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PART II
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS

47

MARINA WAS ON her way to the Albrights’ house when she saw Dot in her overalls and work boots trudging down the sidewalk with a doctor’s black bag, probably on her way home from a house call.

She looked very lost and alone.

Attempting to be cute and swerve into a parking spot along Flora, she nearly hit a car, ran over the curb, and almost into Dot herself.

“Hey, you good for nothing—”

“Ooops,” she grimaced. The car died. “Sorry, Dot.”

“Marina?!”

“Let’s go to Kresge’s.”

Dot apparently didn’t hear Marina because she was busy gaping at the car. “Marina,” she whispered, then gathered herself to get in.

“Now, Trey just taught me to drive this morning, so I’ll try not to kill us,” Marina said as she tried to start it. Failed. Huffed.

“He … he gave you a car?” Dot squeaked. “Girls don’t get cars! Jeepers! Married women don’t get cars! Besides Mama, I mean.”

“It was waiting for me,” Marina explained, trying to remember how to do this. “Golly, Dot, the things he did! You should see my house. We have a radio! And a freezer! Well, the radio, he stole from Father.”

Dot was gaping at her. “Stole?!”

Marina bit her lip. “I … He’s a thief,” she whispered, almost to herself, putting her fingers to her lips. “A thief.”

Dot gulped. “Did he steal the car?”

“No, he— Um, sort of? He stole all the money Father had and bought the house and car and freezer.”

“Oh golly gee whiz,” Dot whispered, her voice trembling.

“I … What have I done?” Marina whimpered.

“You didn’t have a choice,” Dot muttered.

Marina and Dot sat in her sort-of-stolen car in silence, each contemplating what Marina was really mixed up in now.

“Dot,” Marina said when something occurred to her. “You know Father is a conman.”

Dot nodded.

“And conning someone out of their money is a different kind of theft, isn’t it? I would think so, anyway.”

“Yes, I suppose. I would feel stolen from if I believed him and then he turned out to be buying radios with it.”

“So, is it a sin to steal from a thief?”

Dot’s mouth twitched in thought. “I don’t know,” she said wondrously. “But! Trey lives his whole life in sin, so that means … ”

Marina didn’t want to say it, but she must. Her circumstances demanded she know things and be honest with herself about them. “It doesn’t matter. He’s still a thief. I just … I hope he doesn’t do bad things to innocent people.”

“He did this to you,” she pointed out.

“He didn’t do it. He didn’t know.”

“He says. He was never an insurance salesman. All those times he said he couldn’t go to something, he was probably at his speak. Gene wasn’t his friend or employee. He was just someone he found and paid to round us out so he could get you in the family way.”

Marina glanced at Dot in pleading. “He said he wants to make me happy. He said he wanted to marry me anyway. Even Bishop knows that’s true because he had to talk Boss Tom into letting Trey have the speakeasy and me. If Boss Tom threatened him to keep him from marrying me and had to be talked out of it, then that means Trey’s telling the truth.”

Dot nodded thoughtfully. “I suppose that’s true.”

“And Bishop believes that he didn’t drug me. And he only believes that because anybody who wanted to win badly enough would have drugged me right away or … ” Marina didn’t want to say it. Dot did.

“Forced you. He didn’t, but he was still going to get you pregnant. You’re making excuses.”

“No, I’m trying to work out all the details that will tell me what to believe and what not to believe.”

“What?”

“Like in a mystery. You know. No, you don’t because you don’t read mysteries. People lie to get what they want. Sometimes even when they tell the truth they’re lying.”

“I don’t know how that can be!”

Marina thought and thought and thought to come up with an example. “Oh! I know. If you tell a lie, then you say something true, then you tell another lie, and the person knows that the one thing is true, then they think the rest of it’s true, too.”

“That’s sneaky.”

“That’s what sneaky people do and I’m stuck with this sneaky person for the rest of my life and I need to know when he’s being sneaky with me and when he’s not. So let me work this out.”

Dot rolled her eyes. “All right, Miss Christie.”

That made Marina laugh, but when Dot gave her a strange look, she stopped laughing and said, “What.”

“I don’t know what happened between your wedding and now,” she mumbled, clearly unwilling to say it, “but you’re happier than I’ve ever seen you. Two days ago you were a wet dishrag.”

Marina shrugged, equally confused. “Except for when he disap­peared and all that in between, he’s always made me happy. He … ” She squeezed her eyes closed, trying to sort through the images in her brain. She thumped on the steering wheel with the heel of her palm, trying to find the right words. “Happy isn’t the right word,” she said slowly. “It’s … He makes me feel important.”

“Well, you are important,” Dot said impatiently.

Marina opened her eyes. “I’ve never felt important. He gave me these things. He said it wasn’t just for me. He said it was to make his life easier, too. But he didn’t have to. And he could’ve just said he did it all for me to make me feel better, but he didn’t. All he has to do is stick me somewhere and go to the speakeasy and stay there. That’s where he lives. He sleeps there and eats there. Until two days ago, I mean.”

“And drinks and does that with—” She clapped her mouth shut.

“He said he wouldn’t,” Marina said in a small voice, but their argument about … indecency … kept running through her mind.

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Dot grumbled.

He wanted to be indecent with her, but he didn’t want her to be indecent with him, so how was he going to get his needs met? The way all men did: mistresses, flappers, or prostitutes, which would break Marina’s heart. She sighed. “Dot, this is my life now. I have my own house—and it’s adorable too, just wait till you see it—and a car and money. He doesn’t care what I do so long as I don’t do it on Main Street south of Fourteenth. He was the one who suggested I come get you and go to Kresge’s.”

Dot blinked. “He did?”

Marina nodded. “I would’ve missed going and missed you, but I wouldn’t have thought of it myself because … And if I had, I would’ve asked him for permission and he’d get upset that I felt like I had to ask permission—” Because he was upset she thought she had to earn what he gave her. “I’ve always been told what to do and when to be home and now I’m not and— What am I supposed to do with all this freedom?!”

“Well!” Dot said indignantly. “I’d—”

Marina waited.

And waited.

And waited.

“I don’t know what I’d do, either,” Dot finally admitted.

“If you lived on your own and didn’t have a baby, you’d still go to school. You’d have somewhere to be. And then you’d have a job after. And if you didn’t, you’d still go on rounds with Bishop. I’m supposed to be in school in the fall, so I feel guilty that I won’t be even though I know they wouldn’t let me in the building. I don’t have anything like that.”

Dot sighed. “Marina, I have to tell Mama I’m going to Kresge’s or she’ll worry.”

“Oh yes!” Marina finally got the car started. She did what she was supposed to do to the car—she thought—and went lurching forward. The car died.

“Um … Are you sure you know how to drive this thing?”

“I did it today already. I just have to remember all the steps in order. Don’t talk.”

It was difficult for Dot not to talk, but after much concentration and holding her mouth just right, Marina got it started and then got to The Paseo more or less without killing anybody.

“Oh, I can’t wait till Mama sees this,” Dot said, finally getting excited.

“I don’t think I can talk and drive at the same time,” Marina said absently, turning onto The Paseo, her hands wrapped around the steering wheel as tight as could be.

“Have you … Um, has he done the thing to you?”

“Dot! Shut up! No!”

Marina was managing fairly well by the time they got to Dot’s house and she managed to park.

“May I talk now?”

“Yes.”

“MOTHER!” Dot screamed as she scrambled out of the car and up the sidewalk.

Marina’s legs were jelly when she got out and tried to walk.

“Marina!” Sister Albright cried when she came running out. A huge grin was growing on her face. “This is yours?”

Marina nodded, still trying to keep herself on her feet. “It’s nerve-wracking,” she laughed weakly, “learning how to drive. Trey took me out for a couple of hours this morning, but … ”

“Zowie, girl,” she breathed, as if she’d been given the gift of a car. She was even more impressed than by having been loaned Trey’s spiffy car to organize the wedding. She looked up and cocked her head. “You look … better.”

“That’s what I told her!”

“Where is Trey?”

“At work. He leaves about four and comes home about six. In the morning.”

Sister Albright harrumphed. “He could’ve spared a little time for his new wife besides barely teaching her how to drive. Come in, come in!”

“Mother,” Dot whined, “we only stopped here to tell you we’re going to Kresge’s.”

“Fine. Marina, when does Trey expect you home?”

She opened her mouth to say— Except she didn’t have an answer. She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t … have to be. He suggested I keep speak hours to get ready for the baby, but otherwise … ”

Sister Albright looked a little shellshocked. “That’s it?”

Marina nodded, then looked at Dot. “Maybe I can stay?”

“For the night?” Sister Albright looked scandalized.

“No, I mean, for supper. I think maybe I need some advice. Trey didn’t give me any rules and he budgeted one hundred fifty dollars a month—”

Both Sister Albright and Dot clapped their hands to their mouths, their eyes wide. Marina almost laughed because they looked so much alike at that moment.

“Yes, and so I don’t know what to do with that, either. When I was here, I just did— But now I have to think and I don’t—” Know how to do that. She didn’t have to say it. “I’m lost.”

“Then let’s get you found!” Sister Albright grabbed one of Marina’s hands and Dot the other to pull her into the house. Ever since Trey had vanished, Marina had felt heavy, like a plodding cow who had to be herded. Now, she was … She didn’t know. It wasn’t a familiar feeling, mostly because she didn’t know what to call it, but Sister Albright had said everything unfamiliar felt wrong.

So she asked.

Sister Albright hummed as she went to the sink to clean vegetables. Marina, out of habit, brushed her aside and did it. “I don’t know. Maybe … light? Like suddenly you don’t have anything to worry about?”

“I do have things to worry about,” she corrected, “but now different things. Keeping my own house. Arranging things the way I like. Paying the bills and keeping the house books, deciding what to buy at the grocery store. It’s just … Trey, he—” She stopped, trying very hard to think some more, but her brain was still tired. “He thinks I just should know how to do these things,” she finally said. “And I feel stupid that I don’t. But Trey has never made me feel stupid. Until now. I feel like I should sit at home and wait for someone to tell me to do something. Last night,” she continued breathlessly, talking more and faster than she’d ever spoken in her life. “I read two books. I feel like a, a, a— Um, I don’t know! A dewdropper. I felt so guilty. And then I told Trey and he said I could do what I want and so now what am I supposed to do?!”

“It’s been a long time since I had to figure out how to be an adult,” Sister Albright said, fetching the baby and sitting to nurse. “So let’s see. What’s your most immediate concern?”

“Housework?”

“No. You’re alone in the house almost all the time. You aren’t going to mess it up.”

“That’s what Trey said, but he didn’t say anything about what he wanted me to do. Oh, except make him a lot of bacon.”

Sister Albright laughed. “Men and their bacon. What did you do at home during the summer?”

“Clean. Sew. Read. Grocery shopping and visiting parishioners. Run around with Dot.”

“Scratch out cleaning and ministering. You have a car for groceries. Sewing?”

“I asked Trey if I could buy a sewing machine, and he said I could. But that was just this morning, then he took me out driving.”

“All right. There’s one thing you can do. Reading, you’ve got covered, but since you won’t be messing up the house, you can do that. Dot’s not going to be able to run with you at all hours because she has to work, which I know you have already thought of.”

Marina nodded.

“And … what would you sew?”

“New clothes. Ones I like. He opened accounts for me at all the best stores in town, but we’ve been there and I don’t like anything they had. And when I get— Well.”

“And then what would you sew?”

Marina finally caught on that Sister Albright was leading her somewhere, so she thought. It didn’t take long. “The baby!”

“Good. What all will a baby need?”

“Oh! I can set up the nursery.”

“And then what? Marina, what do you like to do that your mother would not let you?”

She gasped. “Cook!”

“That and sewing are two areas where you are completely confident. You know so much you can direct your own path and do it for your own enjoyment. If it benefits others, that’s even better. Now, think about how you go about deciding what to make. Use that to decide how you want to direct your life. What have you truly lost by marrying Trey?”

Marina drew a blank. “I … When the baby comes, then that will take all my time.”

“Correct. Use this time to lay the groundwork so that when the baby comes, you will know how you want the household to run because it is your household. You aren’t stupid. Trey has never treated you as if you are. He’s left you alone to do what you will because it doesn’t occur to him that you aren’t smart, aren’t capable. Your mother expected you to clean the parsonage. Did she tell you how to do it and when?”

“No.”

“That is another thing you made decisions about, then. Your routine, your food, your sewing. Answer the question. What have you truly lost by marrying Trey?”

Marina sighed because she had to admit it at some point. “Graduating from high school.”

“Yes, yes. I can see that would be difficult.”

“He said he’d hire tutors for me if I wanted. He told me once that was how he got through subjects he couldn’t teach himself from books.”

“So! You have an agenda: Playing in the kitchen, getting busy on your sewing machine, preparing for the baby, and getting an education. So far as I can see, Trey has behaved admirably and now you have more to look forward to than caring for your mother for the rest of your life.”

“Mama,” Dot said quietly. It startled Marina because Dot was never quiet. “Trey’s a bad man.”

“Even bad men can have their own set of morals,” came Bishop’s voice from the kitchen doorway. “Do you see me as a bad man?”

Dot gasped. “No, Daddy!”

“I was. Once upon a time. You will never know what I’ve done. That’s between me and the Lord. But know this: nothing Trey Dunham has done in his life is worse than what I have done. Unlike me, though, Trey is very young—”

“He’s twenty-four!” Dot barked.

“So he can handle the responsibility of a life of crime,” Bishop Albright said snidely. “I had your mother. He’s alone. He’s been on his own since he was twelve. Almost fifty people depend on him to protect them. He’s got Boss Tom and the Sicilian Mafia breathing down his neck and they’re twice his age. He wants out. He may not make it out alive—”

Marina clapped her hands over her mouth. Bishop Albright cast her a glance. “He’s not doing you any favors by downplaying how much trouble he’s in.” He looked back at Dot, whose face was ghost white. “Trey is not a bad man compared to the ones he’s drowning in. The only one who can help him now is the Lord, and he’ll protect Trey and help him find the right path the way he trusted me. I couldn’t do it without your mother and he can’t do that without Marina.”

47

If you don’t want to wait 2 years to get to the end, you can buy it here.

Speakeasy staff.