As soon as the four o'clock shift had stopped admiring his wife's backside, Alexander was back in the caravan and heading for a shopping mall in Peabody.

Alexander took up a position outside a Jordan Marsh store, across from Baskin-Robbins, and shook some more hands. Fix Farrell and Abel Westin kept herding people over toward him, and Alexander shook hands and smiled, and Ronni stood beside him and smiled.

A short woman with her gray hair tightly permed asked Alexander what he planned to do about the "darks."

Alexander said, "I beg your pardon?"

She said, "The darks. What are you going to do about them? They're getting in everywhere and we're paying for it."

Alexander said, "I feel the government has no business in education."

The woman nodded triumphantly. A young woman in over-the-ankle moccasins and gold-rimmed glasses said, "You're opposed to public education. You wish to abolish it?"

Abel Westin slipped between Alexander and the young woman. He said, "That's too complex a question for a forum like this, ma'am."

"But he said the government had no business in public education."

Alexander smiled. "We're preparing a position paper on that, my dear. When it appears I think you'll be satisfied."

"Good question though," Westin said.

The young woman said, "Bullshit," and went over to Baskin-Robbins for an ice cream.

From the shopping center we went to a reception at the Colonial Hilton Inn in Lynnfield. Alexander met with the Christian Action Coalition in a function room where jug wine, cheese spread, and Wheat Thins were served from a small buffet table along one wall.

Alexander sipped a small glass of wine, nibbled a Wheat Thin, and smiled graciously at the adoration that eddied about him like steam in a soup kitchen. All the men in the room wore suits and ties, all the women wore dresses and heels. There was a liberal sprinkling of gold jewelry among the women and a fair number of expensive wristwatches among the men. As the candidate spoke with the people, there were no questions, only shared certainties.