11/22/63: A Novel

“Maybe not,” she said, but she didn’t flinch when I sat down next to her on the bed, and made a little sighing noise of pleasure when I began to stroke her face with the cold cloth, detouring around the bad place, where all sensation except for a deep, dull pain was now gone. When I was done, she looked at me solemnly. “Tell me one thing that’s going to happen. I think if I’m going to believe you, you have to do that. Something like Adlai Stevenson and hell freezing over.”

“I can’t. I majored in English, not American History. I studied Maine history in high school-it was a requirement-but I know next to nothing about Texas. I don’t-” But I realized I did know one thing. I knew the last thing in the betting section of Al Templeton’s notebook, because I’d double-checked. In case you need a final cash transfusion, he’d written.

“Jake?”

“I know who’s going to win a prizefight at Madison Square Garden next month. His name is Tom Case, and he’s going to knock out Dick Tiger in the fifth round. If that doesn’t happen, I guess you’re free to call for the men in the white coats. But can you keep it just between us until then? A lot depends on it.”

“Yes. I can do that.”

11

I half-expected Deke or Miz Ellie to buttonhole me after the second night’s performance, looking grave and telling me they’d had a phone call from Sadie, saying that I’d lost my everloving mind. But that didn’t happen, and when I got back to Sadie’s, there was a note on the table reading Wake me if you want a midnight snack.

It wasn’t midnight-not quite-and she wasn’t asleep. The next forty minutes or so were very pleasant. Afterward, in the dark, she said: “I don’t have to decide anything right now, do I?”

“No.”

“And we don’t have to talk about this right now.”

“No.”

“Maybe after the fight. The one you told me about.”

“Maybe.”

“I believe you, Jake. I don’t know if that makes me crazy or not, but I do. And I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Her eyes gleamed in the dark-the one that was almond-shaped and beautiful, the one that drooped but still saw. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, and I don’t want you to hurt anybody unless you absolutely have to. And never by mistake. Never ever. Do you promise?”

“Yes.” That was easy. It was the reason Lee Oswald was still drawing breath.

“Will you be careful?”

“Yes. I’ll be very-”

She stopped my mouth with a kiss. “Because no matter where you came from, there’s no future for me without you. Now let’s go to sleep.”

12

I thought the conversation would resume in the morning. I had no idea what-meaning how much-I would tell her when it did, but in the end I had to tell her nothing, because she didn’t ask. Instead she asked me how much The Sadie Dunhill Charity Show had brought in. When I told her just over three thousand dollars, with the contents of the lobby donation box added to the gate, she threw back her head and let loose a beautiful full-throated laugh. Three grand wouldn’t cover all of her bills, but it was worth a million just to hear her laugh… and to not hear her say something like Why bother at all, when I can just get it taken care of in the future? Because I wasn’t entirely sure she really wanted to go even if she did believe, and because I wasn’t sure I wanted to take her.

I wanted to be with her, yes. For as close to forever as people get. But it might be better in ’63… and all the years God or providence gave us after ’63. We might be better. I could see her lost in 2011, eyeing every low-riding pair of pants and computer screen with awe and unease. I would never beat her or shout at her-no, not Sadie-but she might still become my Marina Prusakova, living in a strange place and exiled from her homeland forever.

13

There was one person in Jodie who might know how I could put Al’s final betting entry to use. That was Freddy Quinlan, the real estate agent. He ran a weekly nickel-in, quarter-to-stay poker game at his house, and I’d attended a few times. During several of these games he bragged about his betting prowess in two fields: pro football and the Texas State Basketball Tournament. He saw me in his office only because, he said, it was too damn hot to play golf.

“What are we talking about here, George? Medium-sized bet or the house and lot?”

“I’m thinking five hundred dollars.”

He whistled, then leaned back in his chair and laced his hands over a tidy little belly. It was only nine in the morning, but the air-conditioner was running full blast. Stacks of real estate brochures fluttered in its chilly exhaust. “That’s serious cabbage. Care to let me in on a good thing?”

Since he was doing me the favor-at least I hoped so-I told him. His eyebrows shot up so high they were in danger of meeting his receding hairline.

“Holy cow! Why don’t you just chuck your money down a sewer?”

“I’ve got a feeling, that’s all.”