Hannah baked so many doughnuts to keep herself from worrying, she started giving them out to her Watcher chaperones, telling them that whenever they found a poor misused woman, to feed her, as feeding in sorrow gave comfort to the soul.
With Henrietta’s new baby next door, Frederika was nearing the breaking point. She could hear its cry through the thin walls that divided Rudy’s half of their house from Johann’s. At night, it sounded so like a stray kitten begging to be let in, she would wake wanting to do so, then realize it was only Henrietta’s baby. During the day, the cry made her so nervous, she invented sounds of her own to drown out those that crept through the wall, often huddling in the closet amongst her leaf-green finery where she felt safe, once more untouchable. On days when even this did not help, she would have to leave her house, walk over to Jane’s with a dress as excuse for doing so. Once arrived, instead of abating, her nervousness seemed to increase, as if she were confused by needing to escape what she couldn’t endure.
Sensing her presence, John screamed his welcome, forcing her to pick him up to distract him. Jane had the impression she didn’t want to hold him, did so only to stop the noise.
“That dress needs to be shortened.” Frederika held the baby as though he was a bundle of dirty clothes whose proximity might soil hers. “I presume you know the correct length that is now fashionable.”
“I heard because of the war—in London the new length is now all of five inches above the ankle.”
“That will make dancing so much easier.”
“I don’t think that’s the reason. I think it is to make it easier for the nurses at the front and for those who are taking over the work of men.”
“Women—doing men’s work—how ridiculous! Won’t help. Anyway—we are winning!”
Scissors in midair, Jane stopped opening the hem of Frederika’s dress. “We?”
Michael about to come in from the yard, took one look, saw who was in the kitchen with his mother, turned and bolted back outside. The boy had a healthy aversion to Frederika that at times Jane could agree with.
“The Central powers, of course. Who else? You don’t honestly believe the British and French have a chance of winning against us, do you!” As this was said as a statement, not a question, Jane remained silent.
More animated than she had seen her for some time, Frederika strode about, carrying Jane’s baby unaware she was doing so.
“If I were home, I would be at the front—nursing our brave soldiers. But in this country? What am I? Nothing! Just sitting in an ugly little house filled with sounds that you never know when they will come, having to live with a man who actually believes building automobiles is important work!”
“Frederika, do you wish you hadn’t married Rudy?”
As if too much reality exposed, the question seemed to frighten her, which in turn fostered aggression.
“What? What do you know! You’re so insufferably noble! Sewing, having babies like a sow—that’s all you’re good for—that’s your life and, as far as I am concerned, you’re welcome to it!” Without reluctance, Frederika shoved the baby back into his basket, picked up her hat and gloves and, ordering Jane to have her dress ready by the very next day or she wouldn’t pay for it, left. Bereft in his basket, aware Frederika had gone, John began to scream. Jane, concentrating on her work, let him.
When Henrietta’s baby next door developed an ear infection that caused the little girl to whimper incessantly, Frederika, robbed of all rest, began to roam aimlessly about the house, a sleepwalker in daylight, in the evenings greeting her husband’s return as if she had forgotten he existed. Believing no other solution was open to him, Rudy made his decision to leave Highland Park, sold his half of the house, gave up his elevated position with Ford, to take a lesser one with the Packard Motor Car Company in Flint, whose advertising slogan “Ask the Man Who Owns One” rivaled “Watch the Fords Go By.”
It was nearly Christmas when Rudy came to say good-bye to the people who meant the most to him. No longer the happy-go-lucky young Austrian, always ready for a joke, a good-natured prank, now a tired, strained man who had given up a nurtured dream in the belief that he could save a marriage already doomed, a woman’s sanity already lost.
As if wanting to give of her strength, Hannah held him close. “Mazel tov, my Rudy. Here a home is for you—always.”
Fritz wrung his hands. “We will miss you, my boy. So long it has been, all of us together!”
John embraced his friend, “Don’t work too hard for the competition. Keep in touch,” then stepped away, embarrassed by his own emotions.
Carl punched his shoulder. “Yes, you rascal. Keep in touch and, don’t forget, tell us if they are doing anything on their big, heavy cars that we poor little flivver makers should know about!”
Peter shook Rudy’s hand, holding it in both of his.
Zoltan just stood looking at him, not wanting to see him go. Stan, who had offered to drive Rudy to the station, took his arm. “It’s getting late. Come on, we have to pick up Frederika. It’s not forever! You can come to visit …”
“Sure! Stan is right, it’s not forever. Well then, good-bye, everybody. See you soon. Maybe next year for Easter, okay?”
Stan pulled him towards the door. Jane saw Hannah shake her head, not believing she would ever see her Casanova Rudy Zegelmann again.
Now that winter darkness lasted into morning’s icing streets without relief, Jane, as his friends had, ventured to bring up the delicate subject of John becoming the proud possessor of his very own Model T.
Straightening up from securing his bicycle clips, John looked at his wife as though she had suggested he buy himself a yacht.
“Do you know that every morning rain or shine the Boss rides his bicycle from his house to his front gate and back? And that’s two miles and he’s fit as a fiddle. So?” And he rode off.
Well, she mused to herself, if I had known that Henry Ford rode a bicycle I would never have even thought of broaching the subject of John giving his up. Jane shook her head. Everywhere one turned that man got in the way. Sliding the front door snake back into his position, Jane picked up John, who had crawled into the hall and took him back to his place in the kitchen.