Chapter 15 #2
Archer looked at Percy, and for a moment, Elsa thought he might push back about the idea of two unchaperoned young women in one of the busiest places in New York, especially during the last weekend of the season, with a subway ride ahead of them that would take at least ninety minutes including the transfers between lines.
Darkness was already falling, though it was hardly noticeable with the lights blazing in Luna Park.
He didn’t bring up any of that. He only looked at his watch and grinned.
“See you Monday, Archer.” Elsa turned away, happy to spend time with Ivy alone instead. At least, as alone as they could be in this crowd of thousands.
Together, they crossed the street to stand in line for the Incubator Babies.
“Elsa? I thought that was you.” Wesley Spalding caught up to her, and she made the introductions.
“Is your family with you?” she asked.
“Father is over there, working.” He gestured down the street.
“He’s working at the Circus Show?” Elsa asked.
“Yes, for the eugenics office. He really should have finished up before the last weekend of the season, but he’s been preoccupied with Aunt Birdie’s estate.
He interviews the show people to get their family histories.
You know, to see what led to their defects, so he can harp on how society cannot let this happen again.
He even gets samples of their hair for the ERO. ”
The line moved forward. “And does he want to interview the parents of prematurely born babies for the same purpose?” Ivy asked.
“He tried, but Dr. Couney, the man in charge of this place, doesn’t reveal the parents’ identities.
” Wesley paused, jingling the coins in his pocket.
“Aunt Birdie loved this place. In fact, before Uncle Linus died and his creditors came after her for his debts, she gave a huge Christmas donation to Dr. Couney for his Incubator Babies, and she did it in my father’s name.
You should have seen him when he found out.
He was so mad, he was fit to blow a gasket.
” Wesley laughed. “Father’s view has always been that the weaklings should be allowed to die.
Natural selection and all that. He says that even if they did grow up, they would only reproduce more weaklings and lower the quality of the gene pool. ”
Elsa stiffened. “Do you agree?”
“Are you kidding me?” Wesley laughed again.
“I barely agree with my father on anything. In fact, sometimes I’ll take the opposite position, simply to defy him.
Mother calls that diabolical, and maybe she’s right.
But if you had grown up with his hatred of weakness, as I have, you’d understand.
He calls me weak for loving music even when it doesn’t pay the bills.
He’s a machine, I tell you. He can admire a great musician’s precision but has no appreciation for the emotion music is meant to evoke.
I’ll never forget the first time music moved me to tears.
He—” Wesley’s jaw clamped shut. “I’d better not get started on that score. ”
The line progressed again. Only ten or so more people stood between them and the entrance. “I’m sorry to hear that,” Elsa told him.
“Yeah. Listen, I don’t want to interrupt your evening, you two, so I’ll get going. Elsa, I’m sorry you had to witness that family scene in the parlor yesterday.”
“Never mind that,” she said. “See you next week, if you’ll be going back to Elmhurst.”
“I will. I can’t stay away from the piano, and the movers won’t be picking it up for days.” With a smile, he left them.
As Elsa watched him disappear into the teeming throng, she noticed one man across the street not moving. He was taller than the average man, made even taller by a brown bowler. He was staring directly at her.
A stilt-walker passed between them, and then the man in the bowler was gone.
Ten minutes after she and Ivy had entered the Incubator Babies building, Elsa was satisfied that the man had not followed them inside.
Relaxing, she allowed herself to focus on the tiny miracles before her.
The incubators were like metal ice boxes on stilts, except for the double doors made of glass.
Each one held an impossibly small human life.
Nurses bustled between incubators. One approached Elsa and Ivy with a smile, then removed her wedding ring, opened the doors to the incubator, and slipped the ring over the infant’s arm and back again to prove how small he was.
Then, since the baby was too tiny to swallow, she used a special spoon to drip nourishment into each nostril.
“He will live,” the nurse said with a smile. “He’s a fighter. He has gained five ounces already.”
No wonder Birdie loved this place. Birdie saw value and dignity where others didn’t. Elsa could also imagine Mr. Spalding turning up his nose at these vulnerable little ones.
By the time they finished walking through the building, Elsa was ready for the hot dog she promised Ivy she’d eat. This time they walked the few blocks between Luna Park and Nathan’s Famous, and Elsa was grateful to sit at one of the concrete tables while Ivy stood in line for her.
Seeing those tiny babies fighting to live had strengthened Elsa’s resolve to fight, too. Not just for her own health and well-being, but for Danielle’s, as well, at least as far as she had anything to do with it.
But that was the problem. What did she have to do with it?
The nurses and Dr. Couney knew exactly what to do to give the babies their best chance at life, but Elsa remained at a loss.
The aviary may never be found, and Tatiana and Danielle needed a new place to live and work in a matter of weeks.
It wasn’t Elsa’s job to solve all of this, but if she didn’t, who would?
She lifted her gaze to the Wonder Wheel, now lit up against the darkening sky. Thoughts spun through her mind, but like the cars on that wheel, they went nowhere.
A breeze picked up, blowing someone’s cigarette smoke in her face. Turning away from it, she scanned the line still waiting to be served at the counter.
And there he was again, the man in the bowler and tweed suit. At least this time, he wasn’t watching her. He pumped mustard onto a frankfurter like any other tourist.
“Here you go, hon.” Ivy slid a paper basket across the table to Elsa and sat across from her. “And extra napkins, too.”
“Thanks.” Elsa glanced at the man and met his gaze. His expression immediately changed. He motioned her over to join him, as if she would do such a thing for a stranger. “Ivy, do you see that man standing by the condiments? Do we know him?”
“Never seen him before. But he sure is looking at you. What’s his deal?”
“I don’t think I care to find out.” The idea of strolling along the boardwalk with a creep fixating on her didn’t sound like a good one.
Besides, the walking she’d already done had begun to catch up with her.
If she was going to save some strength for the trip back to the Beresford, she ought not spend it all here. “Change of plans. Let’s go home.”
“I’m all for it. I don’t like that man’s vibe.”
“He was watching me before we saw the Incubator Babies.”
“Nope. Uh-uh. We don’t stick around for that applesauce.” Ivy scooped up Elsa’s paper basket. “Hot dogs travel. Now where is a knight in a shining Rolls-Royce when you need one?”
Elsa spared no more than a moment scanning the crowd in the off-chance they’d see Percy or Archer. “My guess? Gambling, the both of them. I’d settle for Wesley Spalding, but I don’t see him either. Let’s go.”
Zigzagging through the crowd, they crossed the intersection to the Stillwell Avenue station.
The cacophony inside rattled Elsa, but Ivy took charge, navigating through the stream of people, all the while holding the garlic-flavored hot dog aloft.
At the turnstiles, she paid the fares for both of them and guided Elsa through.
After a few glances over her shoulder, Elsa still didn’t see the man. But he was tall. If he came looking, he’d find her as easily as Wesley had. Her limp made her stand out in any crowd.
Ivy looped an arm through Elsa’s as they made their way to the right platform. “He could be harmless,” Ivy said. “He might not even be following you, and even if he was, what could he do in front of all these other people?”
Elsa was about to concede the point when she spotted him. “There he is.”
Ivy squeezed her arm tighter. “Never mind.”
A blast of air whooshed over them, billowing their skirts and tugging the scarves that wrapped their hair. They walked away from the man in pursuit until the train doors opened and they could get on. They quickly slid onto a bench.
“Are you kidding me?” A fellow traveler gripped a leather strap from the ceiling and scowled at the aromatic hot dog. “You don’t bring hot food on the train.”
“Sorry.” Ivy lifted her eyebrows at Elsa. “You hungry yet?”
Elsa took a bite, but she was too agitated to eat more.
“You sure?” Ivy proceeded to eat the rest herself in what felt like record time. “This is nothing,” she told Elsa. “You should see the Fourth of July contest eaters. They eat dozens in a matter of minutes.”
“Ivy,” Elsa whispered. “Get up. He just got on at the other end of the car. He’s coming this way. Or trying to.” The car was so jammed with riders, his halting progress was slow.
Immediately, Ivy was on her feet and moving toward the still-open door, blocking Elsa from the man’s view. They stuffed their scarves in their pocketbooks in case he was looking for the brightly colored head coverings.
“If we get off now, he’ll chase us in the station,” Elsa told her. “Wait until the doors start to close, and then we jump at the last second, before he has time to follow.”
“Right. I’m ready.” Seconds later, the doors began to shut, and Elsa and Ivy slipped through.
Safe on the platform, Elsa’s heart thudded as she watched the train roll by. The man in the bowler slapped a hand to the window and shouted something she couldn’t hear.
But she read his lips. A chill raced down her spine.
Ivy gasped. “Did he say, ‘See you soon?’ He was looking right at you.”
Elsa’s mouth went dry. She didn’t know who he was, what he wanted, or if he would be waiting at some station along the way. She licked her lips. “We’re taking a taxi home.”