Saturday, July 29, 1973.
Eddie comes back with the last of an ice cream cone — one of those thin flaky sugar cones — and looks at all the cops and news vans in a sort of nonplussed way. “What the … ” he says as he notices his dad, mom and sister standing amidst the smashed windshields and tossed union literature. Charley just sort of appears on Archie’s other side, seemingly out of nowhere as the five Ransoms make their way to the Monaco. As they do, yet another earnest-looking hippie type is handing out Xeroxed flyers amidst the parked customer cars. Jane still grabs one, even after all that chaos that just turned so violent; so does Eddie, mainly out of politeness. But Melanie loses her temper seeing her children accosted yet again by some … political type.
“I’ve had enough out of you … kooks in this … kook city! Leave my family alone, please! We don't care about your … ” she looks at the goldenrod flyer in her hands, “‘Warnings’ about … ‘mad scientists’! Go back to your hippie hovel, get a haircut, and GET A REAL JOB!” Melanie’s mouth is a line, her face bright red. “Let’s GO, Archibald.” Jane and Eddie have maybe seen their mother like this once or twice before in their lives; Charley, never. Eddie looks down at the flyer in his hands as he gets into the backseat in between Jane and Charley. He says to Charley, having learned enough over the past few months about her tendency to get carsick.
“Hey, Charley, don’t read this while the car is moving, okay?”
