O'hara's Choice - Leon Uris [68]
She came in gay and friendly as a balcony of Marine trumpeters heralded. She had hugs and smiles for everyone, particularly those ladies who had come from far away, but somehow she seemed untouchable.
By the time they reached the Kerr table, the statement was indelible. The President’s Own Band played a soft background. Horace did see his daughter flinch a few times when Marine guards passed by, ushering folks to their tables.
The glory of the moment would last to his grave, and no doubt beyond. But that was last night and today is today.
The moment he received the disastrous news, that old raven began to circle overhead. Why did his thoughts have to screech back to Upton now? The raven flew in although the window was closed, and it sat mocking on the mantel, staring at him.
* * *
The raven had first come that terrible moment two decades earlier, the day he realized his son was different. It was a situation Horace could not understand. When faced with such riddles, beyond human comprehension, he turned to the deep Presbyterian beginnings that his own father, Angus, had pounded into him. This personal connection to God was the only damned thing his family ever gave him. He damn well needed a visit with the Lord before Amanda woke up. He beseeched the Lord to bear in mind that he did not abuse this privilege of personal consultation but only used it in dire emergencies.
Horace Kerr had satisfied himself early in life that he was destined to be a great man and great men are challenged to show their strength by facing down disasters of biblical proportions. Horace told the bloody raven to stop staring. God had already tested him with Emily, and God knows that he had done his best. Then Upton!
It was in the days long ago when little boys were dressed in lace-trimmed velvet and wore curls until they were weaned from their mothers, nannies, and other females and required to step up into the man’s world. Fact is, Upton looked too natural in velvet, different from other lads. Playing and sleeping with dolls was supposedly normal, up to a certain point.
Horace watched Upton’s behavior grow more in that direction, day by day, year by year, until he had to say to himself, “God has given me a queer son!”
Did he rage? No! Horace made it his mission to try to put muscle on Upton, from self-defense lessons, to seamanship in a storm, to the finest military academy for boys, to pitching hot rivets in the shipyard. Rough-and-tumble, that’s the way!
From Upton’s sixteenth birthday onward, Horace subtly made highly desirable ladies available to his son and virtually placed a line of upper-rung doxies between Upton’s sheets. The results were indifferent.
The father would watch in despair as Emily tripped over the piano keys, accompanying Upton playing the violin, with his long hair passionately tossing and long delicate fingers fluttering over the strings and his long thin body swaying with the music.
God had tested him to his absolute limit with Upton. All of the years of toil, all of the planning and scheming and blocking and manipulating Horace had done at Dutchman’s Hook were going to be for naught. It would all be a Pyrrhic victory without a Kerr name to carry forward.
The sad part of it was that Upton showed clever skills in banking and negotiations, but he lacked the inner steel required to make powerful decisions or run a yard of hulking gorillas.
Whom could he speak to about Upton? No minister or bishop of his church, for certain. No physician would see Upton as other than an abomination.
Horace was determined to make an honorable compact. He took Upton on a hunting trip to a lodge the Kerrs kept in the western part of the state. Father and son, straight on. He told Upton he’d realized the boy’s behavior was deviant early on and prayed he’d outgrow it. A trick of God. However, all families had secrets and God alone knew how many secret queers had gained fame throughout history. Great men kept great secrets. Now was Upton’s chance.
Horace felt that he had come to a decision of Solomon-like wisdom. He learned that