i could kill c.i. today! not really. but c.i. recommended a book to me and i was reading it last night and ended up so spooked, it took forever to get to sleep.
the book is by joan mellen and it's entitled a farewell to justice.
it's about jim garrison and john f. kennedy. it's a pretty impressive book but i'd recommend you read it during the day, during broad day light.
it's packed with information from freedom of information requests and all sorts of historical documents.
i had the weirdest dreams all night.
in 1 of them, the only 1 i'll bore you with, i was in dealy plaza (did i spell that right?) in dallas, texas. and i was looking around, i was suddenly in 1963. no every 1 wasn't in black and white!
but fashions, hello! i know fashion styles.
so i'm rushing around and trying to figure out how i can stop it and generally looking like a crazy woman. 'it' being the assassination of jfk.
so i'm asking 'has the president arrived!' and finally, after every 1 looks at me like i'm crazy, and stares at my hair since it's not coated in several layers of hair spray, this guy tells me that the president comes to dallas 'tomorrow.' so i've got time.
i manage to get to him that evening - how? i have no idea, the whole dream was jump cuts with no transition - and being an attractive woman, i manage to meet jfk. immediately i start saying 'i am from the future' and showing my driver's lic. and everything else in my purse. he doesn't believe a word i'm saying.
then i say, 'you slept with marilyn monroe and some woman named judith who was sleeping with the mobster and you're getting shots for your back pain from dr. feel good' and just rattling off everything i've ever read that became public after he died, long after.
so finally he figures out that either i'm the biggest snoop in the world or maybe i'm from the future and he waives the secret service away. so 1st he wants to know what the future's like and i'm going 'excuse me, they're going to try to kill you tomorrow, this is a little more important!' but he wants to hear about the future. then after hearing about computers and civil rights and do we fly in cars (he's very sad that we don't), he finally lets me explain what's going to happen.
after that i tell him how things are today and if he needs to give a speech right now about the cia because he won't live to see through his plans to dismantle it. he's very curious about the bully boy and i tell him about how poppy bush appears at certain interesting times in his own history. he says 'we should have nailed that family for being in business with the nazis in wwii' and i agree but tell him about the texas book depository and lee harvey oswald and the other gunmen and he just wants to talk about jackie, john-john and caroline.
so i start with caroline and tell him she's classy like her mother, she writes books about the bill of rights and other important topics, has a family and appears to be sensible and smart. then i'm trying to get back to what's going to happen the next day and also trying to avoid the whole jackie and john-john issues but he wants to know.
so i tell him jackie dies of cancer. and that makes him sad and then he asks the question that you know he wanted to ask right away, does she ever remarry? what do you say that?
i mean do you say, 'uh, mister faithful, you were not'?
so i say she marries a man and every 1 says she did so to make sure the children are safe. i tell him the man is rich but nothing else because bay of pigs and all, who knows what he might order on ari!
then he asks about john-john. i tell him his son died shortly after jackie but while he was alive, he published a magazine and was considered 1 of the most handsome men on the planet. i leave out the whole needing a few attempts to pass the bar part of the story.
then he wants to know about teddy? i say 'joan becomes an alcoholic, okay? can we move on or do i have to do the full kitty kelley on every 1 you knew? don't even get me started on richard goodwin!' well what about bobby, what about his mother, what about his father, what about . . .
it seemed like he was concerned with everything in the world but what was happening tomorrow. so when i finally do the full entertainment tonight on all the kennedys (the only thing that shocks him is maria is married to a republican intent on undoing all that the kennedy family has supported), i'm thinking we can discuss the next day. but no, he wants to talk frank sinatra.
i tell him, 'he never forgives you for the snub and ends up a republican.'
then he wants to know about angie dickinson and i say 'wait just a minute, buster, i'm the 1 doing all the dishing. angie dickinson will never say whether she had an affair with you or not, so fork it over.' (he says she did.) so he says if what i'm saying is true, take him to future.
i tell him 'uh i'm not 1 of the magical 1s from charmed, i have no idea how i ended up here and am not even sure i can make it back so let's focus on right now' but he wants to see teddy and caroline. and he's so convinced that i can do this, that i end up thinking 'what the hell, i'll try.'
we end up at ted's. he's a very nice host, in the dream.
ted can't belive it and thinks it's some actor until jfk tells him something that happened when ted was 7 and it's never made it into any of the books so ted says 'my god!' then ted's on the phone because before we go back, jfk wants to see caroline.
ted tells her, 'get over here right away' and i say, 'uh excuse me, ted' and grab the phone. 'caroline, rebecca winters here. you don't know me, but "right away" means, take a second to brush your hair, put on some lipstick and wear something nice. you're going to see some 1 you haven't seen in a long time and you'll be upset with yourself if you rush right over. you'll want to be presentable.' because that's just the sort of thing ted would forget. i mean if a woman's going to meet her father that she hasn't seen in years, she's going to wonder what he's thinking about her and not want to show up with something with a food stain on it, or have her hair all over the place because she's had a long day.
so caroline shows up looking very tasteful and ted breaks the new to her about who she's about to talk to and i excuse myself because, hey, private family moment.
they have their meeting and you can tell it really means a lot to both of them but caroline handles it better because she's got her mother's good taste and tendency not to show when she's ruffled. then it's good-byes and back to the past for me and jfk.
so we get back and the morning of and jackie walks into the oval office, sees me, and gives us both a look. i'm like, 'hey lady, i'm a time traveler, not an intern. don't go all hillary on me because i'm not a lewinsky.' she, of course, has no idea what i'm talking about. but, thinking i'm nuts, she assumes i'm with the press and excuses herself.
so here's the deal, jfk goes to dallas. he gets in the convertible. i'm saying 'at least put the bubble on' and he says no. starts talking about the importance of history and how some things have to happen. he says that if his life means anything then it can inspire 'every 1 in your time to fight all the harder.'
i'm shaking my head (and think that pink outfit jackie's wearing looks a lot better in black & white photos then it does up close - and wondering if any 1 ever told her that texas was in the south and it will probably be hot even for november). but off they go.
then, remember jump cuts, i'm all the sudden at mlk's side. 'martin!' i scream and start my whole 'they're going to kill you.' he knows. he doesn't know when or how but he knows. so i start telling him when and how and he wants to know about his family. i know quite a bit about coretta scott king but that's really all. i tell him his children must have kept their noses clean because they don't make the tabloids. i talk about how coretta carries on the fight and that makes him happy and he says 'no 1 ever sees how strong coretta is.' i tell him all about the church committe and how he's been spied upon and plotted against by the government and that doesn't surprise him. he tells me a few things that have happened that he thinks the government's behind and i tell him that some of the stuff from the church committee is still classified.
he asks if we pull out of vietnam. i tell him 'yeah, in the 70s!' that makes him sad. to cheer him up, i offer to try to take him to his family and explain i jsut did the same thing for jfk. he surprise me. he says no. why not?
'i won't have the strength to travel down the road i need to if i see them knowing what's going to happen.'
oh brother.
yes, he's another 1 who doesn't want to muck with destiny and thinks that for his life and his work to mean anything he has to face what's coming.
i'm shaking my head and thinking 'how did i end up jodie foster in the movie somersby? and since when does every man have to be like richard gere ready to die for a principle?' when suddenly, i'm in california, in a hotel lobby and rfk is checking in. i look at him, he smiles at me and i think, 'another 1 destined to keep the date with danger' and wonder why so many die for the cause instead of cheating the odds.
me, i'd have cheated the odds.
so that's 1 of the many dreams i had after reading joan mellen's a farewell to justice. books. read it, it's worth reading, but read it in broad daylight.
you can also check out this speech by mellen "HOW THE FAILURE TO IDENTIFY, PROSECUTE AND CONVICT PRESIDENT KENNEDY’S ASSASSINS HAS LED TO TODAY’S CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY" (as with the book, i recommend broad daylight).
the church committee
joan mellen
jfk
a farewell to justice
mlk
rfk
the common ills
