Nelson says, “Billy Fosnacht says when we grow up we’re going to overthrow the System.”

Springer can’t hear, lost in his vision of executive madness and corruption. “He tried to turn it upside down for the benefit of the black and white trash, and when that didn’t work for eight years he finagled the little Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor so he had a war to bail him out of the Depression. That’s why you have these wars, believe it or not, to bail the Democrats out of their crazy economics. LBJ, now, as soon as he got his four-year guarantee, went into Vietnam where nobody wanted us, just to get the coloreds up into the economy. LBJ, he was an FDR man. Truman, the same thing in Korea. History bears me out, every time, call me an old fogey if you want to: what’s your angle on it, Nelson?”

“Last night on television,” the boy says, “we watched an old movie about fighting the Japs in the Pacific, this little boat sank, and the captain or whatever he was swam miles with a broken back dragging this other guy.”

“That was Kennedy,” Springer says. “Pure propaganda. They made that movie because Old Joe owned a lot of those studios. He sank his money into the movies when all the honest businessmen who’d put this country on the map were losing their shirts. He was in close league, the story I heard, with those Jewish Communists out there.”

Rabbit tells Nelson, “That’s where your Aunt Mim is now, out there with those Communists.”

“She’s beautiful,” Nelson tells his grandfather. “Have you ever seen my Aunt Mim?”

“Not as much as I’d have liked to, Nellie. She is a striking figure, however, I know you’re right there. You’re right to be proud of her. Harry, your silence disturbs me. Your silence disturbs me. Maybe I’m way off base—way off. Tell me what you think of the state of the nation. With these riots everywhere, and this poor Polish girl, she comes from up near Williamsport, abused and drowned when the future President takes his pleasure. Pregnant, wouldn’t surprise me. Nellie, you shouldn’t be hearing any of this.”

Harry stretches, cramped in the car, short of sleep. They are near the stadium, and a little colored boy is waving them into a lot. “I think,” he says, “about America, it’s still the only place.”