“No, no,” I added. “It’s your birthday. You can’t leave your guests.”
“My guests? They are family. They don’t even know or care where I am. My birthday is an excuse for them to have a get-together.”
“Don’t do it,” Phillis said. “You could get into some trouble.”
“I’m good at talking to people, right? Aki’s not going to get anything out of anyone, especially a stranger.”
Phillis pursed her lips in agreement. My co-workers had me pegged.
Nancy asked for the doctor’s name and I showed her my notebook. “I’ll check the phone book for his address.” Nancy mouthed his name silently as she went into the house.
Phillis and I stood in awkward silence on the balcony. I pretended that I was intensely interested in a bluebird resting on a branch of the ash tree.
“You know I can’t be any part of this,” Phillis said. She had a family supper to go to, but I knew that it was more than that. Being black, she was more vulnerable to scrutiny by authorities than Nancy and even me.
“I don’t expect you to. Rose was my sister. This has nothing to do with either one of you.” I sounded extraordinarily harsh and immediately regretted it. I realized that I hadn’t asked about her brother for a few weeks. “How’s Reggie doing, by the way?”
“The army is sending him to Hawaii for rehab. I wish that they would bring him home.”
I felt the weight of her worries. Each of us had our own problems and it was selfish for me to expect them to be roped into mine.
When Nancy returned to the balcony, her face flushed with the discovery of the doctor’s address, I tried to make my stance clear. “Listen, I can’t involve you in this.”
“This awful thing happened to you and your family. You don’t know a soul in Chicago. We can’t let you go through this alone. Right, Phillis?”
“We’re friends.” Phillis’s simple declaration moved me deeply.
“See, we’re friends. We have to look out for each other. Besides, truth be told, I’m bored stiff by this party. I need some excitement.”
Nancy’s unbridled enthusiasm lifted my spirits. My whole life I’d searched for true female friends, and it felt both glorious and odd to find them here.
Chapter 22
The office was in a ritzy area in the east Loop, across the street from the Marshall Field’s building, a few blocks from Lake Michigan, and not far from Grant Park and the candy factory. As Nancy and I rode the train, I started to get a knot in my stomach. It wasn’t right to involve Nancy. Why had I even mentioned anything to her on her birthday of all days? Nancy, however, was electrified by this mission. She stood straight as a rail as she held on to the pole in the train car, her camera in a bag that she wore across her body. I had sometimes dismissed Nancy because she felt compelled to chatter during gaps in conversation. I realized now it was more a nervous habit than a reflection of her character. She was a deeper person than I had made her out to be.
Since it was Sunday, the neighborhood wasn’t that crowded with commuters or office workers. As we neared the multi-story building, I started to have second thoughts. There was no way that an abortionist would open his door to us, not without a prior appointment. “Look, I’ve changed my mind,” I whispered to Nancy. “I’m sure they will just throw us out on our ears.”
“We’ve come this far,” Nancy argued. She had a stubborn streak and wanted to see this through. “Maybe we can talk to some of the patients.”
We stood under the balcony of one of the high-rises and observed as the occasional pedestrian passed on the sidewalk. After about thirty minutes, two hakujin women around our age slowly approached the doctor’s office. There was something unusual about the smaller women’s gait. She would take a few steps and then halt, fidgeting with the cardigan she wore over her shoulders. She seemed afraid. Before I could deter her, Nancy ran after them.
“Excuse me, excuse me,” she called out. They stopped and the one who had seemed fearful now looked terrified. The other woman spoke to Nancy and, based on the look on the woman’s face, she wasn’t pleased. The cardigan girl clutched her stomach and strode the other way, her companion following after her.
“What did you say to them?” I asked Nancy when she returned to our spot underneath the balcony.
“I told them that I was looking for Dr. McGrath’s office and wondered if they knew where it was.”
“Nancy, you scared that one girl half to death.”
“I know. I think that I have to find another way to approach them.”
On our side of the street a middle-aged woman approached with someone who looked like she could be her daughter. They both had honey blonde hair, broad cheeks and thin necks. Nancy started to walk alongside them and the women at first seemed startled and then confused. After pointing toward Marshall Field’s, they scurried away to the doctor’s office.
Dejected, Nancy returned to our lookout spot. “I tried to make small talk and asked where I could find a pharmacy. They really didn’t want to talk to me.”
We waited there a few more minutes. No one else came around. A man was sitting in a parked Chevrolet sedan across the street, but he seemed to be intent on his Sunday newspaper. “This is ridiculous. We aren’t going to get anywhere like this. I’m going to go into the office and have a look around.”
“No, don’t go in there, Nancy. I think this is a bad idea. It’s not like anyone there is going to admit anything.”
“It will take me a few minutes. I’ll be back in a flash.” She ran toward the office with her camera bag bouncing on her hip.
I was on pins and needles while I waited for Nancy. It was mid-fall and the weather was comfortable, at least. A strong breeze blew down State Street, flapping the American flags that were hung from poles attached to the sides of high-rise buildings.
I was gazing at the skyline when a bevy of police cars and a paddy wagon swept down the street and parked beside the office building where Dr. McGrath was located. Police officers, their belts tight around their jackets, spilled out onto the sidewalk and ran into the building. The man with the newspaper left the sedan and joined another plainclothes man on the street.
No, no, it can’t be. I couldn’t hide under the balcony, shaking in my shoes. I had to rescue Nancy from this chaos. The first step was the hardest. My stride became more brisk until I was only a few feet away from the door of the doctor’s office. A uniformed police officer impeded my advance. “No, miss, you can’t go in there.”
Other curious pedestrians had crowded around to see what was going on. “Stand back, stand back.” The officer held out his arms to signal for us to keep our distance.
A woman wearing a hospital gown and a shower cap appeared on the brick stairway; tears streaked down her face as a police officer led her to a squad car. She was followed by a parade of both men and women in the custody of uniformed officers. Two men in white gowns and caps were placed in separate squad cars, while the rest of the apprehended suspects were led into the paddy wagon. The last person in custody was Nancy.
As the officer on watch had temporarily diverted his attention from the crowd, I broke through the invisible line and ran to the paddy wagon. Already locked up inside, Nancy pressed her face against the wire mesh of the vehicle’s window. She wasn’t crying but her face was drawn and her eyes were as big as saucers.
This had been my fear all along, but I never could have imagined that Nancy would be in my place.
“I’ll get you out!” I called as the police convoy left State Street.
As I rode the train back to Clark and Division, it felt as though my heart would pound out of my dress. I ran to the LaSalle apartments and when I reached the second floor, I began slapping a door with my open palm.
The door opened, revealing Harriet with half of her hair in rollers. “What on earth—”
“I need to talk to Douglas.
My friend got arrested investigating the doctor’s office where Rose had her abortion.”
Harriet admonished me for speaking so loud and ushered me into her apartment.
Without a second thought, I sat on her bed. “It’s all my fault.” I spilled out what had happened.
“Who is your friend?”
“Nancy Kowalski. We work together at the Newberry.”
Harriet had a telephone in her apartment—probably because she needed to make calls related to WRA work. She lifted the black receiver and quickly dialed a number that she obviously knew by heart. She turned her head and spoke in a low voice so I couldn’t really hear what she was saying.
When she was finished, she placed the receiver back on its black base.
“What happens now?”
“We wait,” she said, and went back to her makeshift vanity to complete rolling up her hair.
Out of respect for her help, I stayed silent, but after a while I couldn’t take it anymore. “How can you be so calm? Don’t you care?”
Harriet glared back at me. “Don’t you know that we are putting out fires every day at the WRA office? Girls having babies out of wedlock; Japanese gambling halls getting raided. If I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off, I wouldn’t be able to do my job.”
I had no idea that I wasn’t the only one dealing with such problems.
“You need to take charge of your life, Aki. Make something out of yourself, for Rose’s sake.”
Harriet’s reprimand burned. Was I, in fact, hurting my sister’s legacy by being consumed by it?
A few minutes later, the phone rang, making me jump. Harriet angled her head so she could hear the speaker on the other end of the line. “Yes, yes, okay,” she said, and turned to me. “Douglas says that Nancy is at the East Chicago Avenue police station. It’s around the corner on Chicago Avenue. Do you need the address?”
“No, I know where it is.”
The police officer with the greasy white hair was manning the front desk again. I braced myself for another unwelcome reception.
“I want to speak to Sergeant Graves,” I said to him.
“He’s not available today.”
He wasn’t available? How strange. I knew that it was Sunday but you would think that it would be all hands on deck for this large-scale bust. At any rate, I would have to make my plea to this terrible specimen of a gatekeeper. “You have to release Nancy Kowalski. She had nothing to do with this. It’s a big misunderstanding.”
The officer checked over some paperwork fastened onto a clipboard. “She’s been charged with conspiracy to commit abortion.”
“That’s ridiculous. She’s not even pregnant.”
The officer was not in a mood to hear my arguments. “If you want her out, you’ll have to pay her bail.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred and fifty dollars.”
I nearly fell over. That was more than two months’ worth of my salary. I had no savings to speak of. There was only one person I knew who might be in a position to help. I ran out of the police station and flagged down a cab. I was determined that Nancy would not spend one night in jail.
Luckily I had written down Roy’s address in the notebook that I kept in my purse. In the light of day, his and Ike’s apartment was less impressive. I noticed that the paint outside was a bit dingy and the yard in front was unkempt. It took two knocks before Roy opened the door. He must have been taking a nap because his hair was in disarray and he was only wearing a sleeveless T-shirt and Bermuda shorts.
“I’m a bit desperate,” I told Roy.
“Come in, come in.” Roy rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and invited me in.
I didn’t bother to take a seat on his couch and remained standing on the Oriental rug. “I need some money,” I blurted out.
“What have you done, Aki?” He sounded more weary than concerned.
“I have a friend, a co-worker. She’s in trouble.” I gripped the handle of my purse so tightly that blood was rushing down to my knuckles.
“What kind of trouble?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“What is it with you and Rose?”
I took a step back, preparing to receive criticism from Roy. “I don’t know what you’re trying to say.”
“Rose asked me for money, too. A few days before she died.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I couldn’t believe that he was revealing this so many months after her death.
“To tell you the truth, I didn’t remember until now. She came to my place and she stood in my doorway like you just did.”
“Did you give her money?”
“I gave her some cash. At least what I had on hand. Maybe twenty dollars.”
“Did she say what it was for?”
Roy shook his head. “I hadn’t seen her for so long, I was grateful that she came to me.” Roy put on a plaid short-sleeved shirt that he had hung over the back of a chair. “I wish I could help you, Aki,” he said as he secured a few buttons. “I’ve enlisted.”
“What?” I sunk down into his couch.
“I’ve enlisted in the army. I’ve had to wire all my savings to my sister to help the family relocate out of camp. My father is finally out of Santa Fe.”
All the Nisei men around me seemed to be disappearing for the warfront.
“No, I understand.” I knew as much as anyone how expensive it was to start over in a brand new place where you had no connections. “But why did you sign up, Roy? You’ve heard about all the casualties. Especially the Nisei boys.”
“I’ve followed the rules all my life, Aki. You know. I’ve done everything that my parents have wanted. I can’t do that anymore.”
I remembered what Ike had said about the Italian girl Roy was dating. Roy didn’t mention her, so I didn’t dare to bring that up.
I pushed myself up from the couch. “Be sure to tell me when you’re leaving. I want to give you a good send-off. And my parents will want to, too.”
“I’d appreciate that.” He grabbed his wallet from the table, pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and handed it to me.
“No, no. Your family will need that.”
“You’re family, too,” he said. I wouldn’t fight him on that point and accepted the money.
We didn’t hug. It would be inappropriate to do that, with Roy and me alone in his apartment and him wearing only Bermuda shorts. We did lock eyes and I realized that for all Roy’s weaknesses—his temper and how he wore his heart on his sleeve—I did care for him like a brother. My restored affection for Roy, however, didn’t solve my problem—how to raise the rest of the bail money to release Nancy from jail. I supposed that I could sell the gun that was in the locker at the subway station, but it would feel absolutely criminal to walk around Clark Street with a firearm—besides, who knows, I might need it for protection. There was only one other solution—an option that I dreaded.
I went home and went into my second drawer. There in the corner underneath my underwear was the little blue box that Art had given me. It was Aunt Eunice’s precious engagement ring from her Japanese husband, the symbol of a love worth risking the loss of American citizenship. But on the other hand, there was Nancy, my friend and co-worker, practically the only person in Chicago who had stood beside me while I tried to uncover the last weeks of my sister’s life. I pushed away any thought of Art toiling through military exercises in the heat of Mississippi. I felt awful but what else could I do?
Chapter 23
When I returned to the police station, Nancy’s whole family had arrived. They peppered me with questions and all I could say was that it was all a misunderstanding. Letting Nancy’s older female relatives take a seat on the wooden bench, I stood outside on the steps of the station to wait until the line shortened. The sun was going down and I felt miserable. I had let everyon
e down: Nancy, one of the few friends I ever had, Art and Aunt Eunice. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t recognize the man walking up the stairs toward me.
“Aki.” Douglas wore a fedora and held himself straighter than usual.
“What are—”
“I’m going to see what I can do.”
I felt a rush of relief. Finally, I had a hakujin advocate, a government worker to boot. Surely the police had to listen to Douglas, didn’t they?
“Here.” I handed him a fat envelope.
“What’s this?”
“Bail money.”
Douglas hesitated, as if he was going to ask me where I had gotten the cash. He must have thought better of it, because he closed his mouth and nodded before he entered the police station.
I had gone to the first pawnshop that came to my mind—the one next to Aloha. It was strategically located to serve down-on-their-luck gamblers who had used their last nickel but still had a watch around their wrist to exchange for cash. The pawnbroker took out a loupe and examined the diamond in my engagement ring. He quoted a price and I didn’t haggle. It was enough for Nancy’s bail, and that’s all that mattered.
I rubbed the ring finger on my left hand. I’d get the ring back, right?
It seemed like an eternity until Douglas finally reappeared, his hat in his hands. The sky was dark and the streetlights were flickering on at the same time. “The police will be releasing her,” he said, putting his fedora back on and readjusting its brim.
“Thank goodness.” I exhaled and turned toward the door.
“I wouldn’t go in right now.”
“Why not?”
“I think her family is pretty upset. They are devout Catholics. Can’t understand why you’d put Nancy in that position.”
She volunteered, I thought. But yes, I should never have involved her in the first place.
“Let time pass. It will eventually blow over.” He turned his face toward the streetlight. His silhouette was strangely comforting to me.
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