by Alexa Kang
“Come along, Tessa. Time to go.” Uncle William put his hand on her back and urged her along.
On the rear deck of the ship, she watched the view of coastline shrink out of her sight. When she could see the port no more, she went to the bow to watch the ship head out to the open sea. The sea was so wide. She couldn’t see what was ahead beyond the horizon. She felt so small in an ocean that went on without end.
She entered the school building with more than fifteen minutes to spare. While she was putting her coat away in her locker, a few students said “good morning” to her and she politely nodded and said hello. She put the books she needed into her book bag, then closed her locker and headed to her classroom.
In the two months since she started school at St. Mary’s, she had acquainted herself with only a few girls. If the teachers hadn’t assigned them to work on projects with her, she wouldn’t even have gotten to know them. Most of the time she avoided getting into conversations with the girls here. The first thing they always asked was what her father did. She didn’t like that. Talking about herself and her parents with strangers always made her uncomfortable. People, outsiders of no consequence, always wanted to pry into her father’s private life. Reporters from the Daily Mirror were the worst. And then, whenever people found out she was Dean Graham’s daughter, they always looked her up and down with curious eyes. She would rather not draw attention to herself or her family.
But here at St. Mary’s, the occupations of their fathers were of great importance to the girls. It was an unavoidable subject. The difference was, when they found out her father was merely an actor in England, they lost interest. Their indifference didn’t bother her. She preferred to be alone anyway. She always felt more comfortable in her own solitude. She had never been good at small talk and she didn’t like to have to explain herself. Besides, most of the girls here reminded her of Katherine’s friends she had met earlier in the summer. They bored her.
As she approached her classroom, Lilith and Isabelle walked out. Seeing them surprised her since they were upperclassmen and didn’t belong there. When they saw her, they snickered and walked past her without acknowledging her. After she refused to help them with their scheme to get close to Anthony, they never spoke to her again. When they ran into her at school, they ignored her and pretended not to see her.
At least Katherine was right about one thing. The students at St. Mary’s liked Lilith and Isabelle. They took their cues from them and stayed away from her. Even Katherine. Katherine couldn’t avoid her entirely because of their family relations, but at school, she tried hard not to be seen with her. That was all right too. If Katherine wanted to keep her distance, Tessa was happy to oblige. Pretending to be friends with people with whom she shared nothing in common was not something she ever did anyway.
In the classroom, scattered groups of students gossiped and laughed while they waited for class to begin. The moment she entered, their laughter and chatter turned to whispers. She had a feeling they were all watching her. Strange. The girls didn’t usually pay attention to her.
The reason for their behavior soon revealed itself. A tabloid magazine, Movie Stars Weekly, lay on her desk. Right away, she recognized the annoying face of the actress and her phony smile plastered across the front cover. The tagline under the magazine title read, “Alina Fey on Love, Loss, and Regrets.” She scanned the classroom for the culprit. Everyone pretended to look away, but she knew they were all waiting for her reaction. She picked up the magazine and threw it into the rubbish bin. A few girls giggled. She walked straight past them and returned to her seat.
The nun entered the classroom and everybody shushed. Class began with a morning prayer. Tessa prayed for only one thing. To be able to go home. When the prayer was over, she looked up to the front of the classroom. The clock on the wall above the blackboard struck eight.
Remember, she told herself. Time. It would only be a matter of time before she could leave and go home.
# # #
After school, Tessa took the Alley L downtown to the post office. She wrote home at least once a week, and she always sent her mail at the Main Post Office on the South Loop. Maybe she worried too much, but she didn’t trust the branch post offices. She didn’t want any risk of delay. She wanted to make sure her letters would get to London as fast as they could.
Today, a festive mood buzzed in downtown Chicago. Shoppers filled every street corner. Christmas lights and decorations sparkled and shone in every shop and store. The excitement even chased away the depressing boredom that always followed her when she left school.
“Merry Christmas!” A man dressed in a Santa Claus suit bellowed. “Merry Christmas!” He pulled on the bell hanging on a stand propping up a sign reading “The Salvation Army.” The rings of the bell charmed all the passersby. She smiled at the man in the Santa costume and dropped a coin into the red kettle before moving on.
A rush of warm air soothed her face when she opened the door to the post office. The clock on the wall showed five-thirty. She got there just in time before the post office closed at six.
She got excited too soon. The place was packed with people sending holiday cards and packages. Last in line, she had no choice but to wait for her turn.
“Hi, Tessa. Sending letters to your folks again?” asked the girl behind the mail counter. Her name was Ruby. She was a high school sophomore too and she worked here after school.
“Hi, Ruby. Yes.” Tessa took two letters out from her school bag. “Here they are. Would you please mail them for me?” She placed six cents on the counter.
“Of course.” Ruby took the coins. “You must really miss them. I would be so sad if I had to live away from my parents. Here. I’ll put the special Christmas stamps on your letters for them.” She sealed the red and green stamps on the envelopes and showed Tessa. The stamps depicted two boys and a girl singing Christmas carols with the words “Christmas Greetings 1940” printed at the bottom.
“Thank you.” Tessa brushed the stamps with her thumb. Besides the Ardleys and the Caldwells, Ruby was the only person who had ever tried to cheer her up about being away from her home.
“Do you work every day?” Tessa asked. “You’re here every time I come.”
“Four days a week after school. I like it. I can make extra money to help my folks.” She put Tessa’s letters in the pile behind her. “See you next time.”
Tessa took a few steps away, then turned back. “Ruby, would you care to visit sometime? My uncle has a phonograph. We can listen to music together.”
“A phonograph? I would love to! I don’t know anyone who has one.” Her eyes brightened and she clapped her hands together, but then her smile vanished. “I better not. I don’t know anyone around where you live. Nobody I know ever goes there.”
“You know me. And you’ll meet my Uncle William and Aunt Sophia. I know they’ll welcome you.”
“Meet your aunt and uncle? No thanks.” She drew back into her chair. “I’d be too scared.”
“Why? My aunt and uncle are very nice people.”
“I’m sure they are.” Ruby cast down her eyes. “It’s me. I won’t feel comfortable. Girls from a school like yours don’t mix with girls like me. I’ll feel awkward if your aunt and uncle ask me questions about myself. What if they ask me what my parents do?”
“Why would that be a problem? What do your parents do?”
“My father works at a steel mill. My mother is a maid at the Hotel Georgette. I can’t tell your aunt and uncle that.”
“Why not? My aunt and uncle won’t think less of you, I assure you.”
Ruby shook her head. “No. I appreciate your invitation, but I can’t.”
Disappointed, Tessa turned away, but then another idea came to her. “I know. Why don’t I come to your home then?”
“You want to come to my home?”
“My aunt and uncle have a cook. She’s not British but she makes fabulous scones and pudding. I can bring some over and we can have after
noon tea together.”
“I don’t know…” Ruby said, trying to hide a smile. “I live on the South Side. It’s not like where you live. I doubt you’ll like it.”
“Why? Why won’t I like it?”
“My neighborhood is shabby, and some of the people there are not very nice.”
Tessa waved her hand. “I’m from London. We wrote the book on shabby neighborhoods. Haven’t you ever read Charles Dickens?”
Ruby’s face went blank.
“No matter. I bet you there are places much worse where I come from. It can’t be worse than the slums on the East End. I’d like to see if where you live is as bad as you say. Let me visit and I’ll tell you all about bad neighborhoods in London. What do you say?”
“You’ll bring scones and…pudding, did you say?” Ruby asked. “I like chocolate pudding.”
“Sure. That would make a splendid Christmas pudding.”
Ruby looked confused, but nonetheless broke into a smile. “Okay. How about this Saturday? I can meet you at the L station here at the Loop and bring you there.”
“Fantastic.”
“Oh, and don’t wear your St. Mary’s uniform. If people see you’re from a private school, you might get mugged,” Ruby joked.
“Who wears school uniforms on Saturdays?”
Chapter 8
When she came out of the train station at Canaryville with Ruby, the first impression that struck Tessa was gray. The buildings, the streets, the people, everything was gritty and gray. It was a drastic change of scenery from the North Shore community where she and the Ardleys lived. Here, homes clustered together in old, low-rise buildings. Dull shop signs hung above dusty display windows showing even duller goods.
The only fresh color came from blood. Streams and trickles of blood flowed down the gutters, staining the streets. The blood leaked from the buildings where men were unloading carcasses of hogs and cattle from their trucks and wheeling them inside. She had never seen so many dead pigs and cows.
“You said you wanted to see this. This is the Irish neighborhood,” Ruby said.
On a closer look, there was more beyond the gray. On the doorsteps outside the buildings, children played unsupervised. In front of a restaurant, a large, rotund man in an apron swung his arms in every direction, hurling commands at two smaller men delivering boxes of food and supplies. Women hurried down the sidewalks on their way to work. At a convenience store nearby, teenage boys lolled about, smoking and laughing. Everywhere she looked, there were signs of a vibrant community.
“Ruby, your home is nowhere near where you work. Why didn’t you take a job at a post office closer to where you live?”
“My mother doesn’t want me to work around here. She worries I might get mixed up with the gangs. The post office downtown is close to her hotel. She wants to keep an eye on me.”
“Did you say gangs?”
“Uh-huh. They own this place. The Irish gangs run the Chicago police force and half the city’s government. The gang everyone’s afraid of is the Colt.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “They work with the Outfit.”
Tessa had never heard of this before. How could a gang run and control the city’s government? The Ardleys never mentioned anything about that, and they were friends with all sorts of government officials and politicians. “What’s the Outfit?” she asked.
“It’s an Italian mob. Al Capone owns the Outfit and the Outfit backs the Colt.”
They came to the steps of a four-story walk-up. “Here we are,” Ruby said. “My home.” She opened the building’s front door. Before they went inside, a boy about fifteen years old came running up to them. “Ruby! Ruby!” he shouted. “You better come quick. Jack, they put out a fire again.” Having caught up to them, he stopped and bent over, trying to catch his breath.
“He has! That’s great,” Ruby said. “Did he bring back anything good this time?”
“Come look.”
Tessa didn’t understand what they were talking about.
“Come on, Tessa, let’s go.” She grabbed Tessa by the arm. “By the way, this is Henry. We grew up together.” She turned to the boy. “Henry, this is my friend, Tessa.”
“Hi, Tessa. Nice to meet you,” Henry said, taking off his hat and revealing a mop of red hair. His coat, worn-out and at least two sizes too big, drowned him. But everything awkward and dingy about him faded to insignificance when he broke into a smile. He had an infectious smile, bolstered by the freckles across the bridge of his nose. “Let’s go.” He ran back the way he came. Ruby ran after him, pulling Tessa along.
“Where are we going?” Tessa asked.
“We’re going to Henry’s home. His older brother Jack is a firefighter. Every time the firefighters put out a fire, they bring back loot from the places that were burned down. We’re going to see what Jack brought back this time.”
Tessa didn’t know what was happening, but Ruby and Henry were so excited, they got her excited too. She ran along with them. For the first time since she came to Chicago, she was having fun.
# # #
Henry’s home was only two blocks away. When they arrived, he led them into his building and up to the third floor where he lived. His apartment was a small unit with only a few pieces of basic furniture cramped inside. An old couch stood against the wall. The single window above it let in only dim shafts of sunlight. A wooden cupboard and a cabinet next to the couch held all of the family’s shared belongings. The unit had no separate kitchen, only a cooking stove next to the living room door.
Tessa knew the housing conditions in this neighborhood would be far from luxurious, but she had never seen a more barren home. The walls didn’t have a single piece of decoration. Only two framed photos of the family on top of a small icebox gave the place a homey touch.
On the right side of the room, a young man with short strawberry-blonde hair was unloading various items from his canvas bag and spreading them across the small dining table. He looked about eighteen, tall with a slender frame, and agile in the way he moved. When they entered, he looked up. His eyes crinkled when he smiled. Tessa liked him right away.
“To the victor go the spoils,” the young man said.
“What’ve you got?” Henry rushed over to the table. “I want to see!”
The young man ignored him. “And who is this lovely young lass?” he took Tessa’s hand. “I’m Jack. I slew the dragon, escaped from his breath of fire, and brought back troves of treasures.” He kissed her fingers and made her laugh.
“She’s my friend Tessa. Tessa’s from England,” Ruby said. “Tessa, this is Jack. Henry’s older brother.” She joined Henry at the table to examine the loot.
“Hello,” Tessa said to Jack. “Ruby told me you’re a firefighter. You take things from the places that burned down? Isn’t that...stealing?”
“No, no, no.” Jack laughed. “Stealing is too strong a word. More like taking my fair reward. All of us firefighters are volunteers. We risk our lives to save people. The loot is payment for our services. Besides, if it weren’t for us, these things would’ve been burned to ashes.” He pointed to the icebox. “See that over there? That would’ve been a goner if I didn’t save it and bring it home.”
“It’s okay, Tessa.” Ruby reassured her. “This is how things are. Everybody here knows that.”
Jack picked out a silver bracelet from the table. “A gift for my sweet Ruby.” Ruby happily put it on her wrist. Next, he picked out a toy machine gun for Henry. “This is for you, fearless warrior.”
“All right!” Henry said. “Look. I’m a soldier.” He held the toy gun up, pretending to shoot.
When it came to Tessa’s turn, Jack leaned back and crossed his arms. “Hmmm…I didn’t expect a new initiate today.” He combed through the pile on the table. “Aha!” He found a red hair ribbon with small white polka dots. “This is for you. A welcome gift.” Tessa smiled politely and accepted.
“And for all of us, this!” He pulled out a long, narrow box from his
canvas bag.
“Monopoly!” Henry yelled.
“Oh, Jack!” Ruby said. “I’ve always wanted to play this.”
After Jack passed out the gifts, they went through the rest of the loot, sorting it into separate piles. “The watches and jewelry we can sell for money,” Ruby explained to Tessa. “We’ll divide the rest between Jack and some of our neighbors depending on who can use them.” She picked up a small, ornate silver music box. “This is beautiful!”
“Let me see,” Tessa said. Ruby opened the top and Tessa recognized the music immediately. “It’s ‘Fur Elise!’ Beethoven.”
“Fur Elise.’” Jack took the music box from Ruby. “I like that.” His eyes turned tender. “This is for Carmina.”
Ruby giggled.
“Carmina’s his girlfriend.” Henry rolled his eyes at Tessa.
“Let’s go give it to her now,” Ruby said.
“Okay.” Jack put the music box into his pocket. He headed out the door and they hurried after him.
Outside, they followed Jack to a car patched together with a mishmash of exterior parts. “This is your car?” Tessa asked him.
“Yes,” Jack said. “I’ve had it for a year. I worked at an auto repair shop two summers ago. I was a mechanic. This car was so broken the owner abandoned it. My boss didn’t think it could be fixed. He wanted to scrap it but I made a bet with him.”
“What kind of a bet?”
“I bet him if I could fix it, he’d give it to me. I worked on it for a long time and, ta-da! It’s good as new.” He started the car engine. “See? It’s running pretty darn good again.” He sounded so proud, she didn’t have the heart to tell him the car was just chugging along. She thought it might fall apart any moment, but it did move.
“Are you still a mechanic?” she asked.