Strivers Row by Kevin Baker

slaughtering Jews on—on an assembly line.”
    â€œYeah, I’ve heard the same things from Maury Rosenblatt, over at the Amalgamated,” Adam said, shaking his head. “They want to wipe out the whole race. Better God shouldn’t exist.”
    â€œWipe out the whole race,” Jonah repeated, wondering at the concept.
    He turned away, gazing out the bedroom window. It was almost pitch-black now, darker than it ever got in the City with the U-boat blackout here. The blackness merging into the blackness . The lights were going out all up and down Nantucket Sound, the only noise the faint ringing of the marker buoys, far out in the bay. As if to demonstrate how the world will end. He thought then that the island did not seem very special after all, that it offered no refuge. What place did, now?
    â€œWhy should it surprise you?” Adam said, not unkindly, standing and giving his shoulder a consoling squeeze. “They’ve been trying to do it to us for years. Whatever you want to believe, you just have to take what’s right in front of you, face that. Your father was always very good at that. He always served the people.”
    So that was it . The mention of his father confirming Jonah’s earlier suspicions, out on the porch. That was why they had been invited up to this marvelous place, to nail down his father’s endorsement for Adam’s next election. He doubted that Adam would need it, but in Harlem politics you could never be too careful. Jonah’s politico O’Kane “cousins,” in with Ed Flynn’s machine up in the Bronx, they’d have understood it right away. Nothing too direct, or unsubtle. Have Jonah and his wife up for a couple weeks, be sure to plant some nice words that would get back to his father—
    He knew that he ought to be angry, but he was too preoccupied. Instead, he chose to vent some more of his self-pity.
    â€œBut am I worthy of that?”
    â€œWell, of course you are! Worthy as anybody.”
    Adam’s big face looked puzzled.
    â€œHolding up a church in a world without God? In a world without hope, where we’re hated on all sides? How can I do that?”
    â€œYou can do it. Just like your father did,” Adam said in a comforting voice, putting his hand on his back and guiding him out of his son’s bedroom.
    â€œRemember, you want to be like the great man, then be the great man. What’s that, Socrates?”
    â€œAristotle.”
    â€œWell, one of those Greeks,” Adam laughed, guiding him back downstairs to the ladies. “You see, my education wasn’t completely wasted!”
    Back down in the living room, of course, he had had to act like a man in front of his wife, and Isabel and Hycie. Going through the motions, making small talk with the rest of them. That night in bed Amanda had clung to him, sensing there was something wrong, as she always did. Asking him if Adam had disturbed him. He had told her that everything was fine, not even sharing with her his revelation as to why they had been invited. They had made love with more passion than they had in some time, and afterward they had lain awake in the narrow, guest room bed, listening to the tinkling of the buoys out at sea while the delicate subject of a child, and all that entailed, lay silent between them.
    And early the next morning—when Wingee had driven them down to the ferry in his usual alarming fashion, whipping the steering wheel wildly back and forth with his one, incredibly strong arm—the sun had been shining, and Jonah had thought that perhaps he could do it. Putting behind him any remaining hurt over why Adam had invited him in the first place. Accepting his warm handshake and continuing pastoral concern as he left. No wonder he
    was so good . Isabel had produced a picnic basket for the train, packed to overflowing with exquisite little chicken and cucumber sandwiches, and fine pastries they had acquired