Memories of Another Day (30 page)

Later, over dinner, while they were spooning into their chicken chow mein, he said very casually, "I think it's about time you quit your job. It isn't fair to Junior that you should be on your feet all day like that."

"The money comes in real handy," she said. 'Twelve, fourteen dollars a week covers a lot of the ouse bills."

'*I spend more'n that on whiskey and cigars," he said.

She was silent.

"Besides, Fm figuring on going back to work. If I do, we'll have a lot more than that comin' in."

She stared at him. "What are you gonna do?"

"The same as Fve always done," he said. "Organizing."

"I didn't know you kin git a job like that out here."

"It's not out here," he said. "It's back East. Phil Murray himself called me. He wants me to head up the Steelworkers Organizing Committee in Chicago. They'll pay me fifty-five dollars a week and expenses."

Dismay came into her voice. "That means we'll have to move back there jest after we settled in here."

"No," he said. "It's nothing permanent. The whole job shouldn't last more than a few months at the most. Then I'll be back."

"I'll be alone," she said. "What if you're still there when my time comes?"

He laughed. "I'll be back long before that," he said confidently.

"Wouldn't you be better off takin' a job here?"

"You know what the jobs out here pay. There's nothing that pays even half that much. And with a baby on the way, the more we make now, the better off we are. With them paying my expenses, we can sock the whole salary into the bank."

She met his eyes. "That's what you want to do, isn't it?"

"Yes," he said simply.

She took a deep breath. "Okay. But I'll miss you."

He smiled and reached across the table, touching her cheek. "I'll miss you too," he said. "But I'll be back before you know it."

She reached up, pressing his hand to her cheek. She wanted to believe him, but in her heart she knew it would be longer than he thought.

'*Is it dangerous?'' she asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. ''No more than any of the other jobs.''

''I don't want nothin' to happen to you."

He patted his jacket under the shoulder where the gun rested comfortably. ''Don't worry about that. What happened before is never going to happen again. I've got a friend."

She looked into his eyes. "That's okay. But jes' don't you fergit one thing. You got a wife too."

center of the car. He gestured to the seat and carefully placed the valise in an overhead rack. *'You kin have both scats, sah," he said. *'We're not busy, an' Ah'U make sure that nobody sits next to you. That way you kin stretch out at night."

'Thank you," Daniel said, giving him a half-dollar coin.

'Thank you, sah," the porter said enthusiastically. ''Anythin' you want, jes' you call me. George is my name."

Daniel looked at him. ''Is the bar open?"

"Yes, sah. The smoker is three cars back, jes' behind the sleepin' cars." The porter began to leave. "Enjoy youah trip, sah."

He saw the girl as he walked through the second sleeping car. A porter was just coming out of one of the private compartments. Automatically he looked in through the open door. She was standing there, her hand on the top button of her blouse. She glanced up. For a moment their eyes met; then she half-smiled and with the other hand pushed the door shut. He went on to the smoking car.

The bar was already crowded. There was one small table left against the window, with two chairs. He sat down. The waiter came up to him. "Yes, sah."

"How much is a bottle of bourbon?" Daniel asked.

"One fifty a pint, two sixty a fifth, sah."

"I'll take a fifth."

"Yes, sah. Ice and ginger, sah?"

"Just water, thank you."

He was on his second drink when she came into the car. Her eyes searched the car looking for a table. There was none. For a moment she seemed to hesitate, as if she were going to turn back; then she saw the empty seat at his table and came toward him

"Do you mind if I sit here?" She had a soft, educated voice.

He rose to his feet. "It would be my pleasure, ma'am."

She sat down as the waiter came up. "What are you drinking?"

"Bourbon and water," he said. "Shall I get another glass?"

She shook her head. "A very dry martini," she told the waiter. She turned back to him. "I didn't fancy the idea of drinking alone in the compartment."

Daniel smiled.

She held out her hand. "Fm Christina Girdler."

The waiter brought her martini. She raised the glass. " To a pleasant journey."

He tossed the shot of bourbon down his throat. "A pleasant journey. Miss Girdler."

"My friends call me Chris," she said.

"Daniel."

"Fm going to Chicago," she said. "I was just visiting some friends on the Coast."

"Fm changing trains in Chicago and going on to Pittsburgh, but FU be back in Chicago in about two, three weeks," he said.

"What line of work are you in, Daniel?"

"Fm a labor organizer. Right now Fm on a special job for the Steelworkers Organizing Committee, C.I.O."

"The S.W.O.C.?"

"You heard about us?" His surprise showed in his voice. Usually people in her society knew nothing about unions.

She giggled. "My Uncle Tom would have a fit if he knew I was sitting here talking to you. Mention S.W.O.C. to him and he explodes."

Girdler. The name fell into place. President of Republic Steel. At the spearhead of Little Steel's antiunion drive. ''That Girdler?"

She laughed agam. ''That Girdler. Do you want me to leave the table now?"

He chuckled. "Not at all."

"Even if I told you that I work in the public relations

division of his company and Fm one of those people who send out all the antiunion information?"

He shook his head. ''It doesn't matter. Right now, neither of us is working."

''You people aren't going to win. You know that, don't you?"

"I'm not working," he said.

"What do you want to talk about, then?" she asked.

"You," he said.

"What about me?" she asked.

"I've been sitting here with a hard on from the moment you sat down," he said. "I want to fuck you."

She caught her breath. A sudden light moisture broke out on her face and she flushed slightly. She stared at him.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

She moistened her dry lips with her tongue. "I just came."

He laughed. "That puts you one up on me."

She laughed with him. "May I have another drink, please?"

He signaled the waiter. When the drink had been brought and the waiter had gone, he said, "We'll have dinner first. Then we'll go to your compartment."

"Why not yours?"

He laughed. "I don't have any. Union men ride coach."

The train took almost forty hours to Chicago from Los Angeles, and the only time they ever left her compartment was for meals. In Chicago, she clung to him as he prepared to change to the train to Pittsburgh and would not let him leave until he promised that he would call her as soon as he returned.

He never knew how she had found out, but when he got off the train in Chicago two weeks later she was waiting for him, and she stayed with him until he was ready to return to the Coast.

One day in the car driving back to Chicago from

Gary, Indiana, where he had gone to complete a field survey, she put her hand on his arm. **I love you," she said. "I want to marry you."

He glanced at her. ''You're nuts."

"I mean it," she said.

"You know I'm married. That Tess is expecting in less than a month."

"I can wait for you to get a divorce."

"You forget the kind of money I make. I can't afford to support Tess and a baby and have another wife."

"I have money."

"No, thank you," he said.

"You don't have to stay with the union," she said. "You and Uncle Tom would get along great together. I'm sure he'd give you a job in a minute. At a lot more money than you're making now."

He glanced at her again. "We're doing great. Why press and spoil it?"

"I love you," she said. "I've never known a man who could make me feel the things you make me feel."

"You're confusing love with fucking. Just because we fuck great together doesn't mean we have to fall in love."

"But I do love you," she insisted like a child.

"Good," he said. "I want you to love me but don't fall in love with me."

"Do you love me?" she asked.

"Yes," he answered. "But I'm not in love with you."

"I don't see the difference. Are you in love with your wife?"

"No. But I do love her."

"Then I don't see the difference."

"Give yourself time," he said. "You will."

She was silent for a moment. "Why do you stay with her if you're not in love with her?"

"We're the same kind of people," he said. "Same background, same ideas. It's easy. I'd never fit in your society and you'd never be comfortable in mine. And

since there's no way we can spend the rest of our lives in bed, it just won't work."

''You're wrong," she said. ''You'd fit in very well anywhere. Uncle Tom is no different from you. He began with nothing and worked his way up. He fits."

"Our basic philosophies are different," Daniel said. "I've seen my whole family die because of men like your Uncle Tom. I've seen too many people hurt and hungry because of something called company policy. I could never be a part of it."

"Maybe if you were you could change it."

He laughed. "Now you're being naive, and you know it. It isn't only your Uncle Tom or any one man that makes the policy. It comes from a lot of places. Banks, Wall Street, something called stockholders' profits. They put pressures on that you either go with or they find someone else to do it. If your uncle tried to change the policy, he wouldn't last a week in his job. He has no more choice to go with what he wants —that is, if he wants to change anything—than the man in the moon."

"I still want to marry you," she said.

He took a hand from the wheel and placed it over hers. "It's beautiful the way it is," he said quietly. "Let's keep it like that."

Her voice was suddenly tense. "I want to fuck. I saw a sign for a hotel about ten miles up the road. Let's stop there for the night."

"But I have to be in Chicago in the morning."

"I don't care," she saidljj^rshly. "I want your cock inside me."

He looked at her, and after a moment he nodded. They pulled off the road, and he didn't get to Chicago until late the next afternoon.

go. Now he's waiting for a strike call so that he can teach the union a lesson."

*'It's that bad, is it?" Murray asked.

Daniel nodded, taking another drink. "Maybe worse."

''How did you find out so much about what he's doing?"

'' From a member of his family.''

''A girl?"

Daniel nodded. ''She also works in his office."

"Does she know who you are?"

"Yes."

"Then why would she talk to you?"

Daniel was silent. He took another drink.

Murray stared at him for a long time. "She could be laying it on you."

"I don't think so," Daniel said. "She wants to marry me."

"Does she know you're married?"

Daniel nodded. "That doesn't bother her. She thinks divorces are easy."

"And what do you think?"

Daniel shook his head. "I'm married. In another week or so I'm going to be a father. I told her that. She says she can wait until I'm ready."

Murray was silent.

Daniel continued. "You said I could go home in time for the baby to be bom. I'm planning to leave tomorrow."

"I don't know whether I can spare you right now," Murray said.

"You gave me your word," Daniel said.

Murray nodded. "I did."

"Then I'm going."

Murray was silent again. His face was drawn and white. He began to tap a pencil against his desk. "I'm under a lot of pressure to call this strike."

"Don't do it," Daniel said. "Remember what you

told me a long time ago about Bill Foster. Don't start a strike unless you know you can win it. Now you're ready to do the same thing. And there's no way you can win this one."

'*You really believe that?"

Daniel nodded silently.

''Damn!" Murray snapped the pencil in half between his fingers. ''Everybody's after my ass. Lewis settled with Big Steel almost a year ago, and they're blaming me for letting Little Steel hang out there so long. Even the membership drive seems to be losing its momentum. The men want action."

"If they want action, that's what they'll get," Daniel said. "But that won't win the strike for them. All it will get them is time in the jails and hospitals."

"Reuther settled with General Motors. That's a big one. Now they're saying we can do it."

"Ford is still out," Daniel said. "Reuther's a long way from home there. And Girdler is just as organized as Ford is."

Murray stared at him. "What do I do?"

"What does Lewis say?"

"He doesn't say anything. Deliberately. He's just laying back there like a fat cat waiting for me to make the move. If we win, he'll jump on the bandwagon."

"And if we lose?"

Murray shrugged. "He can always say that we moved without asking him."

"Then why don't you ask him directly?"

"I tried to. But you know the way he is. There's no way you can get him to talk about anything he doesn't want to."

The bottle was half empty now, but Daniel refilled his glass again. "Stall," he said.

"I can't stall much longer," Murray replied.

"Two weeks," Daniel said. "I'll be back from the Coast by then. I want to be in South Chicago when it comes. If I can keep the lid on there, it may not be too bad."

''How can you be sure?" Murray asked. "Babies have been known to come as much as three weeks late."

"This one won't," Daniel said. "If it looks like that, I'll get the doctor to do a caesarian. I'll be back here by the middle of March.''

Murray stared at him. "Two weeks?"

Daniel nodded.

"Okay. But I won't be able to hold back much longer. The Commies are already beginning a campaign to get me out of this job.''

"Lewis has to know about that," Daniel said.

"Of course he does," Murray said angrily. "But you know his policy. Hands off. He'll take help from anywhere as long as he can build membership. That's why he let them in when Green wouldn't take them into the A.F.L."

"They're doing good with the Textile Workers?"

Murray nodded. "Hillman's flooding them with support out of New York. They're going to stonewall in the South, but they're a year away from that. Right now they're riding high."

Daniel got to his feet. "I'll be back in two weeks. Thanks for the drink, boss."

Murray rose behind his desk. "Do you honestly think we can't win this one?"

"We haven't got the chance of a snowball in hell."

Murray held out his hand. "I hope everything goes allright at home."

"Thanks," Daniel said, taking his hand. "I'll give you a call as soon as it happens."

It was sleeting when he came out of the building, his valise in his hand. He peered up the street, looking for a taxi. There was a black Chrysler limousine parked at the curb. Its door swung open and a girl's voice called him. "Daniel!"

He stared for a moment, then walked toward it.