QUEEN STREET WAS sprouting black umbrellas as pedestrians struggled to go about their business. It wasn’t worth my while to get on the streetcar so I hunched as best as I could into my raincoat and tugged my sou’wester tighter on my head. A milk cart plodded past. The horse’s head was almost dragging on the ground he seemed so weighed down by the weather. An old sack was his only protection against the rain. I wanted to run after them.
I could hear Gramps’s voice. “There will always be cruelty, Lottie. What are you doing to do about it? Buy up all the horses in the city and turn them out to pasture? Might as well include the stray dogs, and don’t forget the abandoned cats.”
A motor car sped by, sending up a shower of water that I dodged by inches. Bloody motorists. They thought they owned the world.
Mr. Rosenthal had said his shop was just north of Queen Street on the east side of Spadina and it proved to be not too far from the café. I walked as briskly as the rain permitted and as I was turning onto Spadina, I collided with a woman, who had paused at the corner, presumably to think about life and the relationship between rain and destiny. At least that’s what she might have been considering. She hardly seemed to notice that we had bumped into each other. She was standing stock still, staring down the road.
“Sorry,” said I. Then I realized it was in fact the young woman who had been part of the heated exchange at the Paradise Café. She nodded at me in acknowledgment of my apology, but she didn’t seem to recognize me as one of the, shall I call us, spectators. I would have let it go, strangers passing on a rainy street, but I saw that she was in fact crying. She’d faced her opponent with a fierce defiance, but she didn’t look fierce at the moment. Before I could engage her, she set off down the street walking fast. As we were going in the same direction I followed. I was sorry she had been brought to tears. My sympathies had been with her. Bertha was not endearing.
Over the past few years, Spadina Avenue had become the primary location of the city garment industry. The buildings that faced each other across the wide thoroughfare were red brick, square and unprepossessing. Toronto being what it was, a city with a soul, not to mention artistic aspirations, around the upper level of each building were beautiful carved friezes, utterly unnecessary if you only wanted to be practical.
Miriam had headed south and not too far from the corner, she suddenly stopped again. This time I was ready, and we didn’t collide, but I saw that we did in fact have the same destination. A sign above the door said, SUPERIOR LADIES’ CLOTHES. There was a small display window with a view of a mannequin with amputated arms and head. The torso was clad in a brown suit, with matching hat, so dull and uninteresting, it could only have appealed to the most dull and uninteresting woman. If that was what Superior was producing, I wasn’t surprised Mr. Rosenthal was worried about competition.
The young woman was shaking out her umbrella with a terrier-like ferocity. Suddenly she noticed I was standing nearby.
“I beg pardon,” she said. It was my turn to nod an acknowledgement. She pushed open the entrance door. I followed behind her.
“Are you coming upstairs?” she asked in surprise.
“I’m here to see Mr. Klein. I was told to come to the second floor.”
“Are you looking for a job?”
“I am. Do you work here?”
“I do.” She frowned. “You look familiar. Have we met before?”
I didn’t see any advantage to acknowledging my connection to the Paradise at this point. “I don’t think so.”
The door had opened onto a narrow flight of stairs, ill lit and uncarpeted. The wood was scuffed and worn as if many people had ground their despair and anger into the treads.
Miriam made her way up, me close behind. We reached a small landing where there was another door to the right. More stairs continued on up.
“Are they a good company to work for?” I asked.
She gave me a little smile. “Let’s put it this way. If somebody offers you a job cleaning spittoons, take it.”
She pushed open the door and went in.