It Can't Happen Here

Jessup is taken to the Trianon concentration camp north of Fort Beulah. The Superintendent, Captain Cowlick, is not particularly cruel and too mild-mannered to stop the cruelties of the Minute Men guards. Cowlick allows Jessup to recover from his torture for a month in the hospital, where he is examined by Dr. Olmsted. Olmsted tells Jessup that his family is safe, and that their cell has ceased publishing new material, but still gathers and passes on information. Olmsted also uses his influence to get Jessup a desirable job on the cleaning detail.

Jessup winds up sharing a cell with Karl Pascal, who quickly becomes his best friend in prison. While Jessup sympathizes with the mostly working-class prisoners, he still does not believe in a dictatorship of the proletariat, nor the false prophets of the USSR. Jessup finds that equal to the physical torture is the torture of waiting, since he has no idea how long he will remain imprisoned, nor when Swan might order him shot.

In September 1938, Julian and Reverend Falck are brought into Trianon after Julian is caught passing information. As the first spy caught among the local Minute Men, Julian is treated incredibly harshly and kept in an open, barred, den so that passing guards can beat him and laugh at him whenever they wish.

Later in September, Jessup is told to confess everything he knows about Julian’s activities, but he refuses. Jessup and Reverend Falck are then brought together and told that each informed on each other, but each refuse to condemn their fellow man. Falck curses the guards and is beaten to death.

In October, Pollikop is thrown into Trianon on suspicion of helping refugees, and he and Pascal pick up their arguments just where they left off.

Dr. Adams, an African-American professor who lost his job to an unqualified white man loyal to Windrip’s regime, is speaking to a colony of former slaves in Vermont, preaching they take a realistic path that is neither acceptance of slavery nor revolution. Ledue, sent to censor the lecture and resentful of the man’s intelligence, arrests Adams after he claims that African-Americans are as intelligent as white men. Adams is placed in the cell with Jessup and Pascal–ostensibly as a punishment to them–but the three become fast friends. Adams is later moved to solitary confinement.

In November 1938, Shad Ledue–the person responsible arresting half of Trianon’s prisoners–arrives in the concentration after being arrested for graft. Immediately, the other prisoners begin plotting how to kill him; Jessup unsuccessfully begs them to show restraint. Though Ledue is kept separate from the general population, during an exercise hour, the prisoners create a distraction and someone throws a wad of waste soaked in gasoline into Ledue’s cell. The cell immediately ignites, and Ledue is burned alive.

After Ledue’s death, Cowlick is replaced as superintendent by Snake Tizra, who announces collective punishment until the person responsible for Ledue’s murder is found. The prisoners refuse to speak, and Tizra orders 10% of the prisoners killed at random; among the dead is Professor Loveland.

In December 1938, all visitors and letters are suddenly disallowed, and new arrivals are kept separate from the other prisoners. No one is sure if this is more collective punishment, or if something has happened in the outside world. 

With many of their members arrested, Mary Jessup has taken command of the Fort Beulah New Underground Cell. However, at this point, all they can do is assist refugees fleeing to Canada and forward on news to other cells. Furthermore, Mary has become even angrier at the regime and more fanatical in her resistance efforts. She now talks about carrying out assassinations and suggests, to Sissy’s horror, that she goes to live with Ledue. Mary becomes frustrated with the cautiousness of the other cell members, and at home she becomes angry with Emma, who complains more about the soldiers damaging her tables than she does about the regime arresting Jessup.

Eventually, Mary decides to kill Judge Swan, whom she blames for the death of her husband and the arrest of Jessup. She visits the concentration camps to say her goodbyes to Jessup and Titus, and then moves to Albany, where she enlists in the Corpo Women’s Flying Corps. Mary excels at her flying classes and begins practicing frequently with grenades. While staying at a Minute Men boarding house, Mary overhears soldiers discussing Swan’s frequent trips around the country by plane.

In November, Mary prepares to take her sixth solo flight, where she is due to take off from the same airfield where Swan is boarding his private plane. Mary steals three hand grenades from the armory, which she intends to use to destroy Swan’s plane from the air. Mary flies above Swan’s plane and drops her grenades, but misses with all three. Out of options, Mary opts to crash her plane into Swan’s, killing them both.

In late September of 1938, Julian is caught spying and sent to Trianon by Shad Ledue. Shortly thereafter, and following Mary’s suicide attack (which is treated as an accident by the regime), Philip comes to visit Emma and Sissy. Philip tells them that there is a strain of madness that affects part of the family, and warns Sissy to watch out. Philip tells them that with Jessup in jail, they should close up the old house and invites Emma, Sissy, and David to come stay with him at his modern house in Worcester. Emma decides to go with David, but Sissy refuses and decides to move to Beecher Falls with Lorinda after renting out the house.

With only Sissy and Mrs. Candy left in the home, Ledue decides to make his move and comes to visit one evening. Sissy now furiously hates Ledue but is afraid that he plans to rape her and worries that Julian or Jessup will be punished for her actions. Sissy allows Ledue to flirt with her, and he eventually reveals that he promises large Minute Men orders to shopkeepers in exchange for bribes, and keeps the records in his safe. Sissy is able to get Ledue to leave without sexual contact by promising him that she will be ready to be with him in a few days. After Ledue leaves, Sissy sees that Mrs. Candy was standing hidden guard with a large kitchen knife. The next day, Sissy reveals Ledue’s corruption to Tasbrough, and he is sent to Trianon and killed by other prisoners.

Sissy feels sick at sending someone to their death, but also realizes that she is capable of doing it again if need be. Sissy leaves Father Perefixe–who has spent the last two years saying he is about to move back to Canada–in charge of the New Underground cell, rents out the house, and moves to Beecher Falls.

Sissy is happy to find that Lorinda Pike treats her as an equal, rather than a child. The two discuss Mary’s death, and agree that it was a suicide attack, which the Corpo regime has claimed was an accident in order to deter future assassinations. Finally, Lorinda reveals that she has a plan to help Jessup escape Trianon and smuggle him to Canada by bribing a camp guard. A few days later, Sissy and Lorinda receive word from the New Underground that Sarason has deposed Windrip in a coup and seized power.