Read Online Taft 2012 by Jason Heller - Free Book Online

now, they … they don’t understand. They weren’t alive back then. It seems like such a different world in so many ways. How did you make it to the twenty-first century without going mad?”
    “Well, I suppose I did it the same way you made it from the nineteenth to the twentieth. It was gradual. You go along with things. And when you can’t, you let things flow on past you and try not to obstruct them.”
    “That’s a sensible way of looking at it.”
    “Sensibility may be the only good quality I have left.” She chuckled. “Half my eyesight is gone. My youngest son passed away over ten years ago. I still have my mind, though. And my memories.”
    “Tell me of them, please. What was the rest of the twentieth century like? What have I missed?”
    She seemed taken aback. “Haven’t your government people been telling you?”
    He sighed. “Even if they were my age, they should be a centurytoo young to offer the perspective I need.”
    “Well,” said Irene, “I’d be happy to tell you what I know. But it would take a while, and you have friends waiting.”
    “I know the perfect solution. Irene, would you like to have Thanksgiving dinner with me and my family? I could have a car sent tomorrow.”
    “Oh, I couldn’t impose. There’s also this small matter.” She lifted her arm, displaying a tangled trail of tubes that led from a machine next to her bed and into her body. “They’ve got me all trussed up here. But I tell you what: If you happen to have any leftovers you’d like to bring me, I’d be happy to take care of them for you.”
    He took her hand. “Of course. But only if you promise me that you’ll tell me more about yourself. I thirst for conversation with someone who remembers ragtime and Bob Bescher and the day the
Titanic
didn’t come home.”
    “Bob Bescher! Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in ages.”
    He laughed. “How are the Reds doing in this day and age, by the by?”
    “Oh, dear. You don’t want to know.”
    Taft looked away, lost abruptly in thought. “Baseball! I know, in the grand scheme of things, it’s a trivial pastime. But for some reason the notion that baseball is still an institution in this nation … it makes me think things haven’t changed all that much, despite everything I’ve learned to the contrary.” He put down her hand and picked up his hat and coat. “Did you know, Irene, that I’m the only president to have ever thrown the first pitch of the baseball season? In 1910, Senators versus Athletics. It was a big to-do! And my pitching arm isn’t half bad, if I do say so myself. Ah, what a grand day.”
    She smiled. “Pretty much every president since you has donethe same thing.” Then she saw the look on his face and patted his hand. “But you were the first.”
    The warmth of Irene’s room and words and presence carried him out the door and through the cold and back to the car where Rachel and Kowalczyk waited. His brain swirled with nebulous questions and memories he couldn’t capture long enough to name.
    Fox News Poll
    Do you think America is stronger today than it was
100 years ago?
    Yes: 28 percent
    No: 72 percent

    Channel 12 Cincinnati News Poll
    Do you approve of the job Rep. Rachel Taft (Ind.) is doing in Congress?
    (October 23)
    Yes: 41 percent
    No: 47 percent
    Undecided: 12 percent
    (November 23)
    Yes: 54 percent
    No: 43 percent
    Undecided: 3 percent

TEN
    T he Snow was falling at full speed—a great, fat, wet Cincinnati snow—by the time the car arrived at Rachel’s house. For some reason, this sudden onset of winter energized him. As Taft stomped his shoes on Rachel’s front step, he almost regretted having to enter the bright warmth that radiated from her open door.
    That same warmth, however, wasn’t coming from Rachel. She’d grown increasingly terse and withdrawn as the blocks melted away and the car drew closer to her home. Taft didn’t know why and didn’t dare ask. He was the last person to pass judgment on