Playing for Julia by Annie Carroll

breath.
    “ Oh babygirl, we better stop or we’re going to get arrested for public indecency.” Then he smiles and lets go of me. “I’ve got a long drive.  I’d better go now.”
    “Drive safely.”  I open the car door and get out, carrying the big pink straw handbag I used as an overnight bag.
    I stand and watch him drive away, still glowing from the experience of this weekend.

 
    Chapter Eleven
     
    In the cottage I find Ali in the kitchen doing her ironing. ‘Whole Lotta Love’ from Led Zeppelin’s new album is playing on the radio.  No sign of Drew anywhere.
    “Well, how was it?”
    “Wonderful.  Romantic.  Carmel is a beautiful place.  No wonder it’s been an artists’ colony for so long.”
    “You look happy.”
    “I am,” I answer, but that’s all I’m going to say so I quickly ask:  “Why aren’t you out with Drew?”
    “Drew is ancient history since Friday night.”
    “What happened?”
    Ali take s a deep breath and shakes her head.
    “ Julia, you will not believe this.  We were at a meeting where there was some man from back East. At first he talked about the marches across the country planned for October.  The idea is to mobilize the whole country—old people, students, office workers, factory workers—everyone. Show the government—the Pentagon—that the whole country is against the war.  Of course we all agreed. Then he went on to say that if the government won’t stop sending boys to Viet Nam the next step should be taking some kind of violent action. That it is the only way to get the establishment’s attention.  He didn’t say what violent action he had in mind specifically, but that was too much for me.” 
    “Oh my god,” I gasp , frowning.
    Ali shakes her head as if she still cannot believe it.
    “ Marching in a demonstration is one thing, but I don’t want any part of any violence. There is enough violence and death in Saigon and Da Nang; we don’t need it here.  And to make it worse, Drew was just eating it up.  Agreeing with him. I couldn’t believe it.  Well, that was the end of Drew. It seems as if the antiwar movement is his whole life—that and his job.”
    She shakes her head again , this time sadly.  “Now that I know him better I’m surprised that he stopped to talk with me that day in Union Square. He is so involved with the antiwar people. Drew didn’t seem to be like the others—so many of those guys in the movement are obviously power hungry—but …anyway it was ‘Goodbye’.  Forever.”
    “Did you ask him why he supported violent action?”
    “I did and he simply repeated what that other man said: it’s the only way to get the government’s attention and make them stop killing our boys. He was so intense about it.  Then he said Nixon’s so-called ‘secret plan’ to get out of the war is a hoax.  He is right, but the whole thing was too much for me.  Anyway, I’m still against the war but no violence, no more Drew.” Then she sighs:  “The war was almost all he ever talked about.”
    “That’s so odd.  Mr. Nice Guy Drew encouraging violence.”  I am puzzled by this. “Did you actually tell him Goodbye?
    “No t exactly, but I don’t want to see him again.  He is so deep into it and it scares me now.  I told him I had plans for the rest of the weekend and I’ll just tell him I’m busy when he calls again. ‘If’ he calls again. He may have figured it out from my reaction to it all. I don’t want any big scene.”
    Ali takes a big breath and sits up.  She still looks puzzled and a bit sad.  “I don’t understand Drew—the whole situation at all—but there are other fish in the sea, I guess.  No more lawyers, though. Ever.”
    I agree.
     
    * * *
     
    M onday morning at Voices I feel as if I have just returned from a long vacation somewhere else—some other life—instead of two days in Carmel.  Dan comes breezing in, smiling and cheerful.  He looks like he had a good weekend, too.
    About an