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“Like whoever gave my plans to the terrorists. I don’t think it was Alton. But that still leaves us trying to figure out who it is.”
“What we need is the computer guy,” said Cecily.
“Who’s that?”
“In every mystery novel these days, it seems like the detective has some friend who can work miracles on the computer and find information nobody else can find. We need that guy. You call him up, tell him what you need to know, and in a little while he comes back with exactly the facts you need.”
“When you say it like that, it sounds like a wizard from one of Nick’s novels.”
“I was thinking it sounded more like God,” she said. “You pray, you get answers.”
“Yeah,” said Reuben. “You’re right. We need that guy.”
“Don’t have him, though, do we?”
“All you got is me, and all I got is you.”
“And Cole,” said Cecily. “And DeeNee. And Load and Mingo and Babe and Arty and . . .”
“And not one of them can grant a miracle.”
“But I know the President, and he promised we’ll have one.”
“That’s why I was so smart to marry you.”
Nothing was actually any better. But Cecily felt like it was better, sitting there on the glider with Reuben. When they were apart, she was perfectly competent and confident, but . . . there was something always at risk. Things could go wrong. When Reuben was there, she simply felt safer. He wouldn’t let things get hopelessly out of hand. He’d put it all in perspective for her. The problems would all be somehow outside the walls of the castle, and inside, as long as Reuben was there, she was safe. The children were safe.
“Retire right now,” said Cecily. “Come home and be with us always.”
“Think Aunt Margaret will let us stay here?”
“I can’t think why not. We’re excellent company, and thanks to J.P. she’s going to get a free carpet shampooing.”
“I don’t want to hear the story of that one,” said Reuben.
“I don’t want to tell it,” said Cecily. “But Nick is involved.”
“Has he taken to the dark side?”
“J.P. does whatever Nick suggests.”
“I wonder,” said Reuben. “Is that how J.P. got toilet trained so young?”
That had never occurred to Cecily before, but it was possible, wasn’t it? Nick says something and J.P. uses the toilet forever afterward. “So he can use his powers for good as well as evil.”
“We all can,” said Reuben. “It’s telling the difference that gets so hard.”
TEN
FAIR AND BALANCED
If you always behave rationally, then reason becomes the leash by which your enemy pulls you. Yet if you knowingly make irrational decisions, have you not betrayed your own ability? The battlefield is not a place for actors, playing the role of this or that style of commander, for you can always imitate a worse commander, but never a better one. You must be yourself, even if your enemy comes to know your weaknesses, for you cannot pretend to have personal abilities and traits that you do not have.
As a soldier, Cole had forced himself to learn to wait until an order was given. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his commander to make the right decision. It’s that he couldn’t stand to do nothing.
As a boy growing up, he couldn’t hold still, not even in church. It wasn’t ADHD—he didn’t fidget, and he could easily concentrate on the task at hand for hours and hours. It’s that he couldn’t stand not to accomplish something. Why shouldn’t he clip his fingernails during a sermon? That way he’d hear the sermon and accomplish a job that needed doing.
His mother listened to his argument and answered with her typical “Interesting thought.” But she heard him—she always heard him. That night at dinner she brought in a roll of toilet paper and, after taking her first bite, spooled off a section of toilet paper, lifted the back of her dress, and made as if to use the paper. Cole yelled at her to stop, to which she replied, “But this way I can chew my food and accomplish a job that needs doing.”
