The Dilemma of Charlotte Farrow (25 page)

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I
n his blue and yellow livery, Archie stuck out on the cable car full of worn browns and muted grays, but he did not care. People looking at him could concoct their own explanations for why a man in a coachman's uniform was riding the cable car. The only thing on his mind was Charlotte, who must have passed these same blocks earlier in the afternoon. Taking the Cottage Grove cable car down to the Exposition made the most sense, and Archie was confident he was following the path she had chosen to the Midway. The question was, how much of a head start did she have? And what would she do when she got there?

The mile-long stretch of exhibits and sideshows was overwhelming in itself with noise and attractions. If she considered venturing into the fair proper, the chance of finding a man who might or might not have been there ten days earlier was next to nothing, and Archie's hope of finding a slender young woman in a gray suit was just as absurd.

If only she would let him be with her. She should not have to go through this alone.

Every time the cable car lurched to a stop at a corner for passengers to board and disgorge, frustration roiled in
Archie's belly. Just because a cable car made the most sense as a mode of transportation did not mean it was fast enough when he was in a hurry. Archie gave up his seat to a weary-looking shop girl and stood in the aisle, considering the benefits of moving toward the door even though the cable car was a long way from where he planned to get off.

The last place Charlotte had seen her husband—or thought she saw him—was at the Ferris wheel. Expecting to find him there made little sense, but it was the only starting point Charlotte had.

The cable car pitched to a stop once more.

Charlotte put one foot in front of the other and stepped from Cottage Grove Avenue through the entrance to the Midway Plaisance. She did not have to look for the Ferris wheel. It rose two hundred and fifty feet into the air, towering over everything around it and dominating the view of anyone who dared lift eyes from the crowded displays of foreign cultures, sideshows, and games.

Walking slowly, Charlotte concentrated on trying to remember precisely what she had seen that day. His trousers were black, and the white shirt with the red stripe had a round neckline. Charlotte remembered seeing a lot of other men dressed that way on both occasions when she visited the fair. While millions of people came to Chicago to visit the fair, thousands found employment on the fairgrounds, at least for the duration of the Exposition. Charlotte had no trouble believing that someone like Lathan Landers would have come in search of some easy money. The fact that he seemed to be wearing some sort of uniform—and a menial one—did not
dissuade her. Lathan ran an elaborate network of bootleg stills and was not afraid to gamble even against long odds. He would have come to Chicago looking to relieve some of the millions of visitors of the cash that weighed them down, and working on the Midway was the perfect opportunity.

Charlotte stopped in front of the Brazilian Music Hall, barely hearing the throbbing pulse emanating from within.

I am out of my mind. If I find him, then what?

She was tempted to turn around and jump back on the Cottage Grove Avenue cable car and ride it as far away as she could get.

The brakes screeched as the cable car made an unscheduled stop. Archie nearly lost his balance. Standing at the back of the crowded car, Archie could not see the cause of the sudden halt. A few passengers took advantage of the opportunity to shove past the people in the aisle and get off the back of the car to saunter on their ways.

Archie pushed in the opposite direction, toward the front of the car. Around him, others craned their necks as well, hoping for a glimpse of what had caused the car to stop.

“It's a horse!” someone exclaimed. “It fell and tipped over a carriage in the intersection.”

Archie groaned audibly.

“It probably stepped in a hole and snapped its leg,” someone else speculated.

“Who was in the carriage?”

“They can't leave it in the middle of the street.”

“What if someone is hurt?”

“The coachman might be trapped under the carriage.”

On any other day, Archie might have been interested in this conversation. He was not heartless. He sincerely hoped no one was injured, not even the horse. But on this day, he had only one thing on his mind.

When the cable car driver descended the steps to investigate, Archie jostled through and did the same. Traffic from every direction had come to a halt. A quick assessment revealed no one was injured, but the horse's leg might indeed be broken. No one could estimate how long it would take to clear the intersection.

Archie was not going to wait. Every moment of delay put him farther behind Charlotte and whatever she was getting herself into. He glanced back at the hapless cable car, then moved out of the intersection and began to trot along the sidewalk. He could catch another cable car already farther south on Cottage Grove and still head for the Midway.

Charlotte's nerves would not allow her to hurry. Her mind played out every scenario she could think of. She would find Lathan but be too frightened to reveal herself to him. She would not see him, but he would accost her and put her at an immediate disadvantage. She might look all day and never find him. Maybe he was gone and she would never know the truth of why he came to Chicago. She might find him, approach him, and—then what?

Her feet dragged, but she continued forward motion, past the Chinese Village, past the white shining arches of Old Vienna, past the French cider press. At the Vienna Café, however, she stopped. The small structure was the closest attraction to the Ferris wheel. Charlotte persuaded herself she suddenly
wanted a cup of coffee, though in reality she simply needed to relieve her shaking knees, and the small Vienna Café was staring her in the face.

Charlotte settled at a table next to the open wall that looked out on the enormous display of the Ferris wheel. People lined up at the six loading platforms. It took one full revolution to load all twenty-one cars from the six platforms, then the riders would enjoy one nine-minute revolution without any stops. Charlotte had heard enough accounts in the last few months to know that the view from the top of the wheel was breathtaking. Passengers more courageous than she was enjoyed vistas of Lake Michigan along with surrounding states of Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan. Even on a cloudy day, much of the excitement was simply in the ride itself.

Yet it terrified her. The thought of stepping into one of the cars, with plate glass windows all around, made Charlotte queasy—even without imagining the sensation of lifting off the ground and swaying in the air.

She drank her coffee slowly, peering out at the ever-shifting flow of visitors enjoying the Midway exhibits. Beyond the Ferris wheel, she saw the Egyptian camels—something else she had no wish to ride—used in the reenacted wedding procession that repeated itself multiple times a day.

She saw dozens—no, hundreds—of people in the minutes that she sat and sipped her coffee.

But she did not see him.

Archie was finally at the entrance, merging into the crowd that went through the gates to the Midway. His eyes darted around the crowded scene before him. How many more
visitors had decided this was the day to see the fair before it closed in less than two weeks?

Taking a deep breath, Archie forced himself to be less random in his search. He knew her gray suit would allow her to melt into the background hues. He had to focus, examine every form, look behind every pillar, under every sign, at every movement that caught his eye. He stood in front of the Brazilian Music Hall, the Ferris wheel breaking up the sky when he lifted his eyes, and purposely slowed his breath while he moved his eyes from one form to another. Jugglers and musicians wandered up and down the street, complicating the process of sorting which movements mattered and which did not.

Then, out of the corner of his left eye, he saw a sliver of gray duck into the Chinese Village. Archie increased his stride and was there less than two minutes later.