23
As I left Central after work the next evening, Jack fell into step beside me. “Don’t look at me.”
Too late. I already had. As he nudged me toward a diner, I gestured to the driver to wait for me.
Jack grabbed my forearm, opened up the diner door, and shoved me inside. He could have done it a little more gently. “What do you think you’re—”
He marched me over to a booth in the very back. And then he plunked me into a seat and sat down across from me. “Something kept bothering me after I saw you down at Faneuil Hall that night. It was the guy you were with, that Joe Brooks. He looked familiar. And I kept thinking about it and thinking about it and then I remembered where I’d seen him before: at a football game. So you know him.” It wasn’t a question; it was a statement.
“We’re neighbors.”
“So that bit about wondering what was going to happen to the kid I was talking about . . . you knew I was talking about him.”
He ran a hand through his hair. And then he swore. Looked up at me. “Sorry.”
It was nothing I hadn’t heard in the dormitory.
He pulled a torn bit of newspaper from his pocket and pushed it toward me.
I picked it up. It was Irene’s obituary.
“I thought she was just some bearcat, but she was a co-ed! Why’d she have to get mixed with all of this? And what am I supposed to do now?”
I shrugged. “What were you supposed to do before?”
“Nothing. Unless I thought you knew something.”
“And what if I did? What were you supposed to do then?”
“I was supposed to let them know.”
“Who? King Solomon?”
He grimaced as he grabbed a menu. “Doesn’t matter.”
I pulled the menu from him and stuffed it back between the salt and pepper shakers. “It matters to me. And I’ll just bet it would matter to you if you were me too. But you’re not the one in danger of being murdered!” I waited for him to deny it, to tell me those people, whoever they were, had no such plans, but he didn’t. Which made me even more angry. “What are you doing going around with people like that anyway? You ought to be ashamed of yourself!”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“What are you supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? And what’s Griffin supposed to do?”
“Who’s Griffin?”
“Prince!” Good grief. They may be bad guys, but they sure weren’t smart guys!
“Just . . . calm down. Give me a minute to think about all this.”
The waitress came by with a coffeepot and held it up.
“Sure.” Jack took the cup in front of him from its saucer and turned it right side up.
She moved to turn mine over too, but I stopped her. “No, thank you.” After she left, Jack picked up his cup. He must have drunk a good half of it in one long swallow.
“Isn’t that hot? Doesn’t it hurt?”
“Never mind. We have to figure this out.”
“Just tell whoever the person is that doesn’t matter that I don’t know anything.”
“But you know him. You know that Prince Phillips kid.” Jack put his head in his hands and sat there staring at his coffee cup. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I wasn’t supposed to know you. You weren’t supposed to know anything . . . no one I knew was supposed to get hurt, see? It wasn’t supposed to matter because . . . it didn’t matter. I’m just doing a favor for a friend.”
“So you’re telling me it’s all right to do the wrong thing as long as it doesn’t hurt the wrong people?”
“I don’t know what I’m saying. Just . . . let me think.”
I’d already let him think, and it didn’t seem to be doing much good.
He looked up at me. “Could you just get the kid to do what he’s supposed to?”
“What he’s supposed to do or what you want him to do?” Somehow I didn’t think they were the same thing.
“Just tell him it’s for his own good.”
“No.”
“You understand what’s at stake here, don’t you? He’s going to end up getting himself in trouble.”
I already knew that! I knew all of it. That’s why I was trying to keep him out of trouble. “You’re telling me you want him to stop doing the right thing so the bad guys won’t do the wrong thing?”
Jack stared at me for a long moment. “Yeah. That’s what I’m telling you.”
“But he’s been working so hard at all of this—”
“Working . . . ?”
“And he’s found some really—”
“Found some . . . ? Why should I care what he’s found?”
“Because it’s important.”
“Listen to me: It doesn’t matter.”
“Something has to matter. Don’t you care that the mayor—” Wait a minute. Something wasn’t making any sense. “If it doesn’t matter, then why should anyone care? If no one was worried, then . . . they wouldn’t be worried. But they are. So it does too matter!”
“If you would just listen to me, then no one would get hurt.”
“Stop shaking your finger at me! Why can’t you just tell those—those—bad people to stop?”
“Stop?” He snorted. “What, you want me to tell them to just . . . be nice?”
“I wish . . . I wish people would just do what they’re supposed to. Why can’t they just . . . obey the law?”
“Because they’re people. And laws that can’t be enforced just . . . can’t be enforced. Do you know how many Feds there are in the city to enforce the Volstead Act? Less than forty.”
“They offered me a job, but I turned it down. Couldn’t live on what they wanted to pay me. But listen: There are over a thousand speakeasies. Close down one and three more start up to take its place. How do you expect me . . . how do you expect anyone to do anything about that? This law has turned everyone into a crook.”
“But . . . I’m not a crook. I’m honest.”
He raised a brow. “Sure, Janie. I don’t even think that’s your real name, is it?”
“I’m only trying to do a favor . . .” A favor for a friend, the same way he was doing a favor for a friend. Could I really say my favor was any different than his?
“So it’s all right for you to lie and do favors for people, but it’s not all right for me? Where’s the difference?”
“I don’t know.”
“Good. So now you’re back to being the I-don’t-know girl. I liked you better that way anyway.”
“Better than what?”
“Better than the too-good-for-the-likes-of-you girl.” He downed the rest of his coffee.
“I never said I was—”
“Oh yes, you did. In more ways than one.” He nodded, jammed his hat on his head, and walked out of the diner.
Another sleepless night. Even bigger circles under my eyes the next morning. Pretty soon I wouldn’t have to use a kohl pencil to look like Theda Bara. As I was eating breakfast, the butler came in and laid an envelope down beside my plate.
“Yes, miss.”
I opened it to find a telegram.
TO: ELLIS ETON
BEST OF LUCK STOP COMING TO SEE YOU
MOTHER
“Are you sure this is for me?”
He took the envelope from me and turned it over. “Miss Ellis Eton. Louisburg Square. Boston.”
I’d never received a telegram before. Whatever did it mean?
Father came into the dining room, newspaper in hand. I might have asked him, but he didn’t give me time to say anything. “Good luck, Ellis!”
“ . . . thank you?”
“We’re very proud of you.”
“Thank you.” I supposed I needed all the luck I could get, only . . . what on earth was he proud of? I finished my tea and left the table puzzling over what had come over everyone all of a sudden and why Mother was coming back, but I soon put it out of my thoughts. I still had my eyebrows to draw on and my teeth to brush. And by the time I was finished, the driver was waiting for me.
It was nice to be wished the best, though, and I walked into Central with a veritable spring in my step.
I remembered to turn my beads around.
I remembered to put my headset on.
I remembered to flip my switches and remove my cords. And to write down all my numbers before I transferred to them. It was almost easy. I’d finally become a real hello girl!
Only my inability to figure out what those men intended to do to Griff marred what was an otherwise perfect day.
The supervisor tapped my shoulder around noon and I followed Doris up the stairs.
“Well, look at that!” Doris was staring at the lunch counter.
“What is it?”
“They’re serving giblets. Things are looking up!”
I asked for extra and then I sat down with the girls. I ate while they talked about the latest Valentino movie. I hadn’t even known it was out.
Someone started playing “Hinky Dinky Parlay Voo” on the piano, and we gathered around and sang until someone whispered that the supervisor was coming. The tune changed to the much more sedate “Linger Awhile.” I was really going to miss these girls when I left for Hollywood.
As Doris and I headed toward the switchboard after lunch, we saw a commotion outside on the street. “I wonder . . .” I craned my neck, trying to see beyond her. She turned to look, then gave a dismissive wave. “It’s just the orphan asylum.”
“Orphan asylum?”
“Sure. They’re having some kind of pageant today, and all the bigwigs are coming to see it. Clogs up the traffic. Happens every June.”
I picked up my headset and put it back on. Spying a blinking light, I picked up a cord, wrote down the number, and patched the call through. The board stayed busy until about three o’clock; then all the lights seemed to go dead. A rare moment of peace. No one was talking on the telephone.
I hoped the street traffic would be back to normal by the time the driver came to pick me up. It was amazing a pageant at the orphanage would cause such a stir. Poor little orphans.
Orphans!
Good luck? Best wishes? Coming to see you?
Oh no!
No, no, no, no, no!
I was supposed to be at that pageant. At least, that’s what my parents thought. That’s why they’d wished me good luck. I ripped my headset off, bounded from the stool, and dashed—right into the supervisor.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I have to—”
“Your shift doesn’t end for another two hours.”
“I have to go.”
“If you want to keep your job you’ll—”
“I’m sorry.” I pushed past her and rushed toward the door.
Please, please, please!
I suppose it was a kind of prayer.
Please may they not have noticed I wasn’t there.
There were still an awful lot of fancy cars parked on the street.
I walked up the steps of the orphan asylum and pushed open the door, crept in, and then tiptoed down the hall. It sounded like . . . I walked toward a buzz of conversation and peeked around the corner. A reception was still taking place. If I could just sneak over to the punch table and pick up a few cups, then I could make it look as if I’d been helping out.
My mother and brother were talking to the Oliver Bradlees.
I sidled over toward the refreshments table and then veered away when sour old Miss Mary Adams appeared. I knew her. She knew me. And if she were in charge of the table, then I had no hope at all of making it look as if I’d been helping.
What could I do?
I found what I assumed to be an orphan and started up a conversation. She turned out to be a Quincy. We were related. At least . . . I think we were. Somehow. Back a few hundred years ago. I supposed . . . I could try to do something in the kitchen. That would look good, wouldn’t it?
I started out in that direction.
“Ellis Eton!” My mother’s voice cut through the murmur of polite conversation. There was no point in trying to hide now. I squared my shoulders and turned to face her.
Everyone else in the room did too.
“Ellis Eton . . .” At least she’d lowered her voice as she’d approached. She indicated the door with a twitch of her head. “To the car. Now!” She was eying my ear as if she’d like to take a good tug on it.
I covered it with a hand. “Wouldn’t you care for some punch?” As long as we stayed at the asylum, she wouldn’t dare to berate me.
Lawrence was making faces at me behind Mother’s back.
“No, I would not. We’re going home.”