CHAPTER 12
Eventually I drifted into an uneasy sleep.
I didn’t tell Annie about the phone calls when she came over the next morning. She could be trusted with any secret, but I wasn’t quite ready to come to terms with it myself yet. And I certainly wasn’t ready to let her know that our nighttime escapades might soon come to an end. Besides, we had plenty to talk about once I told her what had happened with Frankie.
“What a complete ass!” she yelled.
“Shh! My mother will hear you!”
That’s all I needed, my mother forbidding me to see my best friend because of one little word, which is exactly the kind of thing that my mother would just love to do.
“Oh hogwash!” Annie said, waving her hand dismissively. “You’re mother is too uptight for her own good. No wonder you’re out there every night looking for adventure.” She put one hand on her hip. “And that Frankie doesn’t know what he’s missing. He would be so lucky to have someone like you.”
I sigh.
“Forget about him. There are plenty more fish in the sea. More handsome even, and powerful!” she said, with a wicked glint in her eye.
“Not in this town,” I said.
Annie thought about that for a moment, then nodded in agreement. “Okay, maybe not from this town, but Frankie isn’t the only recent import. The Boss brought plenty of fresh blood with him when he moved here.
I shrugged, thinking there was no way anyone would ever measure up to Frankie, plus the Boss would always have his stupid age rule anyway.
“Just look at the boys I’ve met,” Annie continued, beaming, drifting off to some little dream world doing who knows what with who knows which handsome stranger she’d gotten her hands on last night.
I let her have her fun. If I couldn’t have any, someone should be able to.
“You should find somebody like my Jimmy. Oh, he is a handsome devil,” she said, smiling. “Devil being the operative word, if you know what I mean.” She actually winked.
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes even though I secretly couldn’t get enough of her stories. How else was I ever going to learn the ways of the world? It’s not like I’d learned anything other than how to be a perfect lady in my house. I relied on Annie to give me the how not to be a lady education. I couldn’t help it, it just seemed like so much more fun. Unfortunately, it looked like we were running out of time.
“You will not believe what we did. We snuck into the fountain, you know, outside your Dad’s work building, and went skinny dipping!”
My jaw dropped. “You went skinny dipping in the Mayoral fountain?”
Annie giggled. “Well, okay, not total skinny dipping. We kept our underthings on, but let me tell you, those little briefs that Jimmy was wearing were not hiding much.”
We fell into a fit of giggles. Soon, my mother came in and ruined all the fun.
“Girls, what is all this ruckus? That is no way for ladies to behave!”
“Sorry Mrs. McKay,” Annie said, flashing her most gleaming of smiles my mother’s way. Then she immediately turned back to me and crossed her eyes. So of course I couldn’t stop giggling while I attempted my apology and ended up exasperating my mother even more. She walked out shaking her head and sighing.
When we finally found our composure, Annie was already making plans for our next outing.
“Jimmy wants to meet me again tonight. I bet we can get him to bring one of his friends along. We can double!”
I fumbled with my hands. “I don’t know.” After that kiss last night with Frankie, I couldn’t imagine going on a date with another guy. I was also more than a little worried about our safety. Not that we could possibly have such bad luck as to be caught in another of the raids.
“Oh come on, Sadie,” she looked at me, pleading. “You know what?” She got up and put her hands on her hips. “I am not taking no for an answer.” She marched over to my closet and started shuffling through my clothes almost violently.
I sighed. “What are you doing?”
“I am finding you something to wear. How can you possibly survive with all these prissy dresses?”
“I don’t know,” I said, slumping back into my headboard. “It’s not like I have much choice in the matter.”
“Wait a minute,” she said reaching in, then spinning around, holding the formal dress I wore to the annual Mayor’s ball.
“What?” I asked. “That’s one of the frumpiest things in there.”
I wondered if Annie was going loopy on me with all the late night partying. Goodness knows I was certainly tired these days.
“Well now it is,” she said, holding it at arm’s length and eyeing it up and down. “But wait until we’re finished with it. Off to my house.”
“Okay, but how are we going to sneak that past my mother?”
She shook her head at me like I was the saddest creature in the universe. “Do you recall how you sneak out past your mother?”
“Through the window?”
“Yes. Just drop it out and we’ll sneak around and collect it.”
“But, it’ll get all messed up.”
Annie raised her head to the ceiling, shaking her head a little. Honestly, I didn’t know what she was so frustrated about, it’s not like she was being very clear.
“Put it in a bag or something,” she said.
“Oh, right.” Suddenly I did feel rather silly.
We scrambled around in my closet and finally found a large laundry bag that would be suitable and chucked the whole works right to the ground.
“Are you sure it will be okay?”
Annie shrugged. “It’s not like it really matters. Your mother would never let you wear this again to a public function, and it’s too formal for anything else.”
She had a point, but I was still skeptical about whether I should just go ahead and ruin something so valuable. Of course, it would just eventually get given to some charity or another anyway.
“We’re heading out for tea,” I called to my mother as we hurried out the door.
She gave us an approving smile, no doubt highly impressed that I was able to convince Annie to attend something so proper. I supposed she thought I was a good influence on her.
If she only knew.
We grabbed the dress bag off the damp lawn and each held gingerly to an end. The bag was much too dirty to for just one of us to carry, but even with both of us carrying, it was cumbersome, especially trying to make sure it didn’t touch our clothes. Thank goodness Annie didn’t live too far away since anyone who passed us looked at us like we were absolutely crazy.
Annie’s mother was entirely too excited to see us with the dress. She loved to get her hands on a good fashion project, but thankfully, Annie slapped her hand away.
“No mother, this is just for me and Sadie.” She glanced over at me. “Well, probably just me. I have a vision and I’m going to make it happen.”
She put her nose in the air and walked off while her mother and I exchanged glances. Mrs. Cambridge even shrugged and shook her head, smiling a little, well used to Annie’s moods by now. We both knew once she got an idea into her head, there was no talking her out of it.
I hurried up the stairs after Annie.
Her room was a lavish display of all things dramatic, just like Annie herself. Newspapers were scattered everywhere, revealing her obsession with celebrities, fashion, and anything that had absolutely nothing to do with this boring little city that we lived in. The sooner she could break free of this place, the better. Even when she was a little girl, it barely held her interest. The shimmering green dress that she’d confiscated from my wardrobe actually did seem to be holding her interest for the moment though. She dumped the dress on the bed and frantically leafed through the paper from New York. She’d never actually talked about it, but it was Annie’s dream to someday move there and become famous. It didn’t seem to matter how she acquired her fame, just as long as people knew who she was. Judging by the way she was e
yeing the fashion pages, I thought becoming a famous fashion designer might be right up her alley.
A couple hours later, I was proven correct. The gown was an up to the minute version of some of the most stylish dresses in the papers. I doubt anyone in this city had ever seen the likes of something like it in real life. I was certainly going to stand out. The shimmery green of the dress was the first thing of course, but Annie had absolutely outdone herself, shortening the skirt (a little more than I was comfortable with, but she assured me it was perfect), and redesigning the neckline to an off the shoulder, draping style. It would have been wonderful on its own, but the matching headband complete with large peacock feather from her own closet made it completely perfect.
“There is no way anybody is going to miss you tonight,” Annie said.
She was right. The dress made a statement.
“Frankie is going to fall all over himself the second he sees you. He will not be a happy mobster,” she said, with a hint of mischief in her voice.
“And you’re sure Jimmy won’t mind if you bring me along?”
“Are you kidding? Being seen around town with a couple of the prettiest girls in town? Who would mind something like that?”
“What if he wants to be alone with you?”
She shrugged. “So what if he does? Doesn’t mean he get’s to, does it?”
I contemplated that for a moment. “Okay, but what if you want to be alone with him?”
She giggled a little. “I’ll just have to control myself, I suppose. Besides, who says you won’t find some hot daddy to sneak off with yourself?” she said with a wink.
“Annie!” I said. Honestly, I could not believe her gall sometimes.
I couldn’t imagine wanting to sneak off with anybody other than Frankie, let alone some stranger I just met that night. Of course, I couldn’t very well say that out loud, since Annie wouldn’t even think twice about doing just that and I didn’t want her to think I disapproved of her choices. And really, I didn’t. It’s just that she lived her life differently than me.
“You never know,” she said, and raised her eyebrows in that way that always makes me feel like she knows so much more than I do.
I changed from the fabulous green dress back into my regular clothes to head home. It would be much safer to sneak out later and get ready at Annie’s. If anyone caught me with that dress at my house, it would all be over.
The rest of the day at home was positively painful. After I’d made the decision to go out with Annie, time seemed to slow to a standstill.
I played piano while Emily tentatively practiced her singing. Her win at the competition had given her the opportunity to travel to an even bigger competition, all the way to the capitol city where she’d compete against other winners from the area. I don’t know how my mother managed, but she must have convinced my father it would get our family name on the ears of an even bigger voting public. Goodness knows he would fall all over himself to find a way into a larger government platform. The thought sent shivers down my spine.
“You sound amazing,” I said, as we finished the song.
Emily smiled, still looking a bit defeated. Only my father could make a person lose all hope in her dreams.
“You’re going to do so well,” I tried.
Emily shrugged.
“Look Em, don’t let him crush you. He knows as well as we do that you’re the best. That’s why he’s allowing you to go, you know. Do you really think he’d send you off to the capitol city to go sing if he thought you’d do anything besides perfection?”
She still looked at the floor, but I couldn’t help notice her eyebrows raise, just a little. She knew I was right.
“Besides, this could be your ticket out of here someday,” I added.
She looked at me then, her eyes filling with hope. “What do you mean?”
“Em, there are places all over the world looking for someone who can sing like you. You could be on Broadway, for goodness sake.”
“No,” she said, shyly, but a hint of excitement was springing back to life in her.
“Yes. But only if you work really hard at it.”
I turned back to the piano and started playing one of her favorites, “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” which of course she could never sing if our father was around, but I swear, I’d never seen her sing anything with such intensity in my life.
After practice, we all ate supper in silence other than the clock mocking us with its loud ‘tick, tick, tick.”
Unfortunately, when we were almost finished, my father decided to break that silence.
“I heard you practicing today,” he said, more to his plate than anyone at the table.
I glanced at Emily whose eyes grew wide with fear.
But it was me that he turned to. “I will not have you filling our Emily’s head with your ridiculous songs and ridiculous notions.”
He stared at me, waiting.
Of course there was no correct reply to this, but I knew from experience that I’d better hurry up and answer before he lost even more of his patience.
“It was just for fun…”
“Fun? That’s what you call fun? Singing a ridiculous song about being lonely?”
“I just…”
“Do not interrupt me young lady! From now on you will stick to the hymns I have approved and nothing else! There is hardly enough time as it is if she is ever going to be good enough for the competition!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Emily’s face crumple. Why did he always have to be so mean?
“Father, you know she’s fantastic.”
“Fantastic? Who cares about fantastic?” He turned to my sister. “Emily you have to be technically perfect, there is no room for the ridiculous artistic trills you put into your singing. No one wants to hear that. They want to hear it the way it’s supposed to be sung.”
Emily whimpered a bit and I was desperate to get the attention off her.
“There isn’t a way a song is supposed to be sung,” I said. “It’s about the interpretation, Father. When someone really creative and talented sings, magic happens.”
I really don’t know what I was thinking. Why would he start listening to reason now? Especially with everything that was going on. I could practically see steam coming out of his ears.
“Magic?” he scoffed. “I honestly don’t know where you come up with your ridiculous ideas. Margaret,” he said, turning to my mother, “what have you got her reading? There will be no more New York papers coming into this house!”
My mother nodded once and kept on eating, absolutely enthralled with the food on her plate.
“I haven’t been reading anything in the paper! Is it so impossible to believe that I could have ideas of my own?”
I had actually dared to raise my voice to my father. Apparently my mother and Emily couldn’t believe it either, since they’d both stopped eating to stare. Emily had even forgotten the roll she’d been holding to her mouth, mid-bite. With my words, the air had been sucked out of the room.
Even the clock seemed to get quieter.
My father’s face was turning as dark as the wine in his glass, and I prepared myself for the worst. But instead of yelling, he spoke in a low, excruciatingly even tone. “I do not know what has gotten into you Sadie, but you will go to your room until you remember what it is to be a part of this family. And if you ever talk back to me in the future, you will never see the outside world again.”
I just as calmly stood and set my napkin on my half-eaten plate, taking a step back from the table. I placed my hands gently on the back of my chair and took a deep breath.
And I screamed as loud as was physically possible. “I. Hate. Being. In. This. Family!”
Then, I moved. I moved as fast as my legs would walk while still trying desperately not to look like I was running away from the situation, even though, if I was being honest with myself, that was exactly what I was doing.
I slammed my bedroom d
oor and crawled under the covers of my bed, waiting for the door to burst open.
But it never did. It killed me to think about Emily, out there to deal with the mess I’d made. There was no yelling though, only quiet, the way the house always was. It was as if nothing out of the ordinary had even happened, which might have been the most worrisome part of all.
I literally stared at my wall for what seemed like hours until my parents finally retired to their room for the evening. I waited a few minutes, probably not long enough to ensure they were really sleeping soundly, but I just couldn’t stand it any longer.
I’d opened the window hours earlier in anticipation of my great getaway so it was easy to sneak out quietly. Except for one thing, that is. As one leg dangled out the window, a tiny knock sounded at my door. My heart raced and my mind seemed to go blank.
Okay, calm down, I told myself. I jumped back inside, then glanced down, remembering I was fully clothed. There is no way that would not arouse suspicion. I dove under the covers and closed my eyes just as the door slowly creaked open.
I realized a second later that I was holding my breath, which was obviously not good when I was supposed to be sleeping. But my heart was beating a million miles a minute and my breath would be ragged. I mustered all my concentration on trying to breathe as smoothly as possible.
And then the strangest thing happened. The door simply shut again. I lay still for what seemed like forever, not knowing for sure if the person had entered and closed the door behind them, still in my room—in which case they must have been the quietest breather ever—or if they had just peeked in and then left.
I was still for another few minutes, finally deciding there was no way anyone could be that still and not have made a sound. Just to be sure though, I made a big production of rolling over, all tired like, as if I were just shifting in my sleep. I opened my eyes, just a little, enough to see, but could still fake it if I had to keep pretending I was asleep.
I’d never been so relieved in my life to see that no one was in my room. Until, that is, I suddenly realized that this was still news of tragic proportions.
Someone was checking up on me.