Dancing Hours

by Jennifer Browning

  Nessa and Joyce joined the church choir and youth group hoping there might be some dances or other fun to be had. Kids didn’t have much to look forward to in those days. Joyce dreamed of getting married young and moving as far away as she could manage. Nessa just dreamed of the moving away part.

  In the summer of their 16th year, Joyce got pregnant. Her father expressed his displeasure with his fists. Joyce’s mother stopped speaking to her; the family couldn’t afford another mouth to feed. Nessa never knew who the father of the baby was. If she had, she would have made him do the right thing if it meant borrowing her granddaddy’s shotgun to make the point clear. Maybe that’s exactly why Joyce wouldn’t tell her, or anyone else for that matter. She would only say that she’d loved him and the baby was conceived in love and would grow up with love. By the end of that Fall, undiagnosed eclampsia claimed the lives of both mother and child. The Bible had not prepared Nessa for that. The minister told her that Joyce had gone to be with God and that His will was a mystery, but to have faith that He had a plan. As far as Vanessa could see, God had forgotten to make a plan for her.

  As if that were not enough to break the spirit of a young girl, her radio also broke. Life had become simply unbearable. George was no help – telling her that when she was done feeling sorry for herself she should think about getting a job. Thoughts of taking her own life drifted in and out of Vanessa’s mind, but ultimately she realized it was better to die while trying to live than the other way around.

  When her mind was made up, nothing could dissuade Nessa. She decided to leave home and never look back. Joyce would have been proud. Everything Nessa owned fit neatly inside a single grocery bag. Looking at the bag you would think her life was a sad state of affairs. She might look like a poor, plain girl with next to nothing and most of the time that’s how she felt, but more than being just poor and plain, she was determined. And while she packed her sad grocery bag, Nessa had a strange and unfamiliar feeling. It was a little something like hope. Nessa considered whether she might sell the necklace she’d gotten from church at her confirmation, but figured it probably wasn’t worth much anyway and left it on her bed in case the family might need it. She never found out.

  She went to her hiding spot under the porch and pulled out all the money she’d ever saved up in a jar of coins and crumpled notes. She raided Joyce’s hiding spot too since she figured her best friend wouldn’t mind. When she looked inside the old glass jar, just like her own, there were only a few dollars there. Joyce had spent most of her money trying to get ready for the baby that had no name yet, the baby whose father couldn’t be troubled to care, the baby that Nessa would never meet.

  When the bus stopped in Los Angeles, she had nothing left and had not eaten in days. She was used to being hungry and being broke was pretty natural to her too. So when the man approached her at the station cooing “Hey, sweet baby” and offering her a meal, some new clothes and a place to stay, Nessa knew he was a two headed snake and she laughed and walked away in no particular direction. He yelled at Nessa angrily, but she considered herself a scrapper and knew she could take him if he came after her. Walking led her nowhere. The streets were busy and completely unfamiliar. Like many young runaways, she found an alley and tried to get some sleep.

  Within a couple of weeks she had made some friends, several of whom were working girls whose boyfriends took a hefty percentage of their profits. The girls on the street introduced her to a nice woman who took her to a shelter for women and children – Nessa wasn’t sure which one she was supposed to be. The lady bought her lunch and tried to convince her to go home to her parents. That wasn’t going to happen, but Nessa appreciated the kindness.

  Soon enough, Nessa got a job at a place called The Club. She never heard of places like The Club – where women performed and men watched and drank liquor. There were other activities too, but Nessa minded her own business about those. She met a lot of girls who had met men like the one at the bus stop. With dreams of a fine life they had fallen prey to his charms and ended up doing terrible things in the name of love or money. Many of them had been badly hurt. One of those girls she met wasn’t even a girl at all, but it didn’t much matter in the dressing room of The Club. It was a strange and wild family, filled with people who needed a new home.

  Vanessa would tell you that in those months before she found The Club, she tried her hand at other jobs, but didn’t like them much. Most of the legitimate jobs wanted proof that she was old enough to work. Nessa didn’t even know if she had a birth certificate.

  It was terrible money at first, but Vanessa made the best of it. She started out serving drinks to the patrons – mostly men – who came to see the show. She spent the slow times backstage learning dance routines and making friends. They didn’t treat her like a child, and she didn’t act like one.

  She watched carefully to see what riled up the crowd and what left them unimpressed. She visited other establishments and watched their performances, paid attention to the outfits, the music and took notes. Every once in a while, she’d pick a dancer at The Club and give her an idea to wow the audience. Before long, all the dancers were coming to her for advice and she performed alongside them.

  Under her tutelage, the girls took out the moves that would make a grown man blush and added more material that was new, exciting and different. She almost single-handedly turned it into a classy joint and over time she and the girls that she took under her wing – some much older than her – became an act that everyone had to see. It wasn’t Vegas, it was better. The owner of The Club took notice. How could he not? His profits doubled with Nessa’s help.

  Leonard Wright valued Vanessa’s loyalty and her hard work. She became a star performer, a surrogate mother and a stage manager over time. The money followed her success. Vanessa had more than she could hope for and she quickly shunned the drab, shapeless garb of her childhood in favor of bright, happy clothes. It was almost her signature. When she first was able to afford her own apartment, she decked it out like a rainbow. You’d never find a floor the color of dirt in her home, she decided.

  Leonard was doing so well after a decade of Vanessa’s hard work that he began another business, a restaurant this time, which was an immediate success. Vanessa recruited the chef by scouring the culinary academies looking for a young firecracker who would turn Los Angeles on its heels. Leonard grew fond of Vanessa, not just for her ability to turn everything into money, but because she was loyal and hardworking. If The Club was a family, Vanessa was the big sister and Leonard was the father.

  When Leonard’s wife, Katherine, began her struggle with cancer, Vanessa stepped in to keep track of the books and manage his businesses in his absence. She was a stern, but fair manager. In the evenings she stopped in at the restaurant and had the chef prepare a dinner for two and a breakfast and lunch that would be easy to warm up or could be eaten cold. The chef grumbled about the inconvenience: butter, cream and sauces were best eaten fresh, but she thought the ingenuity improved his cooking. That same chef later started a regional line of frozen foods that was quite popular.

  Katherine was grateful for the food and Vanessa’s determination. She had accepted her fate early on, but for Leonard’s sake, Katherine underwent every test, procedure and treatment available. “The treatments are as bad as the disease.” She confided to Vanessa one evening after Leonard had drunk himself into a stupor. It was on that late night that Vanessa made a hard promise to make sure Leonard would be okay. She gave Katherine the reassurance she needed. Katherine fell asleep with a smile on her face that night. She only survived another two days.

  2

  When Katherine passed away, Leonard was distraught. Vanessa had seen a lot of people who were desperate and she knew the look of a man who had given up on life. The loss of his Katherine nearly destroyed him. He stopped checking in on his business ventures and by all accounts drank himself numb each day. Vanessa felt sorry for Leonard, but didn’t know how to help. She did the only thing she
could do – she lied to everyone.

  While dropping off his meals one day, Vanessa realized that Leonard had checked out, maybe for good. Without his involvement and approval on business matters, he’d be destitute in no time. So, she drafted a memo to The Club and restaurant managers, from Leonard, appointing her as Executive Officer. She didn’t really know what that meant, but it sounded important and she hoped that it would give her the authority to do what needed doing. She forged the signature she’d seen hundreds of times and felt not the least bit proud of herself.

  Her first act as Executive Officer was to hire a personal assistant for Leonard. She chose carefully a sensible woman with nursing experience who seemed capable of discretion and patience. Most importantly, Dorothy was attractive enough to get her way when necessary.

  On the way over to Leonard’s home to introduce Dorothy to him, Vanessa eyed Dorothy carefully, hoping she’d made the right choice. “He won’t like it at all when we get there, but I need you to be persistent. He lost his wife and he’s a surly cuss right now. Your job is to keep him and the house cleaned up, make sure he’s fed, water down his drinks and whatever you do don’t let him do any business unless he’s in his right mind. I’ll be by twice a week to check up on him and you can tell me how he’s doing.”

  The introductions were brief. Leonard didn’t seem angry. He didn’t seem to care at all. He barely answered the door and returned to bed before Vanessa left. Dorothy reassured her that Leonard would be just fine.

  Vanessa went to work. At first she was reluctant to make any changes and kept things pretty much the way Leonard had run them. She knew how The Club and the restaurant operated, but Leonard had some other dealings with people who refused to speak with anyone but him. They had packages to pick up and deliver, packages that needed to go in the safe, and large cash deliveries. Even after Vanessa showed them the memo, they balked. She volunteered that they could try calling him at home, but she didn’t know what he would say if they did call. Eventually, the mysterious packages were dropped off with and picked up from her. The money she was given was tucked away safely in Leonard’s safe. She kept a separate book regarding those transactions and never attempted to look behind the curtain for fear of what she might find.

  After a year or so had gone by and Leonard still had no interest in how his business was going, Nessa started making some bold moves – mostly things that she had already mentioned to Leonard and gotten a favorable response. She stopped by Leonard’s home at least twice a week. He had good days and bad days, but mostly he was doing the same. Dorothy mentioned to Vanessa that Leonard had been receiving a number of calls from his accountant, a man named Samuel. Samuel had also called Vanessa, but she was afraid to call him back and Leonard flatly refused.

  Making bank deposits and paying people their salaries was one thing, but signing financial papers on Leonard’s behalf was a little farther than Vanessa was prepared to go. It had taken every minute of her incomplete education in math for her to understand the books well enough to know whether the business was doing well or not. An accountant might find her out as the masquerading fraud that she was. When Samuel’s calls at The Club became more urgent, Vanessa finally decided to go to Dorothy for help. At Leonard’s home that night, Vanessa saw him sitting with a glazed look – drink in one hand and a sweater that belonged to his late wife in the other. He looked like he’d been that way all day.

  “Has he eaten anything?” Nessa asked Dorothy.

  “No. Not today.”

  “Oh Dorothy. What am I going to do? The accountant has been hounding me to meet with him and to meet with Leonard. Do you think you could get him cleaned up and sober enough to smile and shake hands?”

  Dorothy looked sadly over at Leonard “Is that the man that calls here looking to talk with him? He’s very persistent.”

  “Yes, Leonard’s tax papers are overdue and I think I need to talk to him about some of the investments that are losing money. I could use his help, but I need Leonard to tell him that he can trust me and talk to me about the businesses.”

  “You know Leonard doesn’t want to talk about that stuff anymore. He’d be out on the street by now if it weren’t for you and I think he knows it, but some days I can’t get him to get dressed.”

  “I know and that’s why I need him to let me take care of things. Maybe if you tell him he just needs to have one meeting and we’ll leave him alone, he’ll be able to shake it off for a bit.”

  Dorothy sighed deeply. She had come to know Leonard very well over the last year. Vanessa sensed that she felt protective of him, which was a good thing.

  “Can you give me a week?”

  “Yes, I can do that. I’m sure I can do that. Can you get him a haircut and a shave too?”

  “You bet.”

  Vanessa wasn’t at all sure she could put Samuel off for another week, but she had no choice. She called him and took the approach of setting up a meeting, a week away, without asking his availability. She could hear the reluctance in his voice, but she reassured him that Leonard would be there. In fact, they could meet at his home.

  When the day of the appointment arrived, she came early with her fingers crossed that it would all work out okay. She had an ache in the middle of her chest and felt like she couldn’t breathe. It felt like her body was trying to constrict upon itself and shrink into the center of her breastbone. She wondered if this was what a panic attack felt like.

  Vanessa rang the bell and tried to breathe deeply, but her lungs were too small. Leonard answered the door and he looked quite dapper. His hair had grayed a bit over the last year and his smile wasn’t quite as grand, but he looked very much like the old Leonard. Dorothy had really come through.

  “So good to see you my dear.” Leonard said, giving Vanessa a hug. She fumbled and met Dorothy’s eyes with a questioning look. Dorothy gave her a thumbs up.

  “It’s wonderful to see you too.” She meant it sincerely and wondered if Leonard might be ready to come back to work. She supposed she would find out. Dorothy had prepared one of the Leonard’s favorite meals and he abstained from drinking that night.

  “I know I need to stay sharp. You’re going to like Samuel, Nessa. I’ve known him since he was a boy. What you’ve got in street smarts, he’s got in book smarts. And he’s saved my assets more than once.”

  Dorothy began to relax a bit while she chatted with Leonard and Dorothy, but the tightness in her chest migrated to a knot in her stomach as the appointed hour crept upon them.

  Samuel arrived right on time and Leonard volunteered to answer the door again while Vanessa and Dorothy pretended not to be listening. After the initial niceties were exchanged, Leonard nearly shouted to the man “Come in! I’d like to introduce you to a couple of beautiful ladies.”

  As they rounded into the living room, Vanessa’s heart skipped a beat. Here was the man whose calls she had been avoiding. He was plainly dressed, but handsome with dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes. Dorothy was introduced first and Samuel bowed and kissed her hand, which made Dorothy giggle and slap his hand away. He did the same to Vanessa, but she was too nervous to be playful. She said she was pleased to meet him and he responded “The pleasure is all mine.” He smiled warmly and held her hand for a moment too long. Leonard was the only one who didn’t seem to notice.

  Leonard was ready to have dinner and even said he was famished, a miracle in itself; but Samuel declined saying he had so many accounts to go through that he just planned to grab a sandwich.

  Leonard chided “Nonsense. I was your first client and you have most of those accounts because I got them for you. You can have dinner with us.”

  His commanding tone was a flash of the old Leonard and a good sign. Samuel was powerless to refuse and Vanessa knew it. They ate at the kitchen table and Vanessa knew it was because the main dining room was a shrine to the late Katherine’s china and sewing supplies.

  A small table could be delightful if you wanted to get to know someone, but now
was not that time. Vanessa’s stomach was in knots trying to figure out how to steer the conversation to her involvement in the company, when Leonard inadvertently assisted.

  “You may have seen my notice regarding Miss Swift. She has been handling my affairs for me while I take some time to myself.” Leonard said to Samuel.

  Vanessa had no idea he had seen the memo and was shocked he had any idea what she was doing. Samuel regarded her and she wondered what he was thinking. It was unconventional for a woman to exert any control over business decisions in those days, at least publicly. To her surprise, Mr. Moore called it a wise decision.

  “Now, I believe she may have some difficulty gaining respect using her own authority and so she acts in my name. Are you following me?”