Archie Comes Clean
Michael
Monday is usually Family Game Night at the Ransoms', but this week Archie and Melanie finish dinner and tell the kids to go ahead and watch some TV, play some games among themselves if they want. The grown-ups go out for a post-prandial stroll through the neighborhood.
Melanie takes Archie's arm as they set off away from their block and into their scenic and picturesque hilly neighborhood. "I remember when we first came here five years ago, Archibald," Melanie says with a melancholy sweetness in her voice. "I thought it looked like a picture book. And then we drove through the Haight." She chuckles.
She's been calling him Archibald a lot since Saturday.
Rob
Archie manages a bit of a smile. "I remember. Didn't Janey have a million questions? 'Why's that man sleeping on the sidewalk? What smells funny? Is that a boy or a girl?'" They walk some more. "I've been thinking about when we first moved up here, actually. Suddenly seems like a long time ago."
Michael
"That Jane, always asking questions." Melanie smiles ruefully then breathes deeply. "It's better to do this outside the house, I think." Melanie slows her pace a little, ushers Archie over to a bench facing the steps at Alta Plaza Park. They sit next to each other watching the late summer evening pedestrians walk by. "On Saturday at the market I wanted answers from you. Answers I've been needing for a long time. Pretty much since we moved here, in fact, now that you mention it. And I was... pretty hot about it." She turns to Archie. "That hasn't changed. But watching the tail end of the violence with that... horrible bunch of truckers made me realize something I think I'd been hiding from myself these past 25 years. Deep down, you're not... entirely the soft, loving, sweet, puppet-sewing man I've known since high school, are you? There's something made of steel inside you. Cold. Unforgiving. Collected, but closed off." Archie and Melanie never talk about Archie's experiences in the war, much like they haven't talked about Charlie at all since '65, but it seems like Melanie is combining all these traumas into one... theme, one single thread running through Archie's and their shared lives. "What have you closed off from me, my love?" Melanie looks pleadingly at Archie. "You can do it here. You can tell me. I can't promise I won't be upset, depending on what you have to say. But I will listen. Let that cold interior thaw for a moment. Trust me, and tell me the truth."
Rob
Archie sits, sighs. "I don't take any pleasure in keeping things from you, Mel. You're no fool, and I imagine you've put some of this together already." He looks off into the middle distance, watches people in the park. There's a long pause, long enough that it starts to seem like maybe he's not going to continue. Then he says, in a bit of a rush: "The work I do at Livermore: it's for the government. It's intelligence work. The foundation that funds us, it's not the CIA exactly, but it's in the same neighborhood."
"I mean, I'm not James Bond, ha ha, nothing like that. I'm still in advertising, really. But what we're advertising is — gosh, I don't know — freedom? The American way?" Warming to the subject, he switches into lecture mode a little. "You remember how Johnson said the battle in Vietnam was over 'hearts and minds'? Well, that's true here, in America. There are, ah, people who want to tear things down. Who want to pollute the culture. Trying to capture the hearts and minds of young people. Older folks too. Everyone. What we do, what I do, is to fight back. It really is just advertising, in a way." He runs out of steam, trails off a bit. "At least, that's how they sold it to me when I got started. But it's all classified, and everything's supposed to be so hush hush, and I'm not supposed to talk about any of it, even with you. I'm so sorry, honey. It's been killing me to keep you in the dark."
Michael
Melanie gulps, but she doesn't hesitate. Archie can tell there's probably a lot she wants to say in response to that, but instead she goes straight for the next part of the 1-2 punch combination, with no prelude. "What happened to us in England?"
Rob
Archie blanches. "I... ah..." Then, firmly: "That should never have happened. I guess they were doing some kind of weird science there. I honestly can't explain much of it. Extremely low frequency sound waves? Not dangerous, not harmful in the long run, but they can make you woozy, knock you out. That whole program has been shut down, for what it's worth. It wasn't authorized, and we still haven't gotten to the bottom of it. But that doesn't excuse anything. I'm so sorry that you and the kids got as close to it as you did. I should never have let that happen."
Michael
"See," Melanie says without even acknowledging the CIA/infrasonic weapon stuff, "the main thing here, Archibald, is that I need to know I didn't marry a monster. I didn't marry a monster, did I?" Fear and sadness has left her eyes; now there is nothing but a cold, steely gaze meeting Archie. "Which brings me to my next question."
"Do you know what I'm going to ask you?"
Rob
He looks her in the eyes. "You're going to ask me about Charley."
Michael
"That's right."
"The intelligence work I can believe. I'm no babe in the woods, and what happened at the science fiction convention, well, that was all in the newspaper, the 'microfilm.' Although I suppose cover stories like that are your job. Aren't they."
"What happened on our vacation... that, too, I can take in. The entire weekend is just... all sort of muddled in my head. But you weren't muddled. And neither was Charley."
"And Charley... such a sweet, innocent little girl. But she has seen terrible things, Archibald. I can tell. A mother can tell. Reading books about Voodoo at age 7. The way she... knows things. Her name. Her name! What kind of sick joke is that??"
"I know you blame yourself for... for not getting Charlie to the hospital that night, with the riots and all. I never blamed you, you know. You did... you did everything you could." A sheet of tears now pouring down her face. "What happened to our eldest boy, seeing him and you in the car speeding around the corner, knowing on some level he was never coming back, it's a... a moment in time I wish I could forever forget."
"Where did she come from, Archibald. Who made her like this. And why did she come to our house."
Rob
Archie blurts out, angrily: "Who's to blame if not me? If I hadn't said 'it's just a bee sting'? If I'd tried to get him to Cedars instead of L.A. County? Hell, if we'd just moved to goddamn Bel Air like everyone else in the agency?"
He catches himself swearing. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He stands up, paces a bit, sits down again. "I know you never blamed me, no matter how much right you might have had. But you remember how it was, after Charlie. How I was. Nothing made sense any more. I couldn't do my job. I couldn't sign off on one more detergent layout, one more jingle for soda pop. And the day that I told myself 'I can't do this any longer' — the very day — that was the day that they called me."
"Like they knew."
"But you're right: Charley — little Charley, girl Charley — is mixed up in this too. Her mother was some kind of agent. I guess she died, that's one more secret, one more thing they won't tell me. I want to get Charley free of all this, if I can." He sighs. "I'm in a pickle, sweetheart. There's no two ways about it. The work I'm doing isn't what I signed up for, or maybe it never was. The people I work for, I don't agree with all of what they're doing, and I don't think they're playing straight with me. But... I'm in far enough that I can't just walk out." He puts his hands on hers, if she lets him. "You didn't marry a monster, sweetheart. But I'm not sure that I'm still the fellow you married."
Michael
Diplomacy-18.
Rob
>>>> SUCCESS by 6
12
Michael
Melanie's coldness fades away, she seems much less like a cornered animal after all that, much more conciliatory. "I wanted to make sure. I could see it in your eyes just now. You are in over your head."
"All right. Before all this today, I had a whole range of suspicions. Was he stepping out on me? Doing something illegal? Doing something... doing something worse." She dabs at her eyes with a tissue and takes Archie's proffered hand. "I want to apologize for suspecting you of those things. That wasn't fair and wasn't right and it made me feel... oh, darling, it made me feel like I had nothing left to live for. But the fact is, the past few months I've felt a bit like Ingrid Bergman in that old film. Like someone was trying to drive me crazy. And I didn't want to admit that it was you doing it." She holds up her hand to forestall Archie saying anything. "I know. You did what you felt you needed to do to keep us safe, I understand. But I am your partner in this life... and in the next, Archibald." She actually looks up to the sky, to the Celestial Kingdom, and the tears well up again. "I still believe that, you know. We are sealed. For eternity. And that means I'll stand by you, no matter what happens with this job and these people you work for. I will not fear. I do not fear. I will be your strength, your helpmate, your best friend, your forever partner. But that means... that means you have to be straight with me!" Her voice cracks on "straight," out of exasperation, or fatigue. "From now on. I don't need every detail, I just need you to stop treating me like a client you're trying to sell."
Rob
Archie shakes his head in amazement. "Boy, did I ever I luck out when I found you." He holds both her hands in his. "It's a deal, partner. No snow jobs, no sales pitches: straight as a die, from here on out."
Michael
"Now when it comes to Charley... or us, 'just walking out.' Well, I'm capable. I'm smart. I have the Church. I have dozens of people, here and in Utah, if we need... if we need to consider what it would take to... start over somewhere else, you know we could do it. There's a whole network out there, back in Utah, we could use." Archie feels like Melanie is half-heartedly but sincerely offering this help, but the idea of giving up... all this... well, it's overwhelming her. Understandably. But she's from tough Mormon stock and she knows — from her family history — the world is crueler than maybe anyone expects. As if connected to her thoughts about running, she immediately follows this up with, "Would you come back to church this Sunday? Me, you, the kids? Like old times?"
Rob
Archie smiles. "I'd be happy to go to services, sweetheart. I can't promise my heart will be in it — see, this is me being straight with you — but if you want me to go with you, of course I will. And sure, let's take the kids. Charley will probably find it interesting." He sighs. "But it can't be this weekend. I'm sorry. I've got to take a trip for work. Probably leave Friday night, back midday Sunday. It's, well, it's more of this stuff I can't talk about. Nothing dangerous, just kind of a... fact-finding expedition."
Michael
"Oh well," Melanie says, "I tried. But I'm pretty pleased to hear you be that honest with me. To tell the truth, it's not so much that I think you need the Church again, dear," Melanie says as she stands up, "I think the Church could use you, too."
"I'm going to suggest we go for a little more of a walk now and then head back before it gets too dark. And that we make a date to talk about... contingency plans sometime soon. Maybe when you get back from the 'fact-finding mission.'"