Page 496 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

"I remember. Are you going to tell people that Communism collapsed because Reagan made a speech? They'll never believe that."

"Sure they will," said Cam.

*

The first person Rebecca saw was her father, a tall man with thinning fair hair, a neatly knotted tie visible in the V of his coat. He looked older. "Look!" she screamed at Walli. "It's Father!"

Walli's face broke into a wide grin. "So it is," he said. "I didn't think we'd find them in this multitude." He put his arm around Rebecca's shoulders and together they pushed through the crush. Helmut and Alice followed close behind.

Movement was frustratingly difficult. The crowd was thick, and everyone was dancing, jumping for joy, and embracing strangers.

Rebecca saw her mother next to her father, then Lili and Karolin. "They haven't seen us yet," she said to Walli. "Wave!"

There was no point in shouting. Everyone was shouting. Walli said: "This is the biggest street party in the world."

A woman with her hair in curlers cannoned into Rebecca, and she would have fallen but that Walli's arm supported her.

Then the two groups at last reached one another. Rebecca threw herself into her father's arms. She felt his lips on her forehead. The familiar kiss, the touch of his slightly bristly chin, the faint fragrance of his aftershave, filled her heart to bursting.

Walli hugged their mother. Then they swapped. Rebecca could not see for tears. They embraced Lili and Karolin. Karolin kissed Alice, saying: "I didn't think I'd see you again so soon. I didn't know if I'd see you again ever."

Rebecca looked at Walli as he greeted Karolin. He took both of her hands, and they smiled at one another. Walli said simply: "I'm so happy to see you again, Karolin. So happy."

"Me, too," she said.

They formed a ring, arms around each other, there in the middle of the street, in the middle of the night, in the middle of Europe. "Here we are," said Carla, looking around the circle at her family, smiling broadly, happy. "Together again, at last. After all that." She paused, then said it again. "After a

ll that."

EPILOGUE

November 4, 2008

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

They were a strange family group, Maria reflected, looking around the living room of Jacky Jakes's house at a few seconds before midnight.

There was Jacky herself, Maria's mother-in-law, eighty-nine years old and feistier than ever.

There was George, Maria's husband for the last twelve years, now white-haired at seventy-two. Maria had been a bride for the first time at the age of sixty, which would have embarrassed her if she had not been so happy.

There was George's ex-wife, Verena, undoubtedly the most beautiful sixty-nine-year-old woman in America. She was with her second husband, Lee Montgomery.

Then there was George's son with Verena: Jack, a lawyer, age twenty-eight, with his wife and their pretty five-year-old daughter, Marga.

They were watching TV. The broadcast was coming from a park in Chicago where two hundred forty thousand ecstatically happy people had gathered.

Onstage was an African American family: a handsome father, a beautiful mother, and two sweet little girls. It was election night, and Barack Obama had won.

Michelle Obama and the girls left the stage, and the president-elect went to the microphone and said: "Hello, Chicago."

Jacky, the matriarch of the Jakes family, said: "Hush, now, everybody. Listen up." She turned up the volume.

Obama wore a dark-gray suit and a burgundy tie. Behind him, rippling in a gentle breeze, were more American flags than Maria could count.

Speaking slowly, pausing after each phrase, Obama said: "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy--tonight is your answer."

Little Marga came up to Maria where she sat on the couch. "Granny Maria," she said.

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