by Alexa Kang
Chapter 3
Tessa pedaled her bike faster and faster until she reached maximum speed. She wanted the wind to blow away everything unpleasant around her. She pedaled until her legs burned. When she came to a small beach by the shore of the lake, she slowed down and coasted along the path.
She got off her bike and rolled it to the side of the road. Alone, she walked to a secluded spot on the beach where she could hide under the trees. She had discovered this place two weeks ago. Here, she could enjoy her solitude.
Sunlight glittered across the expanse of Lake Michigan. She had never seen a lake this large and wide. It went out to the horizon like the ocean. She wished it really were the ocean, and the sailboats out there could take her home.
She wondered what her parents and friends were doing back in London. Normally, the theater season would end now and summer training would begin. The summer training programs always brought in new young aspiring actors and actresses to her father’s theater troupe. When the school term ended, they would invite her and other sons and daughters of the troupe’s members to join them for parties. They did so partly in the hope of gaining inside knowledge about the troupe members, and partly to curry favor with influential actors and directors. She didn’t mind them though. Because of them, she and her friends often got to spend time at the homes of young actors, artists, and musicians. Their creative minds fascinated her.
If she could, she would go back to all of them without a second thought. She feared what could happen to them and wished she could be there with them. Every day, the newspapers brought more dreadful news about the war and more photos of places under attack. She told no one about her nightmares of her parents trapped in London facing a row of German tanks.
Everyone treated her like a child. No one would talk honestly about the war with her. Her mother never mentioned the war in her letters and telegrams. The Ardleys and the Caldwells avoided the subject around her. Her father was the only one who was forthright with her. In his last letter, he admitted it might be a long while before she could go home.
Alone, she lost track of time. She didn’t want to return to the Ardleys’ house. It wasn’t that she was ungrateful. Aunt Sophia and Uncle William had tried hard to make her feel welcome and so did the Caldwells, but their lives were so different from hers. She missed following her father to rehearsals and watching him act on stage. She missed going to the hospital with her mother and visiting her patients. Her mother had a gift for making people happy. She could magically cheer up even the saddest and most decrepit people with ease. Too bad that gift didn’t pass on to her daughter. Tessa was never very good at talking to people.
The sun began to descend and the sky turned to a luminescent yellow and gray hue. She felt someone approaching her. It was Uncle William.
“Beautiful sunset, isn’t it?” He sat down next to her.
“How’d you find me?”
“You forget I’ve lived in this area for many years. There’s no corner within a ten-mile radius of where we live that I don’t know.”
She turned to stare out at the lake again.
“But, you are your mother’s daughter. Juliet used to come here too when she wanted to be alone. Especially after your grandmother and Anthony died.”
How strange to hear him talk about her mother. Until a month ago, she had never heard of the Ardleys or the Caldwells. She found out her mother was part of their families only when her parents told her they were sending her to Chicago, and it was only now that she realized her mother had once been very close to them. They knew things about her mother she had never known before.
“Why didn’t you ever contact or visit us? Why didn’t Mother ever speak of you?”
“That was my fault,” William said with an apologetic smile. “I take full responsibility for that. I should’ve reached out much sooner.”
She waited for him to explain.
“Did your mother ever tell you? When she and your father met, it was a huge scandal in Chicago.”
“No. I don’t know anything about what happened in Chicago. I know there was a scandal with an actress. It’s still a scandal. She tells lies about my mother in the papers all the time.”
“Alina Fey.”
“You know about her?”
William nodded. “Is she still going around saying Juliet stole your father away from her?”
Tessa wrapped her arms around her legs and looked down.
“Your father and she were together once. She brought him out of obscurity. She was already an established actress on Broadway when they met. Your father was a young actor starting out. It didn’t last because she held that over him like he owed her. Maybe you’re too young to understand.”
“I understand,” she mumbled. “But that was a long time ago. She still says a lot of vile things about Mother in magazines and people believe her. She does it to get attention. She wants people to feel sorry for her.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“People think Mother is a shameless woman. A temptress. And she can’t defend herself because she isn’t famous. No one ever asked for her side of the story. It’s so unfair.”
His voice softened. “Did your parents ever tell you how they met?”
“They met and fell in love when Father was on tour in Chicago. People thought he and Alina Fey were engaged because his troupe spread that rumor, but they were not. Mother and Father eloped to get away to start over in London.”
“That was true. But they left to get away from my family too.”
“Why?” She couldn’t see what would make her mother turn her back on the Ardleys.
“Your parents met because my family was a patron for your father’s troupe at the time. In fact, my mother was the one who brought them on tour to Chicago. She didn’t have any daughters or nieces, so she took Juliet with her to all the social receptions for promoting their shows, and,”—he rubbed his nose, hiding a smirk—“that was how all the troubles started. Juliet and Dean fell in love.”
“But why did she have to leave your family?”
“Because your father’s breakup with Alina Fey and your mother being the other woman drew our family into the scandal. Alina Fey wouldn’t stop talking to the press about it. My mother was very sensitive about our family’s good name. She demanded Juliet break things off with your father. Instead, they eloped.”
Tessa listened, trying to absorb all she heard. Her mother had never told her anything about this. “Mother said she had no other relatives after Grandma died. I always thought the Brownings were just people Grandma worked for. They didn’t even tell me Mr. Browning had adopted her until they told me they wanted me to come to Chicago. Why didn’t Mother ever talk about any of you?”
“Maybe she felt bad for leaving us the way she did. Some people thought she was ungrateful. I think she didn’t want to bring any more scandal to our family. In any case, Leon and I were very sad when she left. She was practically a sister to us. But my mother was furious with her and there wasn’t much we could do.”
“What about Mr. Browning? Why didn’t he do anything to help her?”
“He adopted her, but my mother was the one who took her under her wing. She wanted to turn Juliet into a lady. People warned her back then. They said a maid’s daughter couldn’t be trusted. My mother meant to prove them wrong. Of course, when the scandal broke, everyone who’d warned her was delighted to see things turn out that way. My mother felt humiliated.” He sighed. “Anyway, Charles Browning worked for my father. He owed his career to my parents. He wasn’t in a position to cross my mother. Besides, your mother was an adult by then. She made the decision to elope. None of us could’ve stopped her from doing what she wanted.”
Tessa never knew so many people had opposed her mother. Feeling defensive, she wrapped her arms tighter around her legs and held up her head. “She loves my father.”
William nodded. “My mother never forgave Juliet, not that there was anything to forgive. Juliet followed h
er heart. Later on, the scandal died down, but my mother’s health started failing. I couldn’t risk upsetting her to reach out to your parents. When she finally passed away, so much time had passed, I didn’t know if Juliet would want to hear from us. I didn’t know if she would ever forgive us.”
Tessa thought for a while, then looked up with a bright smile. “There’s nothing to forgive.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “Your Aunt Sophia, and Leon and Anna, they mean well.” He leaned back on his elbows and stretched out his legs. She had discovered that her Uncle William, patriarch of one of Chicago’s oldest and wealthiest families, was at heart a mellow man who eschewed formalities whenever he was out of public sight. “When you get to know them better, you’ll find out for yourself they are kind, wonderful people.”
“I know. I like Alexander. He’s a fun child.”
“But not Katherine?”
She hesitated. “I don’t dislike her…We’re very different, that’s all.”
They watched the sunset in silence. The beach was now empty and there were only the sounds of waves. A balmy breeze blew past them as the sun continued to descend and the evening twilight overtook the sky.
“Katherine’s friends,” Tessa said out of nowhere, “they like Anthony.” She looked at William. “They want me to invite them over all the time so they can be around Anthony.”
He looked back at her, and they both broke into laughter.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” he said.
She relaxed and looked out to the lake again. She wondered how her mother felt about all that had happened between her and the Ardleys. Did she regret the lost time with Uncle William and Uncle Leon too? Did she feel the Ardleys let her down? Did she regret all these years when they had been so out of touch?
And if she did, then perhaps it was a good thing that she herself had come to Chicago. For all her misgivings about leaving London, maybe her being here could help everyone come together again.
William got up from the ground and offered her his hands. “Come on. I’ll drive you home.” She took them and let him pull her up. Together, they walked back to her bike and his car, ready to go home.
PART THREE
America First
Chapter 4
A shadow hung over the university campus when Anthony returned in the fall. The normal excitement that accompanied the start of a new school year was nowhere to be found. Since the order for conscription went into effect in September, all males between twenty-one and thirty-five years old had to register for selective services. The events of the world had spilled over beyond the confines of Europe and their impact was spreading. One by one, older male students departed to report for the draft, and the student population dwindled.
The draft left even those who were not immediately affected sober and uneasy. As each week passed, more seats in the classrooms became empty. No one needed to ask why. Enthusiasm for extracurricular activities waned. In his own fraternity, the senior brothers had lost interest in initiating and organizing social or charity events. They cut the rush events by half. Even those they did hold became more informal than usual.
America was still officially neutral, but for how long?
While Anthony studied in his dorm room, conversations of the students in the next room carried in through his open door.
“I’d rather join the Army now and get it over with,” someone said. “It’s a peacetime draft. Eighteen months and I’ll be done. My time served before FDR declares war.”
“Declares war? He wouldn’t dare,” another person answered.
“You want to bet? He’s terrible. I can’t stand him.”
“What about Hitler and the fascists?”
“Europe’s problem. Not ours. I don’t want to go to war.”
“Coward.”
“I don’t need to go to war for foreigners to prove I’m not a coward. If the Europeans want to fight, they can do it without me.”
Anthony put down his textbook and closed his door. He tried to return to the chapter on the economic fallacies of Marxism, but he couldn’t focus. Lately, all everyone talked about was the draft. It weighed on his mind as much as anyone else’s. He hoped the war would be over before he would have to worry about it. He liked his life. He liked studying at the university and competing on the swim team. And despite the never-ending meetings, he actually liked the debate team. He didn’t want to join the military. He didn’t even want to think about it.
How could he not think about it? No one thought Congress would pass the draft, but it did. No one thought France would fall, and it fell. Last week, what his parents had feared most finally happened. Germany attacked England. The London Blitz threw his parents into a panic because Tessa’s parents were still over there. If something happened to them, his father would be very upset. And what would happen to Tessa?
But why should he have to go to war for them? They could’ve come to America before England was attacked. His father had wired them many times about that over the summer. Each time, they had refused. He wished they had changed their minds. If they had come, they would be safe and his parents wouldn’t have to worry about them.
If they had come, maybe they could take that rude and brooding daughter of theirs somewhere else with them.
He stared at the open pages of his book. No need to worry yet. He was still two years away from the minimum age for the draft. What he needed to do now was get back to his studies.
You can enlist, a tiny voice crept into his mind.
No. What nonsense. Why would he do that? The incessant talk by the other students about the war and the draft were getting to him.
But if England surrendered, what would become of the world?
No. The answer was still no. He was nothing more than a college student. He had no power to solve the world’s problems. Even if she enlisted, he would only be a soldier and he wouldn’t be able to change the world anyway. He had his own life to think about. His father expected him to take over their family business some day. He had enough responsibilities at home.
Besides, if he enlisted and something happened to him, his mother would be devastated.
Enlisting was simply not an option. He pushed his thoughts about the war out of his mind and forced himself to read through every sentence and every word of the chapter he needed to finish.
# # #
The radio evening news program brought no new information about England other than Neville Chamberlain’s worsening health. The bombing of London continued. When the program ended, Tessa turned off the radio and quietly left the den.
On her way back upstairs to her room, she passed by the parlor. The voices of everyone talking carried out into the hall and she peeked inside. Uncle Leon was here. He had come to talk to Uncle William and Aunt Sophia about Anthony again. He had been coming a lot since the new conscription law passed.
“Let’s not worry ourselves over nothing,” William said. “Anthony’s only nineteen. The minimum age for the draft is twenty-one. Everything may be over by then.”
“I don’t know, Will,” Leon said as he paced around the Ardleys’ living room. “I have a bad feeling about this. You need to call Senator Reinhardt and make sure there won’t be any more to this conscription business. The only thing they should do about it is to repeal it. I can’t believe Congress let this happen. Roosevelt is leading them by the nose. America should not be involved, period.” He plopped down on the sofa, lit a cigarette, and took a deep drag. Still agitated, he blew out a cloud of smoke and stubbed it out.
Listening to them outside the parlor, Tessa felt sorry for him. Uncle Leon loved Anthony, as much as he loved his own children.
“I know you care a great deal about him.” Sophia moved closer to Leon and put her hand on his shoulder.
“We’ve already lost Anthony once,” he said, referring to Anthony Browning. “The day your son was born, it was a miracle. He is so much like our old Anthony. It’s like Anthony had c
ome back to us.” He looked helplessly at her. “He can’t be taken away from us again.”
Sophia gave his hand a light squeeze.
“So much of a burden on young men these days,” William said. “We had it easier when we were his age.”
“No we didn’t,” Leon said. “Your memory’s failing you. It was the same thing back then. Europe goes to war, we enact the draft and our boys are sent to fight their wars for them. That was how we lost Lex. We’ve sacrificed one family member to Europe’s brawls already. It’s enough.”
“I wish Lex was still with us too. But to be fair, he wasn’t drafted. He enlisted on his own.”
“Anthony won’t want to go. I’m sure of it.” Leon got up and poured himself a glass of whiskey from the liquor cabinet. “What about Alexander? What happens when he grows up? What if this never ends? Or it ends and repeats all over again like now? Do we send our boys to war every time Europe wants to fight?”
“Oh, Leon, don’t say that. I can’t imagine Alexander would have to deal with this too,” Sophia said.
“He might have to as long as that warmonger is in the White House. And he’s been there forever. He won’t leave.”
William exchanged a glance with his wife. “I’ll put a call in to Senator Reinhardt tomorrow. We’ll see what he can do.”
Tessa looked to the ground. Uncle William only said that to make Uncle Leon feel better. What could the Senator do? The draft had already passed. For now, it was here to stay.
Quietly, she walked back upstairs to her room. She hoped Anthony wouldn’t have to go to war. Back in England, her parents’ friends had sons who had gone to war. She even knew some of those boys. At least one of them did not come back.
Anthony was the Ardleys’ only son. If something happened to him, Uncle William and Aunt Sophia surely would be devastated. Uncle Leon too.