The Prodigal Daughter (50 page)

The Present:
1968-1982 305

During tht same
period she made one exception and never missed the monthly meetings of the
Remagen Trust.

When site did eat,
it was endless Dutch-treat breakfasts and pot-luck dinners. At night before
falling into bed she would jot down niore facts and figures-picked up in that
day’s travels-into the dog-eared black briefing book that was never far from
her side. She fell asleep trying to remember names, countless names, of people
who would be insulted if she ever forgot the role they had played in her
campaign. Richard would return to New York on Sunday night every bit as tired
as Florentyna. Never once did he complain or bother his wife with any problems
facing the bank, or the Baron Group. She smiled up at him as they said goodbye
at yet another cold February airport: she noticed he was wearing a pair of the
blue leather gloves he had bought for his father in Bloomingdale’s over twenty
years befoje.

“I still have
one more pair to go through, Jessie, before I can start looking for another
woman.” he said, and left her smiling.

Each morning
Florentyna rose more determined to win a seat in the Senate.

If she was sad
about anything, it was how little she s
,(
w of William
and Annabel. William, now sporting a Fidel Castro mustache, looked set for a
summa cum laude, while Annabel brought a different young man home each
vacation.

From past
experience, Florentyna had learned to expect a thunderbolt to land sometime
during an election campaign, but she had not imagined that a meteorite would
accompany it. During the past year, Chicago had been shaken by a series of
brutal local murders committed by a man the press had dubbed the Chicago
Cutthroat. After the killer had slashed the throat of each of his victims, he
carved a heart on their foreheads to leave the police in no doubt who had
struck again. More and more in public gatherings Florentyna and Ralph Brooks
found that they were being tackled on the question of law and order. At night
the streets of Chicago were almost deserted because of the reputation of the
killer whom the police were unable to apprehend. To Florentyna’s relief, the
murderer was caught one night on the Northwestern University campus after he
had been taken by surprise while in the act of attacking a college girl.

Florentyna made
a statement the next morning in praise of the Chicago police force and wrote a
personal note to the officer who had made the arrest. She assumed that that
would be the end of the matter until she read the morning paper. Ralph Brooks
had announced that he was personally going to prosecute the case against the
Chicago Cutthroat even if it resulted in his sacrificing,the Senate seat. It
was a brilliant stroke that even Florentyna had to admire. Papers all across
the nation ran pictures of the handsome State’s Attorney next to that of the
vicious killer.

The trial began
five weeks before the primary, and Ralph Brooks was on the front page every day,
demanding the death penalty in this case and other cases of Murder I so that
the people of Chicago could once again walk the streets safely at night.
Florentyria made press statement after press statement on the energy crisis,
airport noise regulations, grain price supports, even Russian troop movements
on the Polish border after martial law was instituted, but she couldn’t knock
the State’s Attorney off the front page. At a maeting with the editorial board
of the Tribune, Florentyna complained good-naturedly to the editor, who was
apologetic but pointed out that Ralph Brooks was selling newspapers. Florentyna
sat in her Washington office, impotently aware that she had no effective way of
countering her opponent.

In the hope that
the clash might give her a chance to shine for a change, she challenged Ralph
Brooks to a public debate. But the S.A. informed the press that he could not
consider any such confrontation while so grave a public responsibility rested
on his shoulders. “If I lose mv chance to represent the good people of Illinois
because of thi~ decision, so be it,” he repeated again and again. Florentyna
watched another percentage point slip away.

On the day that
the Chicago Cutthroat was convicted, the polls showed that Florentyna’s lead
had fallen to 52-48. There were two weeks to go.

Florentyna was
planning to spend those last fourteen days stumping through the state when the
meteorite landed.

Richard phoned
the Tuesday after the trial had ended to tell her that Annabel’s roommate had
called to say Annabel had not returned to Radcliffe on Sunday night and she
hadn’t heard from her since. Florentyna flew to New York immediately. Richard
informed the police and hired a private detective to find his daughter and then
sent Florentyna back to Chicago after the police had assured her that they
handled 220,000 missing
persons
cases every year with
only one percent ending in any serious trouble, and most of those involved were
children under fifteen.

Richard was not
convinced by police statistics.

When Florentyna
got back to Chicago she walked around in a daze, phoning Richard every hour,
but he had no news for her. With a week to go, the polls showed Florentyna
leading only 51 to 49, and Edward tried to make her concentrate on the
campaign. But the words of Bob Buchanan kept coming back to her: “This place
can only be a-poor substitutefor your family,
“ and
she began to wonder if only... After a bad weekend during which Florentyna felt
she had lost more votes than she had gained, Richard called in excitement to
say that Annabel had been found and that she had been in New York the whole
time.

“Thank God,”
said Florentyna, tears of relief welling up in her eyes. “Is she all right?”

“She’s
fine,
and resting in Mount Sinai Hospital.”

“What happened?”
asked Florentyna anxiously.

“She had an
abortion.”

Florentyna flew
back to New York that morning to be with her daughter.

On the flight
she thought she recognized a party worker sitting a few rows back: there was
something about his smile. Once she had arrived at the hospital she discovered
that Annabel had not even realized she had been reported missing. Edward begged
Florentyna to return to Chicago because the media were continually asking where
she was. Although he had managed to keep Annabel’s private life out of the
newspapers, they were becoming highly suspicious of why Florentyna was in New
York rather than Illinois. For the first time, she ignored Edward’s advice.

Ralph Brooks was
quick to leap in and suggest that she had returned to New York because there
was a crisis at the Baron Group and that that had always been her first
priority. With Edward pulling and Annabel pushing, Florentyna returned to
Chicago on Monday night to find every paper in Illinois saying the election was
too close to call.

On Tuesday
morning Florentyna read the headline she most dreaded:

“Candidate’s
Daughter Has Abortion.” The article that followed revealed every
detail,
even down to the bed Annabel was in. “Keep your head
down and pray” was all Edward said as he dragged her through a nerve-racking
day.

Florentyna rose
at six o’clock on Election Day and Edward drove her to as many polling places
as she could reach in fourteen ~ours. At every stop, campaign workers waved
blueand-white “Kane for Senate” placards and handed out leaflets on Florentyna’s
positions on the major issues. At one stop a voter asked Florentyna for her
views on abortion. Florentyna looked at the woman indignantly and said, “I can
assure you that my views haven’t changed,” before realizing that the question
was totally innocent. Her workers were fireless in their efforts to get out
every Kane supporter, and Florentyna didn’t stop working until the polls
closed. She prayed that she had held on in the way Carter had against Ford in
1976. Richard flew in that night with news that Annabel had returned to
Radcliffe and was now feeling fine, When Florentyna returned to the Baron,
husband and wife sat alone in their suite. Three television sets were turned to
the networks as the returns came in from all over the state deciding if Brooks
or she would be chosen to oppose the Republican candidate in November. At
eleven o’clock, Florentyna had a 2 percent lead. At twelve o’clock Brooks was
one percent ahead. At two o’clock, Florentyna had edged back into the lead by
less than one percent. At three o’clock she fell asleep in Richard’s arms. He
did not wake her when he knew the outcome because he wanted her to sleep.

A little later
he nodded off himself and woke with a start to find her looking out the window,
her fist clenched. The television kept flashing up the result: Ralph Brooks
selected as Democratic candidate for the Senate by 7,118 votes, a margin of
less than half a percentage point. On the screen was a picture of Brooks waving
and smiling to his supporters.

Florentyna
turned around and stared at the screen once more. Her eyes did not rest on the
triumphant State’s Attorney but on a man standing directly behind him. Now she
knew where she had seen that smile before.

Florentyna’s
career in politics had come to a halt. She was now out oi Congress and would
have to wait another two years before she could even hope to re-enter public
life. After Annabel’s problems, she wondered if the time had come to return to
the Baron Group and a more private existence. Richard didn’t agree.

“I would be
sorry if you gave up after all the time you’ve put into it.”

“Perhaps that’s
the point. If I hadn’t become so involved with my own life and taken a little
more interest in Annabel, she might not be facing an identity crisis.”

The Present:
1968-1982 309

“An
identity crisis.
That’s the sort of garbage I’d expect to hear from one of her sociology
professors, not from you. I haven’t noticed William colLapsing under the strain
of an ‘identity crisis.’ Darting, Annabel has had an affair and was careless;
it’s as simple
its that
. If everyone who took a lover
was considered abnormal, there would only be a few of us strange ones left.
What she most needs at this moment is to be treated as an equal by you.”

Florentyna
dropped everything and took Annabel to Barbados. During long walks along the
beach, she learned of the affair her daughter had had with a man at Vassar.
Florentyna still couldn’t get used to the idea of men’s going to women’s
colleges. Annabel wouldn’t name the man and tried to explain that although she
still liked him, she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life with him. “Did
you marry the first man you went to bed with’?” she asked. Florentyna didn’t
reply immediately, and thcn told Annabel about Scott Roberts.

“What a creep,”
said Annabel after she had heard the story. “How lucky you were to rind Dad in
Bloomingdale’s.”

“No, Annabel. As
your father continually reminds me, he did the findine.”

Mother and
daughter grew closer together in those days than they had been for years.
Richard and William joined them in the second week of the holiday and they
spent fourteen days together getting plump and brown.

Richard was
delighted to find Annabel and Florentyna so relaxed in each other’s company,
and touched when his daughter started referring to William as “my big brother.”
Richard and Annabel re-ularlv beat William and Florentyna at golf in the
afternoons before spending long evenings chatting over dinner.

When the holiday
came to an end they were all sad to be returning home.

Florentyna
confessed that she did not feel like throwing herself back into the political
fray, until Annabel insisted that the last thing she wanted was a mother who
sat home and cooked.

It felt strange
to Florentyna that she would not be fighting a campaign herself that year.
During her battle with Brooks for the Senate, the Democrats had selected Hugh
Abbots, a capable young Chicago lawyer, to run for her seat in Congress. Some
memberi of the committee admitted that they would have held up the decision if
they thought Brooks had had the slightest chance of winning the party’s
nomination for the Senate.

Many voiers
asked Florentyna to run as an independent candidate, but she knew the party
would not approve, especially as they would be looking for another senatorial
representative in two years’ time: the other United States senator, David
Rodgers, had repeatedly made it clear that he would not be running for
ie-election in 1984.

Florentyna flew
into Chicago to speak on behalf of Hugh Abbots on soveral occasions and was
delighted when he won the seat, even though he captured it by only 3,223 votes.

Florentyna faced
the fact that she would now have to spend two years in the political
wilderness, and it didn’t ease the pain when she read the Chicago Tribune’s
headline the day after the election:

BROOKS ROMPS HOME IN SENATE RACE

W
ILLIAM FIRST
BROUGHT JOANNA CABOT HOME at Christmas. Florentyna knew instinctively that they
would be married, and not just ~ecause her father turned out to be a distant
relative of Richard’s. Joanna was dark-haired, slim and graceful and shyly
expressive of her obvious feelings for William.