Chapter Twenty-Nine
TWENTY-NINE
Vivian glanced out the window. Benny, one of Honor’s bruisers from the Nightingale, was still there, lounging against a streetlamp on Spring Street and reading a newspaper.
But he glanced every so often at the door of the Chins’ place, then up and down the street, keeping an eye out for trouble.
His presence eased some of the worry that had tightened up her shoulders.
She turned back to her sister, who was packing.
She didn’t want to ask. She was scared of the answers she might get. But she knew she couldn’t bear putting it off any longer.
“Flo, are you…” Vivian hesitated. Her eyes were fixed on the dress she was folding, but she could feel her sister staring at her. She swallowed. “Tell me about Danny.”
Florence let out a breathy little laugh, an embarrassed, delighted sound that Vivian couldn’t remember ever hearing her make before. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, you do.” She lifted her eyes at last to find her sister watching her. “It’s all right, Flo. I just want to know what you’re thinking. Or if the two of you have … what you’ve talked about.”
“What I’m thinking…” Florence crossed to the washstand to pick up her hairbrush.
But she stood there, turning it over in her hands as she replied.
“I’ve always felt like all I could do was survive, to just struggle through each day and hope I made it.
Things started to get better for us—I haven’t felt so desperate or exhausted these past few months—but still, it was… ”
“Hard,” Vivian said quietly. “It’s hard.”
“It’s hard,” Florence agreed, crossing back to the bed and placing the brush with the rest of her things.
“But Danny … He doesn’t just survive, does he?
I mean, he does, we all do, none of this is easy.
But his heart is thriving. He’s so alive it feels like he glows sometimes.
” She turned to look at Vivian at last. “And then, for whatever reason, he turned that glow on me. Being around him feels like … like being in the sunshine after living in the dark my whole life.”
“The reason is pretty obvious, Flo,” Vivian said, her throat so tight she could barely get the words out. “You’re a hell of a girl. And you’re as sweet and pretty as they come.” She hesitated, then added, “It doesn’t bother you that he’s Chinese?”
“I can’t imagine it makes his life any easier in this city,” Florence replied quietly, looking down once more. She had picked up a dress and was folding far more carefully than it needed. “But no, it doesn’t bother me.”
She glanced up at her sister. “Does it bother you?”
“Me?” Vivian asked in surprise. “Of course not. I’ve known Danny for ages.”
“But knowing someone, and seeing him with your sister…” Florence bit her lip nervously but pressed on. “That’s two different things. There’s plenty of people would be bothered by it. And you’ve been acting odd ever since—”
“I’m not bothered by you being sweet on him,” Vivian interrupted, her voice catching in her throat.
She closed her eyes, unable to look at her sister as she forced the admission out.
“It’s just hard to think about losing you.
” She opened her eyes again, meeting her sister’s shocked gaze.
“It’s been just you and me for so long. I don’t … I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Oh, Vivi.” Florence put aside the skirt she was folding and reached for Vivian’s hand. “You can’t get rid of me that easy. You know that. I’ll be pestering you to watch your language and go to bed for the rest of your life.”
That made Vivian smile. “You would,” she said, shaking her head. “But you know…” She hesitated. “If anything comes of it—of you and Danny I mean—”
“It won’t be easy?” Florence asked. Vivian nodded.
It was an understatement, and they both knew it.
It was hard enough being a poor Irish girl.
Being an Irish girl stepping out with a Chinese man could be downright dangerous for both of them.
“Nothing’s ever been easy in our lives,” Florence said.
Her hands were trembling, but her voice was firm.
“But if something does come of it … I think it might be worth the risk. And at least with a dead mother and no father to speak of, I don’t have to worry about my family objecting. ”
“Does that mean…?” Vivian hesitated again. “Have you and he talked about … anything?”
“No, not really.” Florence turned back to her careful folding, a blush spreading over her cheeks. She seemed about to say something else, but she closed her mouth quickly.
Vivian wondered if her sister was lying.
She wondered what she had missed these last few days.
But she couldn’t bring herself to ask. “Well, he’s a swell fella,” she said, turning away so Florence wouldn’t be able to see the pained expression on her face.
“Whatever happens next, I’m glad he’s making you so happy now. ”
“Yes,” Florence said quietly. “It’s nice to feel happy.” She gave her head a little shake, then smiled. “And it’s nice to have the day free from work, even if we’re going to miss the money. Should we—”
But whatever she might have said was lost as someone knocked sharply at the door. When they opened it, Danny was there. Florence greeted him with a bright smile.
“Hello, sunshine,” he said, but he didn’t quite smile back. “Viv, this just arrived for you.”
It was an envelope. Her name was written in English on the front, but below that were a series of Chinese characters, some that she recognized from the front of the Chins’ restaurant. She frowned, her stomach fluttering with nerves. “It came in the mail?”
Danny shook his head. “Some local kid brought it. I don’t think…” He glanced at Florence and cleared his throat. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the other thing.”
Vivian nodded. She didn’t think so either, but her hands were trembling, and she couldn’t bring herself to open it.
“Here.” Florence eased it out from between her fingers, which were gripping it hard enough to crumple the edge of the paper.
“Let me.” She ran a finger under the flap and pulled out the letter.
As she read it, she let out a gasp, one hand rising to cover her lips as the envelope fluttered to the floor.
“What is it?” Vivian demanded, feeling like the bottom had just dropped out of her stomach.
Florence glanced up, and her dark eyes were full of tears. “It’s Mr. Sun. He … he had some trouble, they think maybe with his heart. His granddaughter sent it.” She looked up, her trembling lower lip caught between her teeth. “He died, Vivi.”
“Does she say that he…” Vivian swallowed. “Did he say anything about our mother before…” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence.
Florence shook her head slowly. “She says he went to bed and didn’t wake up. But she sent…” She handed the letter to Vivian and bent to retrieve the envelope from the floor.
It was only a few lines, a note written in kindness by someone who didn’t have any reason to remember them.
But at the very end was a single line that made Vivian’s heart skip a beat.
After we spoke, I remembered seeing this with some of my grandfather’s papers.
I thought you should have it, in case my guess about it is correct.
“She sent a photograph,” Florence said quietly. She stared at it for a long moment, then handed it to Vivian.
The woman in the image stood in front of a nondescript building, its sign written in Chinese characters.
Her hair was pinned back, and the shades of gray in the photo hid what color it might have been.
But looking at her face was like looking at Florence, like looking in a mirror.
She held a round-cheeked baby on one hip.
Her other arm hung down so she could clasp the hand of a tiny girl with her thumb in her mouth.
“That’s us,” Vivian whispered. Her voice trembled. “That’s our mother.”
“She looked like you,” Florence said, coming to stand next to her.
“She looked like you,” Vivian said. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to laugh or cry. Florence’s hand slid into hers, and for a moment they stood there together, greedy eyes tracing every line of their mother’s face.
“I know what we should do today,” Florence said at last. “Since we don’t have to work. I know where we should go.”
“I’d offer to come with you girls,” Danny said, and Vivian jumped a little. She had forgotten until that moment that he was still in the room. “But I’ve gotta put in my hours in the kitchen.”
“That’s all right.” Florence gave him a sweet smile. “This is something we should do just the two of us.”
“Well, us and Benny,” Vivian said, remembering.
Florence frowned at her. “Who?”
The ferry ride to Hart Island had been an odd one, with Benny sitting behind them, awkward and silent, while the sisters clasped hands and braced themselves against the rocking of the boat, both of them still staring at the photograph of their mother.
Florence had been unnerved to find out that they needed someone to keep an eye on them, but she didn’t argue.
And now that they were there, he had slipped outside like a shadow, waiting while they went to check the records office to find out which part of the island held their mother’s body.
The clerk frowned when they gave him the year and month and said it would take a few minutes to locate the right entry.
He had to pull several old ledgers out of storage, and they waited together, hands still clasped as they watched with eager eyes while he flipped through the pages.
They had never visited before. But with the photograph still clutched in Florence’s hand, it felt like they could finally face it.
Vivian even felt a flutter of anticipation, almost excitement.
Her mother had never felt more real than at that moment.
There would be no headstone for her, of course. There wouldn’t even be an individual grave. But there would be a place, a spot that they could look down on, and know that was where Mae Kelly rested.
“I’m sorry, miss,” the clerk at the office said, his voice recalling Vivian to where she was with a start. “There’s no record of a Mae Kelly being buried here.”
The sisters glanced at each other, and Vivian could see her own confusion mirrored in her sister’s expression. “Do you think you could check another—”
“I checked ’em all,” the man said. He had tufts of hair sticking out around his ears and a bushy white mustache that twitched when he talked.
His words were clipped and professional, but his eyes were unexpectedly kind as he shook his head.
“I checked the months around it, and the same month the year before. I checked by day and I looked up the name. There’s no record.
She wasn’t buried here.” He shut the record book firmly, dust flying from its pages in a little cloud.
“But…” Vivian shook her head, confused. “But where would she have been buried?”
The man shrugged. “Can’t help you there, girls. This is where the unclaimed bodies ended up. If she’s not here…” He shrugged again.
Vivian was too dazed to respond; as if from far away, she heard Florence thank the man for his help. It wasn’t until they were back outside that she spoke.
“Flo, do you realize what that means?”
“I think it means that someone claimed our mother’s body.” Florence was trembling all over. “Which means that someone knew her, and cared enough about her, and had enough money to give her a proper funeral. But not enough to find us.”
“Maybe they didn’t know where to look,” Vivian whispered. “Flo … we have to find out who it was.”
“There’s no way for us to do that, is there?”
“Maybe…” Vivian spoke slowly. “Maybe the place to start looking is at the coroner’s office. And luckily, I know a guy who might help us.” She gave Benny a wave, and he nodded, falling into place behind them as they made their way to the ferry launch. “I’m going to be heading out tonight.”
“But it’s not a night you’re supposed to…” Florence trailed off. “You mean you know someone at the Nightingale who might be able to help us?”
“Leo got me into Bellevue once,” Vivian said thoughtfully. “He might be able to help me out again.”
“All right.” Florence nodded as Benny followed them onto the ferry. There were no other passengers this time—the island wasn’t a popular destination—but he still sat just behind them as it puttered into motion. “I hope you still have a dress I can borrow, because I’m coming with you.”
Vivian gave her a sideways glance. “Are you coming because you want to hear what Leo says or because you want to see Danny?”
Florence didn’t answer, just smiled as she turned to look out the window. And Vivian’s heart gave a little lurch inside her chest as the boat began to take them away.