Chapter 22
William’s Struggles

Ester brought in the mail the Professor forgot to get yesterday as she walked up the sidewalk to the Petters back door. The kitchen was always quiet in the early morning with the sunrise flooding through the window panes. She took the mail to the front hall table where she knew the Petters would see it. Then she noticed an announcement laying on the table. Ester had gotten better at reading English but this word was not something she had never seen before. S-a-b-b-a-t-i-c-a-l. She sounded it out. Still it was not familiar. She decided she would ask Mrs. Petters later and she walked back in to the kitchen. Taking out the ingredients for dough she began her day: preparing the dough for rising, making the coffee for morning breakfast, making an egg pie which the Petters call ‘keesh’ (quiche). Ester didn’t understand the name, but it was their favorite breakfast. She squeezed the fresh orange juice and set out the butter and jam and yesterday’s bread in the dining room. She sighed as she walked back into the kitchen again and put the pie in the oven to bake. Ester started to daydream about how much she liked her work at the Petters, especially after the sad year with Elsa gone. She thought about William who couldn’t find his way back from her death and poor baby Bertie.

Thank God for his adopted Grandpa, Mr. Yungdahl. Yungdahl sure took that child into his care. As much as Olof and Anya and I tried to help William, he just didn’t seem to accept the child as his own. Losing Elsa made William lose his will for living. He barely kept his business going. Olof was constantly redoing work that William did and Olof kept the customers from firing William. Olof was at his last straw. He even told me that he was looking for other work with the Union, maybe even downstate. Olof didn’t want to leave William but he had to think of his own future too. He was planning to talk with Yungdahl about it soon.

“Good Morning, Ester!” Hearing her name called brought Ester out of her deep thoughts and she came back to her cooking when Mrs. Petters entered.

“Bring the coffee in now, please. Thank you. Ester,” Mrs. Petters said. “It is a lovely day.” She smiled.

Ester brought the coffee and the rest of the meal to the dining room and the Professor asked her to please stay to hear their news.

He said, “Ester, Mrs. Petters and I will be going on a Sabbatical European Tour starting in the spring. The University has allowed me time to study for the next year rather than teaching. We will be closing up the house and we have to release you and our housekeeper. We will give you a letter of recommendation and compensation pay for a month.”

Ester drew her hand to her mouth to smother a small shriek and she almost fell down as she backed up but she was caught by a chair parked against the wall next to the sideboard.

Mrs. Petters got up and put her hand on Ester’s shoulder to reassure her. She said, “Now Ester, we expect this is a shock to you and we wished we could keep you on but the expense of our travels over the next year will not make it possible for us to keep our staff as well. Your work is exceptional and we will be sure to highly recommend you. We are sorry for this set back but we have no choice.”

Ester eked out “Yes Mrs.” as many worries flooded into her mind. She got up and walked back into the kitchen unable to say anything just then.

“Oh dear, I don’t like this at all.” Suzanna Petters said to her husband.

The Professor mumbled something to himself as he folded the paper he was reading and put it on the table next to his plate. He looked up and said to his wife, “Susanna my dear, this is such an opportunity for me and for my work and for us. I know it’s a sacrifice but we just don’t have the income to pay the staff while we are gone. We’re not the ‘landed gentry’ you know.” He said trying to tease her acceptance.

“Yes I know dear but, oh well, I will try to adjust. I don’t want to give up a European tour either. Maybe we can find something else for Ester with one of our friends or contacts. Please dear, think about who might help us and I will also look into it. You know how you like her pepperkoker cookies.” She smiled teasing her husband back.

The Professor said he would consider if he would be able to do anything further for Ester but told his wife she was his first concern.

Meanwhile, Ester sat down at the kitchen table stunned at the news she had just gotten. It seemed there was always some hurdle she had to overcome in life. Just when she somehow managed to start to move on from losing baby Marie and then Elsa now another job was ending. She knew she couldn’t begrudge the Petters their opportunity even though it was at her expense. They had been nothing but kind to her. What next? She didn’t want to lose her apartment. She didn’t want to go back to the Chalbergs.

“Oh my.” She sighed out loud. At least, she thought, I have some time to come up with another job. Maybe Anya can suggest something. What will I tell Olof? Hmm. She took a deep breath and said out loud to herself. “Now I’ve just got to finish baking today’s bread.” And she took the raised dough and put it in the waiting bread pan.

 

 

Earlier last week Olof and Ester planned a meeting to go for a walk. Olof had been working later and later each day trying to keep William’s jobs on track. It meant that he and Ester didn’t have much time to talk except in passing when they saw each other at William’s place. But then they were both there to help William, not to visit with each other. Finally, they had agreed to take a walk together so they could talk alone. Olof was looking forward to seeing Ester. He wanted to talk with her about problems happening, over and over again, with William. Every chance he could William had to have a drink. Sometimes he’d even carried a bottle with him. He tried to hide it when he took a drink, but as the day went on his hidden bottle was less and less hidden. Sometimes, Olof would even find William sleeping in the truck. Then Olof would have to finish some detail for their customers which William should have been doing.

Olof was so grateful for the opportunities his friend had given him. William had taught him so much about the carpentry business in America. He wanted to stick by his friend, but he was more and more worried that they would lose the respect of their customers if William continued his drunken behavior.

 

Now Olof had been offered a job out of town, and he wanted to talk with Ester about taking it. They were going to meet at 7:00 o’clock on the corner by William’s house after they both had finished giving Yungdahl a hand.

William hired a nurse maid, but she was only a day worker so William cared for the child in the evenings. Of course, Mr. Yungdahl was always available for organizing things when he was needed. Still, William was often found asleep or passed out.

Mr. Yungdahl had given him a good ‘talking to’ but William would break down in sobs about Elsa. It just broke Yungdahl’s heart. The last time they spoke about his drinking William just walked out of the house in a rage. It was one night last week, just after Olof and William had returned home from work. William had passed out in the truck. Olof had just left him there and went straight over to Yungdahl’s to tell him what happened that day.

 

 

“Mr. Yungdahl.” Olof called as he knocked on his door. The nurse maid was standing on the Carlson’s porch waiting for William to come in and take the baby so she could go home.

“Yaj! Coming.” Yungdahl opened the door. “Olof, what’s wrong?”

“William” was all Olof could get out before Yungdahl marched passed him saying. “Where is he?”

Olof just turned toward the truck and Yungdahl kept going in that direction.

“William!” Yungdahl shouted as he approached the truck. William hadn’t budged.

“Wake up, you fool. You’ve got a child to care for.” Yungdahl shouted as he opened the truck’s passenger door and started to pull William out. He woke up in a start thinking he was being attacked and started to fight Yungdahl. Olof pulled him off Yungdahl shouting,

“William, it’s just Mr. Yungdahl and me, Olof.”

William jerked them off him and stepped away. “What’s going on? Are you mad?” He said rubbing his head.

Yungdahl lit into him with a barrage of angry words in his face.

“You have got to get yourself together. This nonsense has to stop. Think of your child. Elsa would not want this for him or you. They will take your child away from you if you don’t straighten out. Son, this is enough.”

William just pushed Yungdahl away and bumped past Olof heading back to the truck.

“Stop!” Olof yelled, “You can’t drive away now.” But William just got into the truck and pulled away.

Ester had just come walking around the corner to see William driving away and Olof and Mr. Yungdahl shouting after him. Baby Bertie was crying and the nurse maid was trying to calm him down. Ester took the child into her arms and he started to settle down. Olof and Mr. Yungdahl came over to her.

She said, “What happened with William?”

“The same old thing. He’s drunk and Yungdahl here tore into him but this time he got mad and left.” Olof told her.

Yungdahl said, “Ester can you stay with the child? I’m going after William.”

Olof chimed in before she could answer. “I’m going with you.”

Ester looked shocked, but said. “I can stay with Bertie. Do you think it will be long?”

“Yaj! Yungdahl said. “Could be a few hours. We don’t know where he’s going so I can’t say. Olof meet me in the alley.” Yungdahl took off to get his automobile.

Olof said, “Ester talk to the nurse, will you?” And he left.

Ester spend some time assuring the nurse that she should come back tomorrow and Mr. Carlson would be fine. They went into the house and the nurse got her things together to leave. She wasn’t very happy since William usually gave her a ride to the streetcar stop. She went on and on about how now she would have to walk and she would probably miss the early streetcar and get home too late for supper. Bertie was fussing, too, acknowledging his nurse maid’s concerns. Ester kept trying to calm them both down. Then the nurse left and Ester got Bertie a molasses cookie to chew on then he settled down too. Now Ester thought as she sat Bertie down on the sofa next to her. What could happen next?

 

 

Olof caught up to Yundahl as he pulled out of the alley. When he got in the auto, he asked.

“Where do you think he is going?”

“He’s probably headed for Howard Street down around Clark Street in Chicago. There’s plenty of bars further east on Howard.”

They drove around the streets in that area of Chicago looking for William’s truck. Finally about a mile east from Ridge Avenue, they spotted his truck. It was on a side street just around the corner, barely off of Howard.

Yungdahl said, “I’ll park down the street and we can look in the establishments in this area.”

The two men started walking down the street to the first bar, a place called McGinty’s. There was lots of noise carrying out to the street from inside. As long as they didn’t say anything none of the customers would bother them while they looked for William. They were just another couple of workmen coming in for some comfort after a hard day. They plowed through the crowd but had no luck finding William. Yungdahl signaled Olof to leave.

Outside on the street again, Olof asked. “Wouldn’t it be easier if one of us waited by his truck while the other looked in each establishment?” Then he said. “You stay here Yungdahl, I’ll just go on down the street to the next place.”

“Yaj, you go. Be careful. You don’t want to be getting into any conversations. Just in and out. If you see William just come and get me and we’ll both pull him out.”

Olof went up and down the street. In and out of several places with no luck. He was just about to give up when he walked into this dark, quiet bar. He recognized that the men were not speaking English but German. Their voices were so deep that it seemed like they were talking softly.

The barkeep called to Olof in English. “Have a stein min freund?”

Olof shook his head ‘no’ and walked to the back of the room.

Then the barkeep started yelling at him. “Go on, if you’re not buying any beer, you’re just up to no good.”

This stirred up the customers and some of them got up and started coming towards Olof yelling something in German. Olof feeling trapped look around for an escape and he saw that the back door to the alley was open so he took off running and yelling in Swedish “Yungdahl, I’m coming out, get over here!” as loud as he could.

One of the men coming after him yelled at the crowd. “He’s a Swede.” But Olof didn’t hang around to hear what else he was saying.

Running down the alley in the dark with only the street light at the end to guide him, he made it to the street and turned to run back toward Howard Street when he tripped over something in the gutter. It was a man. He pulled himself up and from tripping and realized the person was William. He quickly ran out to Howard and called to Yungdahl down the next block.

“It’s William. Here.”

The two men pulled their friend up to his feet and practically carried him to his truck. They put him in the passenger seat and Olof got behind the wheel.

He said to Yungdahl, “I’ll follow you to your automobile then we can both drive home.” Yungdahl signaled his approval of the plan.

William was breathing but he was incoherent and in and out of a stupor. Yungdahl rushed down the street to his parked auto and then Olof followed him home. It was almost four hours before they got William home and into his bed. The baby was long asleep. Ester had made dinner but it was cold by the time they got back. Neither man felt much like eating. She made them something to drink.

Yungdahl said to Olof, “I will stay here while you take Ester home. You are coming back here tonight?”

Olof stared at Ester and Yungdahl, He really wanted to go to his own place but he knew William would need him in the morning.

“Yungdahl, you have to be here in the morning too.”

“Yaj, go now I’m tired.”

Ester and Olof left Yungdahl sitting on the sofa and they went out into the dark night.