The Lincoln Letter by William Martin

Author:William Martin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Suspense, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9780765361639
Publisher: Forge
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

NINE

Saturday Night

No American city was more beautiful than Washington, D.C., at night. Los Angeles appeared to float on a sea of luminescence. New York pierced the sky with eighty-story spears of light. But Washington’s white monuments seemed at once more monumental and more accessible at night, like beacons in the darkness.

So Peter had the limo driver take them by the Lincoln Memorial, just for a look at the temple of America’s most cherished myth: in a democracy, a boy born into backwoods poverty could rise to the pinnacle of national power. But while the hero immortalized in that temple did not seem to suffer from what the Greeks called hubris—pride before an implacable fate—he had paid the ultimate price for his striving.

The limo didn’t stop. It was enough to admire the memorial from a distance. Then they swung around the Mall and pulled up at the south entrance to the National Museum of American History.

Peter and Evangeline showed picture IDs, passed through the metal detectors—even at big Washington parties, there were metal detectors—and heard music.

Peter recognized the Ninety-seventh Regimental String Band, three guys in Civil War uniforms who played bass, mandolin, guitar, banjo, fiddle and sang familiar tunes like “Kingdom Coming” and “The Bonnie Blue Flag,” along with obscure artifacts of a forgotten time, like “Just Before the Battle, Mother” and “He’s Coming to Us Dead.” They were the soundtrack for an era and for the evening. And just then, they were singing the campaign song that gave the exhibit its title: “Lincoln and Liberty, Too.”

“Hurrah for the choice of the nation, our chieftain so brave and so true.”

Peter and Evangeline walked across the white stone floor and into the three-story glass-and-steel atrium. Rising in front of them was a wall with the impressionistic silver-spangled American flag. In the gallery beyond was the original Star-Spangled Banner.

The Ninety-seventh was performing on a raised platform: “We’ll go for the great reformation, for Lincoln and Liberty, too.”

Abraham Lincoln and his wife were greeting visitors, flanked by an honor guard of Union soldiers in crisp blue uniforms.

Showbiz at the Smithsonian.

While there were enough Lincoln impersonators in America that they had their own national convention, this guy was one of the best. Six-foot-four, gaunt, well bearded … he even had the raised nodule on his right cheek.

And the woman next to him was appropriately short and round faced.

Peter took a brochure from Mrs. Lincoln, who gestured to the huge atrium as if it were the family library in the White House. “Please avail yourselves of some refreshment, sir. The new exhibit is in the Albert Small Documents Gallery beyond the escalator.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” said Peter. “And you look marvelous tonight.”

She curtsied.

“But remember,” said Mr. Lincoln. “No food or drink in the exhibit rooms.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, sir,” said Peter. “And knowing that you don’t drink strong spirits yourself, I may abstain in your honor.”

Lincoln bowed. “Enjoy the night.”

As they walked away, Evangeline whispered, “Peter, they’re actors. Let them play the roles.”

“Look around you,” he said.

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