A tree grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith [134]
“You just can’t do it, Sissy. There’s no way,” said Katie.
“There’s only one thing to do,” said Evy. “Take Francie out of school and let her get working papers.”
“But I want her to graduate. My children will be the first ones in the Nolan family to get diplomas.”
“You can’t eat a diploma,” said Evy.
“Haven’t you any men friends who could help you?” asked Sissy. “You’re a very pretty woman, you know.”
“Or will be, when she gets her shape back again,” put in Evy.
Katie thought briefly of Sergeant McShane. “No,” she said. “I have no men friends. There’s always been Johnny and no one else.”
“I guess Evy’s right then,” decided Sissy. “I hate to say it, but you’ve got to put Francie to work.”
“Once she leaves grammar school without graduating, she’ll never be able to get into high school,” protested Katie.
“Well,” sighed Evy, “there’s always the Catholic Charities.”
“When the time comes,” said Katie quietly, “that we have to take charity baskets, I’ll plug up the doors and windows and wait until the children are sound asleep and then turn on every gas jet in the house.”
“Don’t talk like that,” said Evy sharply. “You want to live, don’t you?”
“Yes. But I want to live for something. I don’t want to live to get charity food to give me enough strength to go back to get more charity food.”
“Then it comes back to this again,” said Evy. “Francie’s got to get out and work. It’s got to be Francie because Neeley is only thirteen and they won’t give him his working papers.”
Sissy put her hand on Katie’s arm. “It won’t be so terrible. Francie’s smart and reads a lot and that girl will get herself educated somehow. ”
Evy stood up. “Look! We’ve got to go.” She put a fifty-cent piece on the table. Anticipating Katie’s refusal, she spoke belligerently. “And don’t think that’s a present. I expect to be paid back someday.”
Katie smiled. “You needn’t holler so. I don’t mind taking money from my sister.”
Sissy took a short cut. As she leaned over to kiss Katie’s cheek in good-bye, she slipped a dollar bill in her apron pocket. “If you need me,” she said, “send for me and I’ll come, even if it’s in the middle of the night. But send Neeley. It’s not safe for a girl to walk through those dark streets past the coal yards.”
Katie sat alone at the kitchen table far into the night. “I need two months…just two months,” she thought. “Dear God, give me two months. It’s such a little time. By that time, my baby will be born and I’ll be well again. By that time, the children will be graduated from public school. When I’m boss of my own mind and my own body, I don’t need to ask You for anything. But now my body is boss over me and I’ve got to ask You for help. Just two months…two months…” She waited for that warm glow that meant that she had established communication with her God. There was no glow. She tried again.
“Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus, you know how it is. You had a child. Holy Mary…” She waited. There was nothing.
She placed Sissy’s dollar and Evy’s fifty-cent piece on the table. “That will get us through three more days,” she thought. “After that…?” Not aware of what she did, she whispered: “Johnny, wherever you are, pull yourself together just one more time. One more time….” She waited again and this time the glow came.
And it so happened that Johnny helped them.
McGarrity, the saloon keeper, couldn’t get Johnny out of his mind. Not that McGarrity’s conscience bothered him; no, nothing like that. He didn’t force men to come into his saloon. Aside from keeping the door hinges so well oiled that the slightest touch made them swing open easily, he offered no more inducements than other saloon keepers. His free lunch was no better than theirs and there was