شانسی عجیب

Chapter 10 A Strange Sort of Luck

The next morning I woke up in my apartment in Mammoth Falls. Daisy was there making coffee in my kitchen. She kissed me and asked, “What happened in Florida yesterday?” “Picker is quitting,” I said. “Stanton is not.” “Stanton seems to have a strange sort of luck. So what are you going to do?”

“I’m quitting, then I’m going with you to Jamaica. Or wherever you want to go.”

She smiled. “Really?”

“Yes,” I said. “I love you, Daisy. I’ll go over and see the Governor now.”

♦

The Stantons were in their living room watching television when I arrived,

“Thanks for going to Florida with me last night,” Stanton said as I came in.

I sat down next to Susan on the sofa and said, “I’m quitting.”

“You can’t quit,” said Stanton. “Listen, Richard Jemmons is coming back. We’re going to . . .”

“Governor,” I said. “I’m quitting because you failed Libby’s test.

You were going to tell the press about Picker and his cocaine.” “Henry!” laughed Stanton. “We’re politicians! We’re not Boy Scouts .”

“Quiet!” said Susan. “There’s Picker.” We looked at Picker on TV. He looked serious and proud. He took a piece of paper from his pocket and said, “Today I am quitting my campaign to be President.” “Why?” someone shouted. “Why are you quitting?” “For the same reason that I quit politics in 1978. Now, I know I said that I quit in 1978 because I was having family problems, but that wasn’t the real reason. The real reason was that I had a problem with cocaine.”

There was a moment of silence before Picker continued.

“There’s one more thing I want to say. I want to thank Jack Stanton. He knew about my cocaine problem, but he didn’t tell the press. I’ve gotten to know Jack Stanton very well and I can say that he would make a good President. Thank you and goodbye.”

Jack turned off the television and looked at me. “You still want to quit, Henry?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Henry,” he said. “I’m going to be the next President of the United States. I’m going to the White House! Don’t you want to go with me?”

I stood up to leave.

“Come on, Henry,” said Stanton. “You can’t quit. This is silly!

You can’t quit!”