The Terrible Fours

When Ishmael Reed wrote The Terrible Twos about the American infantile need for instant gratification, he could not have realized that during the week of June 29, 2020, journalist Nicole Wallace would be referring to a president as a ‘toddler.’ Part science fiction, part Washington Novel and part Christmas Novel, The Terrible Fours follows The Terrible Twos (1982) and The Terrible Threes (1989). Some characters have been dropped and some of the principals are back. St. Nicholas is here, but his sidekick Black Peter, who appeared in The Terrible Twos, has been shelved to the Epilog. In The Terrible Threes, former president Dean Clift, who was removed from office after a bizarre television address, disappeared with his entourage while en route to resume his presidency after Supreme Court justice, Nola Payne, casts the vote that declared his removal from office under the 25th Amendment unconstitutional. Televangelist Clement-Jones still runs the White House and continues to humiliate his hand-picked president Jesse Hatch whom he is blackmailing. ‘The Rapture,’ that Jones and figurehead president Jesse Hatch promised, hasn’t arrived.