Florence Adler Swims Forever: A Novel

by Rachel Beanland

  Stuart tried another platform and was about to give up and turn around when he saw a small figure sitting on a bench at the farthest end of the platform. It was a girl, clad in a pale dress, clutching a leather valise. From this far away, he couldn’t make out her face but he knew she had to be Gussie. He looked for Anna over his shoulder but she wasn’t behind him.

  “Harp-ave arp-I carp-aught yarp-ou arp-at arp-a barp-ad tarp-ime?” he asked when he had come to a complete stop, a few feet away from her. He gauged the distance between them—close enough to reach out and grab her, if the occasion demanded. She looked up at him in surprise and began to cry.

  “I’m terrible at ARP talk,” she said, between sobs. Stuart sank to his knees beside her and grabbed one of her hands.

  “Not to worry, Gus,” he said, switching to regular, old English. “You’re fine.”

  She wiped her nose with the back of her free hand.

  “I heard yesterday was a bad day.”

  She nodded her head vigorously and snorted several times. “Look,” she said, staring over his shoulder. At the end of a nearby platform stood Anna. Her hair had dried in the late afternoon sun, and it hung in loose waves, which she pushed out of her face with her hand. God, she was glorious. Stuart and Gussie shouted and waved at her, and she waved back, excitedly, before disappearing behind a train and out of view.

  “I bet she’ll make it over here in record time,” said Stuart. “She’s very eager to see you.”

  “She is?”

  “Sure, she’s been a wreck all afternoon.”

  Gussie looked down at her hands, which were folded in her lap. She seemed embarrassed.

  “What was your plan, Gus?” Stuart asked, glancing behind him to check on Anna’s progress. She was already halfway down the platform.

  “I thought I’d go to Florida.”

  “With your father?”

  She nodded solemnly. “But it’s tricky to figure out which train to get on.”

  “I agree, said Stuart. “That’s why I rarely leave town.”

  Gussie looked ever-so-slightly amused. “That’s not why. Adults know how to take trains.”

  Stuart stuck a thumb in his chest. “Not this one.”

  Anna flew past Stuart, nearly knocking him over in her urgency to get to Gussie. When she reached her, she squeezed Gussie’s face between her hands and rested her forehead against hers. Together, they rocked back and forth, Anna muttering thanks to God and Stuart in equal measure.

  “She was considering a trip to Florida,” said Stuart, when Anna had released Gussie and returned to herself.

  “Oh, Gussie,” said Anna, stroking the child’s hair.

  “I didn’t have enough for a ticket,” Gussie said, holding out a handful of change, wrapped in Anna’s handkerchief.

  “I know this isn’t easy, but you can’t give up on Atlantic City,” said Stuart. “Not when so many people love you and need you here.”

  “Nobody needs me,” said Gussie as she hugged the valise to her chest.

  “That’s not true,” said Stuart. “I do. And Anna does, too. Why else would we have inducted you into our secret society?”

  “Because you didn’t want me to tell my mother about Florence.”

  Stuart let out a short laugh. “Perceptive,” he said, to Anna more than anyone. “Well, your mother’s going to have that baby any minute, and then we’re all done with secrets.”

  “No more Florence Adler Swims Forever Society?”

  “I didn’t say that,” said Stuart. “Anna, wouldn’t you say our society is stronger than ever?”

  Anna nodded knowingly, as if the pair had just been discussing the society’s state of affairs on the way over to the train station.

  “But no more secrets?” said Gussie.

  “None,” said Stuart, looking at Anna. “Well, maybe just one more.”

  Anna

  It was half-past seven by the time Anna, Stuart, and Gussie arrived at the hospital to find Joseph and Esther waiting in the lobby. Before Anna could get a word out, Esther caught her granddaughter up in her arms. She squeezed her, then turned to Anna. “Dorothy told us you called the ward, looking for Gussie.”

  Anna looked at Gussie, who shook her head ever so slightly in discouragement. “There was some confusion,” said Anna, vaguely, before changing the subject. “How’s Fannie?”

  Esther relayed what she knew. Fannie had been moved to the labor room sometime early Tuesday morning, and her labor must have progressed accordingly because she’d been moved to the delivery room an hour ago. “It’s her third baby. I pray it comes fast.”

  “You won’t see her tonight?” Anna asked.

  “No,” said Esther, adamantly. “She’ll need to rest.” Anna wondered at the lot of them, sitting in the lobby. They might as well have been sitting in the apartment’s front room, for all they were going to be able to do here.

  “Do you want us to wait with you or take Gussie home?”

  “Certainly, you should take her home,” she said. Then, as if she realized that she wouldn’t be able to order Anna around forever, she added, “Thank you.”

  “You’ll stay?” Anna asked.

  “Just until I know everything went all right.” Esther’s voice dipped, and Anna watched as Joseph reached behind his wife, rubbing his hand along her back. She was surprised to see Esther fold into the crook of his arm, as if the past several days had laid her bare.

  “Gus, give your grandparents a hug and a kiss,” said Anna. “You’ll see them in the morning.”

  “Mrs. Adler?” said a deep voice from across the room. “Mr. Adler?” Anna looked up to find Fannie’s doctor descending the stairs into the lobby.

  Esther and Joseph stood to greet him, and Anna glanced at Stuart, who seemed every bit as curious to hear what he had to say as she was.

  “You have a granddaughter.”

  Esther swayed, and Anna worried for a moment that she’d fall over. But Joseph was there, beside her, steadying her as she asked in a quiet voice, “Everyone’s all right?”

  “Better than all right,” said Dr. Rosenthal. “Beautiful.”

  Esther’s bottom lip quivered, and she sat down in her chair, hard. “She’s fine? The baby, too?”

  “Yes, perfectly fine.”

  Anna’s eyes watered as she watched Esther let out a choking sob. It was as if, with this news, she were finally allowing herself to feel the full weight of her grief. Joseph bent low, grabbed his wife’s hand, and kissed it, his own tears absorbing into the creases of her skin. “Bubala, you did it,” he whispered. She buried her face in his shoulder. Esther had lost one daughter this summer but she would not lose a second.

  Gussie wrapped herself around Anna’s arm. “It’s a girl?”

  Anna looked Gussie squarely in the eyes. “You have a sister.”

  “She’s named her Ruby,” said the doctor, quietly.

  Could Esther hear him over her own sobs? Anna could, barely, and at the sound of such an unfamiliar name, her heart lurched.

  In ordinary circumstances, Fannie would have named this baby for Florence. It’s what Jews did. They named their children for the dead, never the living.

  Esther raised her head from Joseph’s shoulder. “Ruby,” she repeated quietly to herself.

  Calling the baby Ruby—and not Florence—would be a kind of penance, a reminder that the child’s life had begun with a lie.

  “It’s a beautiful name,” said Anna, for Esther’s benefit.

  * * *

  By the time their party emerged from the hospital, the sky over Atlantic City had turned a velvet blue, its edges singed with the glow of the Boardwalk’s carnival rides and blinking marquees. The family moved in the direction of the apartment, and if anyone wondered at Stuart walking a half-dozen blocks out of his way to accompany them home, no one said anything. Not even Esther.

  Esther seemed positively buoyant. And why shouldn’t she be? Her plan had worked. Fannie was safe. The baby healthy. Esther held
one of Gussie’s hands, and Joseph held the other. Together, they swung their granddaughter into the air as they paraded down Atlantic Avenue. If either one of them were thinking about what the next day would bring—the conversation that would have to take place—it wasn’t obvious to Anna. Even Gussie seemed to be in good spirits.

  While Anna was extremely grateful for Ruby’s safe arrival, she reminded herself that the baby’s birth didn’t actually change much of anything for her. Fannie would likely recuperate in the hospital for another week or so. By the time she was discharged and Gussie was returned to her, Joseph and Esther would be back in their house on Atlantic Avenue and Anna would be living in a boardinghouse in Trenton, still an ocean away from her parents but with little hope of seeing Stuart again. She doubted she’d be invited back to stay with the Adlers the following summer—not if Esther had anything to do with it—and she wondered if Gussie would miss her.

  Anna glanced at Stuart. When the summer ended, would he resume coaching the Ambassadors? She assumed so. Would he think about her after she left for college? Likely not for long. She wished for one last swimming lesson, the chance to have him to herself in the clear, blue water of The Covington’s pool. She wanted to thank him for helping her find Gussie and to apologize for being so forthright on the beach the other night. It wasn’t his job to solve her problems. He’d already been abundantly kind.

  As they neared the apartment, Joseph reached into his pocket and removed his keys.

  “Anna, could I speak to you for a moment?” Stuart asked as they watched Joseph fit the key into the lock. Anna turned to look at him, gave him a nod so imperceptible that she was sure he had missed it entirely.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Adler,” Stuart said, without taking his eyes off her face, “do you mind if I borrow Anna? I’ll bring her back very soon.”

  Anna was too embarrassed to make eye contact with either Joseph or Esther. What must they think? Instead she let her eyes rest on Gussie’s face, which was lit up as bright as the Sherwin-Williams sign on Million Dollar Pier. COVER THE EARTH it read in bright lights. A nice sentiment, Anna had always thought. Gussie clapped her hands together several times before Stuart made a neck-chopping motion at her and she abruptly stopped. “I forgot!” she whispered.

  By the time Joseph and Esther nodded their assent, Stuart had taken Anna’s hand and begun steering her down Virginia Avenue, toward the Boardwalk. Anna could scarcely breathe. “Where are we going?” she asked.

  Stuart laughed. “I have no idea. Somewhere where we can talk.” They had walked less than half a block when Stuart pulled Anna into the entry alcove of a shoe repair shop, closed for the night. “This is going to have to do,” he said. “I have to get this out.”

  He retrieved a slip of paper from the pocket of his jacket and pressed it into Anna’s hand.

  “What’s this?”

  “It’s a receipt.”

  Anna turned it over in her hand and examined it.

  “This afternoon I went to the bank and established a trust in your parents’ names.”

  “A trust?”

  “There’s five thousand dollars in it. And it’s all theirs. I couldn’t touch it if I wanted to.”

  Anna didn’t understand what he was saying. Nothing—not the receipt with all the zeros and definitely not the words coming out of his mouth—made any sense. “What?”

  “For your parents’ immigration visas,” Stuart said. “You said they needed to prove they’d be able to support themselves. With this money and the twelve hundred dollars Joseph already put in the other account, I’d say they can more than prove it.”

  “You may never get it back.”

  “That’s fine,” he said. “More than fine. I just hope it’s enough.”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “I don’t want you to have to marry anyone, including me, for a visa.”

  “Oh,” said Anna, suddenly embarrassed. How had she so obviously misread him? On the beach, when she had so boldly outlined her predicament, she had convinced herself that he might want to marry her. Now she could see how naive she’d been.

  “Anna? Are you all right?”

  She was sure she looked stunned but she tried to find the words to reassure him. A rolling chair operator passed them by on his way to the Boardwalk, shouting “Five-cent rides!” and Stuart turned to look for the source of all the noise. Anna tried to compose herself but there was no use. Did this mean her parents really had a shot of making it to the U.S.?

  “The money’s theirs no matter what you decide,” he said, returning his attention to her.

  “Decide?”

  “About me.”

  Anna raised her eyes to his for the first time since he had mentioned the money. His gaze was steady and sure. “You?”

  “I thought that, if we were going to discuss marriage, it might be best to make it a separate conversation.”

  “Are we discussing marriage?” she asked, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

  “I would very much like to.”

  A smile spread slowly across Anna’s face.

  “Before you say anything else, there is something I’ve been wanting to do all summer—” With one hand Stuart reached for Anna’s waist and with the other he touched the soft skin of her neck. Her breath caught in her throat. He ran his fingers under her chin and gently guided her face toward his. Anna knew she should close her eyes but couldn’t. The kiss was warm and tasted like all the best parts of the summer—the swimming pool at The Covington, salt air, sun-drenched skin, and saltwater taffy. As she sank into it, her eyes fluttered shut.

  “Gussie will be heartbroken,” Anna whispered when Stuart pulled away to look at her.

  “Not true,” he said with a laugh. “I asked for her blessing.”

  “And she gave it to you?”

  “She did,” he said, pulling her close once more. “She said that, if I’m unwilling to wait for her, she thinks you are the very next best thing.”

  * * *

  The smell of coffee, percolating in the kitchen, lured Anna awake. Out her window, the sun—not yet visible in the sky—had turned the night a periwinkle blue. She looked at the clock on her bedside table. Five o’clock. This was early, even for Esther.

  For a few minutes, Anna lay in bed, listening to the sounds of Esther’s morning routine—the opening and closing of cupboard doors, the clanking of dishes removed from the drainboard. Everything sounded louder this morning, as if Esther knew precisely how little sleep Anna had gotten and was trying to summon her awake. Eventually Anna gave up all pretense of sleeping, wrapped herself in a robe, and wandered out into the hall and toward the kitchen.

  “Morning,” said Esther, the moment Anna crossed the kitchen’s threshold. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”

  “No, not at all,” Anna said, stifling a small smile.

  “Coffee?”

  “Yes, please.” Anna sat down at the kitchen table, tightened the belt of her robe, and readied herself for the interrogation she knew was coming.

  Esther poured coffee into a mug and placed it in front of Anna, like an offering. “You were out late last night,” said Esther.

  Anna reached for the sugar bowl, already on the table, and scooped two heaping spoonfuls into her cup. She poured enough cream to turn the coffee a rich caramel color. There could be no easing into a conversation like this. She was just going to have to say it. “Stuart asked me to marry him.”

  Esther, usually so good at acting disinterested in Anna’s affairs, pulled a chair out from the table and sat down on it—hard. “He did?” She didn’t look entirely surprised.

  “I said yes.”

  “What about Trenton?”

  It was a natural question and one that Anna was going to get from her parents, too.

  “New Jersey State Teachers College was as much about keeping me safe as it was about anything else.” Was that true? She didn’t even know anymore. If the Nazis hadn’t come to power, she would undoubtedly have rema
ined in Germany and attended college. But she wasn’t the same girl she’d been then. So much had happened since.

  “Stuart might wait,” Esther said.

  “He might. But I don’t want to.”

  “What will your mother have to say?”

  “About the fact that he’s not Jewish?”

  Esther cocked her head to one side, as if to ask, What else is there?

  “She’ll be disappointed, naturally,” said Anna, wrapping her hands around the warm mug. She took a sip of the hot coffee, felt it find its way down the back of her throat and bloom in her chest. “They both will be.”

  Esther looked at her like she’d gone mad.

  “I don’t think it will be so bad as you think.”

  “No?”

  “There are advantages to marrying Stuart,” said Anna. “They’ll see that.”

  “Visas?”

  Anna nodded. She didn’t want to give Esther the wrong idea, didn’t want her to think that the decision to marry Stuart was a calculated one. But Esther was a shrewd woman. Surely, she could understand that this match had other benefits?

  “His citizenship is one thing,” said Esther. “But you know his father doesn’t give him a dime?”

  Anna took another sip of coffee. There was a small part of her that was going to enjoy delivering this next piece of news. “Actually, he’s joining the business.”

  She looked suitably surprised. “Florence always said…”

  Anna waited for her to finish but Esther’s voice trailed off.

  “I know this is very hard,” Anna finally offered.

  “I think about it sometimes,” said Esther. “Whether I would have cut her off if she’d married him.”

  “He loved her very much. He’s told me so.”

  Esther pressed her hands flat against the table and studied them carefully. Was she going to cry? It was difficult for Anna to tell.

  “I do know,” said Anna, slowly, “that Stuart wasn’t what Florence wanted.”

  Esther looked up at her then, her eyes shiny. “What did she want?”