mat.