Kennedy's Secretary

Chapter 20

(Bobby and Ethel dancing in the early days of their marriage, circa 1950s ~Dani 💖)

𝚂𝚘𝚗𝚐: 𝙰 𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝙰𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚋𝚢 𝙻𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚎

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A week later

"Do you think the pearls match my dress? Or does the silver chain?" Mary asked me as I sat on her bed and she held up two beautiful necklaces of great value.

"The pearls make you look like you're in a Camel ad. I do believe the silver chain is best." I answered as I fiddled with my golden heart charm necklace I had gotten several Christmases before that adorned my green sweater and khaki dress pants ensemble.

"Oh, I do hope the Kennedy's like me! I've never been to such a huge society party before, at least beyond the ones at home. But those were such simple occasions compared to this." Mary prattled uneasily as she smoothed her forest green dress. I could tell she was nervous about Ethel not liking her. This was evident in many forms; from the way she had worked herself into a frenzy about her dress to the way she had teased and sprayed her hair with acrylic to death in hopes of some form of perfection, and now she was stressing over the jewelry in which to go with it. It was as if she were a woman possessed by the heed to be sociay admired, which in my opinion was a posession far beyond the audience of an ordinary exorcism.

To this,, I perversely said nothing. She had brought this disgrace upon herself by her own negligence to proper etiquette and her own passive-agressive actions. But in the good natured spirit I was in, I did not feel the need or want to be the one to start yet another argument today so I simply kept silent and looked away from her.

"I'm sure they will. They are very societal people, not Neanderthals." I quipped wittily to ease her tension.

"And of course this is coming from someone who knows them very extensively, I feel very honored to have your acquaintance to count for this invitation." My sister playfully jabbed at me.

"Oh come, Mary, let's not be foolish. It's a Lancaster duty to be presentable always regardless of social status or pedigree. MaMa taught us that as children, and we must follow it to the letter." I replied with cordiality.

"Indeed so. And I think it's important that you know how much of a good brother you are and how proud I am of you for being yourself and impressing the right people. Truly, I am beyond proud, but that is the best word I can muster out." Mary smiled as she came over to me, caressed my hands and then hugged me.

Do you really love me? Or was that just something you told me back home and I blindly believed you? I doubted her in my mind.

Mary's territorial behavior and seeming shallowness was starting to show through to me as I began to associate more and more with people outside of my immediate family, and I did not feel as close or as comfortable with her as I had before the move because of it.

The Kennedys however proved to be very gracious towards me even further. Ethel had paid a visit to the office after the events of me meeting Jack and getting touched on Bobby's desk, and she started showing even more affection to me. She asked how my day was, went into an in depth conversation about the new book she was reading called To Kill A Mockingbird, and overall gave me, the overworked doorkeeper to my revered master, the full and undivided attention I needed as she waited on her husband to come out of his inner chambers like a faithful medieval maiden. To this I could not resist the urge to love and admire her more and more as each day passed of whence I knew her.

Bobby and I were growing closer as well. We would always have coffee in the mornings and talk about the events of the day as we read our individual papers. He took Washington Post (obviously), I took New York Times. We both read Wall Street Journal as an intermediary, and would discuss everything from oil prices to overeasy eggs. It was a tradition we took care to always do, even if we weren't on the bright side of the bed.  I quickly found that there was never a topic we couldn't discuss together, and I dearly miss the energy that used to fill the room every day that I am without him.