Crimson & Clover

Robert Kennedy

We drove back to Beverly Hills where Betty's family was having one of their regular family dinners. This one was for Uncle Tex's birthday although I couldn't imagine this evening being a very festive one given the news about Robert Kennedy. Of all the days in the year I had to pick to ask Betty to marry me it had to be this one. I should have planned it out better, but she was so excited to tell them all the big news. I sort of got the feeling that her family had been pressuring her to find out where this relationship was going.

Betty quietly unlocked the front door. We decided to try to surprise everybody and break the news in a matter-of-fact way. I held Billy who was sleeping in my arms as we entered the house. There was nobody around. We checked both dining rooms, again nobody. We heard the faint sound of the television coming from the den so we made our way, very quietly, down the long corridor. Everyone was there, Uncle Tex, Aunt Irma, her mom and dad, and few other cousins. Nobody said a word.

"I have some news," Betty told everyone.

"Not now," her father replied.

"But it's rather important," she explained.

"Your father said not now," her mother replied, annoyed by the interruption. "Is Adam with you? Tell him to have a seat." She motioned for me to sit next to her while never looking away from the television.

"What could possibly so important that..." Betty began to speak but I nudged her to be quiet. She hadn't heard the news.

"You don't want me to tell them?" Betty asked.

"Come with me for a moment." We left the den for the hallway. "In all the excitement of the day I forgot to tell you what happened." I looked up to the sky as if to say to God, I know I don't deserve your help but if there's anything you can do to keep Betty from getting angry at me I would be much obliged.

"Robert Kennedy has been shot."

"That's horrible," she replied as she glanced into the den, taking in the somber looks on everyone's faces.

"Is he going to be alright? Daddy really likes him."

"I don't know."

"Adam," she began as she raised her voice above the whisper she had been using, "when did you hear that he'd been shot? I was with you all day."

I now had two choices. I could lie and say that I heard the news before I picked her up and that I had meant to tell her but when I saw her she blew my mind away with her beauty, or I could tell her the truth. I should have lied.

"The snack bar was closed and someone told me it was because Robert Kennedy had been shot."

"So that's why the beach was empty." Betty's analytical mind went into overdrive. "Wait a minute, the only other person there was some blond bimbo in a bikini. She told you?"

"Coming to think of it...it probably was her."

Betty's face turned red as she clenched her teeth to keep from screaming at me in front of her family. Like everything else Betty did, this too was attractive.

"You haven't changed a bit, Adam. How could you do that to me, to my family? You know how they feel about Robert Kennedy. We must have been the only people in the entire state that wasn't home listening to the news, and then you asked me to marry you? How could you. Would you even have asked me if it wasn't for Billy? I don't think so. You hadn't even gone out to buy me a ring."

"Of course I would have asked you to marry me. I love you." It was obvious to me that God decided not to interfere on my behalf. Now I was praying that he wouldn't take her side.