Girl in Falling Snow

by F. M. Parker

  “What do you plan to do once you’re home?”

  “I like the sea. I’m going back to school and study to become a ship’s officer. But we need to talk about you. What are you going to do now that we’ve arrive in New York? Do you really have an uncle there”

  “No. I lied for I didn‘t want to be sent to an orphan’s home. I’ll make my own way.”

  Andrew nodded his understanding. “How old are you?”

  “Thirteen.”

  “If you strike out on your own, you’ll need money. How much do you have?”

  “I found thirty two pounds in my mother’s purse.”

  “That’s about seventy American dollars for the exchange rate is about two to one. That’s not much but you could live several days on that if you were careful how you spent it.”

  “I’ll find work. I’ll tell people that I’m fifteen or sixteen so they’ll hire me. I’d work hard.”

  “I don’t think you could pass for that age, maybe for fourteen. I’ve heard tales of how bad it is for orphans in New York. There are thousands of them on the streets and people treat them like dogs.”

  “Why would there be so many?”

  “Most people going to America aren’t like you and your mother with a cabin to live in while crossing the ocean. Most are too poor to pay for one. Once they reach America, many of them can’t find work to make a living for themselves and their kids. Some of them just walk off and leave the kids on the street. And parents die of sickness in those terrible immigrant ships where the people are jammed like pigs in the holds. Some are even murdered. That leaves kids without any grown ups. They end up begging on the street.”

  “My father and mother decided to come to America. Well I’m here and I’ll find work and make a living, somehow.”

  Andrew shook his head. “I don’t think you know just how dangerous it’d be for a pretty girl like you.”

  “You think I’m pretty?”

  “Yes. Too pretty to live on the street for things happen to pretty girls.”

  “I’ll make out.”

  “All right. When we dock and after I‘ve brought all the luggage of my passengers ashore and collected my tips, I’ll come and help you with your luggage. And we’ll get your pounds changed to dollars. The captain has a money changer on the ship to give his passengers a fair exchange, a much better trade than anyone on shore would.

  “Thanks, Andrew, for all your help.”

  “You’re sure welcome.”

  Alice wanted to do something for Andrew to show her appreciation for his friendship. What could it be? An idea came to her. “Andrew, I would like to give your mother a present for having such a good son. Would she accept my mother’s clothes as a gift? Most of it is new, bought just for this trip. They are much too big for me to wear.”

  “A gift for mom?” Andrew beamed. “She’d be tickled to get new clothes. With times tough, getting clothes for herself would be the last thing she would buy. The first thing would be to buy sheep and then something for dad.”

  “Good. Then it’s settled. I’ll pack them in that biggest suitcase and leave them for you.”

  “Thank you, Alice.”

  Andrew gave Alice a huge smile. “I’d better leave and see about my passengers.”

  He left, closing the door behind him.

  Chapter Four

  City of Orphans

  Alice stood with Andrew on the street in the cool wind. They had left the Pannonia, and with Andrew carrying her suitcase, had walked along the pier to the quay and onward to the nearest street. Evening was upon them with the sun low in the west and the buildings casting dark gray shadows that filled the street.

  People flowed past from the waterfront and into the city; somber; silent peddlers and dock workers hurried to their homes, and uniformed ship’s crewmen in two and threes talking and laughing as they headed out for a night of freedom and pleasure on the town. Alice noted that among the crowd were children, boys and girls of various ages and wearing dirty, tattered clothing. Some were silently drifting along with the migrating throng, others stood against the walls of the buildings, or in recessed doorways, or in the mouths of alleyways. The faces of the children held a weary, dejected expression that deeply touched Alice. They had to be some of the many orphaned and abandoned children that Andrew had told her about.

  Alice was much saddened at the plight of all the children. She touched the small bulge of American dollars that she had pinned inside the bosom of her dress. She never wanted to have to beg.

  She reached out and took hold of Andrew’s hand. His fingers immediately tightened upon hers.

  “Are you sure you’ll be all right?”

  “I’ll be just fine,” Alice replied.

  “I hope so. Don’t trust anybody. And don’t let one living soul know that you’ve got money.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Then I guess this is goodbye,” he said in a sad voice.

  Alice dreaded parting from Andrew for he was a fine friend and she would sorely miss him. A handshake was not sufficient to match her feelings. She brushed his extended hand aside, and stepping close, kissed him, a brief touching of her lips upon his. She hastily drew away, pivoted about and walked away carrying her suitcase.

  *

  In the dusk of night, Alice slowed her step along the sidewalk at sight of the faded wooden sign hanging over the sidewalk and labeling the business beneath it as Sandoval’s Cobbler Shop. The sign brought memories of the cobbler’s shop in Terryville, and the old cobbler with whom she had become great friends over the years that she had brought the family shoes to him for repair.

  She halted and looked in through the window to the interior. Under a single electric light bulb hanging on its cord from the ceiling, an ancient relic of a man sat behind a work bench that spanned most of the width of the narrow room. His white head was turned down as he labored on a shoe. She wondered if this cobbler like the one in Terryville would be friendly. She hoped it ran with the trade.

  She ranged her sight over the shop. All the cobbler’s tools with which she was familiar were present. On the work bench to the left of the cobbler were different sizes of iron lasts used when nailing on soles and heels, and a small belt sander, and a sewing machine for leather. To his right were knives of different shapes and other assorted cutting tools, and half pint cans that she knew would hold polish of various colors. Shoes were arranged in two neat and separate groups, those awaiting repair and those waiting for their owners to come, pay and retrieve them.

  *

  Eduardo Sandoval raised his weary head to get the kinks out of his aching back and looked toward the window that provided him a view of the street. He jerked with surprise for peering in through the window glass at him was a very beautiful young woman. Her face held a pensive, questioning expression. Their eyes touched and he expected her to turn away from him as other people always did when he caught them looking at him. However this girl held his eyes.

  Eduardo was an ugly man and knew it. He had known it since early in childhood when the boys of his neighborhood gave him the name Ugly Eduardo. The knowledge was reinforced when he began to notice girls and found their difference from boys most interesting. Their reaction to him was hurtful for when they caught his eyes upon them, they would hastily look away. If they had a girlfriend with them, they would giggle and talk between themselves. He knew they were laughing and talking about his ugliness.

  Eduardo could have allowed the agony of the ugly man to make him resentful and jealous of others that had been gifted with a fair face and body. He refused to allow himself to fall into that useless emotion. Instead he found great pleasure in looking upon beautiful people, and beautiful animals, and any and all objects manmade and natural that had splendor of form and color. His love of beauty was so intense that sometimes he cried upon viewing something truly outstanding. He felt that urge to cry now as his sight rested upon the girl holding his eyes through his shop window, for of all beautiful things in the wo
rld, he most enjoyed the beauty of young women.

  Never in all of Eduardo’s seventy two years, had he seen a more lovely girl than the one framed by his window. She could be an exquisite painting by a master artist. Had she actually been one, Eduardo would have tried to buy it. He had to give a sign of his appreciation of her beauty. He lifted his hand to the girl and nodded his approval of the rare gift she was giving him by merely existing and allowing him to look upon her for this moment of time.

  To Eduardo’s surprise, the girl raised her hand and nodded back at him. She stood there with her hand up and her eyes reaching out and touching his. Then the hand lowered and the girl stepped from in front of the window and the wall of the shop came between her and Eduardo.

  As Eduardo felt an instant ache from the loss of sight of the girl, the door of the shop opened and the little brass bell fastened near its top, chimed out as the clapper struck upon the bell’s body. The girl came inside. She wore a gray jacket over a pale blue dress, and a little hat of the same color as the jacket. She carried a suitcase. The suitcase surprised Eduardo.

  “Good evening, young lady, what can I do for you?” Eduardo wanted to hear the voice of the girl. Would it be as lovely as she?

  “Kind, sir, do you have work that I could do?”

  “Work?” Eduardo said in astonishment. Never before had a girl asked for employment. Now and again, a man or boy entered the shop and ask for employment. Eduardo always told them no and sent them on their way. He could with his own labor repair the number of shoes and boots that came to the shop.

  “Yes, sir. I’m strong and would work very hard.”

  Alice studied the aged, white headed cobbler. His body was narrow and boney and stooped. His head was large and much outsized for his thin body. His face was broad and deeply wrinkled with his years. His mouth was wide with lips but mere lines beneath a straight, sharply ridged nose. The two halves of his wide face were somewhat unbalanced, the left side being set somewhat lower than the right which caused that portion of his mouth to droop and gave it a leering twist. However, one feature of that misshapen face held a magnificence that, to Alice, made all the ugliness dwindle too little importance. The cobbler’s eyes were large with a wide band of white surrounding dark brown pupils. Though the eyes showed age, they were eloquent, and at the moment were shining brightly with the intensity of their emotions, kindness she thought, and perhaps awe though she did not know why there would be awe. There was something else, the eyes seemed to hold a bit of the innocence of a youth, which was very odd in one obviously quite old. She immediately liked the old gentleman, even if he should have no work for her.

  “I would work just for a place to sleep tonight,” Alice said pressing her need and hoping. She had been unsuccessful in obtaining a room at any of the boardinghouses she had passed, and feared sleeping on the street. Her mother had told her that very old men and women were most often gentle and kind and so she was ready to take a chance with this old cobbler who sat and watched her so intently. “I’d sleep on the floor. And I have a little money and can buy my own food.”

  New emotions began to flow across the cobbler’s expressive eyes. Alice wished she could read the thoughts that were creating them.

  Eduardo knew that he could never turn the girl away. “Well, now. The shop does need a good cleaning. The floors and windows haven’t seen soap and water and a scrub brush for some time. And there’s leather to cut for repairing the shoes and boots. But I can’t pay you. I have plans for all the profit I make.”

  Alice smiled with thankfulness and relief. “Oh, I will work very hard and you won’t be sorry.”

  “I believe you,” Eduardo said and basking in the girl’s smile. “We can fix you up a pallet there near the heating stove.” He pointed at the little gas burning stove. “You’ll be warm there when the night turns cold.”

  “That would be just fine.” Alice’s good fortune wouldn’t allow her to stop smiling.

  “Then we have a bargain. Maybe tomorrow we can talk about a permanent job.” Eduardo climbed down from his stool and came around the end of the workbench to Alice and held out his hand.

  “I’m Eduardo Sandoval.”

  “I’m Alice Childs.” She accepted the offered hand stained with brown shoe polish. The hand was muscular and the grip firm. She noted that she was nearly as tall as the cobbler.

  “That’s a nice name.” Eduardo glanced down at the suitcase and back up to Alice’s face. “But I must ask, why are you out on the street?”

  “I just arrived from Liverpool today. My mother died on the way to America. I couldn’t find a room for tonight.”

  Eduardo had seen the pain of the girl at the mention of her mother’s death. There was a story here but he would wait for the girl to tell it. “I’ve heard that it’s hard to find a room. I have an apartment back there where I live,” he said and pointed at a door set into the rear wall of the shop.

  “As far as you buying your own food, that won’t be necessary. That will be part of your pay.” Eduardo admitted to himself that to set across the table from Alice and have a meal would be more than fair pay for any amount of food she might eat.

  “I’ll close the shop. Then we’ll fix some food for I’m starving.” Which wasn’t true for Eduardo ate sparingly. “Then we’ll fix you a bed for the night by the stove.”

  *

  Early in the first night in the cobbler shop, Alice awoke from sleep, a shallow and uneasy sleep due to the strange surroundings and the unknown character of the cobbler close by in his tiny apartment in the rear. She sat up and listened for what had awakened her. She heard the sound of the cobbler talking. Who was he talking with? She arose and crept to the door of his apartment and pressed her ear against the wood paneling. The first words she heard told her that he was saying his prayers and thanking God for the favors that had been given to him during the day. He ended his prayer with the surprising words, “And thank you, All Mighty, for sending me Alice Childs to delight my old eyes and drive away my loneliness.” The words relieved Alice’s worry about the character of the cobbler. She stole back to her pallet and fell into a sound sleep.

  During the first day with the cobbler, Alice cleaned the shop with fervor and thoroughness, and by the middle of the afternoon, it was spotless. She had also removed the jumble of tools and other odds and ends piled about on the benches and shelves and arranged everything according to Eduardo’s directions.

  Eduardo complimented her on her work. He then left and returned with a fold-up cot and used it to replace the blanket pallet by the stove. With that obvious sign, Alice knew that she had been accepted to continue working for the cobbler.

  Alice’s days working for Eduardo passed pleasantly one after another and for he was a jolly man, always ready with a pleasant word and one of his lop-sided smiles. She called him Uncle Eduardo. When someone asked who Alice was, Eduardo proudly told them that she was his niece.

  They had settled into a comfortable routine of working together during the day. After the shop closed, they ate together in the kitchen of his apartment. He insisted on doing the cooking and served up delicious food. Upon finishing the meal, they drifted off doing their own private chores and entertainment.

  Eduardo was a zealous reader of both the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Times. He would sit and read in detail the financial section of the papers. Sometimes he would chuckle, but never offered to say why. Rarely, he would sigh.

  Eduardo always left the shop for an hour or so every morning, Monday through Friday. He would simply tell Alice that he had a little business to do downtown and she should mind the shop. She did not ask what type of business drew Eduardo away. She reasoned that he would tell her if he wanted her to know.

  Eduardo’s business increased with Alice’s presence and the cleanliness and neatness of the shop. He noticed that young men began to appear with shoes for repair and would linger to talk with Alice. Some young fellows brought shoes that would have been quite serviceable f
or several more miles. Not just the young men found conversation with Alice pleasant. Most all of his customers would smile and dawdle for a few moments to talk with her on even the most simple of subjects. He recognized Alice’s value to draw new customers and assigned her to greet and serve all who entered the shop.

  Summer arrived and Alice and Eduardo were kept busy repairing shoes and boots. She learned to cut patterns from pieces of tanned cow hide, how to use the sewing machine to fasten the pieces together to form the upper part of a shoe, and to nail on soles and heels. There was always a good feeling when she finally applied a thick coating of polish to the shoe and buffeted it to a glistening shine.

  The hot days of the New York summer passed and the cooler days of September arrived. One evening as they ate supper together, Eduardo told Alice that the shop was more profitable now than before she had come. With that compliment, he told her that she would receive a wage of two dollars a week.

  Alice saved most of the earned money and added it to what she kept pinned inside her dress. With her growing savings, she felt more secure. She also felt more secure in another manner; she had had her fourteenth birthday and had grown an inch taller since beginning to work for Eduardo.

  On the last Thursday of late October, Eduardo returned from his trip downtown with his body more stooped than usual and his face strained. He said not a word to Alice, just silently sat down at his usual stool and began to work fitting a sole to a shoe. She felt saddened at his worry, whatever that might be. In the afternoon, he again left for downtown, which was very unusual. He returned late in the day with a New York Times special edition. Alice caught sight of the headline. In huge bold letters it read, Stock Market Crashes. Investors Lose Millions Of Dollars. Eduardo went into his apartment and closed the door and did not emerge the remainder of the day. Alice was quite worried about Eduardo. She walked two blocks away along the street and ate the evening meal at a restaurant.