Earthly Astonishments (11 page)

He held the umbrella high in his left hand. He swept his right hand across the scene before them. It was a world alive with summer pleasures. The front door of Walters Hall opened directly onto the esplanade and faced the beach.

Hundreds of parasols were on parade, in dozens of colors. Ladies were dressed like so many sorbets and men were in summer suits and straw hats. Somewhere there was music playing, a violin and an accordion
maybe. The air was bringing wafts of salt and fish and burnt sugar. Hawkers called attention to fruit, sweets and shaved ice, peanuts, potatoes, and chowder.

“Welcome to Coney Island, Jo! What do you want to eat first? Sweet corn? A hot potato? Oysters?”

“What’s oysters?”

“You’ve never had oysters? Come on! Over here, see? The boys are shucking oysters. An oyster is a sort of a fishy thing that comes in a shell from the sea, but it doesn’t swim, it just sits there.”

“They look horrible! They’re not fish at all! They look like bits of innards from a dead bird. Eeeew!”

Josephine couldn’t believe her eyes. Charley had given the boy a penny. He beamed while his plateful of oysters was shucked, and slipped the first one into his mouth with a wink.

“Not even cooked?” Josephine felt her throat swell in disgust. She wouldn’t look while he finished them off.

They wandered on.

“Come this way, ladies. Step along here, gentlemen!”

“Hey! Listen! I recognize that voice!” Charley peered around him, trying to find its source.

A man wearing a crimson vest over his shirt strutted back and forth. He cracked his knuckles and then continued his chanting song.

“I have the fantastic ability to guess your weight without the assistance of a scale or device of any kind. Who will be the first to test my skills?”

“I knew it!” said Charley. “Watch that fellow closely.
Tell me what he does next. He’s a scalawag in disguise.”

“He’s just talking,” said Josephine.

“Is there a gent nearby with a lot of pockets?”

“Yes, and he’s a bit plump. He’s stepping up now to the first fellow.”

“Best actor on the beach,” murmured Charley. “Keep watching.”

“You don’t mind me seeing what’s clothes and what isn’t, do you sir?” The crimson-vested fellow kept up his cheerful chatter while he patted the volunteer on the shoulders and the back and the sides.

“That tummy I can guess without touching!” he announced, drawing a laugh from the gathering crowd.

“This man!” he went one. “This man, who does not restrain his appetite … This man weighs two hundred and seventeen pound!”

The plump man’s mouth fell open. “He’s got it right! I was at the doctor only yesterday, and the scales said two hundred and seventeen if they said an ounce!”

“How did he do that?” Josephine was amazed.

The two men shook hands and the plump one handed over a nickel. “Well done! This is a clever fellow!” He declared to all who listened.

“Who’s next?” asked the weight guesser. “Don’t be shy! I can whisper, if you don’t want the tonnage known generally…”

“There’s another fellow now,” said Josephine. “Not quite so fat, wearing a smart, new bowler hat.”

“You don’t mind me seeing what’s clothes and what isn’t, do you sir?” The routine had begun again.

The new customer wore a genial smirk while he was being patted and assessed. This time, however, the guess was off by twenty-two pounds, and the crowd jeered its disappointment.

“Are you watching?” said Charley. “Did you see anything?”

Josephine had noticed nothing that might have Charley dancing about on his toes like this. The bystanders were dispersing, on to more captivating games.

“Keep watching the man with the pockets, Jo. He’s the secret.”

The man weighing two hundred and seventeen pounds, Josephine reported, had paused on the beach, just a few yards away. The weight-guesser sidled close to him.

“He’s passed him something that sent off a twinkle in the sun!” announced Josephine. “Something gold!”

“I told you!” crowed Charley, as if he himself had done the nimble deed. “That watch belonged to the Bowler Hat only moments ago!”

“How did you know?” asked Josephine, in amazement. “Without even seeing!”

“These two gents are partners and have worked the avenue every summer I can remember. They’re very good. They only get arrested once or twice a year. And
coppers’ll take spondulicks quick as any man. So they’re back the next day.”

“Spondulicks? Charley, where do you come up with these words?”

“Just means cash money, but it sounds better, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you’re so chirk for, Charley. You’ll be picking pockets yourself next. Now, come on, I’m taking off my high-lows. I want to touch the ocean with my plain bare feet!”

She unbuckled her boots and peeled off her stockings. She shoved them into Charley’s pockets and set out across the beach, curling her toes and squealing at the heat of the sand on her soles.

All around her, men and women alike were wearing dark, woolen bathing costumes. The women’s were short dresses, with flared skirts and puffed sleeves and sometimes sailor collars. Most of them wore black stockings too, so that every inch was covered, except for freckled arms. The men revealed their hairy legs, poking out from tight black suits.

“They look like camisoles stitched onto drawers. Aren’t they silly!”

Josephine was fascinated by the multitude of knees. “Knees are really very ugly when seen in a large crop like this,” she said to Charley with a giggle.

The ocean was kicking up waves today, green and frothy, dragging pebbles with each roll. Josephine let only her toes get wet, unnerved by the churning pull under her feet. Children ran toward the water and then
tumbled back, shrieking, as the foam leapt at them. Grown-ups were shrieking too, trying to tiptoe into the surf and getting knocked sideways. A long line of laughing people grasped the swimming rope, which was tethered between a pole on the beach and another pole twenty yards into the water.

“Can you swim, Charley?”

“No. It wouldn’t be good for my skin.”

“Well, I mean to learn, maybe, one day.”

“Someone your size could probably float without trying. I’ll bet Filipe knows how. You could ask him.”

A pair of boys holding shovels and tin buckets stopped right in front of Josephine and stared. Then they looked up at Charley, who grimaced with a monstrous face, swivelling his pink eyes.

“Mama!” One of them howled, and they both ran.

“We’d best be off,” said Charley. “Mr. Walters doesn’t like us being looked at without him getting the pennies in his pocket.” Reluctantly Josephine turned away from the ocean and headed back toward the esplanade.

“That sounds like something my pa might say,” said Josephine. “He was a schemer, too, though he could learn a few tricks from Mr. Walters.”

“You never said about your pa,” said Charley, “or your mum either. I thought they might be dead.”

“They might be,” said Josephine. “But I wouldn’t know it.”

Charley was waiting for more, she could tell. How to explain?

“Your mother loves you, Charley. The way she pesters you and rubs your hair, I can see it. She doesn’t care you’re the color of paste.”

“You’re telling me your mum didn’t love you? Because you’re wee?”

“I think she might have loved me when I was a baby. She must have.” Josephine was pretty certain about that, though she couldn’t remember.

“But when I didn’t grow … folks told her I was cursed. They left things beside our door, amulets and little crosses.” Josephine hadn’t thought about this in a long time. Her throat felt clogged. “I found a doll one time with no legs. I thought it was a present and I tried to fix her. That convinced the neighbors I was evil and a sign from the devil. My mother got to be afraid of me. My pa was practical; he thought I could be worth something. But my ma was afraid more than anything. She didn’t want me to be hers anymore.”

“Nelly says my dad took one look at me and ran out the door,” said Charley quietly, twirling the umbrella slowly above his head, making the shadow spin on the sand. “She never saw him again.”

“I wish—” said Josephine. “Can I tell you? I wish that people could grow up before they had to have a family. So they would know what sort of folk they wanted to be family with. Then we could choose for ourselves.”

“I suppose that’s what your mum was doing,” said Charley.

“You mean choosing not to have me anymore?”

Charley nodded, his eyes shifting away.

“I never thought of that,” said Josephine.

“Or maybe she just meant to free you up, to find the right family for you.” Charley liked that idea better. “And see? You found Nelly and me.”

“It took an awful long time. And you and Filipe had better stop teasing me, Charley O’Dooley, or I’ll keep looking!”

“What do you think brothers do, Jo? We tease. And I’m thinking I need more practice….”

he sun’s been shining every day like it had a prize to win.” Charley was complaining again and kicking at Josephine’s ladder. When he stood beside her platform and she lay on her tummy, Josephine could look straight into his face. They were waiting for the opening bell to ring, for the spectators to pour into the dark hall like ants into molasses.