Blondes and brunettes, tall and short, skinny and chunky drew near like moths to a flame. Charlie had his hand on the rump of a pretty-looking Greek girl, and Cappie was holed up in the corner with a curvy strawberry blonde absorbed in an intense petting session. Couples swayed and danced to the pulsating jazz as the black band sweated and played on and on. A very fair mulatto girl approached Joe and tried to sit on his lap. Flattered and embarrassed, he grabbed her waist and tried to gently push her off. He almost fell to the floor himself. The beer was definitely going to his head now. The girl laughed, and Joe noticed how white her pretty teeth were when she smiled. Joe tried to get the barkeeper's attention to order her another drink. The room grew quieter, and several men stood on the bar rail, craning their necks toward the door. A flash of blonde hair, several low whistles, and Joe was off his seat, pushing past the exotic-looking siren next to him and forcing his way through the boisterous crowd to the back of the bar.
"Damn, I knew it was you, Marya. You can't be in here, you dumb dame… the place is full of gangsters and thugs." He grabbed her hand and pulled her outside before any of the Sugar House gang got an eyeful of Marya in her skintight dress. Joe was furious.
"So I guess that's why you's in there, Joe?" she slurred. "Which one is you? Gangster or thug?" That Marya was well past drunk was obvious to Joe despite his own inebriated state. He tried holding her up by her elbow but she pulled away and fell onto the filthy sidewalk. He tried to help her up again, but she just laughed and lay on the sidewalk staring up at the sky. Her dress rose up above her thighs and he quickly reached to pull it down, trying to cover her.
"You can't lie here on the sidewalk, Marya… come on, get up!" Several passersby stopped to stare.
"I'll take you home, honey" one bristly fellow offered. "She is ossified!" said another. The gawkers erupted in cackles and guffaws. Joe managed to pull her up to a standing position and, holding her around the waist with one arm, dragged her to the side of the building, away from the spectators. He leaned her against the brick wall, and she slowly slid down, landing on her caboose.
"Damn you, Marya! Doncha know those are not the sorts of guys you can fool around with? Don't you gotta brain in your head?" Marya looked up at Joe and shot her best wad of spit onto his cheek. Howling, she held her stomach and hiccupped. Joe wiped the saliva from his face with his handkerchief. "Who were you out with tonight, Marya? Did someone drop you off here?" Marya either couldn't comprehend or wouldn't answer. How, he wondered, could he leave her here on the side of the building and go get a cab?
Just then Cappie came around the corner of the speakeasy looking for Joe. "There ya are. I wondered where you… hey who's this?" Cappie said, noticing Marya giggling on the ground.
"This, Sir Cappie, is my lovely cousin, Marya."
Cappie crouched down next to Marya and held her chin in his hand. He turned Marya's pretty face from side to side and she tried to open her eyes to look back at him.
"She looks like a beautiful baby dove that fell from her nest. Come on, baby dove; let Cappie help you back to your nest." He gently pulled her from the cigarette littered dirt and picked her up in his arms. "Joe, grab a cab and I'll meet you at the street."
Joe hailed yet another cab and whistled to Cappie, who appeared from around the corner of the building carrying Marya as if she were a child. She'd put her arm around the back of his neck and passed out. Cappie softly placed her in the cab, and Joe came around to the other side. "Can you get her in the house, Joe?" he asked. Joe looked down at his sleeping cousin and shrugged.
"If she doesn't wake up, I've got a chance. She's mean as a snake when she's drunk. I'm not Marya's favorite relative, to say the least."
Cappie looked around the street and back at the bar. "I've had enough for tonight anyway. It's getting a little wild in there now. Wouldn't be surprised if the coppers show up for a raid, as loud is it is. I'll help you get her home."
"But what about that good-looking Sheba you were necking with?"
"She's just looking for a Daddy… thinks I'm rolling in the dough." Cappie got into the front seat of the cab. "She was trying to rub up against my front pocket to see how big a roll of green I had. Damn floozies. I've had enough of that juice joint for tonight."
When they arrived at the front of Joe's house, Cappie picked up Marya and carried her up the porch steps. Joe quietly opened the front door of Marya's house, and Cappie set her on the living room couch. "They got an extra blanket down here?" he whispered.
"Geez, Cappie, who cares? We got her home. That's good enough." Joe was getting a headache from all the tap beer, and he was fed up with dragging his cousin home at the end of his rare nights out. Two nights in one week! He'd be glad to get back downriver and back to work. Let his aunt and uncle worry about what Marya was out doing.
"She's your family, Joe," Cappie said quietly.
Rolling his eyes and shaking his head, Joe reached around in the darkness and found a crocheted afghan. He handed it to Cappie. He placed it over Marya's small sleeping frame, tucking the top under her chin.
"Good. The blanket will catch the drool that rolls down her chin. Are you happy? I wantta get outta here before my uncle wakes up." Cappie looked nervously up the stairs. He nodded and followed Joe to the hallway, but just as they reached the doorframe, Cappie slammed his head on the bottom of it, causing an enormous thud. He'd forgotten to duck in his hurry to leave. A light went on at the top of the stairs. They both lit out of the hall, down the stairs, and into the waiting cab.
"You should have seen your face when you hit your big pumpkin head on that doorframe!" Tears of laughter poured down Joe's cheeks.
"Shut up, Joe. I just didn't want your uncle to come after me with a shotgun is all." Cappie hunkered down in the back of the cab, crossing his muscular arms across his chest. "Hey, why'd you jump in here, anyway? You should have run into your house."
Joe broke up laughing again. "I guess that scared look on your face cleared out my brain for a minute." He turned to the cabbie. "Just drive around to the alley. I'll sneak in the back door." He said goodnight to Cappie and jumped over the small backyard fence. He saw the glow of lights in his cousin's house and heard a loud voice and then Marya yelling as he walked up the back steps. Oh well, that's her kettle of fish, he thought. He walked up the stairs and passed out in his clothes on top of his bed.
Chapter Thirty Four
1928
Joe pulled into the boathouse and turned off the engine. Cappie was standing on the dock with another man, talking and smiling that funny grin that made you think of a teenage boy watching his first peep show at the circus. Joe threw the rope to his co-worker. Cappie tied it to the dock and winched the boat up out of the water.
"Hiya Joe!" the stranger called. Joe looked over and saw that it was his Uncle Feliks. It had been almost a year since he had handed him the train ticket to New York that Saturday morning after the crazy night with Clara Bow and Marya.
"Uncle Feliks!" he called, jumping out of the boat and embracing him in a bear hug. "When did you get back? How are you? How did you find me? Did you find Aunt Anna?"
"Hold on, Joe" he smiled. "Let's go inside and get a cup of java and I'll explain everything." Cappie said he'd unload the haul and for Joe to go inside with his uncle. They entered through the secret basement door and walked up the narrow steps. Joe looked around, slightly ashamed at the bachelor pad he and Cappie had been living in. Dirty dishes lay in the sink, on the table, and on the floor, surrounded by old clothes and fishing equipment. Newspapers were stacked on the couch and on the dining room table. Joe cleared a spot for his uncle to sit at the table and tried to find two clean coffee cups. Finding none, he washed two in the sink while the coffee brewed.
"Sorry for the mess, Uncle Feliks. I guess we've been slipping on the housework. They've got us making three runs a night now, and we sleep most of the day. So, are you just back today?"
"No, I've been here a couple weeks. I've been staying with your ma
and your brothers." Uncle Feliks looked much thinner but healthier than when Joe had seen him last. His cheeks were tan and his clothes neat and ironed, but his light blue eyes had an aura of sadness about them.
"Joe, I want to thank you for what you did for me. I don't think I showed you the proper amount of appreciation at the time. I was angry that my nephew was helping me out, and I was embarrassed at the situation I had put myself in. I almost didn't go to New York. Oh, I planned on getting on that train with the tickets you had bought but I was going to jump off somewhere east of here and try starting fresh." Uncle Feliks took a sip of the bitter coffee and set it down on the table. He looked out at the river. The sun, just rising above it, created a rosy hue on the water.
"So I was sitting there on the train and trying to figure out the best place to get off when the train stopped. This young woman with two children came up the aisle and sat down next to me. She was traveling back to New York also, and we started talking and I played with her kids to help her keep them occupied. She said her name was Jenney and she was taking a ship back to Europe to meet her husband. They had come to the United States to find the American dream but her husband had missed his native country and had gone back after the war to set up a business and house and he'd sent for her now that he was established."
Joe's stomach grumbled and he smiled at his uncle. "Are you hungry?"
"I could eat."
Joe got up from the table and put a frying pan on the stove to heat. Then he started on the dishes while his uncle continued his story.
"Well, she was worried about traveling all the way to New York alone and then across the ocean with her two little daughters. After a few hours of talking with her, and sharing a lunch she had brought I offered to accompany her. Her ticket for Europe was for the same ship you had booked me on Joe. I thought it was God's way of telling me I needed to follow through with what you and I had agreed to. So, we arrived in New York and then we boarded the ship together. We were both in second class; thank you, by the way, for that, Joe. I wandered down to third and what a sight! Anyway, we passed the days eating meals together and me playing with the girls. She was a kind lady and a very good mother. When the ship reached port we said our goodbyes and I felt rejuvenated—like a new man with a second chance at life. I decided I'd follow through with my promise to you and go find my sister-in-law and bring her back to America."
Joe threw six eggs in the iron skillet with a dab of butter and placed white bakers' bread into the electric toaster Cappie had bought last month. Cappie came up the stairs, and the men sat down to eat at the now clean kitchen table. Cappie pulled out three cans of peaches and poured them in bowls, reminding Joe of the time he had first eaten canned peaches on the ride to Amherstburg. Cappie said he'd do the dishes when he woke up and headed off to bed. Joe smiled knowingly at his uncle and got up and did the dishes while his uncle continued his story.
"It took me two weeks to make my way to Jastarnia. That whole continent still looks like the war just ended last week, Joe. You wouldn't believe it if I told you. Ancient buildings reduced to piles of rubble, people living in shacks and tents alongside the roads. If you can call them roads. More like paths of mud. I wasn't sure what I'd find in Jastarnia, but the village looked the same as when Alexy, your parents, and I left. Fewer people, quieter, but the buildings were the same, and the church still stood. Feeling like I was starting over to live a good man's life, I went to the old church first seeking confession. There was a young priest there. He didn't remember our family, but he was happy to listen to my sins. After I told him about all the drinking and gambling and, er, women, he gave me absolution and asked why I'd returned. I told him about your aunt, and he asked me to meet him at the front pew of the church. I figured he knew right where she was, and as I opened the door to the confessional I thought about the party your Ma was going to throw me when I presented Anna at your front door."
Joe finished the dishes and made some more coffee. He sat back down at the table to give his uncle his full attention. Joe smiled at Uncle Feliks and poured some more coffee into his cold cup. "The priest had come to the parish only a year before, after the war had long ended. He was trying to unite the town again, as they had lost the sense of community that a fishing village must have to survive. The war had been hard on everyone in Jastarnia, and the people had formed tight-knit groups of immediate family members to survive. In the last days of the war the Prussians had become desperate, realizing the Allies were going to win. The soldiers who had taken over the village decided to flee in the middle of the night, while the people of the village slept. They feared for their lives, expecting a violent retribution from the townspeople. The soldiers had become extremely cruel to the villagers after we made our way to America. They stole their food, raped their women, and beat and killed the men who fought to protect their families. The lieutenant who forced your aunt to marry him was the ringleader, and all despised him. It was he who was leading the exodus, and he decided he could not leave without Anna. Knowing she wouldn't come willingly and his fellow comrades would not consent to dragging a hostile, struggling woman with them, he was at a crossroads."
Joe's eyes grew wide, fearing the end of his uncle's tale.
"The lieutenant cut off all her hair and made her dress in an old uniform of his. He told Anna if she fought him he'd kill her and then come to America and find her family and murder them. He had her pull the cap of her uniform down to her eyes, hoping that in the darkness the other soldiers would not realize she was his wife. They reached the forested hill behind the village, the rendezvous spot where his troops had convened, and he stood in the middle of the group giving directions and orders. Anna silently moved from his side to the outer circle of the group. All the young soldiers were nervous with anxiety and were listening intently to the lieutenant as if his words were their path to safety. She jostled one of the soldiers, lifting his gun from its holster, unawares to him. Anna walked directly into the middle of the circle where the lieutenant was still giving his orders and shot him point blank in the face."
Joe let out a gasp and clapped his hands together. He smiled. But he saw a tear form in the corner of his uncle's eye, and his heart dropped.
Uncle Feliks shook his head and continued. "Anna started to run past the dead lieutenant, trying to make a break for the village; but one of the soldiers fired at her and shot her in the back. They left her there and scattered like mice in an attempt to flee as they had planned. Your aunt lay there for hours, bleeding from her wound, cold on the mossy ground until the sun rose and the villagers came out of their homes to decipher the cause of the gunshots heard in their cottages the night before. They found her lying five feet from the evil man who had forced her to become his wife, pieces of his brain matter and skull within arm's length of her. There were no signs of the other Prussian soldiers except their footprints in the dirt. Two fishermen carried her back to the village and set her on the steps of the church. They could tell by her rasping breaths that she didn't have long on this earth, so they believed last rites would be more propitious than a doctor. The old priest, the same who had baptized her and your mother, was awakened from his sleep. He performed the ritual right there on the church steps. She whispered that she had killed the lieutenant. She asked for absolution. He granted it to her and thanked her for ridding the world of such evil."
Tears poured from Joe's eyes as his uncle finished the story. What a horrible life his aunt had had to endure in the hands of the lieutenant. And then, days before she would have been free at last from his terrible grasp—for the war would have ended and she surely would have been able to escape him then—she is killed in the same grove of trees his mother had told him she and her sister had played in for hours, watching for their father to return from the sea. Joe was thankful his aunt had received absolution, but a wave of guilt passing over him. He couldn't recall the last time he'd been to church. The tragedy of Anna's sad life was too disconcerting for words.
"I know
what you're thinking, Joe, but no. Your thinking if she'd only gone along with the soldiers for a couple of days; if she'd just stayed quiet, perhaps she could have survived till the end of the war. But the troops would have realized that it was her in disguise the minute the sun rose. You see, the lieutenant was mad with desire for Anna. In his desperate desire to keep her with him, he couldn't think clearly. His militia would have insisted on her death immediately upon her discovery… especially in their state of heightened anxiety as they tried to make their way back to their homeland.
"I'm so sorry, Joe. I'm sorry I couldn't bring your mother's sister back to her. The young priest took me to where the villagers buried her in the church graveyard. They erected an elegant tombstone in honor of her. I etched a copy for your mother and gave it to her. I had it framed, and she has it hanging in the hallway of your home. It says:
Anna Sczytski
Silna i Piekna
Ukochany corka, siostra I Matka
Joe listened to his uncle and looked out onto the gray rushing river. Now he would never meet his mother's cherished sister. What a waste. At least she had a headstone.
"Wait! Mother? The tombstone said 'Beloved Sister and Mother!" Joe cried, looking at his uncle.
"Yes, Anna had a little girl. She's four years old. That was the other reason Anna had shot the lieutenant and tried to escape back to the village. She couldn't leave her little girl behind with no one to care for her. A neighbor of Anna's brought her little girl to the church steps and Anna got to embrace her and say goodbye before she took a final breath and died on the doorstep of her Maker."
Joe jumped up from his seat and grabbed his uncle and pulled him out of his chair. "Did you bring her here? Did you bring my cousin to America?"
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