But she wasn’t about to abandon Angelica.
They worked in a hotel that was more like a boarding house and it was owned by a tiny little old woman named Bess. She ran the place with a tiny iron fist, and no one made trouble for her. She demanded the best character from her tenants and her staff. She was also very compassionate when it came to young women alone in the world.
When Bess heard that Angelica had lost her father, she went to find her.
“Lilly, Angelica, what are you doing here?” She said as soon as she entered the room they were cleaning. She had come to expect them to work together because Lilly was often an interpreter for Angelica as she learned English.
“Ms. Bessie, we are here to work,” Lilly answered.
Bess shook her head vehemently, approaching Angelica and looking up at her with a frown. “You just lost your father, and you are here working. No. You must go home and take some time to yourself to mourn!”
“Ms. Bess, I can’t…”
“We need to work, Ms. Bessie, we need the money,” Lilly said for Angelica.
Bess didn’t look at Lilly, just continued to gaze up at Angelica, who was at least 6 inches taller at 5’5. Her face melted in compassion, and she tilted her head. When she spoke, the tone of her voice had softened considerably.
“Angelica, go home. Take Lilly with you. I will give you a week of pay, and you just stay home and do what you need to do.”
“Oh, miss!” Angelica understood the words and could barely process them in her grief. Lilly was at her side immediately, thanking Bess over and over.
Bess said nothing more, just nodded, shooing them out the door. Angelica was crying softly, with Lilly guiding her by the shoulders.
Instead of going home, Lilly and Angelica walked to a small park on the corner of the street they worked on. They sat on a bench and held hands.
“We will figure out something to do with ourselves, Angelica. There must be something we can do with our lives. We can’t be housekeepers forever. We need husbands and families.”
Angelica just nodded, still quietly crying, her tears streaming down her face uncontrolled.
“Mio padre. Mio padre.” She kept shaking her head.
Lilly didn’t scold her for her grief. She let her friend cry and moan for her father. She stared out at the park around her, watching two mothers with very small babies settle a blanket on the ground for a picnic under a tree. She could hear them giggling and talking about their husbands and other children.
It made Lilly’s heart grow jealous. She looked at Angelica, whose beauty showed bright even in her grief. Her features were like the perfect doll’s, her dark brown hair braided down her back with ringlets surrounding her face, her eyes a deep blueish brown. She was so beautiful.
She herself was not bad to look at. But where were the men in their lives to give them to fulfillment these ladies had? They seemed so happy, on top of the world. There was probably nothing wrong in their lives at all. They had everything they wanted.
Lilly frowned. She didn’t want to be jealous of what other people had. It was a sin. It was one of the Ten Commandments not to covet what other people had.
But she did anyway. She couldn’t help it. She wanted to be married and have a family.
We could travel. She thought suddenly and wondered if it would be a possibility. There were no immediate chances of either of them getting married in the near future, not that she could see. There were no men in their lives at this time.
However, if they were to travel, there would be less chance to establish some kind of relationship with a man and settle down.
Her confusion made her even angrier. She didn’t realize she was gripping Angelica’s hand so tightly until her friend began to pull them away.
“Lilly, you’re hurting me,” Angelica mumbled.
Lilly released her hands, apologizing. “I’m so sorry, dear. I was just thinking.”
“Si, I could tell.”
Lilly’s ears were drawn to the conversation the women were having, and she pretended she was straightening her skirt while she listened.
“She went all the way to Nevada. And Joe says there’s another one in the newspaper today.”
“What would make a woman want to do that?”
“Joe says there are a lot more women here than there are there. So the chances of finding a husband here are a lot less.”
“I’m glad I’ve got Mark. I wouldn’t want to travel all the way across the country just to find a husband.”
“I think we got lucky. The way Joe says it, there’s so many people migrating from the other countries and just placing themselves here and in North Carolina and New York, there’s just too many of them.”