Not since 1979, when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin clasped hands with a beaming President Jimmy Carter at the White House, has a peace summit in Washington, D.C., been this eagerly anticipated:

After accepting President Barack Obama's invitation for beer at the White House to smooth over a racial imbroglio that dominated the news the previous week, Harvard University scholar Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley are on their best behavior as they're escorted to the White House bowling alley through separate entrances.

Nodding awkwardly to each other, they avoid eye contact while looking around the bowling alley. They both notice the C-SPAN cameras positioned strategically around the room. The cop shakes his head in astonishment.

"L'enfer, c'est les autres," the 58-year-old professor says with a chuckle.

James Crowley arches an eyebrow. "Pardon me?"

"The last lines from 'No Exit,' Jean-Paul Sartre's masterpiece of social anxiety," the professor says, pacing slowly. " 'Hell is other people.' "

"Oh, right," the cop says, snapping his finger. "I took a course on existentialist philosophy and literature once. That play is about three damned souls brought together in an oddly furnished room in hell, right?" Sgt. Crowley says. "None of them could admit why they were being punished for eternity. A bit didactic, if you ask me."

They make eye contact for the first time since the unpleasantness in Cambridge. "You are full of surprises, aren't you Sgt. Crowley?" Skip Gates says.

Suddenly, President Obama enters the room, accompanied by an aide carrying an icy bucket of beverages. He embraces his old friend. Turning quickly to Sgt. Crowley, Mr. Obama clasps his right hand, careful to make eye contact. The aide leaves.

"Thanks for coming, both of you," Mr. Obama says. "Before we get to some straight talk about race and class in America, I want to assure you both that the cameras aren't operational. It was my chief of staff's brilliant idea to televise our conversation live on cable, but I nixed it."

"Cameras don't bother me," Skip Gates says. "I'm on PBS all the time. CNN and BET, too. Never Fox, though."

The president reaches into the icy bucket. "I know you said you're a Blue Moon guy, James, but we have Pabst, Michelob and Genesee, too."

"Oh, no, I prefer the Belgian-style witbiers," Sgt. Crowley says.

"As for you, Skip, I remember that you really aren't much of a beer drinker," the president says, "so we have plenty of organic black currant iced tea." For himself, he pulls a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale from the bucket.

"I thought you were a 'Bud' man," Sgt. Crowley says.

"That's only for the cameras," Mr. Obama says with a wink.

The three men clink bottles and take their first swigs in silence.

"Wow," the cop says, breaking the ice. "Who would have thought when I was slapping the cuffs on Dr. Gates for 'tumultuous behavior' at his own house that I'd end up exchanging small talk with the president of the United States at the White House two weeks later?"

"About my arrest," Skip Gates says. "You know you were wrong to --"

"Skip!" Mr. Obama says interrupting him. "Now is not the time to rehash petty racial grievances. OK, straight talk is over. Time to move on to the hard work of racial reconciliation in America. I have an excursion planned for the three of us this afternoon."

"What a relief," Sgt. Crowley says. "I'm tired of being a symbol of white victimhood. Real Americans don't see color. I've always believed that."

"Where are you taking us, Mr. President?" Skip Gates asks.

"We're going to Gettysburg," Mr. Obama answers. "The blood that mingled in the ground on that sacred Civil War battlefield helped form a more perfect Union. We are its spiritual heirs. That's why we're obliged to hug it out and put our differences behind us."

"This is way better than the ending to 'Crash,' " Sgt. Crowley says. Skip Gates rolls his eyes. As they come together for a group hug, the professor mutters under his breath: "L'enfer c'est les autres, l'enfer c'est les autres..."