Undimmed by human tears . . .

“America the Beautiful”

Katherine Lee Bates (1911)

Save the people!

Save the children!

Save the country!

NOW!

“Save the Country”

Recorded by the Fifth Dimension (1970)

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

“And the girls . . . wow!” said Ron Morgan.

“What about them?”

“How’d they look?”

Ron was sitting on the edge of the swimming pool, his feet swishing in the heated water. It was a cool, clear, late summer night. Eight of his buddies were clustered around him on the astroturf of the back yard. The only lights were the pool’s underwater lamps, which threw strange shimmering shadows on the boys’ faces.

“New York City girls are something else,” Ron told them. “It’s hard to describe. They’re not prettier than the girls here at home, but . . .”

“But what?” Jimmy Glenn squeaked in his cracking voice. “Don’t hang us up!”

“Well . . .” Ron searched for the best words. “They sort of—well, for one thing, they dress differently. Sharp. Like they want to be seen. I guess that’s it. They know what it’s all about, and they like it!”

“Not like Sally-Ann.”

“That dimwit.”

Ron went on, “They want guys to notice them. They even stare right back at you when you look them over.”

One of the boys laughed. “Dude, I’m going to talk my dad into taking me to New York City before the summer’s over.”

“Your dad must be okay, Ron—taking you to the City.”

“Hey, he likes it too, you know,” Ron answered.

“Is the City really that great, Ron? I mean, for real?”

Ron smiled. He had an even-featured, good-looking face. Like all the boys around the pool, his teeth were straight, his eyes were clear, his lean teenaged body was strong and unblemished, thanks to a lifetime of carefully regulated diet, vitamins, exactly eight hours’ sleep each night, and the school’s physical fitness programs.

“It’s the only city they open up, isn’t it?” Ron answered with a question. “All the other cities have been closed down, haven’t they?”

“There’s still a couple cities open out West,” said Reggie Gilmore.

“They’re just little ones.”

“San Francisco’s not so little!”

“Yeah, but Mr. Armbruster in Social Consciousness class said the Government was going to close down San Francisco next year, too. They had an epidemic there this summer.”

“It’s a lot better out here in the Tracts,” one of the boys said. “We’re safer and healthier.”

“You get an A for social consciousness, Leroy!”

All the boys laughed, except Leroy, who knew that all believed the same way he did, even though they kidded him for admitting it openly.

“New York is wild,” Ron said, taking over the conversation again. “The streets are jammed with people. You can hardly walk. Stores everyplace. Not just shopping centers, but all over the place! You can buy anything from clothes to stereo TVs without walking more than a block.”

“But it’s real unsanitary, isn’t it?”