CHAPTER 97 - FAREWELLS AND WELCOMES ---- CAPÍTULO 97 - DESPEDIDAS Y BIENVENIDAS
On Friday the twenty-second, John arrived from Gibraltar at the usual hour. Andrew was already at home. The children were having supper in the kitchen with Rosario. Little Charlotte was asleep. The grown-ups sat down to supper without a great deal to talk about, save for the ordinary events of the day. After supper, the Hopkinses settled themselves in the drawing room in front of the television set, as had by now become their custom. They tuned in to the Gibraltar television station, then to the Spanish one. The news bulletin was just beginning. The announcer's voice was the familiar one, that grave and measured intonation, almost military in its bearing, trained to deliver the unimaginable without losing its composure — yet what it was saying admitted of no composure whatsoever. President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. Gravely wounded. The details were still confused. Nobody spoke until Charlotte suggested switching on the wireless to the BBC. 'That's where we shall find...
