a day downtown(ish)
Nov. 20th, 2011 01:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smackenzie"He runs a gang in Hell's Kitchen. He is a little bit scary, unless you are one of his friends." Liam leans in close to James and lowers his voice. "Ma says he killed a man and we are to turn and walk the other way if we ever see him out on the street."
James does not know what to say to this. A gangster! How exciting!
"Who did he kill?" he asks.
Liam shrugs. "A rival, probably." He bends down and reaches into the crate to pet the kittens. James does not understand why he is not more interested in Benny Mears the gangster.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why did Benny Mears kill his rival?" James wishes Julia were here. She would know, and if she did not know, she would make something up.
Liam lifts one of the kittens out of the crate. It yawns and stretches and meows. It sounds annoyed. "Why does it matter?" he asks. "That's what gangsters do. That is why no one messes with the grocer, because it will get back to Benny and no one messes with him." He holds out the kitten. "Do you want to hold him?"
The kitten does not seem interested in being held, not by James or Liam, and as Liam holds it out, it wriggles free and jumps down to the street. As Liam is not very tall, this is not very far. It climbs back into the crate, curls into a ball, and goes back to sleep.
"We should find the mama cat," Liam suggests. "She is more fun. The kittens are fun when they are not trying to sleep," he adds apologetically.
"I believe you," James says. "We should go find Sean and take Mrs Meara's groceries home to her."
"Or we could have ice cream."
They run into Sean on their way back through the alley. He is carrying a bag with, James guesses, the groceries in it.
"Did you meet the kittens?" he asks.
"They wanted to sleep," James tells him. "But Liam told me about Benny Mears."
"They call him the Collector," Sean whispers, as if it is a secret. James glances around. They have left the alley and are back on the sidewalk, but no one seems to be paying them any attention. No one could possibly be listening to Sean.
"Why?"
"Because they say he cuts the tip of your pointer finger off if you cross him, and keeps it."
"That is disgusting." James recoils, but a part of him is impressed. He thought that kind of violence was reserved for pirates or Indians or bandits, not men you might meet in your own city. He is perversely thrilled by such excitement in such close proximity.
"I know." Sean almost looks proud of himself. "We have to buy some rolls and then I think we will have enough for ice cream."
"Can we get strawberry?" Liam asks.
"We should get what James wants. He is our guest."
"I like strawberry," James volunteers. "And chocolate."
And rolls, he adds to himself, when they get to the bakery and he sees the various rolls and loaves of bread stacked in glass cases and on shelves behind the counter. The girl behind the counter gives them six rolls, which Sean sticks in his bag, and then takes their money. Sean counts the remaining change, which he says is enough for an ice cream or an ice cream soda, but they will have to split it.
The ice cream parlor is a counter in a drug store, much to James' surprise – he is used to freestanding ice cream parlors, shops that serve nothing but ice cream and fountain drinks and milkshakes. This is new. But then, the whole day so far has been one new thing after another, and perhaps he should not be surprised.
The boys sit at the counter and swing around on the stools and argue goodnaturedly over what they can buy for their money. They get a chocolate milkshake, into which the counterman adds a squirt of strawberry syrup when Liam looks like he might throw a tantrum. James isn't sure if he likes strawberry syrup in his chocolate milkshake, but he really enjoys the experience of twirling around on his stool and watching people come and go inside the drug store, buying things and chattting with the pharmacist, and one man who is dressed like a laborer even sits down for an ice cream soda at the counter.
"This is James," Liam introduces him. "He has never been in a drug store before."
The laborer looks James up and down, shrugs, and says "Well, I hope you enjoy it."
"I am, sir, very much," James says. The laborer looks surprised to be called "sir", but James has grown up calling the Godwins' staff "Mr" and "Mrs", and he has been taught to refer to adults he does not know as "sir" and "ma'am", so why would he treat this laborer any differently? But perhaps the man is not used to it. He is only a laborer, and perhaps he is not accorded any respect by other people.
But James can still be polite to him, because James was raised to have manners.
The laborer just grunts in response and goes back to his ice cream soda.
"You have such fancy manners," Sean whispers to James, giggling. James assumes it is meant as friendly teasing, and when Sean swings around on his stool and kicks at James' feet, James kicks back. This leads to all three of them twirling around playfully kicking at each other, until the counterman tells them to cut it out, he isn't running a nursery here, and if they are not going to behave, he is going to kick them out. James stops immediately, as does Sean, but it takes Liam a few more circuits around his stool before he too calms down.
One milkshake split between three boys is not a lot, even though it was a large milkshake, and by the time they bring Mrs Meara her groceries, James is hungry.
"Your ma told me to feed you," Mrs Meara says grumpliy, "but I was not expecting three. But you did bring me my groceries, so maybe."
"I can go upstairs and see if they have anything in their own kitchen," Mary Margaret offers, "so that they do not have to fend for themselves."
James thinks they have done pretty well so far, but he has never had to make his own lunch.
"Well, I have tomatoes," Mrs Meara says, but by that time Mary Margaret has already walked out of the apartment and headed down the hall towards the stairs. James and Sean and Liam follow her to the O'Donnell apartment, where she looks through the pantry and finds half a loaf of bread and some hard cheese. She slices the bread and the cheese and makes the boys simple cheese sandwiches. They have only water from the tap to drink, because there is no icebox to keep the milk cold, but Mary Margaret says that if they come back to her apartment when they are done, she will give them Coca-Colas.
"You may have to fetch some ice," she adds, "so they will be cold. Ma cannot possibly drink them all herself, and Jamie does not like the taste. Will you be ok by yourselves in here? I think it is about time for Johnny's lunch. Stop by before you go out again." She bends down to kiss Sean and Liam on the tops of their heads, and then she is gone and the boys are alone in the apartment with their cheese sandwiches and glasses of tap water.
Sean climbs out one of the windows in the parlor to sit on the fire escape, because it is hot in the apartment. Liam and James follow, Liam bringing with him a pillow from one of the bedrooms.
"You will get it dirty," Sean tells him, "and Ma will be upset."
"Then I will turn the case inside-out," Liam says. "The fire escape is uncomfortable to sit on."
James thinks so too, but he also thinks it would be rude to say so. He can see other people out on their fire escapes, as well as plants and drying clothes and cats and a couple of women with babies. It is a very crowded, noisy neighborhood, much different from James' quiet, stately street, but he likes it down here. It is vibrant, Julia would say. You would never feel lonely with so many people around.
(Not that James has ever felt particularly lonely, as he has always had his older siblings around, but he supposes some day Julia will move out, and Con and William and even Aimee, and he might be left in the house by himself. And then perhaps he will come down here and spend his time with Sean and Liam, and not be alone.)
Sean tells James about his neighbors and the shopkeepers and the gangs that do their business farther north, and the cops that walk this beat and the dogs and cats and occasional horse.
"Where do you keep horses around here?" James asks.
"They belong to the cops," Sean says. "Mary Margaret's husband Jamie wanted to be a mounted policeman, but he did not have the money to bribe his way in."
"Is he not a good enough policeman?"
"Mary Margaret says he is very good. Very honest and dedicated. But the police department is a racket. It is all about who you know." He does not sound too bothered by this. James is dimly aware that in Mr Godwin's business it is likewise more important who you know, as evidenced by the fact that three of his older brothers work for their father, and if Nathaniel was not recuperating upstate, he would be as well.
"I like your neighborhood," James says, to change the subject. "There are a lot of people out."
"That's because it is summer," Liam says, "and too hot to be inside."
"There are always a lot of people out, though," Sean tells him. "Even in the winter. It is because the apartments are so small and there are so many people in them, and because everyone wants to be social."
"I like it," James repeats. "My street is very quiet. There are only people out on the street if they are going from one place to another. No one stands on the street and talks." He considers this. "Perhaps they do, but I have never seen it." He spends most of his days inside, either at school or at home, and the times when he is outside, he is walking to and from school or to Central Park. He does not think he has ever been with anyone who stopped on the sidewalk to have a conversation with someone else.
He cannot articulate what he likes about this part of Manhattan, other than to say it is bright and crowded and full of people and smells like so many things, and it is so different from the streets he knows. He feels almost like an explorer in a new land, even if that new land is part of the city he has lived in his whole life.
"Da might be home next week," Liam says. "You can come back and meet him."
'We told him about you the last time he was home," Sean says.
"Julia, too."
"What did you say about Julia?" James asks.
"That she plays with us and she is fun to be with," Sean tells him. "We like her."
"I like her too. But of course I do, she is my sister."
"Liam is my brother and I do not always like him." Sean bites into his sandwich and chews serenely. Liam hits him on the arm.
"I don't like you either," he pouts. Sean is unconcerned. "Did you hear me? I said I didn't like you."
"I bought you a milkshake."
"Mrs Meara bought us the milkshake."
"She did," James tells Sean. Sean just shrugs.
"I'm just teasing you," he says to Liam. "You know that." He grabs Liam in a headlock, making Liam drop the last bit of his sandwich, and knuckles the top of his head. "Noogie!" he yells.
"Quit it, quit it!" Liam yells back, but he sounds like he is giggling. Sean is laughing as well, and James can't help but grin at them. He cannot imagine any of his brothers doing this to each other. Con might, but if he were to do it to William, William would complain to Luisa. James does not think Liam is going to complain.
The sun is shining and it is a hot day, but James is sitting on a fire escape in Chelsea with his best friends, eating cheese sandwiches and drinking tap water from the sink, and he has met kittens and learned about a gangster and had a milkshake at a drug store soda fountain, and he thinks this is the best day ever.
After they have finished their sandwiches and Sean has come to the end of his current run of local stories, they climb back inside through the window and put their glasses in the sink, and Liam takes his pillow back into the bedroom. It has faint stripes on one side from where it was sitting on the fire escape. James hopes Mrs O'Donnell does not get too upset when she finds them.
They stop at the Mearas' apartment, as Mary Margaret asked, and she gives them two bottles of Coca-Cola to split between them. The bottles are warm and the bubbles tickle James' throat. Liam sucks down half a bottle before anyone can stop him, and then lets out a loud belch. James is embarrassed for him, but Sean laughs.
"Liam O'Donnell!" Mrs Meara snaps. "Manners!" Liam giggles and belches again, but this one is quieter and sounds oddly forced.
Sean finishes that bottle and hands it to Mary Margaret empty. She hands it back.
"You can throw this out yourself," she tells him, then turns suddenly to look at the door of the bedroom where the baby was sleeping before. Now James can hear a cry, as if they woke Johnny up and he is unhappy about it.
"Go play outside," Mrs Meara tells the boys, shooing them out of her apartment as Mary Margaret goes into the bedroom to soothe her baby. The boys obediently troop outside.
They finish the second bottle of Coca-Cola, drop it and the first bottle in a handy trash can, and head down the street.
"Maybe Kevin Carter is home," Sean says. "Or the rest of the Granary Boys. You can meet some of our other friends," he tells James.
"Are the Granary Boys a gang?" James asks. How exciting if they were!
"Not like Benny Mears' gang. We just run around together and sometimes play baseball if we can get a bat and some balls."
"Fitz said he got a bat and mitt for his birthday," Liam says. "We could ask him to play with us."
"We'll find Kevin. Come on."
Forty minutes later, Sean and Liam between them have managed to round up enough boys for a game, and they all gather in a dusty empty lot to play. Fitz, who is two years older than Sean and has bright orange hair the same color as Mary Margaret's baby's hair, has a baseball bat and mitt, and someone has brought another mitt and some ball, and the boys split themselves into teams without much fuss. Sean insists that James be on his team, for which James is oddly grateful, and Liam ends up on the other team.
As with everything else today, this game of baseball in an empty lot is unlike James' previous experience, and not just because he is playing with boys who more or less know what to do, rather than with his brothers and sisters who do not. These boys – Sean's Granary Gang – take it seriously and are not afraid to run into each other to tag each other out, or to shove each other out of the way to catch a ball. By the end of the game James is hot and sweaty and his clothes are dusty and he has skinned his knee after being told to slide into first base, and he is tired and thirsty and wonders when he will be able to do it again.
Mrs O'Donnell has come home by the time Sean and Liam and James make it back to the O'Donnells' building. She is leaning on the railing of the front steps, chatting with another lady who looks about the same age and who is fanning herself with a straw hat with a pink ribbon around the brim.
"Hello, boys," the lady with the hat says.
"Hello, Mrs Connelly," Sean and Liam chorus.
"You must be James." She bends down to look James in the face, Her eyes are very blue and crinkle at the corners. She smells like powder and flowers. "Moira was just telling me that you were here to visit her boys."
"Are you having a good day?" Mrs O'Donnell asks.
"Yes, ma'am," James says politely. It is strange to see her this way, on her own street and dressed for church and visiting, rather than wearing the apron she always wears when she is cleaning his house. He has seen her almost every day for as long as he can remember, and if he were to pass her in the street like this, he would not recognize her.
"Such a polite boy," Mrs Connelly says to Mrs O'Donnell.
"He is one of the best," Mrs O'Donnell says agreeably. She ruffles James' hair. Then her tone sharpens as she directs a "Where have you been?" at her sons.
"Playing baseball," Liam says.
"We found Kevin Carter and Jimmy Fitzroy and them," Sean adds.
"I cannot send you back to your mother that way," Mrs O'Donnell tells James. "Take him upstairs and all of you wash off," she tells Sean and Liam. "Oh, James, your knee!"
James looks down at his knee. He has already spit on his finger and tried to clean some of the dirt off, and it stings a bit but does not really hurt, but he imagines that Luisa will be worried if she sees it like this.
"It does not hurt," he says.
"Be that as it may. You should clean it out so it can heal properly. I'll do it. Come on. I'll talk to you later, Hannah. Give Tommy my love." She herds the boys inside and up the stairs and to the apartment, where she makes James sit on the table in the kitchen so she can swab his knee with a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol.
"Ow," he says. Now it hurts.
"I'm sorry, sweetie. Sean, get me the gauze."
"It doesn't look that bad," Sean observes.
"It doesn't matter how it looks. Gauze. Now."
Sean gets a gauze pad and some tape, and after Mrs O'Donnell has wiped the dirt off James' knee and cleaned off the scrapes and told him he is very brave for not crying, she tapes the gauze over his knee and tells him that he is fine, she can now send him home without embarrassment.
"Why would you be embarrassed?" he asks. "I slid into first base."
"I told him to," Sean says proudly.
"I do not want your mother to be upset that you came to visit my boys and I sent you home hurt," Mrs O'Donnell says.
"She does not want to lose her job because you scraped your knee playing baseball." Sean whispers.
"Sean!"
"It's true."
"It is also not something you should be talking about. Mr Sewell is coming to fetch you at five, correct?"
James nods. He feels a bit cowed by Mrs O'Donnell in her own home. She does not remind him of his own mother, but more what Luisa might be in ten years, after she has married and had children of her own. He thinks Luisa will be a good mother. He does not know what to think about Mrs O'Donnell, whether she is a good mother or not. He knows she loves her sons, and he knows she is providing for them, and her house is very small but it is clean, and he does not think he should hold it against her that her husband is working on a ship, rather than on land where he can come home to his family every night.
It is a different way to live, he thinks, but it is not necessarily worse than the way he lives. He does not see his father very often either, because Mr Godwin works very hard, and Sean and Liam have Mrs Meara and Mary Margaret to look after them when Mrs O'Donnell is not home, so their mother has made provisions for them so that they are not running wild in the streets.
Although James has to admit, they did some wild running today.
He has had a very good day, though, and because he likes Sean and Liam and he likes their neighborhood and while he is sometimes a bit afraid of Mrs O'Donnell, he does not dislike her, so he is inclined to think well of them as a family.
At five o'clock, much to his great disappointment, he is waiting on the front stoop of thee O'Donnells' building with Sean and Liam and Mrs O'Donnell, waiting for Mr Sewell to come get him,
"Today was the best day ever," he tells Sean. "Thank you for having me."
"Thank your mother too," Mrs O'Donnell says, "for letting you visit,"
"You can come back next Sunday," Sean offers. "On Saturdays we will go to your house and on Sundays you can come to ours."
"I would like that," James says.
Just then Mr Sewell turns up the street and stops in front of the building.
"I want to stay here," James says, even though he knows he cannot. He must go home to his own family. Besides, there is nowhere for him to sleep in the O'Donnells' apartment, and it is too hot, and his pajamas are at his house.
"Me too," Sean says. "But we will see you on Saturday."
"James," Mr Sewell calls out the window. "Your mother is waiting."
James gets in the car and waves goodbye as Mr Sewell pulls away.
"Did you have a good day?" Mr Sewell asks.
"Yes," James says.
Neither of them says another word on the drive home. Mr Sewell always has an air of silence around him, the kind of thing that makes James feel as if he is imposing if he says anything. It is a very calm silence, but it is a silence nonetheless, and it is not until he his home and Luisa and Julia meet him at the door to ask what he did all day that he finally talks about it.
That is, after Luisa cries "What did you do to your clothes? And your leg!" and he explains that he played baseball and slid into first base and it was fun and he wants to do it again, and she makes him change into clean clothes and
He tells Julia everything, although he has to backtrack several times to tell her something he forgot to mention the first time. She listens patiently and asks questions and admits that she would have liked a kitten, if the grocer were giving them away.
James tells Luisa all about his day, and he tries to tell Aimee and William, because he had such a good time and learned so much that he has to share with everyone, but neither of them is very interested. But Con listens to him for a while, and Mrs Godwin even gives him some of her time so he can tell her about his day as well.
"Can I go back next Sunday?" he asks, although she only says "We will see."
"It is not a no," Julia reminds him.
"But it is not a yes," he pouts.
"I have a plan, if you do not get to visit again."
"You do!"
"It is a secret." She grins in an appropriately secretive manner. James is very curious, but she will not tell him what her plan is.
He discovers it a few weeks later, almost the end of July, when Mr and Mrs Godwin go out of town for a week. They have been on trips before, and as before, Matthew and Lucas stay at the house to keep an eye on things, and one night Marcus stays over as well. James is not used to spending time with Marcus, with or without their parents, and he does not know what to say to him.
Julia has evidently brought Sean and Liam in on her plan, if not Mrs O'Donnell, because the plan involves essentially sneaking out of the house to go to Luna Park and Steeplechase Park.
"CONEY ISLAND!" James practically shrieks, when she tells him. He claps both hands over his mouth, in case Luisa can hear. "Does Mrs O'Donnell know?"
"I do not know. I am going with you, though. I hope you did not think I was going to let you go to Luna Park without me." She is smiling, teasing him.
"Are we going to have to lie to Luisa?"
"Only halfway. If you tell her that you are going to be spending the day with Sean and Liam, you are not lying. You do not have to tell her exactly where you are spending the day."
"How will you get out?"
"I am going to spend the day with Honey Langston and Manon Lloyd. I am old enough that Luisa does not need to look after me."
Julia is very sneaky, and James is proud of her for figuring out a way for him to go to Luna Park. He is glad that she is coming with him – part of him still wishes she could have come to see Sean and Liam's neighborhood, because he shares all of his adventures with her.
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quickie research: apartment kitchens
James does not know what to say to this. A gangster! How exciting!
"Who did he kill?" he asks.
Liam shrugs. "A rival, probably." He bends down and reaches into the crate to pet the kittens. James does not understand why he is not more interested in Benny Mears the gangster.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why did Benny Mears kill his rival?" James wishes Julia were here. She would know, and if she did not know, she would make something up.
Liam lifts one of the kittens out of the crate. It yawns and stretches and meows. It sounds annoyed. "Why does it matter?" he asks. "That's what gangsters do. That is why no one messes with the grocer, because it will get back to Benny and no one messes with him." He holds out the kitten. "Do you want to hold him?"
The kitten does not seem interested in being held, not by James or Liam, and as Liam holds it out, it wriggles free and jumps down to the street. As Liam is not very tall, this is not very far. It climbs back into the crate, curls into a ball, and goes back to sleep.
"We should find the mama cat," Liam suggests. "She is more fun. The kittens are fun when they are not trying to sleep," he adds apologetically.
"I believe you," James says. "We should go find Sean and take Mrs Meara's groceries home to her."
"Or we could have ice cream."
They run into Sean on their way back through the alley. He is carrying a bag with, James guesses, the groceries in it.
"Did you meet the kittens?" he asks.
"They wanted to sleep," James tells him. "But Liam told me about Benny Mears."
"They call him the Collector," Sean whispers, as if it is a secret. James glances around. They have left the alley and are back on the sidewalk, but no one seems to be paying them any attention. No one could possibly be listening to Sean.
"Why?"
"Because they say he cuts the tip of your pointer finger off if you cross him, and keeps it."
"That is disgusting." James recoils, but a part of him is impressed. He thought that kind of violence was reserved for pirates or Indians or bandits, not men you might meet in your own city. He is perversely thrilled by such excitement in such close proximity.
"I know." Sean almost looks proud of himself. "We have to buy some rolls and then I think we will have enough for ice cream."
"Can we get strawberry?" Liam asks.
"We should get what James wants. He is our guest."
"I like strawberry," James volunteers. "And chocolate."
And rolls, he adds to himself, when they get to the bakery and he sees the various rolls and loaves of bread stacked in glass cases and on shelves behind the counter. The girl behind the counter gives them six rolls, which Sean sticks in his bag, and then takes their money. Sean counts the remaining change, which he says is enough for an ice cream or an ice cream soda, but they will have to split it.
The ice cream parlor is a counter in a drug store, much to James' surprise – he is used to freestanding ice cream parlors, shops that serve nothing but ice cream and fountain drinks and milkshakes. This is new. But then, the whole day so far has been one new thing after another, and perhaps he should not be surprised.
The boys sit at the counter and swing around on the stools and argue goodnaturedly over what they can buy for their money. They get a chocolate milkshake, into which the counterman adds a squirt of strawberry syrup when Liam looks like he might throw a tantrum. James isn't sure if he likes strawberry syrup in his chocolate milkshake, but he really enjoys the experience of twirling around on his stool and watching people come and go inside the drug store, buying things and chattting with the pharmacist, and one man who is dressed like a laborer even sits down for an ice cream soda at the counter.
"This is James," Liam introduces him. "He has never been in a drug store before."
The laborer looks James up and down, shrugs, and says "Well, I hope you enjoy it."
"I am, sir, very much," James says. The laborer looks surprised to be called "sir", but James has grown up calling the Godwins' staff "Mr" and "Mrs", and he has been taught to refer to adults he does not know as "sir" and "ma'am", so why would he treat this laborer any differently? But perhaps the man is not used to it. He is only a laborer, and perhaps he is not accorded any respect by other people.
But James can still be polite to him, because James was raised to have manners.
The laborer just grunts in response and goes back to his ice cream soda.
"You have such fancy manners," Sean whispers to James, giggling. James assumes it is meant as friendly teasing, and when Sean swings around on his stool and kicks at James' feet, James kicks back. This leads to all three of them twirling around playfully kicking at each other, until the counterman tells them to cut it out, he isn't running a nursery here, and if they are not going to behave, he is going to kick them out. James stops immediately, as does Sean, but it takes Liam a few more circuits around his stool before he too calms down.
One milkshake split between three boys is not a lot, even though it was a large milkshake, and by the time they bring Mrs Meara her groceries, James is hungry.
"Your ma told me to feed you," Mrs Meara says grumpliy, "but I was not expecting three. But you did bring me my groceries, so maybe."
"I can go upstairs and see if they have anything in their own kitchen," Mary Margaret offers, "so that they do not have to fend for themselves."
James thinks they have done pretty well so far, but he has never had to make his own lunch.
"Well, I have tomatoes," Mrs Meara says, but by that time Mary Margaret has already walked out of the apartment and headed down the hall towards the stairs. James and Sean and Liam follow her to the O'Donnell apartment, where she looks through the pantry and finds half a loaf of bread and some hard cheese. She slices the bread and the cheese and makes the boys simple cheese sandwiches. They have only water from the tap to drink, because there is no icebox to keep the milk cold, but Mary Margaret says that if they come back to her apartment when they are done, she will give them Coca-Colas.
"You may have to fetch some ice," she adds, "so they will be cold. Ma cannot possibly drink them all herself, and Jamie does not like the taste. Will you be ok by yourselves in here? I think it is about time for Johnny's lunch. Stop by before you go out again." She bends down to kiss Sean and Liam on the tops of their heads, and then she is gone and the boys are alone in the apartment with their cheese sandwiches and glasses of tap water.
Sean climbs out one of the windows in the parlor to sit on the fire escape, because it is hot in the apartment. Liam and James follow, Liam bringing with him a pillow from one of the bedrooms.
"You will get it dirty," Sean tells him, "and Ma will be upset."
"Then I will turn the case inside-out," Liam says. "The fire escape is uncomfortable to sit on."
James thinks so too, but he also thinks it would be rude to say so. He can see other people out on their fire escapes, as well as plants and drying clothes and cats and a couple of women with babies. It is a very crowded, noisy neighborhood, much different from James' quiet, stately street, but he likes it down here. It is vibrant, Julia would say. You would never feel lonely with so many people around.
(Not that James has ever felt particularly lonely, as he has always had his older siblings around, but he supposes some day Julia will move out, and Con and William and even Aimee, and he might be left in the house by himself. And then perhaps he will come down here and spend his time with Sean and Liam, and not be alone.)
Sean tells James about his neighbors and the shopkeepers and the gangs that do their business farther north, and the cops that walk this beat and the dogs and cats and occasional horse.
"Where do you keep horses around here?" James asks.
"They belong to the cops," Sean says. "Mary Margaret's husband Jamie wanted to be a mounted policeman, but he did not have the money to bribe his way in."
"Is he not a good enough policeman?"
"Mary Margaret says he is very good. Very honest and dedicated. But the police department is a racket. It is all about who you know." He does not sound too bothered by this. James is dimly aware that in Mr Godwin's business it is likewise more important who you know, as evidenced by the fact that three of his older brothers work for their father, and if Nathaniel was not recuperating upstate, he would be as well.
"I like your neighborhood," James says, to change the subject. "There are a lot of people out."
"That's because it is summer," Liam says, "and too hot to be inside."
"There are always a lot of people out, though," Sean tells him. "Even in the winter. It is because the apartments are so small and there are so many people in them, and because everyone wants to be social."
"I like it," James repeats. "My street is very quiet. There are only people out on the street if they are going from one place to another. No one stands on the street and talks." He considers this. "Perhaps they do, but I have never seen it." He spends most of his days inside, either at school or at home, and the times when he is outside, he is walking to and from school or to Central Park. He does not think he has ever been with anyone who stopped on the sidewalk to have a conversation with someone else.
He cannot articulate what he likes about this part of Manhattan, other than to say it is bright and crowded and full of people and smells like so many things, and it is so different from the streets he knows. He feels almost like an explorer in a new land, even if that new land is part of the city he has lived in his whole life.
"Da might be home next week," Liam says. "You can come back and meet him."
'We told him about you the last time he was home," Sean says.
"Julia, too."
"What did you say about Julia?" James asks.
"That she plays with us and she is fun to be with," Sean tells him. "We like her."
"I like her too. But of course I do, she is my sister."
"Liam is my brother and I do not always like him." Sean bites into his sandwich and chews serenely. Liam hits him on the arm.
"I don't like you either," he pouts. Sean is unconcerned. "Did you hear me? I said I didn't like you."
"I bought you a milkshake."
"Mrs Meara bought us the milkshake."
"She did," James tells Sean. Sean just shrugs.
"I'm just teasing you," he says to Liam. "You know that." He grabs Liam in a headlock, making Liam drop the last bit of his sandwich, and knuckles the top of his head. "Noogie!" he yells.
"Quit it, quit it!" Liam yells back, but he sounds like he is giggling. Sean is laughing as well, and James can't help but grin at them. He cannot imagine any of his brothers doing this to each other. Con might, but if he were to do it to William, William would complain to Luisa. James does not think Liam is going to complain.
The sun is shining and it is a hot day, but James is sitting on a fire escape in Chelsea with his best friends, eating cheese sandwiches and drinking tap water from the sink, and he has met kittens and learned about a gangster and had a milkshake at a drug store soda fountain, and he thinks this is the best day ever.
After they have finished their sandwiches and Sean has come to the end of his current run of local stories, they climb back inside through the window and put their glasses in the sink, and Liam takes his pillow back into the bedroom. It has faint stripes on one side from where it was sitting on the fire escape. James hopes Mrs O'Donnell does not get too upset when she finds them.
They stop at the Mearas' apartment, as Mary Margaret asked, and she gives them two bottles of Coca-Cola to split between them. The bottles are warm and the bubbles tickle James' throat. Liam sucks down half a bottle before anyone can stop him, and then lets out a loud belch. James is embarrassed for him, but Sean laughs.
"Liam O'Donnell!" Mrs Meara snaps. "Manners!" Liam giggles and belches again, but this one is quieter and sounds oddly forced.
Sean finishes that bottle and hands it to Mary Margaret empty. She hands it back.
"You can throw this out yourself," she tells him, then turns suddenly to look at the door of the bedroom where the baby was sleeping before. Now James can hear a cry, as if they woke Johnny up and he is unhappy about it.
"Go play outside," Mrs Meara tells the boys, shooing them out of her apartment as Mary Margaret goes into the bedroom to soothe her baby. The boys obediently troop outside.
They finish the second bottle of Coca-Cola, drop it and the first bottle in a handy trash can, and head down the street.
"Maybe Kevin Carter is home," Sean says. "Or the rest of the Granary Boys. You can meet some of our other friends," he tells James.
"Are the Granary Boys a gang?" James asks. How exciting if they were!
"Not like Benny Mears' gang. We just run around together and sometimes play baseball if we can get a bat and some balls."
"Fitz said he got a bat and mitt for his birthday," Liam says. "We could ask him to play with us."
"We'll find Kevin. Come on."
Forty minutes later, Sean and Liam between them have managed to round up enough boys for a game, and they all gather in a dusty empty lot to play. Fitz, who is two years older than Sean and has bright orange hair the same color as Mary Margaret's baby's hair, has a baseball bat and mitt, and someone has brought another mitt and some ball, and the boys split themselves into teams without much fuss. Sean insists that James be on his team, for which James is oddly grateful, and Liam ends up on the other team.
As with everything else today, this game of baseball in an empty lot is unlike James' previous experience, and not just because he is playing with boys who more or less know what to do, rather than with his brothers and sisters who do not. These boys – Sean's Granary Gang – take it seriously and are not afraid to run into each other to tag each other out, or to shove each other out of the way to catch a ball. By the end of the game James is hot and sweaty and his clothes are dusty and he has skinned his knee after being told to slide into first base, and he is tired and thirsty and wonders when he will be able to do it again.
Mrs O'Donnell has come home by the time Sean and Liam and James make it back to the O'Donnells' building. She is leaning on the railing of the front steps, chatting with another lady who looks about the same age and who is fanning herself with a straw hat with a pink ribbon around the brim.
"Hello, boys," the lady with the hat says.
"Hello, Mrs Connelly," Sean and Liam chorus.
"You must be James." She bends down to look James in the face, Her eyes are very blue and crinkle at the corners. She smells like powder and flowers. "Moira was just telling me that you were here to visit her boys."
"Are you having a good day?" Mrs O'Donnell asks.
"Yes, ma'am," James says politely. It is strange to see her this way, on her own street and dressed for church and visiting, rather than wearing the apron she always wears when she is cleaning his house. He has seen her almost every day for as long as he can remember, and if he were to pass her in the street like this, he would not recognize her.
"Such a polite boy," Mrs Connelly says to Mrs O'Donnell.
"He is one of the best," Mrs O'Donnell says agreeably. She ruffles James' hair. Then her tone sharpens as she directs a "Where have you been?" at her sons.
"Playing baseball," Liam says.
"We found Kevin Carter and Jimmy Fitzroy and them," Sean adds.
"I cannot send you back to your mother that way," Mrs O'Donnell tells James. "Take him upstairs and all of you wash off," she tells Sean and Liam. "Oh, James, your knee!"
James looks down at his knee. He has already spit on his finger and tried to clean some of the dirt off, and it stings a bit but does not really hurt, but he imagines that Luisa will be worried if she sees it like this.
"It does not hurt," he says.
"Be that as it may. You should clean it out so it can heal properly. I'll do it. Come on. I'll talk to you later, Hannah. Give Tommy my love." She herds the boys inside and up the stairs and to the apartment, where she makes James sit on the table in the kitchen so she can swab his knee with a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol.
"Ow," he says. Now it hurts.
"I'm sorry, sweetie. Sean, get me the gauze."
"It doesn't look that bad," Sean observes.
"It doesn't matter how it looks. Gauze. Now."
Sean gets a gauze pad and some tape, and after Mrs O'Donnell has wiped the dirt off James' knee and cleaned off the scrapes and told him he is very brave for not crying, she tapes the gauze over his knee and tells him that he is fine, she can now send him home without embarrassment.
"Why would you be embarrassed?" he asks. "I slid into first base."
"I told him to," Sean says proudly.
"I do not want your mother to be upset that you came to visit my boys and I sent you home hurt," Mrs O'Donnell says.
"She does not want to lose her job because you scraped your knee playing baseball." Sean whispers.
"Sean!"
"It's true."
"It is also not something you should be talking about. Mr Sewell is coming to fetch you at five, correct?"
James nods. He feels a bit cowed by Mrs O'Donnell in her own home. She does not remind him of his own mother, but more what Luisa might be in ten years, after she has married and had children of her own. He thinks Luisa will be a good mother. He does not know what to think about Mrs O'Donnell, whether she is a good mother or not. He knows she loves her sons, and he knows she is providing for them, and her house is very small but it is clean, and he does not think he should hold it against her that her husband is working on a ship, rather than on land where he can come home to his family every night.
It is a different way to live, he thinks, but it is not necessarily worse than the way he lives. He does not see his father very often either, because Mr Godwin works very hard, and Sean and Liam have Mrs Meara and Mary Margaret to look after them when Mrs O'Donnell is not home, so their mother has made provisions for them so that they are not running wild in the streets.
Although James has to admit, they did some wild running today.
He has had a very good day, though, and because he likes Sean and Liam and he likes their neighborhood and while he is sometimes a bit afraid of Mrs O'Donnell, he does not dislike her, so he is inclined to think well of them as a family.
At five o'clock, much to his great disappointment, he is waiting on the front stoop of thee O'Donnells' building with Sean and Liam and Mrs O'Donnell, waiting for Mr Sewell to come get him,
"Today was the best day ever," he tells Sean. "Thank you for having me."
"Thank your mother too," Mrs O'Donnell says, "for letting you visit,"
"You can come back next Sunday," Sean offers. "On Saturdays we will go to your house and on Sundays you can come to ours."
"I would like that," James says.
Just then Mr Sewell turns up the street and stops in front of the building.
"I want to stay here," James says, even though he knows he cannot. He must go home to his own family. Besides, there is nowhere for him to sleep in the O'Donnells' apartment, and it is too hot, and his pajamas are at his house.
"Me too," Sean says. "But we will see you on Saturday."
"James," Mr Sewell calls out the window. "Your mother is waiting."
James gets in the car and waves goodbye as Mr Sewell pulls away.
"Did you have a good day?" Mr Sewell asks.
"Yes," James says.
Neither of them says another word on the drive home. Mr Sewell always has an air of silence around him, the kind of thing that makes James feel as if he is imposing if he says anything. It is a very calm silence, but it is a silence nonetheless, and it is not until he his home and Luisa and Julia meet him at the door to ask what he did all day that he finally talks about it.
That is, after Luisa cries "What did you do to your clothes? And your leg!" and he explains that he played baseball and slid into first base and it was fun and he wants to do it again, and she makes him change into clean clothes and
He tells Julia everything, although he has to backtrack several times to tell her something he forgot to mention the first time. She listens patiently and asks questions and admits that she would have liked a kitten, if the grocer were giving them away.
James tells Luisa all about his day, and he tries to tell Aimee and William, because he had such a good time and learned so much that he has to share with everyone, but neither of them is very interested. But Con listens to him for a while, and Mrs Godwin even gives him some of her time so he can tell her about his day as well.
"Can I go back next Sunday?" he asks, although she only says "We will see."
"It is not a no," Julia reminds him.
"But it is not a yes," he pouts.
"I have a plan, if you do not get to visit again."
"You do!"
"It is a secret." She grins in an appropriately secretive manner. James is very curious, but she will not tell him what her plan is.
He discovers it a few weeks later, almost the end of July, when Mr and Mrs Godwin go out of town for a week. They have been on trips before, and as before, Matthew and Lucas stay at the house to keep an eye on things, and one night Marcus stays over as well. James is not used to spending time with Marcus, with or without their parents, and he does not know what to say to him.
Julia has evidently brought Sean and Liam in on her plan, if not Mrs O'Donnell, because the plan involves essentially sneaking out of the house to go to Luna Park and Steeplechase Park.
"CONEY ISLAND!" James practically shrieks, when she tells him. He claps both hands over his mouth, in case Luisa can hear. "Does Mrs O'Donnell know?"
"I do not know. I am going with you, though. I hope you did not think I was going to let you go to Luna Park without me." She is smiling, teasing him.
"Are we going to have to lie to Luisa?"
"Only halfway. If you tell her that you are going to be spending the day with Sean and Liam, you are not lying. You do not have to tell her exactly where you are spending the day."
"How will you get out?"
"I am going to spend the day with Honey Langston and Manon Lloyd. I am old enough that Luisa does not need to look after me."
Julia is very sneaky, and James is proud of her for figuring out a way for him to go to Luna Park. He is glad that she is coming with him – part of him still wishes she could have come to see Sean and Liam's neighborhood, because he shares all of his adventures with her.
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total words: 34,593
quickie research: apartment kitchens
