Jada pursed her lips. Talking about Suzanne felt out of place here. “She is very pretty. It is such a good opportunity for her. Perhaps me too. Just last week I met Bert Williams.” The moment the words left her lips she didn’t know why she spoke them. She wasn’t one to brag about people she knew, like some of the people they had encountered on the circuit.
“Bert is a real class act. He was in here earlier listening to Danny tinkling the ivories.” Roger looked at Jada and his eyes widened. “Wait a moment. Are you her?”
“Is she who?” Sally asked. She winked at Jada, clearly enjoying the excitement in Roger’s face.
“He was talking about some girl who had refused to dance with him last week. It was a strange story. I mean, who refuses to dance with Bert Williams?” Roger raised an eyebrow.
Jada felt her cheeks warm. “Who indeed? I don’t know what happened.” More like she couldn’t upstage Suzanne. The thought made her cheeks even hotter.
Sally slapped the table. “You refused Bert? Jada, are you crazy?”
“Well, he was sure disappointed. Something about the way you held your shoulders made him think you would be a formidable dancer.”
“Really?” Jada’s heart fluttered as she sat a bit taller.
Sally looked pointedly down at her drink, but she grinned. Jada couldn’t stop the smile that formed at her lips.
“Well, I better get back to work. It was very nice meeting you, Jada.”
Jada nodded. “You too, Roger.”
“And you.” He nuzzled against Sally’s ear. “I’ll come back when I can.”
“You better,” Sally teased. “I didn’t get all dolled up to sit with Jada.”
“I promised you a dance.” He kissed Sally’s cheek and ran back to the bar. The piano man was there and the two quickly became animated in conversation.
“He’s very nice,” Jada said.
Sally grinned. “Kind, smart, and handsome. I don’t know how I got so lucky.”
They both took a drink. The piano man took a glass of water from Roger and headed toward the small stage and his piano, just past where Suzanne and Jada sat.
“Hi, Danny!” Sally exclaimed.
“Hi, doll,” Danny replied as he came over to their table.
He smelled of sawdust and vanilla. Jada leaned closer to him without realizing it.
“So, this is your new friend?” Danny looked at Jada as he held out his hand. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Same,” Jada said. “You are very talented.”
“Well, thanks. I just play how I feel.”
Sally snorted. “Oh, come on. Don’t be modest. Roger says you are in here every morning practicing before going to the lumber yard. I hate it when talented people won’t admit to caring if others appreciate them or not.”
Danny laughed. “Cool down, girl. I do care if people like to hear me play.”
“Well, good.” Sally pouted. “’Cause you are talented!”
“I’ve got to get back to it.”
“The people are getting restless,” Jada agreed.
A group of women were clustered around the piano. One ran her fingers over the keys and laughed. Jada wondered how it would feel to stand on that stage and sing to them.
“There’s Selma. It was nice meeting you!” Danny nodded to Jada before dashing off.
A young woman walked through the tables and stepped up onto the stage. Her skin was caramel and her hair smoothed back into a bun at the nape of her neck. Over one ear was a beautiful rose that brought out the red flowers in her shawl. Selma let Danny take her hand and lead her to the piano’s small platform. Jada leaned forward, watching the two closely. The woman turned and faced the audience, and Danny trilled an opening on the piano before the woman closed her eyes and started singing a song in a low alto voice: “You Made Me Love You.”
“Selma is a singer?” Jada asked aloud.
Sally nodded. “What else would she do? Wait till you hear her peppier songs. ‘When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam’ is so much fun. Danny would like someone every night, but Roger hasn’t found someone he likes yet. Selma comes when she can, usually Thursday and Sunday nights. I just wish she danced more. Standing still looks stiff, don’t you think?”
As if she heard Sally’s complaint, Selma swayed slightly as she belted out the love song. And Jada sat in silence for the rest of the song.
The audience clapped and Danny trilled the piano keys, announcing an up-tempo number. Dancers flocked to the floor as he started the intro for “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” The small space in front of their platform was quickly filled with dancers. The woman’s rich voice was reminiscent of the singers from Jada’s church back in Richmond, and suddenly her throat felt tight. She finished the rest of her drink in one gulp.
“I think I’ve had enough.” Jada had to shout over the dancing. “I’m tired. I should go home.”
Sally bit her lip and glanced from the bar to Jada. “Want me to come with you?” she asked.
Jada patted her friend’s hand. “No, you stay and enjoy your man. I’ll see you at Miss Mitzi’s tomorrow and you can tell me all about the night.”
“If you’re sure.” Sally smiled in relief. “You know how to get home?”
Jada slid her shawl around her shoulders. “I’ll be fine. You have a good night.” She squeezed Sally’s shoulder and walked toward the front door.
Behind her Selma started a slow, cool version of “Snooky Ookums” without accompaniment. Jada made a note to learn some songs like that. It would be good for Suzanne to know some songs that allowed her pianist to take a break if she were to ever sing in a nightclub. The very thought nearly made Jada burst out laughing. She could hardly see Suzanne in a bar, let along singing in one.
“Leaving so soon?” Roger asked. He glanced behind him at the door to the back rooms.
“Until next time, Roger. Sally is waiting for you to dance with her.”
Roger grinned. “I won’t keep her waiting long.”
The door behind Roger opened and Danny jumped out. “Hey, are there any doctors here tonight?” he asked Roger.
Roger shrugged. “I don’t think so. Want me to ask around?” His brow was creased in concerned confusion, but he didn’t press Danny further.
“No, please don’t make a scene.” Danny scratched his head and glanced around as if hoping a solution would pop up.
Jada cleared her throat. “I used to help some back at the farm. Are you ill?”
Both Danny and Roger stared at her a moment. When Danny didn’t reply, Roger said, “She is offering to help and you need to get back to the piano. Take her back.”
Danny gestured for her to follow him through the back door. “It’s not me.” A few yards down the hall from there a doorway was lit from a candle inside a room. Jada followed Danny inside.
“Someone is here to help, Bert,” he said.
The room was lit with only a small gas lantern on the table. A figure of a man was huddled in a chair in the corner, his head in his hands. Danny walked in and put a hand on Bert’s shoulder. Jada tried to hide her surprise and alarm. Bert Williams was the man they wanted her to doctor? Hadn’t she embarrassed herself enough around him for one lifetime?
“You brought a girl to help?” Bert asked gruffly.
“I brought who I could find. We don’t need everyone knowing that the Bert Williams was attacked in the back alleys of Harlem. Do we?” Danny spoke as if they’d already discussed such things.
“Of course not,” Bert said.
“What happened to him?” Jada asked, coming farther into the room.
“I was walking down an alley when someone rushed at me; he pushed me against a wall and punched me twice. Once in the shoulder, once in the gut. He threw some paper or something at me before running away.”
Jada stood beside him and stared at his shoulder; a small red circle had formed on the white fabric. “Take off your shirt,” she commanded. To Danny she said, “You get back to work. Ha
ve Roger or Jerry bring me some alcohol and some kind of bandage.”
“The fewer people who know I’m here the better,” said Bert.
“They will be quick,” Danny promised. He met Jada’s eyes. “Thank you.”
Jada nodded in reply as Bert worked to undress his wounds.
Bert pulled his arm out of its sleeve and laid his hand in his lap. Jada touched the gash and pursed her lips.
“Was the man wearing jewelry of any kind? This seems like a deep cut for a punch.”
Bert looked up at Jada for the first time. “You?” he accused. “You who wouldn’t dance with me will clean this gash?”
“They are two very different talents.” She pressed the gash again and was pleased when it didn’t bleed much. “This is a deep cut. If I were back home and you were one of my pa’s field workers, I’d insist you let me stitch this up. But since it isn’t bleeding anymore, I’ll leave the choice to you. If I don’t stitch it up, it might scar.”
“Stitches mean less range of motion, and I have to rehearse next week. I’ll take my chances with the scar.”
Jada’s nose wrinkled at his choice, but she didn’t say anything.
“We’ll have to wait for Roger and the bandages.”
She moved a bit so that she was beside him and blinked at the folded paper that appeared from under her skirt. She knelt over and picked it up.
“Mr. Williams!” she gasped as she read the writing. “Who on earth wrote such hate?”
“Miss Jada, I am sitting here half undressed—please call me Bert. And don’t worry about that note. It isn’t the first and won’t be the last.”
“Have you read it?” She sat down in the chair across from him and read aloud: “Nigger filth doesn’t deserve to live. Leave the Follies or die, scum.” She watched him for a response.
Bert leaned back and rubbed his neck. “If you have any interest in being an entertainer, you have to have a thicker skin than that. I am a black man in a white show. Of course people are going to send hate mail. They might even try to injure me. If they didn’t, I’d be doing something wrong.”
“Oh.” Jada was silent for a moment. “I hadn’t really thought of it that way. You must be really talented.”
Bert winced as he chuckled. “That is what they tell me.”
Behind her the door reopened and Roger reentered with Sally on his heels.
“I thought you went home, Jada!”
“No,” Bert explained. “She got roped into my mess of an evening. You got the bandage in that basket, Roger? Let’s get this over with.”
Roger handed Jada the basket and she pulled the bottle of alcohol out and poured some on Bert’s shoulder. He grunted in discomfort but didn’t complain.
“Is your wife going to be upset?” Roger asked.
Bert shook his head. “I think she’s been waiting for something like this to happen. There is usually some kind of mess before a show starts and this year with Ann onstage with me, I expected there to be a response.”
A melancholy mood came over the entertainer. Instead of asking more questions, Jada took the roll of bandage and began rolling it around Bert’s shoulder. No one spoke as she worked; even Sally was quiet. The faint sounds of Danny’s playing were muffled with the door shut. After five layers, the bandage ran out and Jada tied the end in a knot.
Bert winced again.
“Do you have any more?” Jada asked Roger. He shook his head. “Very well. When you get home, Bert, you’ll need to clean and re-bandage this wound. If that chest pain doesn’t go away, you might have a cracked rib.”
Bert nodded. “I’ll have Lottie wrap it if it doesn’t improve. Thank you for your help. I couldn’t walk around the city looking like I’d been in a fight.”
“Of course. You know you’re always welcome here.” Roger gestured upstairs. “Your room is always open.”
Bert nodded. “I know.”
Sally nudged Jada. “What?” Jada hissed.
“You should sing for him,” Sally said.
“This is hardly the time or the place.” Jada spoke as quietly as possible, but her words still carried in the small room.
Roger laughed. “You should sing for someone. Sally is a fan of yours and she doesn’t like just anyone’s voice.”
Bert slid his arm back into the sleeve of his shirt. “I must get home. Rehearsals start early and I’ve been gone too late as it is. Lottie will worry.” He turned to Jada.
Regardless of what he said, Jada knew that the attack had shaken the man. How could it not? That was the reason he ignored Sally’s nudge. Jada ignored the doubt that settled in her stomach. Perhaps she had truly ruined her chances to perform for Bert.
“Are you able to make it home alone?” Jada asked him.
Bert clucked his tongue and said, “Such a question. Of course I can make it home.”
Roger rubbed Sally’s back. “Will you girls walk home together? The city feels a little less bright and a little meaner than it did earlier this evening.”
“I don’t like thinking that way.” Sally shivered.
“Who does?” Jada said. “But I don’t want to be out alone. Do you mind coming home with me?”
Sally looked from Bert to Roger and back to Jada. “Of course. Let me grab my shawl.”
Roger watched her leave. “Make sure Sally gets home. She is my treasure.”
“Of course,” Jada replied.
“Take care of yourself too,” Bert said. He winced as he stood up. “A woman who can sing as well as bandage is frightfully rare.”
Jada made a motion to indicate she heard him, but nothing more. It was unclear whether he meant that in earnest or as a joke, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
“Seriously, though,” Roger said as he picked up a few loose threads from the floor. “If you ever need a place to practice, my door is always open, especially to Sally’s friends.”
Out in the bar, Danny began a rag tune and Jada felt a slight thrill come over her. A place to practice would be nice.
“I’ll be sure Sally gets home safely,” she promised again before slipping out the door and meeting her friend in the hallway.
Selma stood just outside the nightclub, taking a long drag of a cigarette. Sally waved at the woman but didn’t stop to say much. Jada forced a smile herself, but felt uncomfortable even looking at the singer. Her body curved against the building in a lazy way that was also confident and glamorous. Jada was not that kind of person. She was meant to stay behind the scenes.
Jada let Sally link arms with her and jabber about how Roger had saved enough for the nightclub, but she didn’t really listen. Instead, she scolded herself for ever thinking she could be interesting like Selma.
CHAPTER 10
There wasn’t an inch on Suzanne’s body that wasn’t screaming in pain. The girls sat about the stage stretching or massaging their various muscles. Suzanne slid into her dressing gown before sitting at a small table and rubbing her shoulder. What she wouldn’t do for one of Mother’s lavender baths. She could probably have Jada draw her one, but it wouldn’t be the same. She sat and lifted her left foot into her hand and rubbed the ball of her foot. Hopefully she hid her discomforts well.
Bloody blisters bespeckled her feet, and her torso had hints of new bruises from her new corset. The only condolence was that she wasn’t alone in her discomfort. Lillian was nursing her feet with foul-smelling soaks each evening, and Ruby was so tired she jumped whenever the dressing room door opened.
Jonathon walked around the stage offering glasses of water to the various clusters of women, while Leon and Julian spoke in low tones by the piano. More than once Suzanne had seen movement in the balcony, but if Flo himself had been watching rehearsals, she didn’t know.
She pressed her thumb into the ball of her foot and rotated it like Jada had taught her. She was about to put her foot down when a shadow moved into her light. She looked up and Julian was looking down at her. He squatted in front of her. Behind her, conversation
s diminished.
“I expect a lot of you girls,” he began.
Suzanne lowered her foot and gave Julian her attention. His eyes were so focused on her that she began to squirm. Had she done something wrong?
Please don’t expose my faults in front of the others, she prayed.
“Ann wants you in the Bert Williams number, which I’m sure you know. The little I’ve observed of you, I understand her reaction. You are talented and beautiful. More than some of the others.” Suzanne held her posture as strong as possible, hoping she looked professional. “Rehearsals start Monday afternoon. I expect you, Ann, and Ruby to be ready to work hard.”
“Thank you! I can’t . . . This is wonderful.”
“You earned it. No thanks required.” Julian extended his hand and Suzanne took it. “If you do well with them, we will be casting the two tango numbers. Flo is watching to see if it might be a good vehicle for you. Don’t let him down.”
So they were going to include a tango in the set for this year. She sat up straighter and forced any discomfort from her mind. This was what she had hoped for, a chance to shine.
“I will keep that in mind. Thank you, Julian.”
Behind them, Lillian cleared her throat. “You know, Suzanne, I noticed this morning that you are consistently off in the finale. We are supposed to twist on three, not two.” She put a hand on Suzanne’s waist. “Sometimes the new girls need a little coaching.”
Ignoring Lillian’s tone, Suzanne replied, “I knew something felt off. I’ll work to get it right. Thank you, Lillian.”
“Thatta girl.” Julian smiled and stood up. He strode to the other side of the room to the piano player. Within moments they were in a hurried conversation.
Lillian dropped her arm and turned her back on Suzanne. “Some people wouldn’t know talent if it bit them in the ass,” she muttered.
Ruby glanced at Suzanne, but didn’t say anything in response. Everyone had assumed she was in the Williams number since she and Ann had been working longer hours together. With Ruby in the number, Suzanne had assumed she was out. She turned her back to Lillian and refused to let such a person diminish her excitement. Facing the wings, Suzanne saw Jada pacing back and forth. Her shoulders were slightly hunched and she held something in front of her in her hands. Again, Suzanne regretted not having Jada onstage with her, but it was never the right time. What made Jada think she should invade rehearsal like this?
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