Standing in the Rainbow - Fannie Flagg [141]
Vita said, “Earl, I think you may be wrong about Hamm. He might be stubborn but he’s not stupid. I think he understands he can’t fight you and the senate at the same time. Call off the dogs and quit blocking every move he makes and I’ll give you my word he’ll push a few things through you want.”
He chewed on his cigar for a moment and blinked his eyes a few times, wondering what she meant. “Aw now, Vita, how can you be sure what that little maverick son of a bitch will do? He’s never done anything we wanted him to yet.”
She answered him with a smile that said everything.
He looked at her and said, “You don’t mean it.”
“Oh yes,” she said. “You better believe I do.”
Then, after a moment, he started to laugh from the bottom of his big gut until it came out and filled the room and shook the table where they were sitting. When he’d calmed down long enough to speak, he wiped his eyes with his pocket handkerchief with the E.F. embroidered on it and said, “Hell, Vita, let me see what I can do.”
Suddenly Hamm’s $150 million road-improvement bond, stalemated for almost three years, passed both houses, and Earl got a few little things he wanted. But not many; Vita made sure of that. As she wisely told Hamm, “Darling, there are some people in this world that are either at your throat or at your feet. Best to keep him at your feet.”
Hamm Moves Up
AT FIRST Hamm had not wanted to meet many of Vita’s friends or go to parties for the arts. He had resisted but Vita knew it would be good for him personally and politically.
“Look, Vita,” he said, “I just wouldn’t feel right around them.”
“Why not? My friends are very nice. They give a lot of money. Why wouldn’t you go?”
“Because I don’t want to be around people always looking down their noses at me, thinking I’m dumb.”
“Hamm, you are the governor of the state. Nobody is going to think you are dumb.”
“It doesn’t matter what I’m the governor of, I know what they think. I used to see that same bunch when I was in college, driving around campus in their fancy cars, joining their fancy fraternities. The only way I got in the doors of a fraternity house was as a waiter. I hated every one of those pompous, egg-sucking bastards. I wanted an education and a degree as bad as the next man, only I didn’t have a rich daddy to pay my bills and I had to drop out. I never got a degree in anything except how to sell tractors. How could I talk to that crowd you run with?”
“Is that what’s bothering you? You know just because someone has a degree does not make them smarter or more interesting. Hamm, look where you are, how smart you are about knowing what people want. Most of those boys you knew in college would change places with you in a second.”
“Do you think so?”
“Hamm, you don’t need a degree to prove how smart you are.”
He admitted something to her. “It’s not just the degree, Vita. It’s everything else. Those rich kids learned how to socialize with each other, how to act at parties. They had four years to do nothing but make friends and find out who they were. I envy them that; I’ve been working since I was thirteen years old. We never had any social life. . . . Oh hell, Vita, the truth is I’m scared. I’ll say the wrong thing or use the wrong fork. I feel more comfortable being around Rodney and them. I know they’re not gonna laugh at me. They don’t know any better themselves.”
She shook her head. “Honey, you are the hardest person to kick upstairs I ever met. But I am determined to do it.”
Hamm continued to resist but Vita was persistent. He said he’d make a rare appearance now and then.
A month later Vita was at her apartment waiting for him. He came in looking very pleased. He sat down and loosened his tie and put his feet up on her coffee table. “Well, how did I do?”
“You were wonderful and everybody there adored you. People came up to me all night and told me how charming they thought the governor was and how handsome