Thing With Feathers (9781616634704) (17 page)

“Look at those tall buildings, Will. Have you ever seen anything like it?”

“I never seen nothing like that.” He nudged his brother in the rib and nodded his head toward two beautiful women walking toward them. “How ‘bout those two lollapaloozas?” They had the shortest skirts Will had ever seen, and hosiery and floppy hats and gloves. “Say, Sean, this pamphlet from the train says Chicago is the windy city.” Will rolled his eyes heavenward and said, “God, give me wind, and right now!’”

Sean laughed. “C’mon, Will. We’re supposed to be looking for just one woman in particular. I know she’s here. We just gotta find her.”

They walked straight down Maxwell Street, through throngs of shoppers meandering up and down the open-air market. They dodged vendors with their pushcarts full of wares, sticking out like two sore thumbs, to a large but inexpensive-looking boarding house on the corner of Halston Street. They paid for two nights. Will flopped himself down on one of the saggy beds with delight. “What do we want to do first, little brother? Let’s go to a show.”

“Will…” Then Sean just shook his head.

“Oh, c’mon, Sean. We can still have fun whilst we look, can’t we? She said in her letter that she loved the theater, didn’t she? Let’s get out and see Chicago. Neither of us will probably ever get here again.”

It was a place to start, Sean conceded.

They went downstairs and asked the man at the desk where the nearest theater was. The man pointed them to a new Chaplin movie playing at the Bijou and an O’Neil play at the Pavillion. Will and Sean shrugged their shoulders. Chaplin movie, hands down.

Will’s stomach was growling fairly fierce, having awakened to a skimpy breakfast on the train instead of a good ol’ farm breakfast. “Say, little brother, I always did want to have me one of them long hot dogs you can get from one of those fellas with the little wagons. What do you say to that?”

“That sure does sound good, Will. I…thank you for coming along with me, Will. You’re the best brother a man ever had. And it was awful good of Rebecca to offer to stay with Ma while we’re gone. We should pick her up something special, something that she couldn’t get back home maybe.”

Will gave his brother’s shoulder a chuck, “how ‘bout some of them stockings we saw getting off the train?”

“How long you gonna go on about those stockings?”

Will just smiled playfully. “Well you don’t find ‘em back home. That’s for sure.”

“That might be a bit personal. Might offend Elrod some if I got them for her. You go ahead and get her some stockings and I’ll buy her some fancy perfume or something from one of those street vendors.”

“Hey! There’s one of them hot dog carts over there!” They raced each other down the street.

Sean enjoyed the movie as much as he could. Every time a figure cloaked in shadow passed by or walked down the aisle, Sean’s head and eyes were turning every which way, looking for Blair. But Will had the time of his life. Naturally, Will was introducing himself to every girl he saw, and even though they almost always looked over at Sean and asked, “Who’s he?” Will didn’t mind at all. He knew that Sean got the best of the looks in the family. But, as he often told his little brother, he got the wit and personality. Sean agreed. No matter where Will went, there were always people who knew him and greeted him like a long-lost friend. Will had friends everywhere. In fact, when they were leaving the theater, two swell-looking girls called to him, “Bye, Will,” waggling their little fingers at him.

Sean looked at his brother with amusement. “You are unbelievable.”

“What?” He held his hands out innocently.

Chapter 38

B
ack at their modest accommodations, it was hard for Sean to sleep in the windy city. It seemed like it was also the city that never slept. All night long, cars rattled; the bells of streetcars and open-air buses rang; the horse of a mounted policeman clop-clopped; and, most surprising to Sean, he heard musicians on the street below playing saxophones and other instruments for tokens from passersby. Sean thought that the music was wonderful, and he would have liked to listen for a spell, but he needed a good night’s sleep more. Will had no trouble. He was snoring the second his head hit the lumpy feather pillow. But Sean could not stop thinking that he had only one day and one night to find Blair, so little time to save his life. And that’s how he looked at it; without his son or his wife, there seemed little point in waking up mornings. He threw himself sideways for the tenth time, sending the squeaky bed frame into concert again, and hugged his pillow fiercely. Eventually, fatigue got the best of him, and amid the hustle and bustle of Chicago streets at two in the morn, he dreamed of Blair’s homecoming.

They ate something called a bagel with white soft cheese stuff heaped on, which they devoured as they walked. The bagels weren’t bad at all, but nothing could talk Sean into putting raw fish on top of his. They both carried a picture of Blair and put it in front of the faces of people they passed by.

“Seen her?” they would ask, and folks would look real quick like and shake their heads no, hurrying on.

“You notice how everyone in this town is in a hurry to get someplace?” asked Sean. “I never seen anything like it.”

“Yeah,” was all Will could manage with a mouth full of bagel and cream cheese. He leaned over and pushed the photo in front of a man waiting at a trolley stop. “Seen her?” Will asked, and quickly moved on.

“Looks familiar. ”

Sean didn’t quite register what he’d heard until he’d gone several feet farther. He turned around and ran back to catch up with the man his brother had last shown the picture to, before he boarded a trolley for destinations unknown. Sean could hear the clanging of a trolley’s bells approaching. “Excuse me, sir. Did you say you’ve seen this girl?”

“No. I said she looked familiar. What do you want with her?”

Sean’s heart pounded almost painfully. “She’s my sister. She ran away from home because of a bad fight with a beau, and, well, we want to try and convince her to come home,” he lied.

He didn’t think God would mind a little white lie. It was just that he didn’t think people would tell them anything if they thought she’d run from her husband.

“I see. Let me take another look. Yes, that does look like Miss Cindy Marshall.” Will and Sean exchanged quick, excited looks. The man looked the brothers over carefully. He quickly sized them up as nice young men who meant well. “I’ll tell you what I know of her. I believe the woman in the picture sparks an uncommon resemblance to Cindy Marshall. She has a room at the boarding house on Bishop Avenue, next to the Table D’hôtel. Miss Marshall is…well, you should do well to prepare yourselves for a change. I don’t mean to insult you. You look like nice men. Not from these parts, I’d doubt. But the lady earns her living by accepting dates with strange men, if you follow me.” He raised his eyebrows in question.

Sean and Will traded confused looks.

“Makes a living accepting dates?” Sean asked dubiously.

The man cleared his throat. “A concubine, if you will.”

“A con-kew-what?” Will scratched his head in question.

The man shook his head in frustration. His street car was here. “A whore, gentlemen, a prostitute. And quite successful, or so I’ve heard. Good day, gentlemen.” He tipped his hat and hurried on up the steps.

Will looked at Sean with fright. “That couldn’t be Blair…she’d never…would she?”

“A prostitute?” Sean was dumbstruck.

Will clamped his hand on Sean’s shoulder. “He said the name is Marshall, Sean. It might not be her. But it might be as well. Do you want to get back on the train now, or do you want to find her at any cost, brother?”

“I have to know, Will. If she is…if that man is correct, I just want you to know, I won’t judge her. I hope you won’t either. There’s some things you don’t know about Blair, and I can’t tell you. But it could be her. And if she is, you know, selling her body…it ain’t her fault. Can you believe that in your heart and hold her faultless if I was to tell you it was so?”

Will looked at his brother curiously. “I know she was a pitifully sad girl until she came to the house to live, Sean. I don’t have to know why if you promised her you wouldn’t say. And if she ran away and is prostituting herself to get along, I promise I won’t judge her. ‘Sides, Sean, don’t you know that I love Blair like a sister? No matter what we find on Bishop Avenue, I won’t hold any judgments against her.”

“Then let’s go see if we can find her and bring her home.”

It took the two country boys a while to figure out how the streets of Chicago crossed and numbered themselves, but they finally found Bishop Avenue and came upon the boarding house. It was clear across town from where they had started out, on foot, in the morning. It was late afternoon when Sean rang the bell. Eventually, a woman peeked out behind a sheer curtain at the window beside the door and then came to the door and opened it a crack.

“I am full up, gentlemen. If you need a room, try Smythe’s across Temple Avenue.”

“Uh…no, ma’am. That is, we’re not looking for a room.”

“That’s right,” Will interjected. “We’re looking for a woman.”

“Well!” Mrs. Warrington nearly slammed the door in their faces.

“No. Please. Ma’am, what my brother meant was that we have a picture of our sister here, and we were wondering if you’ve seen her.” He brought the photo up to the crack in the door.

The woman looked at it and then stepped out a bit to see the photo, and the men holding it, a bit closer up.

“Why do you need to find this woman, if I may ask?”

“Well, as I said, ma’am, she is our sister, and we would like to convince her to come home.”

“She doesn’t look like your sister.”

“Well, she’s a half-sister. That is, our father was remarried.”

“I see.”

Mrs. Warrington could tell right off the photo was of the girl who rented her top back room. That room had sat empty for quite some time, and her pocketbook had only recently begun to reflect the benefits of its steady rental. If they were to talk her into leaving with them, how long would it be before she found another suitable renter? And though the girl had strange habits, she was quiet and she paid in advance in cash.

“I’m sorry. I haven’t seen her.” She handed the photograph back.

“But wait!” Sean nearly jumped inside the door. “We were told she lived here. Isn’t that so?”

He looked so hopeful that it could have brought a good-hearted woman to tears. But Evelyn Warrington was not a good-hearted woman. She was a businesswoman, a successful one, and she didn’t get that way trading income for long-lost sisters.

“She does hold a strong resemblance to Miss Cindy Marshall, but Miss Marshall moved out in the middle of the night several weeks ago. She gave me no notice, told me nothing of where she was going, and left owing me twenty dollars in rent.” She eyed the two men pointedly.

Sean looked down at his boots and could have kicked himself for getting his hopes so high. The wind was taken right out of his sails. He couldn’t say anything or look at either of the people around him.

Will reached into his pocket and counted out twenty dollars to hand the woman. “Sorry about the trouble, ma’am.” He pushed the money and a calling card into her hand. Then, as she closed her greedy fist around the windfall, Will grabbed her fist and held it quite firmly. “But you will let us know if you see her, won’t you, ma’am?” His grip was tight, a bit too tight, and a certain message was delivered with that pressure. “This is where we’re staying tonight. After tonight, we’ll be heading home. The address and telephone number is on the back of that card too. You’ll be sure to call?”

She pulled her hand away with a slightly intimidated look. “Certainly. Of course I will. Good day, gentlemen.”

And the door closed before them. As they turned to leave, they could hear a deadbolt sliding into place.

“We’ll go back to the downtown area, Sean.” Will tried to get his brother to look up at him. “You know, if Blair’s a…if she’s looking…we could hang out near the theatre and show the photo to everyone we meet…”

Sean simply nodded. Chicago was enormous and filled with thousands of residents. They would walk all night, and they would show their photos of Blair to every passerby. But they would be getting on that train tomorrow without her.

Chapter 39

W
ill went ahead and bought them tickets home in a compartment. His brother looked so wrung out to him, he was hoping a good night of sleep would set him right. He didn’t think Sean got a whole lot of shut-eye on their trip, and leaving empty-handed didn’t help—especially after they’d phoned Rebecca and worked it out so’s they could spend one more day looking. The men felt they’d gotten real close to finding Blair—like she’d been snatched from them just as she was in reach—and neither one of them wanted to leave without trying a little harder. But they’d goose-egg’d. Sean hadn’t said a peep since he’d bought that paper and laid down to read it. He just looked so sad to Will.

“Dang-it!” Will griped under his breath.

“What’s that?” Sean laid the newspaper on his chest and looked over to Will’s bunk. “Did you say somethin’ to me?”