Page 47 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

Jacky's face had darkened with embarrassment, but she spoke without hesitation. "Thank you," she said. "You have several--I was looking at them in this picture."

"Four sons and three daughters. They're all wonderful, and I

speak with complete objectivity."

They all laughed.

Bobby said: "It was a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Jakes. Come and see us anytime."

Though gracious, that was clearly a dismissal, and George and his mother left the room.

They walked along the corridor to the elevator. Jacky said: "That was embarrassing, but Bobby was kind."

"It was also planned," George said angrily. "Bobby's never early for anything. Dennis deliberately misled us. He wanted to make me look uppity."

His mother patted his arm. "If that's the worst thing that happens today, we'll be in good shape."

"I don't know." George recalled Verena's accusation, that his job was cosmetic. "Do you think my role here could be just to make Bobby look like he's listening to Negroes when he's not?"

Jacky considered. "Maybe."

"I might do more good working for Martin Luther King in Atlanta."

"I understand how you feel, but I think you should stay here."

"I knew you'd say that."

He saw her out of the building. "How is your apartment?" she said. "I have to see that next."

"It's great." George had rented the top floor of a high, narrow Victorian row house in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. "Come over on Sunday."

"So I can cook you dinner in your kitchen?"

"What a kind offer."

"Will I meet your girlfriend?"

"I'll invite Norine."

They kissed good-bye. Jacky would get a commuter train to her home in Prince George's County. Before she walked away she said: "Remember this. There are a thousand smart young men willing to work for Martin Luther King. But there's only one Negro sitting in the office next to Bobby Kennedy's."

She was right, he thought. She usually was.

When he returned to the office he said nothing to Dennis, but sat at his desk and wrote a summary for Bobby of a report on school integration.

At five o'clock Bobby and his aides jumped into limousines for the short ride to the White House, where Bobby was scheduled to meet with the president. This was the first time George had been taken along to a White House meeting, and he wondered whether that was a sign that he was becoming more trusted--or just that the meeting was less important.

They entered the West Wing and went to the Cabinet Room. It was a long room with four tall windows on one side. Twenty or so dark-blue leather chairs stood around a coffin-shaped table. World-shaking decisions were made in this room, George thought solemnly.

After fifteen minutes there was no sign of President Kennedy. Dennis said to George: "Go and make certain Dave Powers knows where we are, will you?" Powers was the president's personal assistant.

"Sure," said George. Seven years at Harvard and I'm a messenger boy, he thought.

Before the meeting with Bobby, the president had been due to drop in on a cocktail party for celebrity supporters. George made his way to the main house and followed the noise. Under the massive chandeliers in the East Room, a hundred people were into their second hour of drinking. George waved to Verena's parents, Percy Marquand and Babe Lee, who were talking to someone from the Democratic National Committee.

The president was not in the room.

George looked around and spotted a kitchen entrance. He had learned that the president often used staff doors and back corridors, to avoid constantly being buttonholed and delayed.

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