America 1982

When Tommy shows up again at Jeff's house to enjoy dinner with everyone the next day, it feels like the family is back on track.

Although the smiles of Jeff and Jessica were no longer as natural as before and became a little stiff, at least when Martin talked about the schedule for Coral Street in the South District the day after tomorrow, Jessica was very cooperative and did not behave like before. That, nagging, fussing over Marcus's advice on what to wear and so on.

After Tommy finished his dinner, he handed Jeff a stack of speech scripts: "Read it a few times. Although Jews are more practical than veterans, the necessary fluency is still required."

"Tommy...can...can I talk to you?" After Jeff took the stack of manuscript papers, he first glanced at Martin next to him, and then asked Tommy cautiously.

Tommy nodded: "Of course, no problem."

While Jeff was waiting to get a beer, Tommy handed a script and a room card to Gina, the most beautiful girl in Jeff's family: "Girl, memorize the script this time and act it well. Stephen is waiting for you to rehearse at the hotel. Don't be too busy drooling. I'm sorry to tell you that he can't touch you tonight. In order for him to focus on rehearsing with you, I arranged four sessions between lunch and dinner. Each of the Cuban girls fucked him twice, so even if you take off your clothes and dance in front of him, I guarantee that he will never be tempted and will only focus on rehearsing."

When Gina heard Tommy's words, she glared at him dissatisfied: "You said before that I had a chance to hook up with that rich guy..."

"That's right, but you have to focus on the work first. No one can ask for something in return without giving, right, girl?" Tommy patted Gina on the head and said with a smile, and then went to the backyard with Jeff. .

Jeff handed Tommy a beer, and the two of them walked to the tree house that Jeff helped the children build in the backyard. Leaning on the ladder, Jeff muttered to Tommy: "Tommy, I...I seem to have done something." Everything was ruined. Jessica had a big fight with me in the morning and asked me to withdraw from the election. Martin had no objection, but his company’s lawyer told me that many veterans were dissatisfied and wanted a refund from me. I knew all this was mine. It's a mistake, I shouldn't have the thought of backing down, but what Jessica said makes sense, I... I'm not at all qualified to be a congressman, I can only repair pipelines, if not... I mean if it weren't for you, there would be no Martin , even if I become a congressman, I don’t know what I will say in Congress. After all, since the election, all my manuscripts were written by you and Martin, and the clothes I wore were all picked by Marcus, so I didn’t make them myself. Over anything.”

The big white man looked at Tommy sincerely with confusion and fatigue on his face. In his opinion, Tommy was a smart man and a mysterious big man. Martin, Marcus, and everyone listened to Tommy. Martin also said that Tommy was his biggest financial sponsor, and if he really quit the election, he would owe Tommy 200,000.

He didn't want Tommy to support his withdrawal from the election and then forgive the two hundred thousand debt. He just thought that a smart person like Tommy could give him some correct advice when he was a little anxious at this time.

"Jeff, what do you think a corpse can do as a representative candidate? Will it be better than you?" Tommy touched the other party's bottle with his beer and said with a gentle smile: " I mean literally corpses.”

"How is that possible?" Jeff shook his head, obviously thinking Tommy was joking.

Even if I don't understand politics, I am still better than a corpse.

"In Paducah, Kentucky, during the House of Representatives election a year ago, the candidates there, just like you in Miami's 18th District, started campaigning excitedly and quickly. In two months, they finally elected a candidate. Congressman, guess what happened? The elected Congressman has been dead for half a month and died of a sudden heart attack. In other words, everyone has been crazy for so long and elected a corpse as a Congressman. It is even more exaggerated. Unfortunately, the family did not officially announce the death of the deceased until the voting registration was completed and the deceased was announced as the winner." Tommy's hands fumbled with the wooden ladder that Jeff made for the children, and he said:

"Is it bizarre?"

Jeff nodded: "Why? I mean...it's indeed bizarre, but when a person dies, why...why don't you tell everyone? Let everyone vote for someone else?"

“Because his death was made public after he was elected, his death was deemed by the U.S. Constitution to have created a vacancy within the House Democratic Party, and the Paducah Democratic Committee, where he served, could directly appoint another Democrat to fill his seat. To ensure that it will not fall into the hands of the opponent, what is more interesting is that the person who succeeded the deceased was a strong opponent in his party before, so he succeeded the deceased in that position. The deceased had made all the promises to the voters who supported him. So, that body was given all the honors that could be given to him by the Paducah Democratic Committee last year. Why? Because in the eyes of the Democratic Party, this body did a very good job as a candidate." Tommy crawled a few times. He climbed the ladder step by step, and then sat down on the ladder. From his angle, he could just see Gina's bedroom window:

"That's why I asked you, who do you think is better, you or that corpse?"

"I don't know..." Jeff thought for a moment, looked up at Tommy's butt and asked, "So, I should be like a corpse too?"

Tommy didn't speak. He saw Gina returning to the bedroom with the manuscript. The girl had a bold and unrestrained style. Not only did she change her clothes without closing the curtains or closing the windows, she even clearly saw Tommy sitting on the tree ladder and deliberately faced him. He changed his clothes. Unfortunately, he was obviously angry that Tommy allowed other women to drain Stephen, so he put his clothes back on purpose with half of his clothes exposed. Then he gave Tommy a middle finger and closed the curtains directly.

"What did you just say, Jeff?" Tommy finally recovered from the white visual effects, looked down at Jeff and asked.

"I mean, do I have to be like a corpse?" Jeff obviously didn't notice why Tommy was distracted just now, so he repeated his words obediently.

"If even a corpse can be elected, why can't you who love this country and love life? What happened in the morning frightened you and Jessica. I will criticize Martin for this, but politics is like this, politicians have to deal with The donors who paid the money are responsible, such as the veterans who paid to support you, such as me. If you want to leave now, what will happen to our losses? So when politicians withdraw from the election, they must either use their own money to return those donations, or your Democratic Party is willing If it is impossible to return your donation, then the last option is left, not only to withdraw from the election, but also to withdraw from the world." Tommy lowered his head, looked directly at Jeff, and said.

Jeff was frightened by Tommy's tone. He shuddered and looked back at Tommy at a loss.

Tommy grinned and patted Jeff's broad shoulder condescendingly with his hand: "I'm kidding, you are not a politician. Jeff, I knew it the day I met you. You went to Washington just to tell everyone. The earth is flat and the world was created by God. Now we have to reflect on the poor medical situation of veterans. After doing all this, you have to go back to your previous life. I think so too, so trust me , you will get what you want, and your life will return to the same as before. I never lie to a truly good person, and you are a truly good person."

"Thank you, Tommy, of course I believe you." Jeff breathed a sigh of relief, and then showed a smile: "Jessica said you must have a way, let me talk to you, and she said, as long as you don't accept Walk out of our house and not put the kids in foster care, and she promises she won’t get mad at me for running again.”

"That can't happen." Tommy said firmly, "As long as you do the right thing."

…

Coral Street in the South District has been a gathering place for Jews since 1915. By 1930, as the number of settled Jews increased, it even expanded to the adjacent Ocho Street. However, no legendary capitalists were born among the Jewish groups who settled here. , the vast majority are ordinary small businessmen from generation to generation.

Jeff, Jessica and their four children were standing in the park in the center of Coral Street in very formal clothes. Jeff was holding a large loudspeaker in his hand and read his speech to the pedestrians around him. Jessica and her children were holding Jeff's campaign flyers, ready to distribute them to people who stopped to learn more.

It’s just that it’s nine o’clock in the morning. Neither the tourists passing by nor the Jewish shopkeepers on this street are interested in knowing what Jeff is talking about. There are only two police officers assigned to maintain order at the rally. Not far away, they were yawning and discussing what to eat for lunch to fill their stomachs.

Martin sat in the business car he rented in the distance, stuck his head out of the car window, observed the movements of Jeff's family with a telescope, and said to the calm Tommy next to him: "Boss, are you sure? Don’t you need to call dozens of veterans to come over and help Jeff hold up the scene? That scene is shabby...like most niggas’ savings.”

Seeing that Tommy ignored him, Martin continued to observe Jeff with the telescope, and continued to babble: "And you asked me to invite BT's local contracted TV station to report, but you asked Page Go and contact the person in charge of the TV station. The reporter of the TV station and Page have not seen anyone yet. What can I say, Boss, white people are not reliable, only black people are the most reliable. You should trust Page less. He is too much. Yeah, I feel for you...What The F*ck!"

Martin saw an old white couple and a boy appearing in the park in the middle of the street. They were surrounded by seven or eight TV reporters. The most exaggerated thing was that the old woman was wearing a long black skirt that reached her knees and a hat on her head. A traditional Jewish headscarf, and the little boy next to him wore a small and exquisite Jewish hat.

The old woman walked up to Jeff who was reading his speech and cursed loudly: "Liar! Get out of here! You are a liar! You are all liars!"

Jeff looked at the three uninvited guests with a blank face, quickly put down the speaker, and said to them: "I'm sorry, madam, did you recognize the wrong person?"

Unexpectedly, the old woman directly picked up Jeff's speaker, turned around, turned on the switch, and shouted around: "Don't vote for the Democrats! Don't vote for anyone in the Democrats! They are murdering the Jews! Everyone! Pay attention! Someone is doing it Murder the Jews!”

Not only Jeff's family was frightened on the spot by the words shouted by the old woman, but two policemen who were trying to fish were also frightened by the old woman's words. They ran from the police car and rushed over to learn about the situation, while people on the surrounding streets Tourists and Jewish owners of nearby shops were also attracted by these words. When they saw clearly that it was an old man of the same race wearing a Jewish headscarf who shouted these words, they hurried over and quickly followed them. A circle formed nearby.

Several local shopkeepers wearing Jewish hats looked at the fierce-looking Jeff with unkind expressions, and carefully asked the old woman: "Madam, what happened? Did he hurt you?"

The reporters and cameras from the TV station recorded all this scene.

"You're unlikely to spend money on TV to publicize that Jeff killed Jews, Boss?" Martin threw away the binoculars in his hand, looked at Tommy with a face full of anger and a bit of surprise, and said loudly: "I can think of The only answer is that Page is actually a supporter of the Republican Party. He betrayed you. What are you waiting for? I can help you buy an electric shock device now, even if it is at my own expense."

Tommy opened the car door and got out of the car, and walked slowly towards the scene: "Jeff did not kill the Jews, and the Democratic Party did not kill the Jews, but someone in the Democratic Party killed the Jews, so it can be said that Jeff and the Democratic Party are all accomplices. , unless they prove their innocence."