1956: A Kennedy Story

Chapter 69

March 29, 1956

Jackie fell to the floor, weeping. She put her head in her hands and clutched her hair, rocking back and forth.

She looked at the paper again and burst into a new batch of tears.

She ripped at the photo of Ted with her fingernails, bit it with her teeth and screamed and cried.

She collapsed into sobs again and hugged her knees, burying her head in them.

A few minutes later Jackie took a deep breath, shakily stood up, newspaper clutched in hand, and threw the Massachusetts Times in the trash.

She turned to face the door and was engulfed by a white flash. Temporarily blinded she backed away from the door.

When her vision came back she saw dozens of pressman outside the house photographing her.

More bright flashes took her vision and Jackie turned around and stumbled upstairs and into Bella's room.

She closed the curtains and locked the door, not looking at Bella who was looking at her in curiosity.

After doing these things she turned to her daughter and sighed.

Bella frowned and reached for her mother.

Jackie sighed and walked up to her, placing Bella on her lap.

Bella had her unicorn in her lap.

Bella put it in Jackie's vision and hurled it around, her sign of saying,"I wanna play with you."

Jackie just shook her head for the first time and muttered,"No."

Bella looked at her and did it again.

"No Bella." Jackie said, pushing the unicorn away from her face.

Bella did it again and Jackie shoved with a little too much force and shouted,"No!"

Bella stumbled out of her lap and onto the hard floor.