“It’s for the best,” Lucas said in a stern voice. “Viola’s close to a nervous breakdown. And you’re not thinking straight, Tom. If you were, you wouldn’t be putting your family at risk. The clinic, too, to be honest, with the way the goddamn Klan has been going at it these past couple of years.”

“The Klan?” Tom said dully.

“Let’s just leave it at that, all right? Viola will be working under Dr. Ross from now on. You’ll get Anna Mae.”

Tom swallowed hard, trying to find his voice.

“That’s all,” Dr. Lucas said. “Go home and see your kids. I saw Penn’s name in the newspaper yesterday, didn’t I?”

“Penn?”

“Your son, goddamn it! He hit a home run at Duncan Park. Go home!”

Somehow Tom rose from the chair and found his way down the hall to his office. He buzzed the receptionist and asked to see Viola, but the receptionist told him all the nurses had gone for the day. He was certain he’d heard a note of triumph in the woman’s voice. He waited until everyone had left the clinic, then called Viola’s house. She didn’t answer.

He found a stack of charts and began dictating, but between each record he dialed Viola’s house. She never answered. As the tension in him grew to an unbearable pitch, he swept the files onto the floor, then ran out to his car and drove to the colored side of town. Whenever he’d gone to Viola’s house before, he’d always been in her car, lying on the floor of her backseat. Now he drove right up to her frame house, his eyes scanning the carport, which was empty. He wanted to park out front and wait for her, but even unhinged as he was, he knew that would be crazy.

That night he lay clenching and unclenching his sweaty fists beside his sleeping wife. In the hour before dawn, he felt closer to madness than he ever had in his life—even in Korea. The seed of that madness was the knowledge not only that he had to give up Viola, but that one day—perhaps not long from now—she would be lying in the arms of another man. Nothing could mitigate the horror of this prospect, or assuage the anger he felt—not even the thought of his wife and children, happy and carefree in a bountiful future. For the price of their happiness was Viola.