Look to the Rainbow (7 page)

     “Evan, what’s going on?” Ross’s voice sounded anxious.

     “Skip had become fairly serious about a girl he was dating. Serious enough he was going to bring her to meet you. He went to pick her up for a date and found her dead. She’d committed suicide.”

     “Oh Skip,” Molly said softly.

     “For his grades to be that low, he had to have been doing pretty much nothing long before this happened. He doesn’t want to be in medical school Ross.”

     “So why couldn’t he just say that?”

     “He thinks you’ll be crushed. He has this idea you’ve always wanted him to follow in yours and James’ footsteps.”

     “Only if that’s what he wants to do. I don’t want you to take this wrong way Evan. but it hurts me that he’d tell you this and not me.”

     “I understand and I’m not offended, Ross.  All I can say is that for some reason he doesn’t think he can talk to you and maybe you can take this opportunity to change that. I do know he loves you and doesn’t want you to be disappointed in him.”

     “What is he planning to do,” Molly asked. “Did he mention that?”

     “John and Kel need some help with the campaign. Skip can take a leave of absence instead of just dropping out and if he doesn’t go back, he just doesn’t. That lets him be with family and away from Hopkins and he’ll be too busy to think about what’s happened and that’s what he needs right now.”

    “Is he with you right now?” Molly asked.

     “I imagine they’ve all gone to the debate. I’m heading there myself.  He probably needs a little time before he talks about this again. Call him after that.” They talked for several more minutes about how to handle the situation with Skip.

     “One of the reasons I’ve always loved you, Evan, is your compassion,” Molly said. “And you always extend that to our children as if they were your own.”

     “Yeah, well, they’re as close as I’m ever going to get to having kids,” Evan said “But if Sara decided she needs a tattoo or her belly button pierced or to marry some rock star in Vegas she’s on her own.”

     They all laughed and Ross said, “Seriously Evan, thanks.”

     “Anytime.”

     Tara watched the debate and wondered how anyone couldn’t see Kel as the front runner. He answered the questions easily and didn’t contradict himself the way the others seemed to do. Of all the candidates he was also the only one who didn’t attack his opponents. It did seem, however, that both the moderators and his opponents wanted to attack Kel.

     One harped on his architecture degree, another on his family’s wealth. The question of his single status was brought up when one of the moderators asked the question to all the candidates, “What role do you expect your wife to play as First Lady?”

     Evan slipped into the debate at that point and asked Tara, “How’s it going?”

     She whispered back “He’s obviously the first choice, but they are all doing their best to find something they can criticize him about. Honestly, they all know his wife passed away. Why would they ask a question like that?”

     Kel’s answer was “I’m sorry, but I really can’t enlighten you on that question.”

     Some people in the audience laughed, but it was obvious John wasn’t amused. The next question focused on how the candidates saw themselves as commander and chief of the armed forces.
One of the candidates, a well- known Southern governor, turned his answer into an attack on Kel.

     “Everyone knows I served my country in Vietnam and it is the proudest accomplishment of my life. I am glad that unlike. say, Senator O’Brien, I did not have daddy buy my way out of my military obligations.”

     When Kel was allowed to offer rebuttal, he spoke calmly but firmly. “I have no idea why Governor Armstrong would suggest that my father paid anyone to keep me out of the army. My father served as an officer in the army for the duration of World War II and at the time I would have been eligible for the draft he had passed away. It’s true I have never had any military service, but neither have most of us on the stage tonight.”

     Armstrong took another shot. “I think most people here would rather you just come out and say that you had connections in Washington that kept you from being sent to “Nam.”

     Kel’s expression indicated growing anger but he countered calmly, “Which connections, Governor?”

     “Did you get Senator Lansing to help you out? Take a little trip to Canada for  a while?”

     Kel responded. “I can’t tell you how offensive I find those allegations. Senator Lansing also served in World War II and lost a leg and would
never
have bought anyone’s way out of military service if they had been called up. Contrary to what you have said tonight, not everyone was asked to go to Vietnam and in any case I would have had a medical deferment.”

     “Uh, oh,” Evan said. John had leaned forward in his seat and Tara wondered what was coming next, on national television.

     “
Medical deferment,
” the governor said. “For what?  Flat feet? Some made up allergy?”

      Tara could sense that even the moderators were beginning to get uncomfortable with the way the question had turned into ugly accusations from the governor. The expressions on the faces of the audience showed their disapproval.

     “No,” Kel said.

     The governor pushed again. “Then what?”

     Kel closed his eyes for a second, as if in resignation that he was about to share on national television something he’d kept secret for many years. “Type I diabetes,” he said quietly.

     The room was completely silent and one of the moderators announced a commercial break. John sat in stunned disbelief at what had just happened. He turned to Evan. “I hope you’re prepared to answer a lot of questions. I’m going to have to call a press conference on this one.” He looked over at his nephew. “Or rather, Skip is going to.” They were talking in hushed tones as conversations had started up throughout the room.

     “I’ve never known why it has to be a big secret,” Skip said.

     “Maybe it shouldn’t have been, but now we have to deal with it. No one will hear anything else that’s said.”

     The debate resumed and the first question was directed at Kel. “Senator O’Brien, do you believe your medical condition affects your ability to effectively serve in office?”

     “No, I do not.” Kel said. “And I would appreciate returning to the real issues rather than my personal ones.”

     Tara was certain the coverage following would only be discussing one thing. She wanted the debate to end for Kel’s sake. And she very much wanted to talk to him.

     It finally came to an end and the candidates left the stage. Tara watched as Kel shook hands with all his opponents, even the Governor and shook hands with members of the audience who came up to greet him. He smiled at everyone and spoke to them all and finally made his way to the back of the room where they were waiting for him.

     He said to Tara, “Could I interest you in a walk?”

     John said, “Kel, we really need to talk about this.”          

     “You are already well advised as to my, what was it-medical condition. I’ll meet you in the suite in a little while. But feel free to discuss it all you want.” He turned back to Tara and said, “Well?”

     “I’d love to.”

     They walked in silence the few blocks back down to the inner harbor. She understood that he didn’t want to talk, but she also couldn’t help but think again how silence with him wasn’t awkward. He took her hand as they crossed the street and didn’t let it go as they continued walking. It was late and the harbor was almost deserted. Kel sat down on a bench facing the water and she sat beside him.

     After some time he said, “ Well, I think that went well. I have too much money, an irrelevant degree, no wife, no military experience and a chronic disease. Would you say that about summarizes it?”

     “I thought you made the rest of them look like uneducated, un-informed buffoons.” He still held her hand in his and she hoped he wouldn’t pull it away.

     He didn’t. “Here’s hoping everyone else was watching from your perspective. I’ve always been afraid the diabetes would hurt me politically. People tend to see illness as a weakness, even if the condition can be controlled.”

     “Do you have a lot of problems related to it? I’m afraid I know very little about diabetes.”

     “Sometimes. It has put me in the hospital a few times, and I’ve already told you about the coma. Usually the biggest problem I

have is an extreme change in my insulin levels, which you sometimes hear referred to as insulin shock.”

     “Like in
Steel Magnolias
?”

     He smiled. “Yes, just like that and I’m embarrassed to admit I
have
watched that with my daughter and nieces.”

     “Aren’t you the sensitive one?”

     He laughed and leaned closer to her. With his free hand he brushed back a lock of her hair and said, “Would you be very offended if I kissed you?”

     “I wouldn’t be offended at all.”

     She had never experienced a kiss that made her feel this way. She would have been happy to stay there and kiss him forever and he seemed in no hurry to stop either. When he did break away, he sat and looked at her for a moment without speaking and pulled her to her feet and they walked slowly back to the Marriott, still holding hands.

Chapter Seven

     Tara woke up as the sun was just beginning to rise and very quickly her thoughts went to the night before. She had kissed Kelly O’Brien in the moonlight and held his hand as they walked around downtown Baltimore. And she had enjoyed both very much. She rose and took a shower and fixed her makeup and ordered a room service breakfast.  After she had dressed and made herself a cup of hot tea, she called her parents since she hadn’t talked to them in a while and she had about forty-five minutes before meeting the others  to drive to a town meeting in nearby Annapolis.

     Her mother answered on the first ring. “Darling! How are you? Where are you?”

     Tara laughed at Julia’s early morning exuberance. “In Baltimore. We’re going over to Annapolis this morning.”

     “So, is he as handsome as his pictures make him out to be? He looks so much like his father, who was absolutely gorgeous. He looked like a movie star. Every girl in Newport wanted to date James

O’Brien.” Tara heard her father in the background.

     “Julia, really…”

     “He is very handsome,” Tara said. “They all are, Ross and Bobby too and all the children. And they are all so nice. They’ve all just welcomed me with open arms. And I just love Lily.”