American Time Bomb: Attica, Sam Melville, and a Son's Search for Answers by Joshua Melville

Author:Joshua Melville [Melville, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Criminals & Outlaws
ISBN: 9781641605472
Google: 9NIgEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2021-09-07T23:36:46.303520+00:00

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Jane and I meet for the first time in 1989. Author’s collection

“Jesus Christ, Josh, don’t you know when you’re being used?” Mom said, munching on a hamburger in her kitchen.

“What could Jane possibly want from me? If anything, I’m using her.”

“You’re joking, right? You think you’re smarter than her? You didn’t even finish art school. She wants to be your friend, probably so she can write another book, How I Befriended Sam Melville’s Son.”

“You know Jane agrees with you that Sam was a chauvinist,” I said, desperate to show her that she and Jane had common ground.

“I never said that.”

“You told me that he had very traditional expectations, that he wanted you to cook and clean and then entertain him at night. I have it on tape.”

Mom went into normalizing mode. “By today’s standards, a chauvinist, maybe. Today, if you scolded your wife for working late when you want her home making dinner, you’re a chauvinist. Back then it was OK to forbid your wife to work at all, and even that was not called chauvinism.”

I didn’t know what to believe from her anymore. Then she added, “I don’t want you to see her again.”

“Excuse me! I’m twenty-seven.”

“Well, I’m not going to stand for it. She’s a manipulator, and she’s going to hurt you, somehow. She’s just like all the radicals. They are all liars, and they see things the way that benefits them, not you and certainly not the truth.”

“You just can’t stand the fact that I’m developing my own realities about Sam, and my own sources, can you?”

“What did Jill think?” she asked, still chewing.

I could not recall a single time Mom was interested in what Jill thought about anything. I lied. “She liked her.”

“Well, if you see her again, don’t say I didn’t warn you, and don’t come to me when she fucks you over.”

“You know, Ma, for someone who thinks you have very little in common with the radicals, you sure sound just like some of them.”

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