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eBook Category: Mainstream
eBook Description: Quentin Hadley had come to Washington with the whiz kids, Franklin Roosevelt's bright boys. And if you are privy enough to enter Washington's socially elite circles, you can still see Quentin and his wife, this fossilized political couple, reminiscing on the good old days of Harry, Ike, and John. Another in the series of Washingtonian short stories that captures these fleeting and truly insider D.C. moments.

eBook Publisher: Stonehouse Press, Published: 2001
Fictionwise Release Date: November 2001

8 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [39 KB], eReader (PDB) [21 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [6 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [7 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [39 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [77 KB], hiebook (KML) [26 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [32 KB], iSilo (PDB) [5 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [7 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [35 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [13 KB]
Words: 1821
Reading time: 5-7 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"Yet again," Quentin Hadley muttered, fiddling with the ends of his black bowtie, unable to make his gnarled arthritic fingers do what his mind bid them. "Idiot," he told his flap-jowled reflection. His eyes, cold blue and angry, rebuked his persistence.

"I told you to get a clip-on," Mabel Hadley remonstrated.

"Never," he said, jutting his jaw in her direction. "It's Neanderthal."

She made deft twists and curls and pulled the tie taut. Aging had mottled her skin, but her joints were still flexible. Nor did she worry out loud about the wrinkles which made her facial skin seem like fine old parchment. At 75, she had publicly announced her age at a cocktail party for 300 at the Sulgrave Club, giving her official grande dame status. Unofficially, Quentin knew, she had had it for at least a decade, but he had never let on.

Now he fussed about his own fossilization. He was 80. He'd come to Washington with the whiz kids, Franklin Roosevelt's bright boys.

"Can't even get the proper exercise anymore," he griped. It was one of his pet fulminations. "Used to get plenty going to the funerals of my friends. Now you just drag the old carcass around in this bib and tucker."

"Going out keeps us young," she told him firmly. There was no resisting her. More than a half-century of her manipulation had squelched his rebellious spirit. While others had left Washington for sunny and boring retirement, they had stayed on. Washington was still the center of the universe and Mabel knew how to keep them socially alive. Why leave for those endless "happy hours" watching glorious sunsets and waiting with docile resignation for the arrival of the grim reaper?