Page 367 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

"I can tell you," said Jacky. "I can lip-read."

"I never knew that."

"When I was nine years old I went deaf. Took them a long time to figure out what was wrong. Eventually I had an operation that restored my hearing. But I never forgot how to lip-read."

"Okay, Mom, prove it. What did Mayor Daley say to Abe Ribicoff?"

"He said: 'Fuck you, you Jew son of a bitch,' that's what he said."

*

Walli and Beep were staying in the Chicago Hilton, on the fifteenth floor, where the McCarthy campaign had its headquarters. They were tired and dispirited when they went to their room at midnight on the last day of the convention, Thursday. They had lost: Hubert Humphrey, Johnson's vice president, had been chosen as the Democratic candidate. The presidential election would be fought between two men who supported the Vietnam War.

They did not even have any dope to smoke. They had given that up, temporarily, for fear of giving the press a chance to smear McCarthy. They watched TV for a while, then went to bed, too miserable to make love.

Beep said: "Shit, I'll be back in class in a couple of weeks. I don't know if I can face it."

"I guess I'll make a record," Walli said. "I've got some new songs."

Beep was dubious. "You think you can patch things up with Dave?"

"No

. I'd like to, but he won't. When he called me to tell me he had seen my folks in East Berlin, he was real cold, even though he was doing a nice thing."

"Oh, God, we really hurt him," Beep said sadly.

"Besides, he's doing fine on his own, with his TV show and everything."

"So how will you make an album?"

"I'll go to London. I know Lew will drum for me, and Buzz will play bass: they're both pissed at Dave for breaking up the group. I'll lay down the basic tracks with them, then record the vocals on my own, and spend some time adding overdubs, guitar licks, and vocal harmonies and maybe even strings and horns."

"Wow, you've really thought about this."

"I've had time. I haven't been inside a studio for half a year."

There was a bang and a crash and the room was flooded with light from the hall. Walli realized with incredulity and terror that someone had beaten the door in. He threw back the sheets and jumped out of bed, yelling: "What the fuck?"

The room lights came on and he saw two uniformed Chicago policemen entering through the wreckage of the door. He said: "What the hell is going on?"

By way of reply one of them hit him with a nightstick.

Walli managed to dodge, and instead of hitting his head the truncheon landed painfully on his shoulder. He yelled in agony and Beep screamed.

Grasping his injured shoulder, Walli backed toward the bed. The cop swung his stick again. Walli jumped back, falling on the bed, and the club hit his leg. He roared in pain.

Both cops lifted their clubs. Walli rolled over, covering Beep. One nightstick smashed into his back and the other his hip. Beep screamed: "Stop it, please, stop, we haven't done anything wrong, stop hitting him!"

Walli felt two more excruciating blows and thought he would pass out. Then suddenly it stopped, and two pairs of heavily booted footsteps sounded across the room and out.

Walli rolled off Beep. "Ah, fuck, it hurts," he said.

Beep knelt up, trying to see his injuries. "Why did they do it?" she said.

Walli heard, from outside the room, sounds of more doors being broken down and more screaming people being dragged from their beds and beaten. "The Chicago police can do anything they like," he said. "It's worse than East Berlin."

*

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