Empire Girls (20 page)

Too early for dinner, The Oyster Bar was nearly empty when we walked in. Though subterranean, the restaurant’s ceiling, arched and cathedral-like, made diners feel as though they were slurping down oysters in the Taj Mahal. The waiter sat us in far reaches, and I tried not to think what Cat said about couples in corners.

I told John all about what we’d learned of Asher’s whereabouts, and about my undignified departure from Empire House. He asked about Rose, and I was able to answer honestly. “I feel like we might have a new start,” I explained. “And if that’s what father left us, it means much more than a house, even to Rose. I don’t think she will return to Forest Grove—this city is her home now.”

“Is it yours?”

I thought for a moment. “I’d felt lost here, dreadfully so, but sometimes if one gets lost in the woods, the only way out is to find a new path. I’ve made such mistakes, John. I’d been so keen on coming to a city I’d constructed in my imagination I never allowed the reality of it to seep in.” I smiled at him over my water glass. “So, I suppose the answer is, I don’t know.”

“That’s a perfectly fine answer,” he said. “It means there is a great deal of thinking and conversing in your future, which is always something to look forward to.”

Feeling as though I was monopolizing the conversation, I shifted course, asking him specifics about his life in Forest Grove, his interests, his family.

“My parents live outside Albany, and I see them often enough, and speak with them by telephone. I mentioned I was coming into the city, and they were falling over themselves with recommendations. They’re secret city dwellers, and come to Manhattan as time allows.” He cleared his throat. “My parents once dined at the Hotel Albert on Eleventh Street and said the waitstaff places the most exotic flowers on each table. I’d like to take you there, Ivy. Once you’ve settled things with Asher, I’ll reserve a table. Do you have a dinner dress?”

“I can get one,” I said, excitement zinging through me. “Are you trying to woo me, John-the-Wonder?”

“I’ve been trying to for ages,” he said. “But this city certainly makes it easier.”

CHAPTER 19

Ivy &
Rose
Ivy

NEW YORK WAS
burning up with a hundred-and-two-degree fever. Sonny could fry his breakfast eggs on the sidewalk—my feet were blistering in my thin-soled shoes as Rose and I walked to Washington Square Park.

“If it was any farther, we might burst into flames before we get there,” I said, uselessly fanning my hand in front of my face.

“It’s two blocks,” Rose said. “And complaining makes you hotter.”

We stepped through the Arch and chose a bench in front of the fountain. A throng of children waded in the water, joyously splashing the cool water on their half-naked bodies. I envied them. “Do you think she’s coming?” Rose said as the sun bore down on us.

“She’s across the park,” I said, watching Daisy approach. Outside of the dim theater, we were getting a look at Daisy in her full glory. She was taller than both of us, with an elegant neck and stick-straight posture that matched Rose’s. They both wore cotton dresses that somehow stayed crisp. With my bobbed hair and crumpled chiffon short-waist, I’d look a sight sitting between the two of them.

She didn’t sit down at all, which put a twist in my stomach. I’d thought for sure the answer would be yes.

“Part of me thinks what you’re asking for is selfish,” Daisy said, skipping any type of greeting. “You do realize that, right?”

Was it? I had been a selfish person; I knew that about myself now. I’d taken my father from my sister for so many years. I’d come to New York to benefit my own life, while letting my sister tag behind like a tin can bouncing from a newlywed’s bumper. Was Daisy right? Was I putting my brother at risk to satisfy my own needs?

I looked into Daisy’s fearful eyes. She wasn’t a hard person inside, but had simply been placed in a situation where she decided what to do to help someone she loved. Did I have that strength inside me?

“On the day we buried my father,” I said softly, “I found out I had this gift from him, the gift of an older brother. It was selfish of me, in a way, to assume that he would welcome me with the same fervor that I had in my heart from the moment I heard his name.” I patted the bench next to me, and Daisy sat down. “I’ll admit, we don’t know Asher, not really, but we have learned that family is what keeps most of us going. When my father died it was the thought of Asher that kept me from throwing myself in the river. He did that for me. I’d like to do something for him in return.”

I felt Rose’s hand on my back, and I took a breath.

“The love of my sister healed me when I needed it,” I continued. “Rose and I simply want the chance to tell Asher we’re happy he’s in the world, and if he wants any kind of a relationship with us—if he just wants us to sit with him for a while—we’d climb over a wall of fire for the honor to do it.”

Daisy didn’t say a word. She watched the spectacle of Washington Square Park parade by—the children playing tag, the man in the tweed suit strumming his guitar as though it was a cool fall day and not a scorcher, the painter adding the final touches to his masterpiece.

“I wish he was able to see this,” Daisy said. “He loved this place before the war. Your brother has an artistic spirit.”

Rose and I shared a look.
Like father,
her eyes seemed to say.

Daisy stood up again, stretched out her hand and pulled me up. “No longer than a few minutes,” she said, her voice tremulous. “And I hope to God I won’t regret it.”

Rose

Daisy’s apartment reminded me of her. It was pretty, very clean and soothing. I could tell she loved our brother very much, and that put me at ease immediately. No matter what happened with Asher, whether Ivy and I made the right decision or not, she’d take care of him, for better or worse.

“He’s in the back bedroom. I scrounged a few extra bucks a month so I could have this flat in the back. Ash doesn’t like loud noises, so it’s worth the money. I swear that bedroom faces almost all the back gardens in the village. You can’t hear the street at all, even with the windows open.”

“Daisy,” I said, “thank you for letting us visit with him. We really do appreciate it.”

“Hell, you two didn’t give me a choice, did you?” she said, but she was smiling. It was a tired smile, one that spoke volumes of the strain she’d been living under.

“It must be hard taking care of him all by yourself,” said Ivy.

“It’s an honor, not a job,” she said.

The three of us stood at the beginning of a short hallway. There was a door, closed, at the very end.

“Is that his room?” I asked.

“Yep. At the back, like I already said. Let’s get this over with, shall we?” she asked.

The hall was covered in pictures, lovingly framed and staggered from top to bottom, that depicted various stages of Daisy’s life with Asher before the war. As we walked down the hall, Daisy first, Ivy and I trailed behind looking at them. Asher and Sonny as kids playing in Washington Square. Cat, Nell and Asher at Coney Island. Daisy and Asher in all sorts of poses, first as kids, and then, as their young romance blossomed, the pictures showed them looking into each other’s eyes.

“I could look at these photos forever,” said Ivy.

“You don’t have to,” said Daisy, “you got the real thing right here.”

Daisy opened the door.

Asher’s room was painted a soft, quiet blue. His bed was made perfectly and covered with a white lace bedspread. I recognized the lacework immediately. “Our mother made this,” I said.

“Yes. Your father sent it as a gift in 1918, but Ash was already overseas. I kept it for him, though. He likes it, I think.”

I was trying to look everywhere but at Asher, who was sitting in a chair by the open window. He hadn’t turned to us when Daisy opened the door.

Ivy, on the other hand, had gone directly to him, and when I finally had the courage to peek beyond my periphery, saw that she had scooted another chair up next to his and had taken his hand.

Daisy sat down on his bed. “You might as well join her,” she said. “There’s another chair behind the door.”

I brought the chair over to my sister and brother, lifting it so that it did not drag or clank across the floors.

I sat on the other side of him, taking his other hand. The three of us looked out his window together.

“We’re here, Asher,” said Ivy in a whisper. “Rose and I found you. Your friends are a tough crowd, but loyal...I got to hand it to them. You’re lucky to have so many people watching out for you. We’d like to watch out for you, too, if you’d let us.”

He stared straight ahead through the window. I didn’t know what to say, so I followed his gaze.

Daisy was right—his view was a maze of rooftops and back gardens, an entirely different version of the Village. The interior version, more intimate than the crowded streets.

“Do you know us, Asher?” asked Ivy. “Do you know you have sisters?”

Asher didn’t say anything, but his hands turned palm up, and his fingers closed around ours. Ivy and I looked at each other, smiling with excitement. Then we looked back at Daisy.

“He’s holding our hands, Daisy! Do you see?” Ivy said, still whispering, but with sparkle.

“He does that sometimes,” she said, but I could tell she was interested, at the same time as she didn’t want to get her hopes up too high, because she came over to us and stood behind him.

“Rose and Ivy are here, Ash,” she said, leaning down, placing her hands gently on his shoulders and speaking softly into his ear. “You should see them—they’re a kick. Rose looks just like you, which is why Nell and Cat took to her even though they didn’t want to. Me, too, I guess. But your sister Ivy. Oh, Ash, she’s a beauty.”

Ivy looked at Daisy with gratitude. I wanted more than anything for our brother to say those same words to her.

He didn’t, not that day, but he did say something else.

“I’ve watched you,” he said. His voice was scratchy and low from not speaking, but its tenor matched our father’s, and when Ivy and I locked eyes, we both had tears forming. She nodded, because she’d heard it, too.

Daisy had taken a step back when Asher spoke, and her hand was over her mouth.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I need a glass of water. I’ll be right back,” she said, leaving. Though she closed the door behind her, we could hear her crying all the way down the hall.

“Don’t worry, Asher. She’s fine...those are tears of joy,” said Ivy.

“I’ve watched you,” he said again. “There.” He pointed out the window.

Ivy stood up and leaned out to get a better view. “Rose, look! He’s right. You can see into Sonny’s garden! I’ll be damned.”

I looked, too. It wasn’t a clear view, more sideways with certain parts hidden by trees and other buildings, but he’d been able to see us.

Ivy sat down and moved closer to Asher, placing her head against his shoulder. I was worried it was too much, too fast, and was about to urge her to move back, when he lifted his arm and wrapped it around her. Then he tilted his head so it leaned against hers. If I’d had a pen and paper, I couldn’t, not in a million years, recreate the beauty of that moment, or the way my sister’s face changed as I watched her exhale all her worries. How long had she been holding her breath?

I left them, then. Not because I didn’t want Asher to wrap his other arm around me in the same fashion, but because I knew he would, someday. I left them there together, so they could heal.

I found Daisy sitting at her kitchen table smoking a cigarette. The ashtray was clean and sparkled in the morning sunshine. “Want one?” she asked.

“Sure,” I said, taking one from her.

“So you were right,” she said. “Seems he needed his family after all. I’ve been going out of my mind trying to get him to talk, and you birds walk in and he responds. Makes a girl feel a fool.”

“Daisy,” I said, reaching out over the kitchen table and covering her shaking hand with mine. “Don’t you understand? You made him safe. If we’d come at any other time, before or after, he wouldn’t have been able to see us. Trust me. We weren’t ready. I’m surprised we didn’t silence everyone we met the first two weeks we were here. We were a pair of unexploded bombs when we arrived. The City defused us.”

“Really?” She laughed. “’Cause it usually just sets people off.”

“Maybe that’s the same thing,” I said.

“You got a way with words, Rose. He does, too. I hope he comes around so you three can get to know each other.”

“He will...I can feel it. And we’re here now, me and Ivy. We have no plans to go anywhere. So we’ll help, okay? You don’t have to do this alone anymore.”

“Thank you,” she said.

Ivy stayed with Asher for an hour, and Daisy told me story after story about Asher growing up. What he was like as a boy and his friendship with Sonny. Ivy finally emerged, red eyed, but smiling.

“Hi-ya,” she said, taking a cigarette from Daisy’s case.

“Make yourself at home,” said Daisy.

“I do believe I will,” said Ivy as Daisy stood, and then playfully tugged on the ends of Ivy’s hair that fell into her face as she lit her cigarette.

It was Daisy who told us about Colleen and our father. How Colleen had disgraced Nell by having Cat out of wedlock, and how when our father fell in love with her and married her anyway, Nell couldn’t let go of her anger at her own daughter. And she told us that when Colleen had died in childbirth with Asher, that he’d left that night, never to return.

“Strangely, I do understand,” Daisy said. “We all do. I mean, who would want to live with Nell if you didn’t have to?”

“But he left them,” said Ivy, visibly upset. “He left both of them behind.”

“Seems to me, from what you’ve said and from what I’ve heard, your father wasn’t really around even when he was. Get my drift?” said Daisy.

I looked apprehensively at Ivy, waiting for her to respond. She was always so protective of our father.

“Watch yourself, Daisy. I wouldn’t want you to wake up one morning to a living room full of garbage straight from that Dumpster downstairs,” she said. But she was teasing, and we all shared a smile.

“We’ll get along just fine,” I said.

And we did.

* * *

Walking away from Daisy and Asher that day, Ivy and I fairly glided across Washington Square Park. The heat didn’t bother us half as much as it had on the walk over.

“Do you think that a secret, even if you don’t know it exists, can still eat away at you?” I asked.

“Well, if it’s eating away at the people raising you, you can’t help but be affected, I guess.”

“So that, along with everything else, is why we ended up the way we did. Because of a secret.”

“If you mean, why we ended up stupid, yeah. I think you’re right. Don’t you feel it, Rose? The world opening up for us? Everything seems brand-new!”

I knew exactly how she felt.

She threw her arms around me and hugged me. “I love you, Rose Adams,” she declared, loud enough for people to turn and stare.

“And I love you, Ivy Adams.”

“Daisy said we could go back tomorrow. Do you think he’ll get better?”

“Yes, I think it will take time, but I’m sure he’ll get better.”

“I love him already,” she said.

“So do I.”

“I know, Rose. Thank you for that.”

“For loving my brother?”

“For realizing you wanted to.”

* * *

When we got back to the front stoop of Empire House, the girls were all sitting on the steps. Viv, Maude, Claudia and a few other faces I was beginning to put names to. Bessie, Claire, Ruth...

“What’s goin’ on here?” asked Ivy, waving her pocketbook and leaning against a car parked in front.

“Cat got tipped off about a raid, so she shut the whole place down for the day. Nothin’ like getting the day off when all you want to do is go cool down in the ice room,” said Viv.

“Ain’t it always the way,” said Claudia, sighing dramatically, making fun of her.

Viv got up to swat her, and Claudia ran into the house laughing.

“Want to go to Coney Island? Jimmy’s comin’ to get us,” said Maude.

Ivy looked upset. “What’s the matter, Ivy?” I asked. “Is it Jimmy?”

“No.” She went to bite her nails and then put her hand down. “Cat said she had a dress for me, but if the store’s closed, too, how am I supposed to pick it up?”