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PART II
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS

71A

S E P T E M B E R  1 9 2 9

SCHOOL STARTED WITHOUT Marina, which made her very sad. She’d hated school and she had a nice tutor—two now, with the history teacher who taught Marina all about significant women in history. Trey had hired Miss Stanley with the express intent of preparing Marina for being a female in a male-dominated world, and what women before her had done in the midst of men who doubted them. She had even taken Marina on a field trip to see the female municipal judge preside over her courtroom. Miss Stanley started out arriving in time for dinner, but for some reason Miss Stanley and Mr. Carville did not get along. Soon Miss Stanley waited to arrive until Mr. Carville left for his barbershop quartet. Other than that, Marina was content with private tutors and was happy not to be subject to the likes of Ruthie. The only reason she missed school was because she missed Dot, and she knew Dot was having a hard time with the other girls.

Somehow, Dot had convinced Gio to go behind her father’s back to meet her after school just before Marina took her to Kresge’s. Marina didn’t know how she always ended up doing what Dot wanted her to do, but when she didn’t, it was only because it contradicted something Trey wanted. In this case, he didn’t care whether Gio and Dot sneaked around or not, but Gio set limits: Marina had to be present, it could only be a half-hour chat on the sidewalk in front of the school, in full view of everyone. And he only agreed because Marina was not at school to share the burden of the popular girls’ derision. His presence after school reminded them that Dot had a beau—a seemingly prosperous man with a respectable occupation, who was not the sort of man to do indecent things with his girl.

Since Marina had to be present and Marina’s Monday, Wednes­day, and Friday afternoons and evenings were spoken for, that left Tuesday and Thursday that Dot got to see Gio. While this was fine the first couple of times, Dot got impatient and wanted more, as usual, which Gio would not give her unless Marina managed to rearrange her tutoring schedule.

“Dot, I can’t!” Marina whispered hotly over their table at Kresge’s. It was the third Tuesday of school, which meant it had taken Dot all of two weeks to be fed up with what little attention she could get from Gio.

“Marina, don’t you see? If we don’t go to Kresge’s together on those days, I don’t have a chance to talk to Gio!”

“I know, but—”

“Can’t you get your tutors to change their schedules? You’re up all night long. Surely—”

“No! I want to graduate and Trey wants—”

“For me?” she pled. “Please?”

Trey wanted the number one spot in Marina’s affections. She still didn’t know why there couldn’t be two lists, but Dot seemed to want to see Gio more than she wanted to spend time with Marina.

“Marina!” Dot barked when Marina said this. “You’ve already left me!”

“It wasn’t my fault,” she said weakly.

“I am all alone at school. Please don’t make me be alone after school too.”

“You’re already sneaking around to see Gio for the half hour I give you!” Marina blurted, angry and hurt, feeling unwanted. “Just keep doing that! Your mother won’t know that difference.”

“She will too! She doesn’t know what happens between school letting out and my getting home from Kresge’s! Besides which, that’s Gio’s decision, and he won’t do it without you there to chaperone!”

“Then talk him into it! He’s your man, and women do what their men say. Mine says I’m to be tutored and I want to be.”

That was when Trey laid down rule number three—to Gio and Dot, whom he summoned to the Dunham home that Saturday morning to do it.

“You better get your little bitch—”

Dot, from her spot on Marina’s sofa, gasped.

“Trey, don’t call her that.”

“—off Marina’s back about her studies. Even if Marina can’t see beyond tomorrow, I can, and I’m not gonna tolerate Dot blaming Marina for abandoning her. I despise female politics and Dot’s got it— Dot, siddown and shut up. I’ve had it with you doing everything you can to turn Marina against me, then turning on her for something that’s not her fault.”

“You’re an evil man!” she screeched.

That was a fair accusation.

“He’s not evil,” Gio said wearily, his finger and thumb in his eyeballs.

“I don’t give a good goddamn whether you think I’m evil or not. My wife is hurtin’ an’ I ain’t puttin’ up with it any longer.”

“Trey,” Gio said calmly, “Dot’s also hurting. Her heart’s broken in two different ways, she’s lonely, and the ridicule she has to put up with at school makes her and Marina’s tiff look like a happy day at Fairyland.” Marina took Dot’s hand in hers. Ruthie and her crew were vicious and already three weeks into the school year, Dot was worn down. “That’s the only reason I agreed, to take some heat off. She doesn’t even have her little puppy dogs anymore because they know who she belongs to and they aren’t going to cross me. She’s not any less angry at me, but I understand. Look at it from Dot’s point of view for once, will you?”

“Then find another way to sneak around Albright or elope with her.”

Marina and Dot gasped as one. “Elope?!” they squeaked.

Trey ignored them. “She’ll settle down when you’re fucking her regularly—” Dot whimpered. “—and has about as much time as Marina does.”

“She’s not that willful.”

Trey then glared at Dot, who met it defiantly, but she was trembling. She’d never seen Trey during one of his full-blown rants. It occurred to Marina that Trey’s rants had never really bothered her. He was honest and open, nothing hidden behind polite silence. His opinion of her as a good wife versus loose woman was important to her, and she knew he would let her know the second he started seeing her that way.

“You take all that bravado and put it where your mouth is,” he snarled at Dot. “Packin’ heat but don’t think to use it when you need to. Takin’ your mad out on Marina instead of your daddy because he’s the one got this all tied up. Ain’t me—” Now Marina winced. He was really mad. “Ain’t Gio. Sure ain’t Marina.”

“But … ” Dot protested weakly.

“But what!” Trey demanded. “Marina’s gonna get her education an’ I ain’t lettin’ you guilt her out of it. So run away with Gio or shut up, take your half hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays with Gio, and c’mon over here for tutoring if you wanna see Marina so bad.”

What hurt Marina the most was that Dot wouldn’t. And while Marina appreciated that Trey was trying to protect her, she knew he really couldn’t do anything about it.

“I am not going behind Albright’s back any more than I already am,” Gio said testily. “You talk to him. If Marina’s hurt feelings are that important to you, you’ll sing my praises to hell and back.”

“You still work in a cathouse!” Trey roared. “And you still won’t change your name to something not Italian! This is your problem and I ain’t lettin’ it become Marina’s problem! Dot’s gotta decide this. She got two clear solutions, although I’ll allow as how neither’s perfect. Too bad. Marina gettin’ the shit beat out of her because you’n’me wanted that speak wasn’t exactly perfect either.”

Gio winced. Dot swiped her cheek and squeezed Marina’s hand.

“Gio, get back to the speak. Dot, go home. I’m done. You two get this settled between you and leave Marina out of it or I’ll cut you off for good and I’ll tell Albright what’s been goin’ on.”

Trey was still in the living room when Marina returned from taking Dot home. She sat on the sofa beside Trey and stared blankly out the window. She didn’t move when Trey pulled her into his side and pressed his mouth on her temple. “I’m sorry, Sugga.”

She didn’t know which thing he was apologizing for, but she said, “Thank you.”

“You didn’t put up as much of a fuss as I thought you would.”

She shrugged listlessly. “She’s mad because she’s not at the top of my list, so … congratulations. I guess. Except she’s not on anybody’s list now, except Ruthie’s—”

“Who’s Ruthie again?”

“The girl who always taunted us the most. She has a large following. Dot and I only had each other, so school must be torture for Dot.”

“What’s Ruthie’s last name?” he purred.

Oh, boy. She should’ve known. Tell him or not? There was some dark part of Marina that came out when she was hurt so badly she could barely stand it, and she couldn’t bring herself to try to forestall whatever retribution her gangster husband wanted to dish out. “Ramey.”

So Marina wasn’t surprised when, Tuesday, after she parked in front of Paseo High School and alit to keep Gio company while they waited for dismissal, Ruthie and company trod down the stairs as soberly as if they were at a funeral. They tried to slide past Marina and Gio without attracting their attention, but that was impossible.

Marina said nothing, but Gio said, “Hullo, ladies,” so mockingly they flinched. “Your daddies got the message, I see.”

They all broke out into a run.

She also was not surprised to see Dot gaily clipping down the stairs, as light as ever, and her puppy dogs watching her. A third looked resentful, a third looked wistful, and a third looked terrified.

“Gio!” she squealed and threw herself into his arms, getting a long, lusty kiss for her efforts. Marina almost rolled her eyes.

“Had a good day?” he teased.

“I don’t know what you did,” she gushed to Gio as she threw herself at Marina, “but it worked like a charm!”

“He and Trey went to Ruthie’s father,” Marina said matter-of-factly.

“But what did you say?”

“You don’t need to know that, Polka Dorothy,” he said affectionately and booped her nose.

“Yes, but will it last?”

“Oh, yes,” Gio purred viciously.

And as she always did, Marina obligingly removed herself to her car for the allotted thirty minutes, and read. Once Dot’s half hour with Gio was up, she bounced into the Tin Lizzie, throwing her books in the back. “Oh, Marina!” she gushed. “It’s been such a relief!”

Marina smiled at her. “Trey really does care about you, you know,” she said, because it was true, even if he didn’t know or think about it at all.

“I know,” she admitted grudgingly. “But he shows it in such an odd way. I never knew he was so scary. He doesn’t scare you?”

Marina shook her head. “He’s just loud. And he’s usually mad at himself. Sometimes he … Well, I don’t know how to explain it. Sometimes he just doesn’t— Oh, goodness, what am I trying to say? He likes it when he has problems he can solve. It makes him feel good.” Which Marina didn’t realize until she said it.

“Um … ” Dot began once they were at Kresge’s, in their regular booth and settled in. Their sodas and burgers and onion rings came. They always ate dinner there now. Marina didn’t have to eat alone and Marina took Dot straight to the veterinary because she’d eaten and done homework. And Marina had a tab she paid at the end of the month like the rest of her bills.

Like an adult.

Which was another thing that had changed between her and Dot since she’d gotten married.

“I … Trey said something that’s been bothering me,” Dot said low.

“Oh?”

“He said … um … about me and Gio being … together. Like that, the way you and Trey are. That it would … settle me?”

Marina blinked. “Well,” she said, then took a bite, thinking while she chewed. “I don’t know if I can explain it, but I’ll try.”

Dot nodded eagerly.

“This is the way Trey explained it to me.” She tried to describe about best pals and having fun that way, but it wasn’t coming out right and she got impatient with herself. “No! I mean, that there’s something inside you that stops worrying about tomorrow or other people and whether they like you or not because after you do that with your best pal, you wake up knowing that no matter what, there’s somebody in the world who wants you and cares about you and always will and that’s never going to change. After Trey and I do … that, it makes me feel … I don’t know. Solid. Secure.” She paused. “Safe. Protected. Like I have a real home, like I belong somewhere where I am wanted. I’m not just a name floating around in a house that’s not mine, tiptoeing around the other people who live there. With Trey I can say what I think and get angry and yell and know that he’s not going to hold it against me and then we do … that … and everything is all right again.”

71A

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