by Pamela Pope
‘Negotiation, that’s what’s needed.’
‘And fair bosses. We will not get any improvement while they continue to line their pockets at our expense.’
‘Or until someone on the inside has the interest of the workers at heart.’
‘And that will be when pigs fly … to use a strange American expression.’
‘You’re a foreigner, then?’
‘Max Berman, son of Russian Jewish immigrants.’
‘My name’s Drew.’
The two men spent the rest of the evening together at one of the forty or so bars in Kensington. This fellow Drew seemed keen to have his company and Max had nothing better to do so he went along with it. He liked him, even though he disagreed with some of his opinions. The bar served food but there was little light to see to eat it in the wood-panelled booth, and a candle flickering between them burnt down to a stub of reeking tallow.
‘What work do you do?’ Max asked his companion.
‘I’m an engineer with the CB & Q.’
‘The engineers are least likely to want an amalgamation. They refused before and they’re always at odds with either the firemen or the switchmen.’
‘I’m no grand chief, but I’ll fight for their rights.’ The light accentuated Drew’s high forehead and gave his eyes a glow of idealism. An engineer’s job was fraught with danger. Frequent accidents on the line were caused by bad tracklaying, collisions with cattle, and numerous other hazards. The pay was far too low for the risks, and if there was no train to take out, a man could be waiting in some distant town for hours or even days. ‘We need better tracks and more safety devices on locomotives, for a start — and better conditions. I aim to make the industry listen.’
Max was sympathetic but sceptical. ‘And how do you propose to do that? Would you be in agreement with one union for all railroad men?’
‘Would you?’ countered Drew.
‘I work for the Pullman Company. Wages are being cut, production reduced. Yes, I would support it wholeheartedly. There’s a lot of unrest.’
‘I hope George Pullman doesn’t know you’ve been at a labour meeting. He wouldn’t approve of a subversive element in his paradise.’
The candle gave a final splutter and died, leaving them with only the light from the bar across the room. The adjoining booth was unoccupied. Max reached over the partition and took the candle from that table, causing a spiral of smoke to follow in its wake as he set it down between them.
‘What I do outside Pullman is none of his business.’
Max was puzzled by his companion. He was not quite what he seemed — a spy perhaps, planted by management? Max had the distinct impression that he had been deliberately sought out, but surely an upholsterer was not a likely source of inside information? He needed to be wary. Events in his past had taught him to trust no one, and fear of treachery made him naturally suspicious.
His family had come to America in 1882 when the May Laws in Russia forbade Jews to settle in villages. Max had been fifteen then. The journey from Russia remained vividly in his memory, as did the persecution which had preceded it, and though he tried not to let it colour the present, he could never rid himself of the horror. Pictures of his mother’s suffering were always there to remind him of man’s inhumanity to man. His father had quickly obtained employment in the new country, but neither he nor Momma had relinquished a single Jewish custom and they refused to become Americanised. Their only concession had been to shorten their name for the sake of ease in business, Bermanovitch being difficult to spell.
‘What work do you do in Pullman?’ he was asked.
‘I make the luxury furniture for Pullman cars.’
‘Sounds a secure job. Why were you at the meeting?’
‘No job is secure. Last week my wages were cut again.’ Max pulled the lining out of one of his pockets to demonstrate his financial state. ‘Some men are being stood off.’
‘It’s happening everywhere.’
‘Things are not so straightforward in the Pullman Company. We are at the mercy of the corporation for everything. George Pullman is fine but he is never there. Foremen show favouritism and because we are mostly on piecework they see their friends get the best pickings. Oh, there is much that is underhand, believe me.’
He didn’t elaborate further. He’d already said too much, but if anything did lie behind the friendliness, he still couldn’t help liking this Mr Drew. There was something vaguely familiar about him and he felt as if he’d known him for some time, though he couldn’t think why. It was the eyes mainly which attracted his attention, so light in colour compared with the darkness of his hair, and somewhere at the back of Max’s memory was a recollection of eyes a similar shade. The set of the head, too, he seemed to have seen before. As they talked he puzzled over it, and finally he had to ask.
‘Forgive me, but I feel we might have met before. Is this possible?’
‘I think not,’ said Drew. ‘But I’d be happy for us to meet again.’
‘A pleasant thought.’ Max was noncommittal.
‘On Wednesday I’ve got time off to meet my sister and one of my brothers at the Exposition. Would you care to come along as well? You’ll like my sister.’
He’d been on the point of making a polite refusal, but something prompted him not to be too hasty. Perhaps it was the elusive familiarity. Or it could have been the prospect of being introduced to a girl who promised to be fine-looking if she resembled her brother.
‘All right,’ Max said. ‘Thank you, I shall be pleased to join you.’
The two men rose, stretched their bodies to ease the cramp from sitting so long and prepared to go their separate ways — but not to lose sight of each other completely. In fact, from that evening on their lives were destined to be linked ever more closely.
Three
While at school in France, Ellie had missed all the excitement of Chicago over the past months. She hadn’t seen the buildings being erected in Jackson Park, or heard the arguments about the millions of dollars being spent on the World’s Columbian Exposition, though Papa had told her it was more than thirty-three million in all, of which ten and a half was to be found by the city itself. On top of this there were bills for cleaning up Chicago to impress the world’s visitors. It was all a remarkable achievement, an artistic triumph for the man called Olmstead who had planned it, and Ellie’s first sight of that vast, unimagined feat had taken her breath away. She couldn’t believe that this was the same park through which she had occasionally driven with Papa and Mama in an open carriage.
There was so much to see that one visit merely whetted the appetite for more, and Ellie was looking forward immensely to the evening there with Lionel and Clarissa. By the time Wednesday came, the hope that Drew wouldn’t fail her added extra spice to her anticipation, and the possibility of seeing Max Berman again made her feel quite lightheaded. She kept having to breathe deeply to steady her nerves.
Sensibly, Ellie was prepared for disappointment when she saw him. The memories she had kept so green over the past three years were based on hero-worship, and she reminded herself that the first love of her life at fifteen might not appeal to her at all now that she had matured. All the same, as she walked at last beside the lagoons and turreted buildings in Jackson Park that evening she was full of anxiety. Supposing Drew had failed! Max was probably a married man by now. What would she say to him if he did come? Questions and suppositions tumbled through her mind like a waterfall, waiting to be answered at half-past eight.
Replicas of foreign places gave the feel of travelling abroad on a magic carpet. There was a Moorish palace, an Irish village, an Egyptian temple, and many more such wonders all within walking distance. They came upon the camel in an area of the Midway which could have been a bazaar in some Middle Eastern country. The huge animal plodded through the crowds, led by a coloured boy wearing a tunic and round felt hat, while up on its back rolled two ladies seated sidesaddle. The ladies
simpered and giggled, clinging to the blanket covering the beast’s neck.
‘Come for a ride on it with me,’ urged Randolph Sale, Lionel’s friend.
She declined politely. ‘I’d rather not.’ She would hate to look so silly.
‘I’ll hold you. You won’t fall.’
‘I don’t want to go on the camel, thank you.’ Ellie didn’t care for him and wished he wasn’t there. It was irritating having to put up with him when she was nervous and preoccupied. Randolph was a gangling law student with a pedigree going back to the Pilgrim Fathers, and with Lionel’s encouragement he was determined to impress her.
‘Come with me to the Dancing Theatre then.’ His persistence was as vexing as the gnats she had to keep flicking away.
‘I think not,’ she said, and raised her parasol, tipping it so that he could no longer get too near.
‘Ellie, give the man a chance,’ said Lionel. ‘What’s the matter with you? I thought we were going to have some fun.’
‘I’ll decide what I want to see and do, and with whom,’ she answered, her tone copied from Mama. The secret she hugged to herself made her impatient. Tension caused irritability.
Crowds had gathered across the road from the theatre to see a dark-eyed beauty known as Little Egypt perform the hootchy-kootchy in a mock Cairo street. Ellie left the men to drool over the girl’s gyrating hips and hurried to catch up with Clarissa.
‘There’s something bothering you, isn’t there?’ Clarissa remarked. ‘Do tell. Don’t you like Randolph?’
‘I dislike him more every minute.’
‘He’s done nothing improper, I hope.’
‘No, nothing.’
‘Then why are you all on edge?’
Ellie longed to confide in Clarissa but it would be too risky, knowing her friend’s lifelong devotion to Drew. When they met him it must appear quite unexpected. She evaded the question, glanced at the diamond-watch brooch pinned to her bodice, and saw that at last it was approaching eight-thirty.
‘I’m just dying to go on the wheel, aren’t you?’ she said, new life in her voice. ‘They say you can see Indiana and Wisconsin and the whole of Illinois from the top!’
The most imposing thing in the whole Exposition was the Ferris wheel, so large that it was visible from every direction. Thirty-six cars were hanging on the rim like great baskets, and Ellie’s eyes were drawn to it with dreadful fascination. Somehow she managed to manoeuvre everyone so that they were at the entrance to the wheel with just a few minutes to spare. The 264-foot revolving contraption with great spokes looked like an enormous bicycle wheel, and there were queues to ride on it.
‘We’re not going on that,’ declared Lionel, looking up at the swinging gondolas as big as tramcars.
‘But it’s the most exciting thing at the fair,’ cried Ellie. ‘You’re only saying that because you’re scared.’
‘I am not scared.’
Ellie daren’t look round for Drew. She was so nervous she could hardly stand still. The moment had come. Oh, if only she could remember exactly what Max Berman looked like. Her legs felt so wobbly she wished there was something she could hold onto, and she leaned so hard on her parasol that the flimsy thing bent with the weight.
Drew turned up while they were still debating. He approached Lionel first, for all the world as if the meeting were pure coincidence.
‘Lionel, if this isn’t a surprise!’ he exclaimed. ‘And Ellie! A proper family reunion.’
‘Well,’ Lionel snapped, plainly disconcerted, ‘so my errant brother turns up at last. Do engineers actually have time off? No, don’t shake hands, I don’t want coal dust on my cuffs.’
‘Coal dust provided the means to pay for your expensive clothes, brother,’ said Drew. ‘Perhaps you shouldn’t forget it.’ And he kissed Ellie and greeted Clarissa, who gazed at him in delight.
Ellie was in a turmoil. She had thought for a moment that Drew was alone, but he had been temporarily separated from his companion by the crowds, and a moment later she saw Max coming towards them. She recognised him instantly. He wore a white shirt, a soft bow tie of sapphire blue, a multi-coloured waistcoat under his brown jacket, and a boater tilted at a jaunty angle over his dark hair. She had always pictured him in a waiter’s uniform so it came as a surprise to see how well he dressed. Oh yes, he was everything she remembered — and more.
The sight of him started up a throbbing in her body which was so intense she clasped her hands tightly against her stomach to try to quell it, and in so doing, she dropped her parasol. They stooped together to retrieve it, and while her back was still curved their glances met. Then he picked up the parasol and as he handed it to her she saw recognition dawn in his keen dark eyes.
‘We’ve met before,’ he said. The timbre of his voice was also exactly as she remembered.
‘Just outside Quincy,’ she answered, trembling. ‘The rail disaster. I was afraid you were going to die.’
‘Max, this is my sister Ellie Harvey,’ said Drew.
Max looked from one to the other, summing them up. He had acquired an air of confidence since she had seen him last, and it suited him. When he addressed her brother, one eyebrow was raised, ‘You said your name was Drew.’
‘My Christian name.’
‘So you are also a Harvey?’
‘I am, though I’ve been tempted to call myself something else.’ Drew turned to the others. ‘Now, shall we spend the rest of the evening together as one happy family?’
‘Stay out of our way,’ advised Lionel pompously. ‘Father wouldn’t want us to associate.’
‘You grow more like him. I pity you.’
A bitter exchange followed and it looked as if there was going to be a scene right there amidst the crowd. Ellie backed away, hearing her brothers quarrel as if she were a spectator at a play. Her senses responded only to Max Berman.
‘I hate all this,’ she murmured to him. ‘Will you think me very forward if I ask you to take me on the wheel, Mr Berman?’
She was afraid he would refuse, but she was taking the initiative for fear this meeting might lead to nothing after all her careful planning. It was a dreadful thing to do, of course, quite unseemly and contrary to everything she had been taught in France, but she was unashamed.
He hesitated. ‘You must ask your brothers’ permission first.’
‘How can I when they’re at loggerheads? Anyway, Lionel’s been spoiling my evening by trying to pair me ofT with his awful friend. I’ll be much obliged if you’ll rescue me. And Drew won’t mind.’
Max smiled slowly, his eyes on her. ‘I am wondering if this was planned,’ he said. ‘If so, who am I to refuse the advances of a very beautiful young lady? Come.’
Ellie’s face burned with embarrassment as he took her hand and guided her away, but her heart was singing. Lionel was too busy being his father’s son to notice her going, and quite likely Drew’s reason for antagonising him more was to win time for her. She had to make the most of it.
Max boldly infiltrated the head of the queue for the wheel and they were quickly counted among the next sixty people filling a gondola at ground level. Once inside with the door closed Ellie was panic-stricken. She was imprisoned with a virtual stranger in a cage which rose a few feet from the ground and then stopped for the next gondola to be filled, and already the ground looked a long way down.
‘Oh dear, I think I want to get off,’ she quavered, feeling foolish.
Max cupped her chin. ‘Look at me,’ he said. ‘Don’t look down.’
‘It doesn’t feel safe.’
‘I’m with you. I’ll look after you.’
She concentrated on his strength and gradually her fears subsided as they swung there. He was by far the most handsome man in the car. The wheel, which carried over 2000 people, climbed slowly until each gondola was filled, and all around them couples were linking arms and drawing closer, seeking support from each other for the coming ride.
; ‘Can you see Drew and the others?’ she asked.
‘No. We don’t want them with us anyway, do we, Miss Harvey?’
Oh, how he devastated her. She swallowed hard, partly because her ears were affected by the height, but more because the question was provocative. This was the kind of adventure she’d invented in school in France to enthrall her friends, only better. Papa would never forgive her for allowing herself to be separated from Lionel but she didn’t care.
*
The moment he set eyes on Elena Harvey that evening Max was captivated. She was the loveliest girl imaginable and he couldn’t stop looking at her. His heart drummed, his loins suddenly ached, his throat went dry, and he drank in the vision before him like a man with an unquenchable thirst. She was poised and aristocratic in a green silk dress with a triple layer of frills at the back, but he could tell the hauteur was only recently acquired by the way she dropped her parasol at seeing him. The suppleness of her body when she bent at the same time as himself to retrieve it excited him dangerously. It was not until he met her eyes that he knew who she was.
Then Drew made the introduction and Max knew he had been right to suspect intrigue. There was not enough surprise in Ellie’s greeting. She had known she was going to meet him, was too quick with her reply when he said they had met before. But what pleasant intrigue. While the Harvey men indulged in argument his gaze stayed on Ellie and when she asked him to take her on the wheel the reason behind this meeting was unimportant.
Max was well aware of the power of his dark, brooding good looks and Ellie was as vulnerable as a newly hatched chick in this grown-up world, but the tremor through her body when he took her hand revealed a sensuality ready to be fully awakened. She was out of his class, of course. It seemed wrong to want her in the same way he might want a girl who lived in the same tenement block as himself, yet that was how she had affected him straight away.
They reached the pinnacle of the Ferris wheel, swayed on the final stanchion in preparation for descent, and Max slipped an arm round her. She held herself rigid and tried not to show her nervousness, both of him and the dizzy height. The wheel began to turn, gathering speed, and as it plunged earthwards she gave a cry. Forgetting all protocol she buried her face against his jacket which smelt of cigar smoke, and when her hat tipped back he touched her hair. The ride had only just begun and they soared again towards the sky. After the second rotation she dared to look out, and all at once the magic of the experience took hold.
