Eastland (9 page)

It had been difficult to concentrate after hearing Mama’s
incredible prediction. But as we edged our way through the mass
of mourners in front of Mae’s house, the reality of the next few
hours came crashing in on me.

“I … I need a moment, Mama.” I stopped, sagging back
against the wooden fence post.
Mama stood beside me, gently stroking my hair. I closed
my eyes and thought about Mae and Mama. Two very different women, yet in many ways, the same. They had always been
strong and determined. But while Mama was cautious, Mae had
been fearless. Who was I most like? Mae or Mama?
Maybe, I was some combination of both.
“Miss Pageau? Is that you?”
My eyes popped open. The voice—husky and familiar—had
come from off to the right. But it couldn’t be. Not on this street,
in this crowd, so far from the Chicago River.
My mind clicked through every option as I slowly turned. But
I could think of only one person with a voice that deep.
“Miss Pageau! It is you!”
Lars Nielsen removed his cap, so crisp and white compared
to the grimy one he’d been wearing the first time we’d met.
His greasy hair had been groomed to a shiny, white-blond.
He looked all spruced up in a starched uniform that he filled
out so completely with his broad shoulders and barrel chest.
Everything about him seemed different tonight. With the exception of two things.
His warm smile and those mesmerizing, turquoise eyes.
“What’re you doing here?”
“I’m sorry.” He inched back. “I’m disturbing you.”
“No, wait!” I threw out my hand. “You’re not bothering me,”
I said in a more controlled manner. My cheeks flushed hot as I
pulled back my arm. “It’s only that I’m surprised to see you. You
know, so far from the docks.”
Mama touched my back, startling me with her presence. “I
will see you inside.” She slipped into the house.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “So, um, did you have
to travel far or do you live around here?” I’d never seen Lars or
anyone else with a build like his in this neighborhood.
“I rent a room in the city near the wharf. But well, Cicero
was hit so hard, lots of us mariners came here to pay our respects.” Lars paused, wringing his cap in his huge hands. “Could
we maybe go somewhere less crowded to talk?” He motioned
toward a deserted parking spot in the street.
I followed him down the sidewalk, off the curb, and into the
muddy street. I lifted the hem of my full-length skirt to keep it
from dragging.
“I’m sorry, Miss Pageau. This is no place for you.” He hopped
back onto the curb. I did the same.
“Very thoughtful of all you … What did you call yourselves?”
“Mariners. Short for Merchant Marines.”
“How kind of you mariners to come all this way for the
wakes.” I released my dress back over my shoes. “So, do you
know anyone from this neighborhood?”
“Only you. And your friend, Mae Koznecki. Saw her obituary
in the paper. I want you to know that I searched high and low for
her. But I never found her.”
“I did. In the morgue.”
Lars touched my hand. “That must have been terrible for you.”
“It was. It is.”
“You have my deepest sympathies.”
“Thank you.” Without warning, I burst into tears.
“Please, Miss Pageau. I didn’t mean to upset you.” Lars
kicked the big white-rimmed tire of the roadster parked in the
street beside us. “What an imbecile.”
“You are not. You were remarkable. You saved my life, and I
never even thanked you.”
“Well, now you have.” Lars lowered his gaze. “You weren’t
the only one who got saved that day.”
“Of course.” I wiped my tear-stained cheeks. “Hundreds
survived. I didn’t mean to imply I was the only one.”
“I’m not talking about survivors. I’m talking about me.” Lars
raised his head and looked at me with those startling, green-blue
eyes. My pulse quickened.
What was happening? I barely knew this guy, yet he was
making me sweaty and teary and very confused.
He sighed. “Oh, I’m not explaining this right.”
“I don’t understand. You weren’t in danger of drowning,
were you?”
“No.” He took in air and then blew it out. “I may have saved
your life, Miss Pageau. But you don’t realize how you saved
mine. I’ve always been only an assistant engineer. Rarely seen.
Never heard from. I love the lakes, but a mariner’s life can be,
well, kind of lonely.” He paused, grinding his cap. “After we’d
met, I thought perhaps things could be different.”
I stood there, speechless.
I
had rescued
him
?
Lightning cracked in the threatening sky.
“You’re getting wet, Miss Pageau. Would you like me to walk
you inside?”
“No! No, I’m fine. The rain reminds me I’m still alive.”
“You’re alive all right. And you look very nice in that dress. I
mean, I know it’s black and all, but still.” Blush rose in his bigboned cheeks. “It suits you.”
We stood there, staring at each other until I had to look
away. Was he flirting with me? Did I even want him to? Should
I flirt back? How could I, especially today? What kind of friend
did that make me?
“So, um, I wanted to ask you. There’s going to be some benefits this weekend. You know, to raise money for the families of
the victims.”
Was he asking me for a date? My hands went all clammy.
“There’s a Cubs game on Saturday afternoon. Management
is donating all the money from the admission fees.” Lars paused,
waiting for an answer with a look of expectation that made me
quiver. “If you don’t like baseball,” he said when I didn’t answer.
“There’s the ballet.”
“I’d love to go with you! It’s all for a good cause anyway.
People should help the poor victims.”
I was blathering. I wiped my sweaty palms on my dress and
exhaled.
“That would be nice, Mr. Nielsen. Thank you.”
“The ballet on Saturday? Then it’s a date?” Lars asked as
Karel burst through the crowd.
“Dee! There you are! I’ve been searching all over—wait! Did
he say date?”

The people on the sidewalk stopped to watch. I shooed the
nosy onlookers away and opened my mouth in an attempt to
explain. Lars stepped around me.

“How do you know Miss Pageau?”
“Mr. Nielsen and I met last week.”
Karel turned his glare on me. “What? Where?”
“Um, last Saturday.” I answered as quietly as possible.
“Saturday? The day of …” He made a slow, deliberate pivot

toward Lars. “You’re a sailor.” Karel eyed the white uniform.
“Merchant Marine, to be precise. First assistant engineer.”
Karel’s pallid face turned as dark as the stormy sky. “Not …

He pronounced the name of the ship with such fierceness, I
trembled.
“Yes. And I know what you must be think—”
Karel lunged, wrapping his hands around Lars’s thick neck.
Lars let out a gurgle of surprise.
“An engineer! If you had handled those ballast tanks right!”
Karel’s fingers were white around Lars’s reddened neck.
“Stop it!” But Karel wasn’t listening. He had forgotten all
about me.
“You killed my sister!”
Lars’s turquoise eyes widened. He went slack.
Karel seemed stunned for a moment, but then he loosened
his grip on Lars’s neck. A second later, Karel lowered his hands.
“Mr. Nielsen didn’t kill anyone!” I pushed back my rainsoaked bangs so I could think. “He wasn’t the captain. You know
that, Karel. We saw the captain abandoning his own ship.”
“Wait.” Lars’s voice cracked with emotion. “Are you Mae’s
brother?”
“How does he know Mae?” Karel’s darkened face had turned
dangerous.
I put my hand on his chest. His heart was pounding so hard,
I feared it might explode.
“I’ll explain, but first you have to calm down.” I waited
until his breaths became more even and his heart slowed. “Mr.
Nielsen never met Mae. He certainly never hurt her. Mr. Nielsen
rescued me.”
“I saved you,” Karel said through clenched teeth.
“Yes, the first time when you pulled me over the rails and
onto the hull. But he …” I glanced at Lars. His hulking shoulders
were slumped, his expression strained. I didn’t know him well,
but I suspected he was suffering more from guilt than from
those finger marks on his neck. “Lars saved me the second time.”
“You never told me you’d been in trouble. I thought you were
safe on the hull, when I went to search for Mae.”
“I wasn’t in danger, but all those people … all that screaming.
I kind of lost my mind.”
“Miss Pageau was so devoted to your sister,” Lars said, “that
she wanted to jump into the river and go to her.”
“What? Dee, why didn’t you tell me about this?”
“When, Karel?” I gave him a sympathetic smile. “There was
no time this week for that conversation. Not with everything you
had to do.”
He studied me for a long moment and then shrugged. “Well,
maybe.” He whirled on Lars, water from the puddle at his feet
splashing the hem of my dress. “If you truly pulled her back
before she fell, then I owe you a thank-you. But there’s still the
matter of your ship. The
Eastland
was a crank.” His tone rose
with agitation at each word. “Someone should have known how
dangerous that boat was.”
Lars sighed. “People had their doubts about her.”
“They still let her sail? And with so many passengers?” Karel
shook his head with obvious disgust. “I saw the crew escaping
through opened gangways and over railings like a pack of cowardly rats. So how come you were on the hull in time to save
Dee?”
“Why did you stay onboard and risk dying when you could
have escaped unharmed?” I paused. “Because that’s the kind of
person you are. You were greasy and wet that day. As though
you’d been stretched out on your belly across that slimy hull. So,
how many did you rescue before you found me?”
“Two.”
“And you, Karel? You dove into that putrid water and rescued
three more after me. You are both so brave. You’re heroes and
my saviors.” My throat constricted with emotion. “I wouldn’t be
here without the two of you.”
“But I lost one,” Karel said softly.
“I lost three.” Lars looked at Karel as he spoke. “They were
hanging from the railings after we’d capsized. I reached for
them, but they slipped through my fingers before I could get a
good grip.”
Karel nodded. They shared the same hellish nightmare.
Maybe this could be the common ground they needed to come
to some understanding. Lars and Karel couldn’t see this now,
but they were very much alike. Yet so utterly different. Like Mae
and …
Mama.
The man I see is just around the corner
.
“I’d better get back, Dee.” Karel broke into my thoughts.
“You’re coming, right?”
“Of course.”
“But first, did I hear right? Are you going out with him? So
soon after everything?”
“No! I mean Mr. Nielsen and …” I looked at Lars, beseeching
him with my eyes to agree with whatever I might say. “He asked
me if I’d be interested in attending a benefit. You know, for all
the victims’ families.” I turned back to Karel. “It’s not a date, but
rather two people offering support to those in need.”
“You might believe that, Dee, because you’re so sweet. But
sailor-boy knows what’s really going on. Come on, let’s go.”
Karel grabbed my hand and steered us back into the crowd of
mourners.
“Tomorrow’s the funeral?” Lars called to us. “At St. Mary’s?”
Karel froze. I bumped into his back. “My sister’s funeral is
private. You’re not invited.”
“To the cemetery. But churches are open to everyone.”