MINNIE STOOD IN MRS. TURNBULL’S drab sitting room, with its dusty old lamps and rickety card table in the corner, and tried not to fidget while Constance explained their purpose.
“We’ve come to ask if Edna would be willing to share her room with another girl.”
Mrs. Turnbull clapped her hands together and looked Minnie over with genuine interest. “That’s a fine idea!” she cried. “Edna’s about to work herself to death. You can share in the rent and each pay your own board. It’s the smallest room, but you won’t mind, will you, dear? We can just squeeze in a cot. I suspect it’ll be more comfortable than the place you’ve been sleeping.” She gave Constance a meaningful look as she delivered that last line.
Constance didn’t want to tell too much about Minnie’s situation, so she merely said, “Miss Davis was being held as a witness. She was never charged with a crime herself. Owing to the amount of time that has passed, she lost her place at the jute mill in Fort Lee and had to give up her room. All she needs is a fresh start. If I can get her on at the powder works, I hope you’ll be willing to wait on the rent until after she’s been paid.”
That was satisfactory to Mrs. Turnbull. Constance took Minnie quickly out the door and over to the factory to make sure she could find a place for her.
“Show them what a good worker you’ll be,” Constance whispered as they walked into the enormous brick building that housed the fuse workshop. Minnie looked around with wide eyes, taking in the long row of machinery and the girls in their white caps working quickly and silently.
“It reminds me of the knitting mill back in Catskill,” she said. “The machines are almost the same.”
“That’s good, then. You’ve already had practice.”
Mrs. Schaefer was down at the other end of the room talking to one of the girls. “There’s the superintendent,” Constance said. “Do your very best.”
When Mrs. Schaefer came around, Constance told her that Minnie was a good worker who knew her way around a knitting machine and a jute mill. Minnie obliged and said that it all looked very familiar.
“We’re always looking for girls with experience,” Mrs. Schaefer said. “You wouldn’t believe how many runaways we get. Girls who have never worked a day in their lives and want only to get out from under their parents and to do as they please. We’re not in the business of helping girls to go against their parents and run wild. There’s no fraternization with the men, and I want you in a good reputable boarding-house if you’re not going home at night.”
Constance said, “You won’t have any trouble from Miss Davis. She has every reason to work hard and to do well. She’s to room with Edna Heustis. I’d like a word with Edna if she can be excused.”
Mrs. Schaefer seemed satisfied with that. “If you two girls can help each other, and stay out of trouble, I’ll put you on the line.”
Edna was plainly nervous when she saw Constance, but when the matter was explained to her, she agreed at once to share her room with Minnie. The two girls shook hands solemnly, and Constance reminded them that she would be back to look in on them.
Mrs. Schaefer took Minnie off to be outfitted for her uniform. While she was gone, Constance told Edna what she hadn’t wanted to say in front of them.
“I know your room’s awfully small as it is, but it’ll save you both a little money. And to be honest, I’d like you to keep an eye on her.”
Edna nodded, wide-eyed. “Has she done something terribly wrong?”
“No, of course not. She’s had a difficult time, but it’s nothing you haven’t heard before. I took quite a risk and, honestly, this is the only chance she’s going to have. I’m asking for your help, Edna. Do what you can to be a good influence on the girl, and promise me that you’ll send for me right away if she starts to go even a little bit wrong.”
Constance was worried that Edna would be furious with her for putting her with a girl like Minnie, but Edna seemed pleased to be entrusted with the responsibility and said that she would do what she could. “She’ll learn to like it here, just like I have.”
Edna seemed so sure of herself, and so accepting of the very little that life had given her. If Constance was being honest, she would’ve admitted that she put her sympathies in with Minnie, who wanted so much more than factory work and a rented room in a small town. But there was nothing she could do for Minnie’s ambitions, other than to win her a small measure of freedom.
“I’ll be back to check up on you,” Constance promised. “You’re both my responsibility, and I want to see you do well.” She said her good-byes to Edna and told her to walk home with Minnie and get her settled.
The five o’clock bell rang just as Constance left. As she walked back to the train station, she could hear dozens of girls calling to one another, their voices clear and free in the cold air.
IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO MOVE a cot into Edna’s room. Instead, after much grunting and moaning and pushing and shoving, Edna’s brass bed went out and two cots went in. “I hope you girls get along,” Mrs. Turnbull said when she saw the arrangements. “You hardly have enough room to turn around.”
After she left, Edna and Minnie sat on their cots and faced each other. Minnie’s ambition was to sneak away that very night, or perhaps the next, and to go straight to New York, where she would take on a new name and a new life. But then Edna said the most remarkable thing, and Minnie stopped thinking about New York all at once.
What Edna said was: “It’s just like the Army.”
Minnie gave her a puzzled look.
“I mean, with the cots. You can almost imagine us in a military camp outside of Paris.”
Minnie shifted around on her cot and took in the rest of the room. Edna’s war literature was everywhere: there were leaflets on the wall, brochures on her bookshelf, and lessons and diagrams scattered across her floor, all of them having to do with bandages and signal flags and uniforms.
“What is all of this?” Minnie asked.
Edna watched as Minnie picked up a brochure and paged through it. Although Minnie was only sixteen, she had a certain swagger about her that Edna envied. Minnie was, as her mother might have said, brash: She was tall and broad-shouldered, she talked loudly, and she waved her arms around for dramatic effect. There was something larger than life about her. She picked up Edna’s things as if she owned them. She seemed like a girl who knew what to do.
It would be impossible to keep a secret from Minnie. Finally Edna said, “This . . . ah . . . it has to do with the war.”
Minnie looked up at her, her mouth hanging open. “The war?”
“Yes. In France.”
Minnie rolled her eyes; that much was obvious. “What about it?”
“I . . . well, I intend to go. To serve. In France.”
Minnie looked up abruptly and dropped the pamphlet. She leaned forward toward Edna, her elbows on her knees.
“You? By yourself?”