Far Away Home (2 page)

Her words
brought tears to his eyes. She snapped the locket closed and rushed to hold his
head against her heart.

In a soft murmur
Tim said, “No matter where we are, or what happens, we’ll always be a part of
each other.”

Chapter 3

Five-year-old
Tim Nolan sat on the floor outside his apartment waiting for his four older
brothers to return from school. He watched while a beautiful young lady
ascended the stairs in the stream of sunshine that radiated through the
building’s skylight. She glowed, luminescent in the shaft of heavenly rays. Tim
thought she was an angel or a fairy princess.

“Hello,” her
voice sang to him.

Enchanted, he
could not speak.

“I’m your new
neighbor, Katherine Denehy,” she said. “I hope we’ll be friends.” Her green
eyes smiled as she extended her hand to him. It was soft and cloud-white with
perfectly buffed nails. This was no mortal woman. Women washed laundry,
scrubbed floors and had hands that showed their labor. He held her fingers in
his and bowed, like the knights in his books.

Recovering his
voice, he whispered, “Tim Nolan, ma’am, at your service.”

The small,
dark-haired woman seemed to float into the flat across the hall from his and
disappeared behind the door. He stared after her in reverential silence. A few
seconds later, a man bounded up the stairs.

“Hey, boy!” the
man greeted him loudly. Tim thought the man was the cocky sort, too pleased
with himself.  The man entered Katherine’s apartment. Tim immediately became
concerned about the man’s intentions and formed an instant dislike. He jumped
to his feet. Thinking she might need protection from this intruder, Tim ran for
his wooden sword. He knew how to kill dragons and demons and wanted to be
prepared to sacrifice himself for this lady fair.

It took no time
for Tim to become Katherine’s constant companion. Five boys and the weight of
many chores did not allow Mary Nolan to give her last child the attention he
craved. Tenderhearted Mrs. Denehy recognized the five-year-old’s needs and
quickly adopted him into her life. She was the perfect antidote for an ignored
child. Tim fell in love with the woman who always referred to him as “my love.”

In January,
Katherine’s husband Brendan was called to Florida. Training for the horseracing
season had begun in the South, and Brendan, a jockey, had to return to his
profession. They decided the pregnant Katherine should stay home. The prospect
of having Katherine to himself thrilled Tim.

After Brendan’s
departure, diarrhea, a deadly urban illness, struck Katherine. She suffered
wrenching pain and dehydration, losing the baby and nearly her life. Mrs. Nolan
and Tim cared for her, and she slowly recuperated.

Spring showed
one bright day in early March. Warmth replaced the damp, chill air of February,
and the promise of new life pushed through the ground in the privy-yard. The
sound of children playing rose up to Katherine’s kitchen window where she and
her habitual companion sat at the kitchen table planning their day. It was
still too cold to open the windows and let in fresh air, so they decided to
make gingerbread and fill the apartment with its sweet, spicy smell.

After a trip to
the egg man and the flour seller, Tim and Katherine returned home, arms laden
with everything they needed for baking. Entering the apartment, they found
Brendan emerging from the bedroom. He was in his undershirt, with his
suspenders hanging from the waist of his pants. He wordlessly took the bundles
from her and placed them on a parlor table. Taking her in his arms, he said, “I
can’t live without you.”

Katherine pulled
away and turned to Tim. She bent down and sweetly asked, “My love, would you
leave Brendan and me alone for a short while? We have something to discuss. I
will come for you as soon as we are finished.”

“What about the
gingerbread?” he protested, scowling at Brendan.

“We’ll bake
later. I promise.”

Katherine walked
Tim to the door while he shot suspicious sideways glances at the interloper. He
went home pouting and angry.

Tim found his
mother doing the wash. She had a bar of brown soap in one hand and his father’s
pants in the other. A pile of his family’s laundry, stacked at her feet,
declared that she would not have time for gingerbread. The disappointed boy
reluctantly sauntered into the parlor that served as a bedroom for all five
boys and took out his notepad and a pencil to start a list.

The list
enumerated all the reasons he believed Katherine loved him more than Brendan.
First he wrote “loves me,” because she always called Tim “my love,” and she
referred to Brendan by his name.

Second on the
list was “time.” He reasoned she spent far more time with him than with Brendan.
He went away and stayed away for weeks. When he was home, he left in the
morning and did not return until Tim’s bedtime. All the intervening hours,
Katherine spent with Tim.

At number three,
he wrote “speshal,” because Katherine gave him little presents and did many
special things just for him. She taught him to read and write. She bought him
candy. She would sit beside him and put her arm around his shoulders and read
to him, sometimes on her big bed. Tim knew that the big bed was a grownup
place. He deduced that for Katherine to let him sit on the bed with her meant
he was just as close to her as Brendan.

Finally, he
never saw Katherine approach Brendan and give him a kiss or a hug. He reveled
in the thought that she repeatedly bent over, opened her arms to him and asked
him for a kiss. Tim loved to kiss Katherine. She smelled like lavender. Her
hair was always soft and shiny. Her fingers were cool and her arms warm. When
her lips touched his cheek, it was like a blessing from God. With “kiss and hug”
at number four, he was absolutely sure she loved him more than she loved
Brendan.

The belief that
his place in Katherine’s heart was far more secure than her husband’s allowed
the child to endure Brendan’s persistent presence. It scared Tim that Brendan had
returned with the intention of staying. Tim feared his time with Katherine
would be limited, but Brendan quickly found work at the stable of the New York
City Police Brigade. Much to Tim’s approval, the job kept Brendan busy and out
of the apartment for long hours every day.

By August,
Katherine was pregnant. When she announced her condition to young Tim, she
explained that “we” were having a baby. In Tim’s immature and uneducated mind,
he assumed the “we” referred to him and Katherine. Tim did not know how this
miracle had occurred, but as a Catholic, he believed that miracles were a part
of life. That a miracle had happened to him was no surprise. Katherine always
referred to the child she was carrying as “our” baby. Tim was very pleased and
proud. Whenever he spoke about “our” baby, no one understood his meaning;
therefore, no one corrected his misunderstanding.

The baby arrived
in February of 1851. The Nolans were all bewitched by the introduction of a
girl into their lives. Mrs. Nolan welcomed a girl after being blessed with five
boys. The Nolan boys were also intrigued by the baby’s presence. They were old
enough to appreciate other people in their world. Frank Junior was nearly
fourteen years old, Sean was a curious twelve, Michael, the resentful middle
child, was eleven and Brian, an active eight. They all found the baby a
fascinating, albeit alien, life form.

Tim saw the
child as a responsibility. He believed the baby was his, and he had an
obligation to take an active role in nurturing her. Katherine, in her sensitive
style, never made him feel subordinate to the baby. She considered his feelings
and included him whenever possible in every aspect of her care. Katherine
wanted Tim to love the baby and be her guardian, and she told him so.

They named the
baby Aislynn, after an ancient Celtic Goddess. She was round and pink with a
tiny bow mouth. Her eyes were deep green and her hair was black. Aislynn grew
slowly but matured quickly. At eleven months, she could climb out of the little
basket bed, which sat on the floor, and crawl across the hall to find her
friends. Words came by fourteen months. Her male admirers found everything she
uttered amusing. Their vocal responses encouraged the young child to perform.
Aislynn was center stage in a small, two-apartment theater. She grew confident,
assertive and indulged. Only Katherine and Tim set limits on her.

*    *    *

The summer of
1854 hung on hot and humid. All day, in the brutal sun, the tenements inhaled
heat. When darkness fell, the pent up energy of the day could barely be exhaled
through small windows and few doors. On Worth Street, Katherine Denehy was
confined to bed. Swollen from pregnancy, she was having difficulty breathing.
She tried to lie still, keeping the pressure of the baby off her chest. This
pregnancy seemed to be taking over her whole body. Unlike Aislynn, who was
eager to escape confinement and pushed down on her pelvis, this baby
continually pushed up on her lungs. The repeated pressure made it difficult to
breathe.

Katherine had curtailed
all of her activities, spending most of her days in bed. Mrs. Nolan did her
shopping, cooking and washing. Brendan helped with the cleaning. Tim began to
assume complete responsibility for Aislynn: feeding, dressing and supervising
her.

Almost ten years
old, Tim was able to assist Katherine, too. The serious child sat with
Katherine, quietly conversing or reading to her during Aislynn’s naptimes. He
lovingly applied cool, wet towels to her forehead and fanned her, shooing flies
and the insistent heat away while showing his enormous affection for her in
every attentive act.

On the morning
of September 1
^st
, Aislynn sat up on her cot and discovered her
sleeping mother. With great self-satisfaction, she relieved herself and pulled
on a dress. She toddled across the hall to find Tim. Mrs. Nolan and Tim were
the only ones in their stuffy flat. The older boys and Papa Nolan had gone off
to work, and the younger two were swimming in the East River, trying to keep
cool. After a light breakfast, the three crossed the hall.

Upon arrival,
they found Katherine awake and in pain. She lay on the bed, clothed in a thin
nightdress. Even in her distress, she looked like an angel to Tim. Her bright
green eyes were large and glassy. Her hair, a riot of dark curls, draped over
the stark white pillow. The thin film of perspiration covering her body made
her shine in the morning light like a heavenly body.

Mrs. Nolan asked
Tim to take Aislynn to the stables and inform Brendan about the impending
birth. Tim felt his stomach flip. He believed that having one baby was entirely
sufficient. With school starting soon and his chores, he worried about the
burden of a second child.

The two children
started off in the sweltering heat toward the East River. Their route brought
them into the dismal, deteriorating Five Points section of the city. Tim looked
up at the foreboding buildings, the huge warehouses that stored humans too poor
to afford adequate housing. He wondered why the city’s fathers allowed such
conditions. Landlords packed ten to a dozen people into one flat. Privies lined
the basements and backyards, standing right next to the common wells that
served as the only source of drinking water for the hundreds who inhabited each
building. Garbage covered the streets. Rats ran through the narrow, eight-foot
passageways that separated the buildings. At this time of the morning, not even
the sun could slide through the tight alleys. To Tim, it was a dark, sinister
looking forest of tall, dingy buildings. In Aislynn’s mind, it was a
mysterious, threatening fortress that could hold a princess or a little girl
prisoner forever.

She followed Tim
hesitantly into the dreariness. The stench of human and animal excretions
blended with the smell of the rotting, fly-covered garbage strewn in the street
and on the sidewalks. Aislynn balked at the filth and the horrid smells,
refusing to go any farther. Tim halted for an instant, but he knew he had to
obey his mother. He also knew that Katherine was suffering and depending on him
to bring Brendan to her side. Patiently, he explained to Aislynn they were on
an important mission. Aislynn was accustomed to getting her own way and would
not budge. Tim pulled Aislynn’s arm until she cried out in protest.

“Won’t go!
Smelly and dark!”

“I know it’s
scary, but I am with you. Remember Aislynn, no matter where we are or what is
happening, if we’re together, we can survive anything.”

Aislynn
considered her idol’s reasoning. Although she wanted to believe she would be
safe with Tim, her strong, practical side made her cautious about testing her
theory. She chewed her lower lip and gazed around her. Her love and trust won
out. She lifted her tiny hand and placed it in his. They trudged off into the
unknown.

The walk was
long for short legs. Aislynn struggled to keep pace with Tim. She repeatedly
cried for him to slow down, but Tim, carrying his own trepidation, tramped
onward. He walked quickly and avoided eye contact with the people they passed.
However, his eyes were busy; they searched in every direction for danger. He
peered sideways into doors and alleys, watching for vagrants who could hurt
them. Looking upward, he checked for garbage dropping from windows. The
sidewalk, cluttered with debris, also had to be examined. They were on an
obstacle course he was determined they would maneuver without calamity.

Arriving at the
stable, they found the doors were stretched open. Brendan was standing in the
center of the huge, vaulted, brick building. The sun streamed down through a
skylight, surrounding him in a square of gold. He was reaching up, brushing a
horse’s mane. To Aislynn, he looked like a knight in his castle, grooming his
trusted steed. She released Tim’s hand and ran to her father with her short
arms spread wide, calling “Da!”

Tim joined her
as Brendan bent to lift the child up over his head. Before Brendan could pose
the question, Tim released his message in one long breath. “Katherine’s havin’
the baby. Mama sent us for you.”