Alice was worried that her mom would say no to the trip since there was a strong possibility she would get arrested. Not that getting arrested for a political protest would have upset the old Maggie, Cambridge Maggie. On the contrary, Cambridge Maggie would have regarded it as a rite of passage, proof of political commitment. But Serenity Point Maggie appeared to have been built without a social conscience. Alice was thinking, however, that Richard might be a valuable ally if approached right. After all, he’d supported the idea of Charlie’s going to New York for the night, and that was just for some dumb party. And it sounded to Alice as if Camilla had been pretty heavy into community service, so he’d get it.

“Hey, Richard,” Alice said, turning in her seat to face him. When she saw she had his attention, she lowered her eyelashes like they were curtains then looked at him from up under them the way she’d seen Charlie do.

“Yes, Alice?”

“I was thinking about asking mom if I could go to Cambridge for a day or two this week.”

He smiled at her. “Oh yeah? What for? To visit friends?”

“Sort of.”

His smile got bigger. “Or to visit a boyfriend? Your mom told me about Patrick.”

Annoyed that her mom discussed her personal life with Richard, but trying to ignore the annoyance, she said, “Actually, I wanted to go for Occupy Boston.”

All of a sudden, Richard’s expression clouded. “And why would you want to get involved with a loser cause like that?”

Shocked, Alice said, “You think fighting against corporate greed and corruption and for social and economic equality is a loser cause?”

“I don’t think it. I know it. It’s sour grapes. Hippie, commie sour grapes.”

“I think that you might be simplifying things a little bit and—”

Richard rolled right over her: “No, I’m not simplifying. It is simple. It’s the ones who can’t hack it railing against the ones who can. It’s the weak trying to bring down the strong. You know what it takes to earn a good living in this world?”

Alice folded her arms tightly against her abdomen. “Why don’t you tell me?”

“Brains, talent, and will.”

“If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people He gave it to.”

Richard snorted out a laugh. “Clever.”

“I’ll tell Dorothy Parker you said so.”

“And what’s that slogan of those Occupy Wall Streeters?” Richard made his voice puffed up and blowhard-y: “We are the 99 percent?” Back to his normal voice: “Well, I can talk percentages, too. Who pays 38 percent of federal income taxes? That 1 percent they hate so much. This country would go under without us. We are this country.”