Mercer Street (American Journey Book 2)

by John A. Heldt

"I take it you escaped the farm," Amanda said.

  "I did and I didn't. I left home four years ago when I went to college and came back last June after I graduated," Dot said. "I told my dad I would come back only if he agreed to let me drive the Buick. He did. He trusts me now."

  Amanda smiled.

  "You went to college?"

  Dot nodded.

  "I went to Bryn Mawr, the closest of the Seven Sisters and the only one to give me a full ride. You probably passed it on the way here."

  "We did. I saw signs pointing to it near Philadelphia," Amanda said. She sighed and looked at her new friend with admiration. "So what are you doing now? What are you doing back here?"

  Dot smiled.

  "I'm biding my time until the Army decides what to do with this lug," Dot said. She looked at Amanda and then at the large, handsome man at her side. "This is Roy Maine, a Princeton grad, a first lieutenant, and as of Labor Day, my fiancé. We plan to get married next summer."

  "Congratulations," Amanda said.

  "Thanks."

  Dot tapped Roy on the shoulder. She kept tapping until he finally turned his head.

  "What?"

  "Don't say 'what.' Say 'hello,'" Dot said. "This is Amanda Peterson. She's visiting from Chicago with her mother and grandmother."

  Roy smiled and extended a hand.

  "It's a pleasure to meet you, Amanda."

  "You too."

  "That's Mom and Grandma over there," Dot said.

  "Hi, ladies," Roy said as he waved to Susan and Elizabeth.

  Roy put his arm around Dot and then turned his attention toward the middle of the field, where a few players from each team gathered for the coin flip. All of the players wore leather helmets, sweatshirt jerseys, and bulky, baggy pants.

  Amanda paused for a moment to take in the sights and liked what she saw. More than forty thousand boisterous fans of all ages filled the horseshoe-shaped stadium, which opened to the south and offered a splendid view of nearby Lake Carnegie. When Amanda finished surveying her surroundings, she looked again at the girl from Grovers Mill.

  "So is Dot short for Dorothy?"

  Dot offered a sheepish grin. She paused before answering.

  "Yes."

  "Oh," Amanda said matter-of-factly. "How are things in Oz?"

  "Please don't laugh," Dot said. "People always laugh."

  Amanda smiled.

  "I won't laugh. I think it's cool. It's not every day I meet a redheaded farm girl named Dorothy Gale who looks an awful lot like Judy Garland," Amanda said. "You do know she's going to play Dorothy in the movie next year."

  "So I've heard," Dot said dryly.

  "At least you don't live in Kansas or have a dog named Toto."

  Dot smiled nervously.

  "You're right about Kansas."

  Amanda tilted her head.

  "No way. No freaking way."

  "Toto the Third is a terrier too," Dot said. "My mother is a huge fan of Frank Baum. I was condemned at birth to be a literary character."

  Amanda tried and failed to stifle a laugh.

  "I'm sorry. I know I said I wouldn't laugh, but that's too much."

  "It's all right. You're human. People laugh at funny things."

  "I guess we do," Amanda said.

  "What about you?" Dot asked. "What's your story?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "What brought you to Princeton?

  Would you believe gypsum crystals and a magic tunnel?

  Amanda looked to Susan for guidance. When she got it in the form of a smile and a nod, she proceeded to tell Dot a story the time travelers had worked out in October.

  "I guess you could say opportunity," Amanda said. "My mom and I have always wanted to visit the place where my grandmother grew up, so when we got the chance we took it."

  "Don't you have jobs or school or other family in Chicago?" Dot asked.

  "Not at the moment."

  "What about your father?"

  Amanda started to answer but stopped when the crowd roared in response to a Tigers first down. When the noise subsided, she continued.

  "My father passed away in June."

  "Oh, no," Dot said. "I'm so sorry."

  "Thank you," Amanda said.

  "Was he ill?"

  "No. He was in a car accident. He died at the hospital."

  "That's terrible."

  "It is," Amanda said. "I'm still getting used to not having a father."

  Dot looked at Amanda with kind eyes.

  "So you came out here to get a fresh start?"

  Amanda smiled sadly.

  "We came out here to do a lot of things. When my dad died, he left us with a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of unanswered questions. We decided that the best way to deal with all three was to travel. We decided to see the rest of the country before getting on with our lives. Princeton is just the first stop on what may be a very long trip."

  "How long have you been here?" Dot asked.

  "Two weeks," Amanda said. "We arrived the night the Martians landed."

  Dot laughed.

  "That figures. You should have kept driving."

  Amanda smiled. She loved Dot's sense of humor.

  "No. We made the right decision. We like it here."

  "Have you made any friends?" Dot asked.

  "Just you," Amanda said.

  Dot put her hand to her chin and gave Amanda a closer inspection.

  "You probably haven't met any men either, have you?"

  Amanda sighed.

  Define men.

  "No."

  Dot flashed a mischievous grin.

  "Maybe I can fix that."

  "How?"

  "I can start by sneaking you into the dance," Dot said.

  "What?"

  Amanda felt another pang of déjà vu. She recalled the many times that sorority sisters at Illinois had snuck her into one thing or another, with not-so-pleasant outcomes.

  "There's a dance tonight at the university gymnasium."

  "Don't I need a date or something?" Amanda asked.

  Dot nodded.

  "That's the fastest way in. The hall monitors who put together these things don't look kindly on party crashers, though I think they would make an exception for you."

  "So what should I do?"

  Dot grinned.

  "You tag along with us," Dot said. She tapped on Roy's shoulder. "I don't think anyone would object to you having two dates tonight, would they, honey?"

  "No," Roy said without taking his eyes off the game.

  Dot returned to Amanda.

  "Roy was a star offensive lineman last year. He can pretty much do what he pleases."

  "Are you sure I won't be a burden?" Amanda asked.

  "I'm positive," Dot said. "I insist that you come."

  Amanda looked again to her mother for guidance. She knew even before she saw her smiling face what Susan Peterson would advise.

  "Go with them. Have fun," Susan said. "Have a good time."

  Amanda returned to Dot.

  "All right. I will. What time's the dance?"

  "It's at eight thirty," Dot said. "We can pick you up at eight, if you'd like."

  "I'd like that."

  "Then I guess we have a date. Do you have a nice dress? If you don't, I can help."

  "Thanks, but no thanks," Amanda said. She laughed. "I think I have that covered."

  CHAPTER 21: AMANDA

  Standing near a wall in Princeton's gymnasium, Amanda thought about a novel she had read and decided to take issue with its title. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't think of even one perk of being a wallflower – at least not at a college dance.

  Amanda enjoyed the spectacle, of course. She had enjoyed almost every spectacle in 1938, but she was growing weary of enjoying them as a spectator. Amanda caught herself tapping her feet to the beat as she watched couples swing, jitterbug, and jive like they were extras in Grease. For the first time in years, she wanted to dance.

  She c
ouldn't complain about the music. For more than two hours, Teddy Hill and His Orchestra had kept dancers on the floor and others snapping their fingers with cutting-edge swing and jazz. The Big Band legends shared the stage with a local swing band that had filled in nicely during a long intermission.

  Amanda started to head for the ladies' room to check her hair for a third time when she saw four familiar faces. Roy Maine and Dot Gale smiled as they emerged from a moving mass in the middle of the dance floor. Bill Green and Ted Fiske beamed. Each seemed amused to find a blonde in a blue dress standing alone in social Siberia.

  "These two characters say they know you," Dot said when the four reached Amanda. "Ted says you had a 'communal experience' on Route 583."

  "We shared a beer during the Martian invasion," Amanda said.

  "I believe we had two beers," Ted said with his infectious drawl. "It does you no good to deny a mighty fine time. I have witnesses."

  Amanda laughed.

  "I suspect you do."

  "I must say, Miss Peterson, that you are the finest thing I've seen tonight."

  "Thank you," Amanda said.

  Dot looked at Ted and laughed.

  "Don't let your date hear you say that."

  "You brought a date?" Amanda asked.

  "We both did," Ted said. "I considered going stag, but I changed my mind after I met this gal from Philly last week. She's not the kind of woman any rational man would leave home on a Saturday night."

  Amanda, confused, furrowed her brows.

  "She's Miss Cheesecake 1938," Dot said. "She looks the part too."

  "Oh."

  Amanda turned to Bill.

  "What about you? Did you consider going stag?"

  "I did," Bill said. "I even told my girlfriend that on Friday."

  "What did she do?"

  "She guided my thoughts in a more productive direction."

  Amanda laughed. She looked at Bill and Ted.

  "Where are your dates now?"

  "Bill's gal went to the ladies' room," Ted said. "Mine left to make a phone call."

  "So when the cats are away the mice will play?" Amanda asked.

  Ted laughed.

  "You could say that."

  "And now you're here."

  "Now we're here," Ted said. "Roy told us he brought two dates tonight and that one wasn't getting the attention she deserved. I didn't realize the magnitude of the travesty until we walked this way. I think it's a crime the bozos who came here alone haven't asked you to dance."

  "It's not their fault. I haven't exactly made myself visible," Amanda said. She looked at Roy and Bill before returning to Ted. "How do you all know each other?"

  "We had some common classes last year," Ted said. "We also joined the same clubs. It's easy to do that in a place like Princeton."

  "I believe it."

  Amanda smiled at Ted and then took a moment to survey her surroundings. She noticed that many people had left the building since her friends had appeared and that most of those who remained seemed more interested in winning prizes than in dancing. Dozens of couples gathered in a corner of the gym to hear an announcer call out ticket numbers.

  Amanda shifted her attention to the other end of the arena, where fewer people congregated, and noticed a man standing under the basketball hoop. Tall, blond, and strikingly handsome, he moved his head like he was looking for someone or something. When he met Amanda's gaze, he smiled warmly, nodded, and resumed his search.

  The wallflower stared into space and pondered the brief but pleasant exchange. She remained in a daze until Dorothy Gale brought her back from the Land of Oz.

  "Have you found your Prince Charming?" Dot asked.

  Amanda faced her friend.

  "Have I what?"

  "Have you found someone of interest? I saw you smile at the blond guy over there."

  Amanda eyed the others before responding. Roy, Bill, and Ted appeared to be more into football than into what she might say. They compared notes on Princeton's 20-7 win over Yale.

  "I smiled at him because he smiled at me," Amanda said to Dot. "Who is he?"

  Dot studied the man closely.

  "I'm not sure. I've seen him before, but I don't know his name. Let me ask Roy."

  "Wait a few minutes," Amanda said. "Wait until Ted leaves."

  Dot raised a brow.

  "I see you're not one to burn bridges."

  Amanda smiled.

  "I'm new here. I have to build bridges before I burn them."

  Dot laughed.

  "OK. I'll wait."

  Amanda returned to Roy, Bill, and Ted as they debated the merits of the forward pass. Only Roy, the former player, thought the pass had a serious future in college football.

  "I apologize for my manners," Ted said to Amanda a moment later. "I should be talking to you and not these buffoons. I lose my head whenever a conversation turns to football."

  "That's all right," Amanda said. "Boys have priorities, just like girls."

  Ted chuckled.

  "I can't argue with that. We have lots of priorities, Miss Peterson, and one of mine this evening is to ask you to dance. Would you care for a spin?"

  Amanda searched the gym for jealous dates and came up empty.

  "Won't Miss Cheesecake object?"

  "Nah," Ted said matter-of-factly. "She's an understanding sort. I told her I would dance with others while she made her call. I'll be all right."

  Amanda smiled and held out a hand.

  "In that case, Mr. Fiske, lead the way."

  CHAPTER 22: ELIZABETH

  Wednesday, November 16, 1938

  Elizabeth began her walk down Mercer Street with a walk across it. When she noticed a small sign she had not noticed before, she trotted across the street to her childhood home and saw it had been sold.

  She looked for other signs, conspicuous and hidden, that suggested change was on the way, but she could not find any. Whoever had planted the sign in the yard had not painted the door or repaired a window or even raked the leaves. He or she had simply hammered a stake in the ground and announced to the world that a special house was no longer on the market.

  Elizabeth walked from the yard to the sidewalk and headed southwest down Mercer Street, a stretch of stately homes and landscaped lawns that turned into Route 583 about a mile from the campus. She had traveled the same path every day for the past two weeks in search of things interesting or new and had yet to be disappointed.

  She stopped to fasten a button on her red wool coat and then proceeded toward two houses she had always adored. Each stirred memories of a time that seemed impossibly distant and refreshingly close.

  Elizabeth smiled as she studied the deeply gabled roof of the first house. She had visited the Cape Cod on countless occasions to share stories and gossip with Penelope Howell, her best friend and confidante from the fourth grade on.

  She could almost see Penny stick her head out the front door and beckon her to enter, but she knew that wouldn't happen for another ten years. Like so many others, Penny Howell would not become a part of Elizabeth's life until after the horrible war to come.

  Elizabeth found more than ghosts in the brick colonial home next door. She found a living, breathing reminder of a teenage crush.

  She watched with amusement as Mason Payne pulled a fully loaded Radio Flyer wagon across his front yard. He wasn't the eighteen-year-old letterman she had fallen in love with as a high school freshman, but even at three he was just as cute.

  Elizabeth waved to Mason and then his mother, who sat on the front steps, as she strolled past the house. She wondered what Molly Payne would say if she told her that her son would someday establish a hamburger chain that would become as popular as swing and as enduring as the oak and cedar trees that lined the street.

  She didn't have to wonder long. She knew that Mrs. Payne would make a few discreet calls to mental health authorities and report that a kindly old lady who walked the streets every day had lost what was left of her marbles.

/>   Elizabeth smiled as she tried to digest what was still digestible. She was a time traveler, a historical trespasser, and a participant in a drama that had played out once and would play out again. She pondered the mystery of time and wondered whether three ladies from Chicago had already created ripples that would turn into waves.

  Elizabeth doubted that they had done that much at this point. In seventeen days the women had done little more than walk around a college town, eat, shop, and set up a surveillance station in a modest house that no one seemed to notice.

  She was glad that Susan had started to talk about the future, a future without her husband, and resume favorite activities like reading and walking. She knew that returning to routines was one of the best ways to deal with lingering grief and put a derailed life back on track.

  Elizabeth was also happy to see Amanda emerge from her shell and make new friends. She worried that she was forming attachments that might later be hard to break, but she was pleased to see that Amanda, too, had started to move forward.

  She thought about her family and her own life as she approached yet another house that was fixed in her mind. She gazed at the modest cottage and waved to its owner, a friendly, eccentric, bushy-haired man who walked around his crunchy front lawn in his bare feet.

  "Hello," Elizabeth said. "How are you today?"

  "I am fine, dear lady," the Old Man said with a thick German accent. "How are you?"

  "I couldn't be better."

  "That is good. That is good."

  Elizabeth watched with interest as the man peeked under a hedge that stood between the yard and the sidewalk. She had seen him do the same thing at least twice since November 3, when she had reintroduced herself to a man she had first met at age six. She smiled as he moved around the yard and continued his dogged pursuit of something or someone.

  "Are you looking for something?" Elizabeth asked. "Perhaps I can help."

  "No. No," the Old Man said. "She is gone now."

  "Who is gone?"

  "The cat. She called for me, but now she is gone."

  Elizabeth laughed to herself. She vaguely remembered a large tabby that regularly terrorized the neighborhood. The stray would often wander from door to door and meow until beleaguered residents placated her with a tin of tuna or a bowl of milk. She could only imagine the havoc the feline had wreaked today.