I felt the city encroaching ever nearer to my heart. It was rain pouring out from a hole in the ceiling as Viv, Maude, Ivy, Claudia and myself ran for buckets and laughed as Viv tried to sing us to sleep over the incessant tapping the drops made at the bottom. I felt it in the way I was waiting, every second, to run into Santino again. I even lingered in the stairway for much too long, every time I went in or out of Empire House. Not to mention my clothes... The city was so hot. It had been officially declared a heat wave in June, one that would last the summer. That heat made me choose loose clothing that exposed more of my skin than I’d shown since I was a child. The heat itself was running in tandem with our search for Asher. I started thinking of it as “Devil’s Breath.”
So, that night...instead of taking her hand, I pulled it away and said, “Let’s go to sleep and sort the whole thing out tomorrow.” I’d barely got the words out before Ivy passed out cold.
She fell asleep fully dressed. She must have worked so hard.
But doing what?
* * *
We rose early the next day and dressed quickly so we wouldn’t miss breakfast.
Ivy wore another outrageous mix of some things she’d brought from home. Clothes she wore when she’d create her theatrical pieces. A blue chiffon blouse and a short white skirt with a frill near the bottom. To finish off the look, she had a black silk flower pinned to her short hair, like a Tahitian doll.
She scurried ahead of me like a child, but I couldn’t get our beds made properly, the sheets were too big and had to be tucked under just right. “Leave it, Rose! What do we care?”
“I don’t know...pride in our surroundings? Do we have any of that left?” I asked, but she was a flight down and an imagination away from me already.
When we got to the dining room it was already full. There were two seats, however, with clean plates, and Nell was right there waiting for us.
“Come in! Sit down The coffee is hot and the bread is fresh,” she trilled.
“And the bacon is fatty!” said Maude.
Nell held out a starched white apron. I went to take it and then she pulled it back so quickly I thought the strings might snap.
“I suppose you can eat breakfast before you begin working. But please note that in the future I’d prefer for you to come down earlier, eat with Santino and Claudia in the Garden, and then help with the meal. Will that do, Rose?”
We sat down facing the group, and Claudia approached us. “Would you like coffee, miss?” she asked us both.
“God, yes,” said Ivy.
“Yes, thank you,” I said as the girl struggled with the heavy-looking silver pot.
“Let me help you, sweetheart,” I said. She looked at me with gratitude. Ivy looked at me like I was keeping a secret.
“No, miss, today you sit. Tomorrow I’ll let you carry the whole pot.”
We laughed a little together. Ivy eyed me even more suspiciously.
“We’ve had a conversation, Claudia and I, I’m not keeping anything from you. I’m teaching the girl how to read,” I said.
“And who gave you permission to do that?” asked Nell, whose hands were now on my shoulders.
The room had gone quiet. Everyone was looking at me, and Ivy shifted her chair away from me as she put her cloth napkin over her face. I’d embarrassed her again.
“I didn’t think it would harm anything,” I said.
“Harm is an odd kind of word, Rose Adams. Some things can seem the best intentioned, yet turn out to be the most damaging kind of thing. We don’t need anyone selling this girl hopes and dreams. Do we, Claudia? Her life will be difficult. She needs to learn about that right now. She’s tough, this one.”
“But why wouldn’t I be able to teach her how to read?” I asked.
Ivy kicked me under the table. Claudia smiled, and Nell sighed, clapped my shoulders once, dropped the apron on my lap and walked away.
“I think I won that one, Claudia!” I said.
“Eat your food, Rose,” said Ivy.
Santino, who had waltzed in gracefully from the kitchen, was making sure everything was just so on the platters. He’s quiet and quick, I thought.
Santino took a spoon to a water glass. He clanged on it until the room grew quiet again.
“Everyone? We have new tenants here at Empire House. Let’s do a little introduction, shall we?”
“Hear, hear!” shouted Maude with a mouthful of bacon.
A large, overdramatic sigh came from the end of the table where three chubby women huddled together. Their conversation rapid and in another language...
“Adams sisters, meet the female politicos. All they do is plot to overthrow the government—it’s tiresome, really. Don’t call them by name. They don’t believe in differences. Call them Sisters in Arms, one, two, three. Don’t try to open the door for them, either. Everyone is equal, don’t you know.”
The Sisters in Arms were not laughing, however. They gathered up a pile of what looked like newsletters and left the room in a group. “You’re a shit, Sonny,” said one of them as they left.
“Didn’t you notice we’ve evolved already?” asked Santino to their backs. “We’ve won! Relax, suffrage was a decade ago.”
One of them turned around. “We’ve won nothing yet, and it’s only been five years!” one of them said, and they left, slamming the front doors behind them.
“We actually have lovely talks when we’ve been drinking,” said Sonny.
“And you’ve met Maude and Viv, obviously.”
Viv just raised her eyebrows at me from over the table. I could tell she didn’t like the attention Santino was giving us. “Other than the factory workers who leave early, come home late and are moving in and out of this place like transients, I believe we are all accounted for, so, what do you think, ladies?”
“‘Life is but a stage, and all of us, merely players...’” said Ivy. “Thank you for introducing us to the cast of Empire House, as if we didn’t already know everyone, Sonny.”
“This is Rose’s first breakfast with the entire ‘cast’ as you put it. Which was clever, by the way.”
Ivy got up and bowed. She’s so open, my sister. Ready for any and all situations.
I was the one who made the breakfast awkward.
“Do you prefer Santino or Sonny?” I asked. Everyone stopped laughing. I realized there’d been a rhythm of sorts to the previous conversation, and I’d clapped on the offbeat.
“It doesn’t matter to me, not when I’m in the company of such a beautiful woman. I’d like to think that I could find the poetry that lives inside her,” said Santino, staring straight at me.
“And I like to think I can find the bull that lives inside handsome cooks who are Casanovas,” said Ivy.
* * *
Jimmy was waiting for me in the foyer of Empire House as we finished breakfast and I put on my apron.
He had a large basket with fabric in it. There was a note, as well. “This is for you,” he said, dropping it at my feet.
I picked up the basket, confident I could do the work, and felt important.
“Poet around?” he asked.
As I unlocked the doors I said, “Santino? The chef? Yes, he’s in the garden. But he’s busy. Working. Now, who do you work for? Nell? Or Cat?”
“Both, really. Sometimes I drive, sometimes I work here. Whatever Cat and Nell need. I’m a handyman of sorts.”
The Handyman of MacDougal, I thought, would be a great name for a new poem, Edna.
We were standing in the dim foyer playing an odd game of chess without knowing why. I will admit that I was not happy to be alone with him. Yet he might be the key to unlocking Asher.
“You’re a looker, you know. Not like your sister—she’s a loud kinda doll. You’re a quiet looker. Always
more dangerous. Santino better be careful if he’s got his eyes on you.”
“I’d think that would be the other way around, if you were any sort of gentleman.”
“Well, I’m not. But he is, so be careful with him. The Poet’s my friend. Don’t go messin’ with him.”
“I couldn’t even consider it! He’s a loon!” I said too loud, too high-pitched, too nervous. “Besides I don’t think I see an Italian Cook in my future. I’m trying to get my house back and get out of the city.”
“Ohhh, I see. You don’t know,” he said.
“I’m really getting tired of talking to you,” I said.
He lit a cigarette and handed it to me. “Trust me, you’ll need it.”
I don’t know why...but I took it, inhaled and began to cough.
Jimmy laughed and came around the counter and hit me on the back.
“Look,” he said. “He may be Italian, but he’s done a good job savin’ all his money. And he won awards in the war. Besides, he’s educated. I know, that shocked me, too.”
Different layers to Santino were not helping with the rising heat I felt whenever I saw him, or how I’d read and reread his poem a hundred times. I couldn’t think about it, so I asked him about Asher instead.
“Have you ever met a man who could very well look like me, and whose name is Asher Adams?”
“You’re a direct one, aren’t ya? Sort of different than the other day when you wanted to stay in my car.”
“Please, Jimmy...if you know anything...”
“Used to be a guy that might have looked like you...long gone, that one.”
“Never mind,” I said. I wouldn’t get anything from him, either. But at least the questions got him to leave.
I went up to the penthouse, where Claudia helped me set up a little sewing room of sorts off in the corner, under the eaves. Too soon, I was sewing, and I didn’t see anything but fabric for hours.
By the time I realized I’d finished the last garment in the basket, I saw the day was gone. The sun was a honey-gold color, and its rays reached in and encased our attic in the most delightful glow.
Knowing there was a chance I could get paid that very night, I picked up the basket and ran down the steps, losing a few pieces of trim and feathers here and there in my rush. I wanted to get back to Cat’s Dress Emporium before she closed for the day.
I flew out the front doors and down the street, not even caring how it looked to others. I pushed past people returning from work and those who might be on their way. Everyone was busy in the city. Busy with their very own lives, mysteries, jobs and dreams. I was running, it’s true, but I was noticing that perhaps it wasn’t that I felt invisible at all. Perhaps it was that for the first time, I was being noticed.
Cat was just closing the doors to the shop when I rounded the corner of the alleyway.
“Wait!” I said.
“Rose?”
“Yes!” I reached the doors and she opened them for me. I tumbled inside, placed the basket at her feet, and then fell onto the couch to rub my sore arms.
“Why on earth were you running?”
“I wanted to make sure I got here before you closed.”
“Why?”
“I finished the batch Jimmy brought over, and I thought I might get paid.”
Cat sat next to me and began going through the work.
“I see. I hope you didn’t rush...no...I see...oh, Rose. You are talented. I may have been blowing some smoke with you earlier, you know. A girl’s got to have some self-esteem if she’s gonna make it in this town. Have a straight back and a good smile that can take a few hits. So I thought I’d give you a set of compliments to make you feel good. Now? Now I can see I was right. These seams are simply perfect. And I love the notions. Wait here...” she said as she gracefully got up and floated to the back of the store. “I keep the cash in the safe.”
I felt flushed with pride. I bit my knuckle out of pure excitement and leaned on the counter where a stack of papers stood too high. And because I’m who I am, those papers spilled out onto the floor and weren’t papers at all. It was a stack of mail.
Sorting through it, I found our first solid clue as to Asher’s whereabouts.
It was a postcard depicting a roller coaster in Coney Island. I don’t know why I turned it over, really I don’t. I’m not normally a snoop. Fate? Maybe...all I know is that the back wasn’t blank, there was a note.
“It’s best this way. Please don’t worry.-D.” The same script as the matchbook in Daisy’s things.
And then, in smaller print at the bottom of the card, “Coney Island Cards & CO.”
I slipped the postcard into my apron pocket.
“Is everything all right, Rose?” asked Cat, who emerged again, reaching out toward me with an envelope. The way she looked, just then, reminded me so much of Nell that very morning with the apron that I thought she might pull back, as well. Only she didn’t, and soon I was holding real money in my hands. New York was proving to be kinder than I’d imagined.
“Now, will you show yourself out? I have some terrible bookkeeping to get straight.”
“Do you need help?”
“Don’t tell me you’re good with bookkeeping, too?”
“Yes. As a matter of fact I always...”
“Yes, yes, yes...Rose. You need to learn how to breathe. I’ll enlist your help another time. Try and get back to Empire House and enjoy your evening.”
“May I speak with Ivy?” I asked.
“Of course. Just... Well, go through the magic curtains, my dear.”
I had to tell Ivy about the postcard. And I wasn’t a thief, so I thought I’d tell her while she was working so that I’d be able to put the postcard back on my way out. Besides, I just knew that we’d find an Oleander Drive in Coney Island, and I was eager to tell my sister.
I looked at the red velvet curtains where Ivy’d disappeared the day before.
I thought of going back to Empire House and waiting for her, but she might be drunk when she returned, or too exhausted to try and plan what our next move would be. I walked to the curtain and began to push it back, wondering for a moment if I’d return as changed as she’d seemed to be. Was I ready to take that step into the unknown?
“It’s still daytime,” I said to myself out loud. “They’re probably still setting up. I can simply go down there, show her, figure out what we should do then go back to Empire House. Easy.”
I took a breath and walked through the curtains and down the rabbit hole.
When I reached the bottom I realized what a mistake I’d made. Stupid Rose... It’s always nighttime in a speakeasy.
* * *
I stood there and felt the entire bar go quiet. It wasn’t at all like the speakeasy our father took us to a million years ago—it was fancier. And much more dangerous. There was no natural light at all; the entire room was dim, overcast with smoke and thick red hues coming from damask-covered lamps that stood on the tables and adorned the walls. There was a sultry sort of air that beckoned to me and heightened whatever sense of freedom and fast ways lived deep inside my soul. I tried to fight it.
I thought of how I must look. My dress, pretty though it was, wasn’t at all as revealing as the other girls were wearing. I still had a pencil stuck in my hair, which was pinned up in my usual bun, but messier because of the heat and the flurry of sewing.
I saw Viv and Maude staring at me, both holding trays full of drinks. Maude looked sorry for me, but Viv, on the other hand, looked amused.
Ivy was standing next to a piano on a small stage.
She’s singing, I thought with pride and horror. She’d been put on display. She looked at me and then quickly went center stage to begin singing. It took her a moment to see me, and when she did, she looked at me, dead in the eye.
I couldn’t figure out if she was pleading with me to sit down and get out of the limelight or leave.
Jimmy and Sonny were there, too, sitting at a small round table near the front of the stage. They were beckoning me to sit with them. Jimmy wasn’t working; he was there with Sonny to relax. I remember thinking, it must be nice, relaxing.
“Go on,” said Viv, who walked past me. “Don’t want to make Ivy any more uneasy than you already have, do ya?”
“No, I...”
“Just grab a seat, fancy face. She’s just started her set. She’s good, ya know. You should be proud a’ that one.”
An unexpected surge of anger went through me that I thought I might throw myself on Viv and tear each hair out of her thin bob. Instead, I tried to smooth back my chignon, tucked the postcard in my shirtwaist and went to sit with the boys.
“Look at the newest Empire Girl! You are a vision. Tell me, dear lady, what brings you here to the dregs?” asked Sonny.
“Why aren’t you at Empire House? Isn’t it dinner?” I asked.
“Dinner’s easy. Unless Nell is having a party, I set up the meal and Claudia serves it.”
“He’s got the best gig on the block,” said Jimmy.
“You keep saying that, Jim...but every time I try to get you some work that doesn’t involve breaking the law, you laugh at me.”
I could tell the two of them were close. They had an easy, trusting friendship between them, and I liked seeing them smile at one another. Like brothers, I thought.
Santino looked so handsome. He was clean-shaven, and his perfect smile was alight with the drinks he’d already had. I blushed simply looking at him.
“I didn’t mean... I was just coming down to see Ivy before I left for the day....” I stammered, and wanted to slap myself for not being more confident.
“Here, you might want to take notes later,” said Jimmy, reaching over and taking the pencil out from behind my ear.
“Thanks. I’m kind of unprepared for a night on the town,” I said.
“You look great, doll. You Adamses could win a beauty contest wearing pants,” he said, but he was looking at Ivy, who was getting ready to sing. “Charming, that’s what you are. All three of...”
Empire Girls Page 11