here are they? What could be keeping them?” I asked. “Do you think they missed the train from Hyde Park?” Stephen and I were surrounded by crowds of people moving purposefully through the high-ceilinged open spaces of Dearborn Station. Smoke from locomotives and tweets of whistles resounded in the great palace of transportation. With Jack and Tommy, we were able to get all the trunks to porters who were loading them into the baggage car, while we stood beside the door to the first-class carriage Clara had reserved. Toots of a horn warned of departure, while we all stood in a circle trying to catch a glimpse of Clara, her two children, and Lizzie.
Finally, Stephen spotted her and waved his arm impatiently, signaling them to hurry, but when a breathless Clara reached us, with Ollie in tow, she had bad news. “I’m sorry. It’s Lizzie and Penny. They’re gone. They weren’t in Penny’s room this morning and I couldn’t find them.” She stopped to take a breath as she hung onto Ollie’s hand.
Lizzie! My anger turned immediately to fear. She was barely thirteen years old, my little girl.
Stephen took Clara’s arm. She was not a woman who fainted, ever. But her face was drained of blood and she stumbled her last steps toward us. “Calm down,” Stephen said. “What happened?”
She gulped some breath and shook her head, holding Ollie’s hand up. “Ollie says they went up to the film studios…by themselves. He said they told him they were going, but he didn’t believe them.”
The film studios! Lizzie was so stubborn. But, despite the fact that she was younger, Penny was a much more dependable girl. The Selig studios were more than an hour from our home, reached only after traveling on several different trains and streetcars. “But how? They can’t know how to get there,” I said.
Ollie spoke, looking ashamed of himself. “Penny knows. She paid attention when Father took us. I didn’t think they’d really do it.”
“I didn’t know how to get there or who to tell,” Clara said. “I need to go look for them but I need you to tell me how to get there, Emily. I have no idea where it even is. I’m so sorry.”
“Oh, Clara, it’s not your fault. It’s Lizzie, I’m sure of it. It’s at least a train, then a walk, then a streetcar after they left Hyde Park.” I thought of how many places along the way they could be lost. “We’ll find them,” I said. Suddenly, a long whistle burst sounded, signaling that our train was about to depart. “All our luggage is on the train,” I said. This was Alden’s fault. Yet again. “Listen, you all get on the train and go. I’ll find them. I’ll bring them on a later train.”
“We’re not leaving with the girls missing,” Stephen said.
“But you must. The luggage is already loaded,” I told him. He could be so stubborn sometimes. I had to fix this. I’d allowed Lizzie out of my sight when I knew she was intent on returning to the studios. It was Stephen’s idea to let her stay at Clara’s. He always underestimated Lizzie’s strong will but I should have known better. I shouldn’t have agreed. No doubt she hounded Penny till the younger girl agreed to go. Once again, we were all held hostage to Alden’s ambitions. He was the one who’d taken the children to the Selig studios first. Another long blast of the whistle startled me. “Stephen, listen to me, you have to go. I can find them. I promise we’ll be on a train tonight, tomorrow at the latest.” Why couldn’t he see that they needed to get on that train?
When I moved to urge the boys onto the train, Stephen grabbed my arm. “No, Emily. We’re not going. You go find them. The boys and I will get the luggage and go back to Hyde Park. No, we’re not leaving. And, Clara, I need you to stay and help me and the boys.” Stephen gave me a long look with a sharp nod in Clara’s direction. She was on the verge of collapse, so I pushed Ollie over to hold her up. Stephen was right. Alden had ruined it all…again.
“Emily, go!” Stephen said before he turned away, taking Jack and Tommy with him toward the baggage car.
“Clara, he’s right. He needs you here. I know how they might have gone. I’ll find them and if I don’t I’ll get the police to help. You need to get back to Hyde Park with Stephen and the boys in case they return there. I promise, I’ll find them.” Then I turned to fight my way through the station and out to the street. I was so angry with Lizzie, and I was so angry with Alden, that I barely noticed the throngs as I pushed my way through.
After grabbing a seat on a streetcar that was crowded with lunchtime workers, I sat and thought furiously of what might have happened to the girls. No doubt Lizzie had hoarded her pennies to pay the fare. She would have kept them in her small crocheted purse for the trip to Woods Hole. She must have taken that with her when she went to Penny’s. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d raided her brothers’ savings as well. Lizzie was ruthless when she wanted something, and she must have been planning this all along when she asked to stay at Clara’s overnight. I had no idea if Alden could have been involved. I didn’t see how but, I was so furious with him, I placed the blame squarely on his shoulders.
I knew both girls were intelligent and could be careful if they chose, especially Penny. She was more than a year younger than Lizzie, but she was a much more thoughtful little girl. She should have known better than to cause her mother such pain by disappearing. I wondered how much the children really knew about Alden’s troubles. We’d tried to keep it from them but perhaps we assumed we were successful when we were not. Lizzie was fearless to the point of foolishness. In that she reminded me of my brother. But Penny was not like that at all. She was a kind, levelheaded girl, but she was also extremely devoted to her father. Lizzie might be determined to see the filming of her favorite story, and want to defy me in the process, but perhaps Penny just wanted to see her father before she was pulled away from him forever.
As I attempted to sniff fresh air from the open window at my back, to counteract the smells of garlic and onion from some of the workmen on the streetcar, I stifled a sob. Lizzie was still only a little girl. I should have kept her by my side. She could wear me down with her pestering, and that was what led me to agree to let her stay overnight at Clara’s. I felt a horrible hole in my being as I realized I’d just wanted to stop listening to her bickering. How could a mother do that? How could I do it? What if they were lost, or hurt, trying to reach the film studios? What would I do if anything happened to Lizzie and Penny? I had an even worse thought when suddenly the picture of Olga’s prowling leopards came to my mind, and then the leap of the raging lion. There was a lion in the Oz stories, albeit a cowardly one. What if they were using a real lion? What if the girls had made it to the studios only to fall victim to an accident with those animals? It would be so like Lizzie to want to get too close to them. I felt myself being stifled in the hot streetcar, fighting to catch my breath. If anything happened to Lizzie it would be my fault…not Stephen’s, not Alden’s, mine.
“Excuse me, excuse me.” We reached Western and Irving Park Boulevard, and I had to fight my way to the exit to jump down before the streetcar started up again. I ran across to the doorway with the “S” in stonework above it. A glance at the backlot showed little activity, so I picked up my skirts and climbed the stairs to the third floor, thinking someone up there would be able to tell me where they were shooting Oz.
Rushing into the great open space, I blinked at the bright sunlight and spotted a group of people in front of the barnyard set. My heart fell when I didn’t see the girls. I hurried over, as I thought I saw Alden, foolish Alden, between the silhouettes of two men. I was rudely pushing through them to grab his arm when I saw his hand on familiar braids in front of him. Thank God! Lizzie and Penny were sitting on a bench with a blonde woman between them. Kathlyn Williams, of course. They were straining to watch the action in front of them and the usual yelling was going on. Looking up, I saw they were filming the scene of the cyclone and, for a minute, I was distracted.
A haystack was moving through a field. Two men in animal suits and the scarecrow were clinging to the sides, while a little girl, who must be Dorothy, clutched her small dog. She was sitting in an indentation in the big haystack that was being rotated by men pulling on ropes outside the set. The haystack traveled between a broken fence and painted scenery of a field that extended a few feet up from the ground. Behind all this hung a painted canvas representing a sky filled with ominous dark clouds, and that backdrop was moving from right to left, then being pulled around the back and through again. It gave movement to the sky while other men tossed pieces of hay from the sidelines and everybody yelled at the top of their lungs. Conditions in the film studio actually seemed to reproduce a cyclone ripping through the place. I was amazed.
I heard my daughter’s insistent voice, competing with the rest. “But there was no cow in the book and no donkey. Why are they there? That’s wrong. That’s not how it was in the book.”
I stopped. My joy at finding my daughter turned to a flaming anger. “Elizabeth Chapman, do you have any idea how much trouble you’ve caused?”
Lizzie turned toward me with her mouth open, and I could see her eyes widen with growing apprehension. She knew she was in deep trouble. I saw Penny reach up to grab her father’s arm. Alden turned with a happy look that quickly dissolved into a frown when he saw how angry I was.
I pushed through the crowd of people and took hold of Lizzie’s hand, pulling her to her feet. “Come on,” I said, nodding to Alden and Penny to follow. It was much too crowded and noisy to properly scold them there. The producer, Mr. Turner, was yelling about how the little dog playing Toto was not performing his part and the dog was alternately squeaking and barking as he was chased around the room. I was glad no one seemed to notice us.
I could only think of one place where I could express myself without an audience, so I headed for Col. Selig’s office on the second floor. Pulling Lizzie behind me I burst through the door. Since the frosted glass panel in the wide oak door had hidden the occupants, I was embarrassed to face Col. Selig who sat behind his desk with Broncho Billy opposite him. Both men rose at the intrusion.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you were here,” I said. What a blunder. I squeezed Lizzie’s hand and she yelped.
“Ah, Mrs. Chapman…and Mr. Cabot. It’s all right. We were just finishing our little talk. Mr. Anderson here was just leaving.”
Anderson slipped past Alden and out the door before I could comment.
“You were perhaps looking for a little privacy?” Col. Selig said. “No, no, that’s quite all right. I need to go up and see how Oz is coming along, come on in.”
I attempted to apologize but he’d correctly assessed the situation as a family dispute in which he had no stake, so he took his hat and cane and hurried to the door. “Take your time,” he said from the doorway. “Take all the time you wish. No need to hurry.” And he disappeared, closing the door firmly behind him.
“Alden, how could you do this? Do you have any idea of the worry you’ve caused? Not to mention the practical problems. We had all of the bags loaded on the train! We were supposed to leave this morning. All of the arrangements are ruined. Stephen and Clara had to get all the bags unloaded. Do you have any idea what the girls’ disappearance has done to Clara? How could you be so cruel?”
Alden opened his mouth at the beginning of my tirade but, as I went on, his mouth hardened into a stubborn expression. When I stopped for breath he finally spoke. “Emily, I did not bring the girls here. They came on their own.”
“Don’t lie to me!” It was his fault. Even if they had come on their own. And he should know that.
“No, please. Aunt Emily, it wasn’t Papa. It was me. I did it. Lizzie told me she wanted to go and I did, too. I wanted to see Papa. I didn’t want to leave without seeing him.” Penny was tall and dark like her mother. She felt the seething anger in the room more sharply than my own daughter, who I could see was gathering her energies to put up a fight. I felt bad for young Penny.
“Penny, don’t you know how worried your mother is? Col. Selig has a telephone. I’m sure he won’t mind if we use it on this occasion.” I pointed to where the instrument sat on the colonel’s desk. I suspected Penny would be better able to operate it than I was. “Please call your mother. I think she should be home by now. Although they had to shift all the luggage to take it back again.” I glared at Alden.
Penny gulped back some tears and rushed to the desk. She spoke to an operator to get a connection. Lizzie stood with her hands clasped in front of her, wisely keeping her peace. Her eyes wandered around the room and she looked at the ceiling, avoiding my angry glare. Alden thrust his hands into his pants pockets and stood with rounded shoulders.
Penny burst into tears as she spoke to her mother. I knew it was because she realized how much she’d hurt her, rather than Clara’s remonstrations, that made her weep. She beckoned to Lizzie and gave her the telephone receiver.
Lizzie held the piece with two hands and listened with wide eyes. It was the first time she’d used a telephone, I was sure. The deep tones indicated she was being talked to by her father. Stephen would not be as hard on her as I would, of that I was sure, but she was more likely to listen to him. I saw her look surprised, then frown, then become a little weepy as she said she was sorry. Then, with a look of contrition and apprehension, she held the receiver out to me.
“You found them,” Stephen said, when I held the instrument to my ear. “That’s a great relief.”
“You got back safely? Did you manage to retrieve all the trunks?”
He sighed. “Mostly. I think one or two may have gone on to Woods Hole. We’ll have to make new arrangements for later in the week or early next week, so there’s no need for you to hurry back, as long as you’ve found them.” The tone of his voice lowered. “I think Clara may have decided that she wants to stay until the business with Alden is cleared up.”
Across the room, my brother was watching me and I saw him flinch. He knew we were talking about him. I was once again in the position of knowing he’d lied to Detective Whitbread. Now, I would have to do something about it. I told Stephen I’d bring the girls back with me and said goodbye.
“I’m sorry,” Lizzie said as soon as I lowered the receiver. “I’m sorry I made you worry. It was my fault. I got Penny to take me because she knew the way. I kept asking her to go with me till she had to do it.”
Alden had his arm around poor Penny, who was weeping into his shoulder. I was sure Lizzie had made a pest of herself until the poor girl agreed. But Clara’s resolve to remain in Chicago now probably had to do with Penny’s fears for her father.
“You were very bad,” I told my daughter. “You caused a lot of people a lot of trouble and don’t think you won’t be punished for it. But I need to talk to Uncle Alden right now. So, you and Penny can go back up to where they’re filming and watch, as long as you stay out of the way.”
A look of pure bliss appeared on Lizzie’s face. It seemed wrong that her bad behavior should be rewarded, but the film people lived in such a state of constant chaos, I doubted they would even notice the girls. And, if Lizzie should disturb them with her comments on their deviations from the books, I thought it would serve them right. I had no patience for the film people at that moment.