“He’s here to check the building for repairs.”
“I almost fell through the ladies’ room floor when I attended a play here. Maybe you can do something about that. Excuse me.” Peachy gave them a tense smile before marching off.
“If that isn’t an advertisement for a tear-down, I don’t know what is.” Ed chuckled.
*
Peachy burst into the costume shop to find Calla sitting cross-legged on the cutting table, sorting through swatches of fabric.
“Calla, I think we should talk.”
“Are you all right, Peachy?”
“No. I am not.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Why do I have a haunting feeling you already know?”
“Know what?”
“Where is my fiancé?”
“I don’t know. Is there a problem?”
“He broke up with me last night.”
“He’s an idiot.”
Peachy was taken aback by Calla’s response, so much so that she sat down on a work stool, pulled off her hat and sunglasses, folded her arms on the table, put her head down, and cried.
“He’s an idiot to break up with you. You’re a great girl, Peachy. I saw you with the Palazzinis. The only thing I can say is that he must be having a mental breakdown.”
Peachy pulled a hanky from her bra strap and wiped her tears. “Maybe there’s a growth. A fatty tumor. My uncle Jerry had one. One day he woke up and was fluent in French.”
“Nicky is a fool.”
“I did everything right. I kept quiet. I didn’t pressure him. I waited. I tiptoed around, made sure he felt good about himself. And he drops me.”
“Stupid, stupid man.”
“I know. They all are, you know.” Peachy blew her nose.
“We can’t change them.”
“My father’s going to kill him.”
“Not really?”
Peachy nodded. “He didn’t like him to start with. He feels like he sacrificed seven years, too. He wants to wring Nicky’s neck with his bare hands.”
“Violence never made a dope think.”
“True. But it will make my dad feel better.”
*
The rolling green fields outside Philadelphia gave way to the foothills of the Poconos, thick with laurel, bursts of pink peonies, and wild orange tiger lilies. In the distance, the peaks and crests of the Blue Mountains filled the horizon with a stripe of deepest purple.
The air was fragrant with smoky pine that morning. Nicky was making good time on the road to Roseto. If Hortense weren’t so nervous, she might have enjoyed the ride through northeastern Pennsylvania on the cusp of summer. Instead, she sat low in the back seat, and tried not to fidget.
“I don’t like sitting back here.”
“You’ll draw attention if you’re in the front seat.”
“How much do you know about this ambassador?” Hortense asked as she flipped through the Jubilee booklet.
“Just what’s in there.”
“He looks wealthy.” Hortense looked at the suit on the seat next to her. “Do you think this costume is going to fool these people?”
“It has to.”
“What is a Cadillac Dinner?”
“It’s a fund-raiser for the town. They raffle off a Cadillac at the end.”
“Nice.”
“I have to dance with the ladies. That’s when I wear the regimentals.”
“Lord, have mercy. What do I do while you dance and give away a car?”
“Stand there and look official.”
“All right. I can do that. But know this. Small towns aren’t very welcoming to colored folks. We don’t like to be places where they can corner us.”
“You’ll impress them. There will be no cornering.”
“That’s what you think. I’ve gotten my hopes up before. When they find out you aren’t a servant, all hell breaks loose.”
“You stick with me, and nobody will give you any trouble.”
“Mm-hm,” Hortense grumbled.
“I mean it.”
“Nicky, I’ve been colored all my life, and the only thing I know that remains true is that there are no surprises. I always know what I’m walking into.” Hortense chuckled. “Well, not always. I got sandbagged once. You know, old man Rotundo of the trucking outfit tried to steal me away during the war.”
“No kidding.”
“Rotundo had heard Palazzini’s had a crack dispatcher and a first-class operation. So he called the office and told me to name my price. So I did. He said, ‘No problem. Come and see me.’ When I walked in the door, his face went puce, and then the color left his face entirely, which took a while because he’s southern Italian, so he’s on his way to being as dark as me. Anyway, he took one look at me and said the position had already been filled. The very one he offered to me over the telephone. I kid you not. That money would have been nice, too. At the time I had both the girls at home, and we needed a new furnace. So I walked back to Montrose Street and straight to your uncle and told him about Rotundo and the offer and said I needed a raise. He gave me an argument, but I stood my ground. I got my raise. I wasn’t ever going to be rich, but I got my furnace.”
“Would you rather be rich or respected?”
“Both.”
“If you had to choose.”
“Respect is more important, of course.”
“I don’t care about money,” Nicky said, and meant it.
“You don’t?”
“I really don’t. As long as I have enough to survive, that’s fine with me. Peachy bought government bonds during the war, and she bought stocks, she saved up money. She’s a saver. She’d talk about that stuff, and I was so bored.”
“She’s a very responsible young lady.”
“She’s thirty-four.”
“She’s a very responsible lady.”
“You could look at it like that. Or you could look at it like once we were married she’d be waiting by the door every Friday with an empty jar ready to fill with my tips.”
“She might have changed if you married her.”
“She would have. For worse.”
“You did the right thing, then.”
“Do you think her father will kill me?”
“If every father killed every son that did a woman wrong, there’d be no men left to marry. Al DePino may slap you around a little. Loosen a couple of teeth. You may get your arm twisted and your nose broken. But you’ll survive.”
Nicky swallowed hard. “Thanks.”
“I’m getting older by the day, and I’ve yet to see a couple bust up where both people wanted to leave at the same time. It’s always one or the other. So one person always ends up irate at the end of a love affair. Why is that? Just move along. The globe is crawling with people, you mean to tell me you can’t find somebody else who spins your wheels? I never understood it.”
“I should have had you talk to Peachy.”
“I would have talked plain. I have a feeling you puttered around. You can’t putter around when you want to end something. You have to get to the point.”
“She didn’t want to accept it.”
“There’s that, too.”
“She had everything planned. The future came with a recipe.”
“That’s too bad. You need wiggle room in life, because you don’t know what you’re going to get thrown your way.”
“Look at my parents.”
“That’s right. They died so young, which means they went to heaven before their marriage gave them hell.”
“Or maybe they were happy,” Nicky countered.
“I’m sure they were.”