LOVE FIELD

Chapter 1

Walking down the halls of the white house, you’d expect to see people everywhere. At eight o’clock at night, though, it’s not so busy. The children are in bed and President and Mrs. Kennedy are settled in their room. I am still on the phone, making calls, planning events and such. Tonight, however, is different. The phones aren’t ringing, and all I can hear is the shouts down the hall. These were louder than ever, and they were coming from the Kennedy’s bedroom.

“God, Jackie! I knew you’d be upset, but not this much!”

“Well of course I’m upset Jack! I can’t believe you didn’t tell me this sooner!”

I could only imagine what they were arguing about. Soon I heard the door slam, and someone coming down the hallway. I sprung out of my seat in the kitchen and stood up.

“Mrs. Kennedy.” I said as my sort of a greeting.

“Sit back down, Elizabeth. You don’t need to stand up every time you see me.” She whispered back. She seemed to glide to the fridge for a glass of milk. She always drank milk to calm herself.

“Would you like some milk?” She asked me.

“No, thank you.” I replied. She looked back at me and gave me a half-hearted smile as she put away the carton of milk and sat next to me at the counter.

“I suppose you want to know what happened.”

“Not unless you want to tell me.” It had shocked me that she even brought it up.

“I would, like to tell you.” She replied.

The next day was a hectic one. We made last minute arrangements to take a plane to Texas. We flew into Fort Worth, with plans to stay the night and fly to Dallas in the morning. We went to a very nice hotel that was expecting us. Mrs. Kennedy had left the kids with Jack’s father and mother, since she really didn’t trust her own parents. We walked into the ornate hotel, and got our room numbers. I helped the First Lady with some last minute calls and we retired to our rooms.

I heard a beeping noise, and, startled, I awoke. 6:00 was the readout on my clock radio. I sighed and stumbled out of bed. I took a quick shower, and put on the clothes I had set out the night before. It was a modern navy blue pantsuit, with a matching hand bag. I slipped into my matching navy blue heels; the same one’s that Mrs. Kennedy gave me last Christmas. I took a long look in the mirror. I tucked a strand of my red hair behind my ear, put on a touch of blush to fix my pale skin, and to compliment my green eyes, and walked out of my room. I knocked on the door of room 202, after showing the secret service my I.D.

“Mr. President, sir, its 7:00,” I heard him reply that he was up and they would join us in a few minutes.

I saw the door open ten minutes later. Mrs. Kennedy wore a beautiful strawberry pink suit and a matching pillbox hat. She looked stunning. We made it down for the continental breakfast. The First Lady met with a few people who happened to notice her presence. A secret service man watched the presidential couple closely. I really don’t know who wouldn’t notice her. She just seemed to light up a room. A three year old little girl with blonde curls came over to talk to Jackie, and Jackie lifted her onto her lap. I couldn’t help but smile. We soon finished breakfast and went back up to our rooms to retrieve our things. Our plane was meant to leave at 9:00. It was 7:45, and it was an hour drive to the airport. We were happy for the good timing. We loaded the car and took off. The Vice President, Mr. Lyndon Johnson, and his wife were to meet us in Dallas. I sat next to Mrs. Kennedy in the limo, and she sat next to her husband. We finally made it to the airport at 8:45, right on schedule. We boarded the small plane at 8:55 and took off at 9:05. We landed in Dallas 13 minutes later. People greeted the President and his wife happily.