drunk, making wild accusations that Tom has sold us out, that our fortune is gone, when all Tom has done is to shift our investments into nuclear power. We are going to be richer than ever, but poor Will is too far gone to see it, sucking on two wine bottles at once, whining about what Tom has done. Tom says we have to commit Will again and everyone agrees. When the ambulance comes, Becca starts to cry.
October 19, 1962
Tom calls to say Will has disappeared. He escaped from Bellevue in New York in a lab coat in the middle of the night and no one has seen him since. I’m terrified for him. He could be wandering the Bowery drinking Thunderbird and living out of trash cans for all we know. He could be anywhere. How can we help him if we can’t find him?
October 20, 1962
Still no sign of Will. I call Tom and tell him to do something and the SOB tells me the FBI is already out looking for him. Becca calls and starts to sob. I wish I knew what to do.
October 31, 1962
Now I’ve heard it all! Will re-appeared with a lawyer at Diana’s office this morning with a wild story about saving the world from a nuclear disaster. He claims he was out in the Midwest somewhere, out where they aim the Minuteman missiles at the Russians, and that he was able somehow to keep them from firing without authorization from the President. Of course, Will says Tom is behind the whole thing, that Tom’s master plan includes starting a nuclear war so that our nuclear investments will go way up in value. This time Will has gone too far!
November 1, 1962
Diana said Will wasn’t drinking, that he seemed sober as a judge, but that doesn’t make sense. If he’s not drinking, then why would he be making up crazy stories about saving the world? He’s crazy as a loon, Tom says.
November 2, 1962
Will has gone straight, but now he wants to go after Tom, to get Tom thrown in jail for trying to start a nuclear war. “It was all for the money,” Will tells me. I say we have more money than we know what to do with. “As far as Tom is concerned,” Will says, “there’s no such thing as too much money.”
November 11, 1962
I decide to humor Will. As long as he thinks Tom is behind some mass conspiracy to blow up the world he seems to have a reason for living. What harm can it be? It’s not like he’s going to get Tom. And Will seems happy. He says he made new friends while he was busy saving the world. I only wish it were true.
December 2, 1962
Becca and Rocco are going to be having their first child and there’s not a damn thing Tom, Atomic or not, can do about it.
December 22, 1962
Diana and Luigi have a Christmas party in the city and their baby might as well be the Christ child for all the attention he gets. Gino O’Kell Campobello is a magnificent creature, with apples for cheeks and beautiful black curls Diana says she will never cut. Becca is there with Rocco, taking pictures, flashing from room to room. Luigi won’t come near me , of course. He has announced his retirement from tennis, and he is drinking vodka from a shot glass. Even Will is here, sipping ginger ale, playing all night with the baby. Only Tom is nowhere to be seen.
January 10, 1963
Becca comes to the C onvent with her beautiful pictures. What a way she has of looking at the world, like she is seeing it all for the first time! And her way of looking lets you see it for the first time, too. She likes to take pictures of people down and out or just down on their luck, but she makes them look more alive than anyone in the world. No more quiz shows? I ask. “I know who dropped the bomb on Nagasaki,” Becca answers. “I know all the answers.”
March 10, 1963
Mother Superior has a proposition for me. She wants me to take over the Order within five years. But I’m not ready yet, I say. “I was younger than you when I began,” she says. But I’m a sinner, I tell her. “We are all sinners, child,” she says. “None more so