Chapter 32
"But then you spend three hundred a year and at the end of it you've got nothing. This way we have an equity. It's like an insurance policy."
"How much mortgage will the bank give us?"
"No bank will give me a mortgage," he said. "They don't particularly like union men."
She looked at him. "I have that money I got from sellin' niy house back East," she said. "Four hundred. That should he'p."
He smiled. "I don't need your money. I can manage it. That is, if you like it."
"I like it," she said.
"Okay, then let me make him an offer," he said, calling the agent back into the room.
They closed the deal at one thousand two hundred and seventy-five dollars and moved into the house at the end of the month. It took them a little more than a month after that to do everything to the house that they wanted to do. Daniel repainted the house and the furniture; she made new curtains and draperies with an old sewing machine that one of the former owners had left in the attic.
He was sitting in the living room reading the evening paper as usual when she came in from work. He put down the paper and looked at her. She was in her fifth month and was beginning to get large. Her face looked drawn and tired.
'*I was stuck late," she said. "We was busy an' the boss wouldn't let me out. I'U get right on dinner."
"Don't bother," he said. "You get yourself a nice bath and rest a bit. I'll take you out for dinner. We'll have some c.h.i.n.ks."
"You don't have to," she said. "I don't min' makin' dinner."
But he could see that she liked the idea. "You do what I said."
Later, over dinner, while they were spooning into their chicken chow mein, he said very casually, "I think it's about time you quit your job. It isn't fair to Junior that you should be on your feet all day like that."
"The money comes in real handy," she said. 'Twelve, fourteen dollars a week covers a lot of the ouse bills."
'*I spend more'n that on whiskey and cigars," he said.
She was silent.
"Besides, Fm figuring on going back to work. If I do, we'll have a lot more than that comin' in."
She stared at him. "What are you gonna do?"
"The same as Fve always done," he said. "Organizing."
"I didn't know you kin git a job like that out here."
"It's not out here," he said. "It's back East. Phil Murray himself called me. He wants me to head up the Steelworkers Organizing Committee in Chicago. They'll pay me fifty-five dollars a week and expenses."
Dismay came into her voice. "That means we'll have to move back there jest after we settled in here."
"No," he said. "It's nothing permanent. The whole job shouldn't last more than a few months at the most. Then I'll be back."
"I'll be alone," she said. "What if you're still there when my time comes?"
He laughed. "I'll be back long before that," he said confidently.
"Wouldn't you be better off takin' a job here?"
"You know what the jobs out here pay. There's nothing that pays even half that much. And with a baby on the way, the more we make now, the better off we are. With them paying my expenses, we can sock the whole salary into the bank."
She met his eyes. "That's what you want to do, isn't it?"
"Yes," he said simply.
She took a deep breath. "Okay. But I'll miss you."
He smiled and reached across the table, touching her cheek. "I'll miss you too," he said. "But I'll be back before you know it."
She reached up, pressing his hand to her cheek. She wanted to believe him, but in her heart she knew it would be longer than he thought.
'*Is it dangerous?'' she asked.
He shrugged his shoulders. ''No more than any of the other jobs.''
''I don't want nothin' to happen to you."
He patted his jacket under the shoulder where the gun rested
She looked into his eyes. "That's okay. But jes' don't you fergit one thing. You got a wife too."
center of the car. He gestured to the seat and carefully placed the valise in an overhead rack. *'You kin have both scats, sah," he said. *'We're not busy, an' Ah'U make sure that n.o.body sits next to you. That way you kin stretch out at night."
'Thank you," Daniel said, giving him a half-dollar coin.
'Thank you, sah," the porter said enthusiastically. ''Anythin' you want, jes' you call me. George is my name."
Daniel looked at him. ''Is the bar open?"
"Yes, sah. The smoker is three cars back, jes' behind the sleepin' cars." The porter began to leave. "Enjoy youah trip, sah."
He saw the girl as he walked through the second sleeping car. A porter was just coming out of one of the private compartments. Automatically he looked in through the open door. She was standing there, her hand on the top b.u.t.ton of her blouse. She glanced up. For a moment their eyes met; then she half-smiled and with the other hand pushed the door shut. He went on to the smoking car.
The bar was already crowded. There was one small table left against the window, with two chairs. He sat down. The waiter came up to him. "Yes, sah."
"How much is a bottle of bourbon?" Daniel asked.
"One fifty a pint, two sixty a fifth, sah."
"I'll take a fifth."
"Yes, sah. Ice and ginger, sah?"
"Just water, thank you."
He was on his second drink when she came into the car. Her eyes searched the car looking for a table. There was none. For a moment she seemed to hesitate, as if she were going to turn back; then she saw the empty seat at his table and came toward him "Do you mind if I sit here?" She had a soft, educated voice.
He rose to his feet. "It would be my pleasure, ma'am."
She sat down as the waiter came up. "What are you drinking?"
"Bourbon and water," he said. "Shall I get another gla.s.s?"
She shook her head. "A very dry martini," she told the waiter. She turned back to him. "I didn't fancy the idea of drinking alone in the compartment."
Daniel smiled.
She held out her hand. "Fm Christina Girdler."
The waiter brought her martini. She raised the gla.s.s. " To a pleasant journey."
He tossed the shot of bourbon down his throat. "A pleasant journey. Miss Girdler."
"My friends call me Chris," she said.
"Daniel."
"Fm going to Chicago," she said. "I was just visiting some friends on the Coast."
"Fm changing trains in Chicago and going on to Pittsburgh, but FU be back in Chicago in about two, three weeks," he said.
"What line of work are you in, Daniel?"
"Fm a labor organizer. Right now Fm on a special job for the Steelworkers Organizing Committee, C.I.O."
"The S.W.O.C.?"
"You heard about us?" His surprise showed in his voice. Usually people in her society knew nothing about unions.
She giggled. "My Uncle Tom would have a fit if he knew I was sitting here talking to you. Mention S.W.O.C. to him and he explodes."
Girdler. The name fell into place. President of Republic Steel. At the spearhead of Little Steel's antiunion drive. ''That Girdler?"
She laughed agam. ''That Girdler. Do you want me to leave the table now?"
He chuckled. "Not at all."
"Even if I told you that I work in the public relations division of his company and Fm one of those people who send out all the antiunion information?"
He shook his head. ''It doesn't matter. Right now, neither of us is working."
''You people aren't going to win. You know that, don't you?"
"I'm not working," he said.
"What do you want to talk about, then?" she asked.
"You," he said.
"What about me?" she asked.
"I've been sitting here with a hard on from the moment you sat down," he said. "I want to f.u.c.k you."
She caught her breath. A sudden light moisture broke out on her face and she flushed slightly. She stared at him.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
She moistened her dry lips with her tongue. "I just came."
He laughed. "That puts you one up on me."
She laughed with him. "May I have another drink, please?"
He signaled the waiter. When the drink had been brought and the waiter had gone, he said, "We'll have dinner first. Then we'll go to your compartment."
"Why not yours?"
He laughed. "I don't have any. Union men ride coach."
The train took almost forty hours to Chicago from Los Angeles, and the only time they ever left her compartment was for meals. In Chicago, she clung to him as he prepared to change to the train to Pittsburgh and would not let him leave until he promised that he would call her as soon as he returned.
He never knew how she had found out, but when he got off the train in Chicago two weeks later she was waiting for him, and she stayed with him until he was ready to return to the Coast.
One day in the car driving back to Chicago from Gary, Indiana, where he had gone to complete a field survey, she put her hand on his arm. **I love you," she said. "I want to marry you."
He glanced at her. ''You're nuts."
"I mean it," she said.
"You know I'm married. That Tess is expecting in less than a month."
"I can wait for you to get a divorce."
"You forget the kind of money I make. I can't afford to support Tess and a baby and have another wife."
"I have money."
"No, thank you," he said.
"You don't have to stay with the union," she said. "You and Uncle Tom would get along great together. I'm sure he'd give you a job in a minute. At a lot more money than you're making now."
He glanced at her again. "We're doing great. Why press and spoil it?"
"I love you," she said. "I've never known a man who could make me feel the things you make me feel."