Epilogue
4 November 2008
63
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 240,000 ecstatically happy people had gathered.
On stage 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-grey 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.
Maria lifted the child on to her lap and said: ‘Hush, now, baby, everyone wants to listen to the new President.’
Obama said: ‘It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals, or a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.’
‘Granny Maria,’ Marga whispered again. ‘Look at Grandad.’
Maria looked at her husband, George. He was watching the television, but his lined brown face was streaming with tears. He was wiping them away with a big white handkerchief, but as soon as he dried his eyes the tears came again.
Marga said: ‘Why is Grandad crying?’
Maria knew why. He was crying for Bobby, and Martin, and Jack. For four Sunday school girls. For Medgar Evers. For all the freedom fighters, dead and alive.
‘Why?’ Marga said again.
‘Honey,’ said Maria, ‘it’s a long story.’
Time’s glory is to calm contending kings, To unmask falsehood and bring truth to light, To stamp the seal of time in aged things, To wake the morn and sentinel the night, To wrong the wronger till he render right, To ruinate proud buildings with thy hours And smear with dust their glittering golden towers.
Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece
Acknowledgements
My principal history advisor for the Century trilogy has been Richard Overy. Other academic historians who helped with this volume were Clayborne Carson, Mary Fulbrook, Claire McCallum and Matthias Reiss.
Numerous people who lived through the events of the era also helped me, either by checking my first draft or giving me interviews, especially: Mimi Alford on the Kennedy White House; Peter Asher on being a pop star; Jay Coburn and Howard Stringer on Vietnam; Frank Gannon on the Nixon White House, along with his colleagues Jim Cavanaugh, Tod Hullin and Geoff Shephard; Congressman John Lewis on civil rights; and Angela Spizig and Annemarie Behnke on life in Germany. As always, Dan Starer of Research for Writers in New York City helped me find my advisors.
On my research trip to the American South my guides were: Barry McNealy in Birmingham, Alabama; Ron Flood in Atlanta, Georgia; and Ismail Naskai in Washington, DC. Ray Young at Fredericksburg Greyhound station kindly dug out photographs from the sixties.
My friends Johnny Clare and Chris Manners read the first draft and made many useful criticisms. Charlotte Quelch corrected numerous errors.
My family helped me in immeasurable ways. Dr Kim Turner advised me on many matters, especially medical. Jann Turner and Barbara Follett read the first draft and made perceptive and helpful comments.
Editors and agents who read the draft included Amy Berkower, Cherise Fisher, Leslie Gelbman, Phyllis Grann, Neil Nyren, Susan Opie, Jeremy Trevathan, and, as ever, Al Zuckerman.
About the Author
Ken Follett was twenty-seven when he wrote Eye of the Needle, an award-winning thriller that became an international bestseller. He then surprised everyone with The Pillars of the Earth, about the building of a cathedral in the Middle Ages, which continues to captivate millions of readers all over the world and its long-awaited sequel, World Without End, was a number one bestseller in the US, UK and Europe. Fall of Giants, the first bestselling book in the Century trilogy is followed by Winter of the World and this, Edge of Eternity.