“You, girl, you're next. Sit down on
the divan.”
She remained on the bench defiant, between
several other girls, some around her age, some older.
“Hey there! What's your name? What's
this girl's name?”
“The new one? That's Kallah.”
“Kallah, get your fanny on that
couch.”
“My name's not Kallah, it's Ruby, and I'll do with my fanny what I please.”
“I don't care if it's Annie Oakley, and your fanny belongs to Brother Tobias, so
get up here.” Said Brother Rickenbacher from behind the camera.
“No!” said Ruby.
The man looked exasperated and put his
hands on his hips. “Girls.” he said.
The girls on either side of Ruby
grabbed her arms and dragged her forward, pulled her dress over her
head leaving her in the lacy underthings they had made her put on that morning.
She was too surprised to fight back. They dumped her on the dusty
couch, a fancy piece that had seen better days in some big house back
East.
It was Ruby's first day in the work
house. She'd heard it called that since she arrived, but Ruby could tell at the first, from the way the girls
wore old lingerie under their dresses and the fact that they came
back each day nearly as clean and fresh as they left in the morning, that it was something else entirely.
Ruby had been left in the upstairs room each day for a week or so until she had
gained some weight on her hips and in her chest. That was another
clue that the girls weren't sewing dresses or making Teddy bears for
poor children in India, as everyone was told.
Finally the tape measure showed some
results from the lard and rice mixture they forced her to choke down
four times a day and she was sent off with the others on their daily
march over the hillside.
The single barn sized building seemed normal enough from a distance,
but inside there was no roof, just a floor and four walls. One end of
the building was made to look like the inside of a sitting room with
oriental rugs on the floor, tapestry on the walls and finer furniture
than anywhere else in the the whole compound even if it was old and a
bit worn. White bedsheets had been sewn together and draped
over boards overhead to keep the light in the 'sitting room' in
between a state of sunlight and shade.
“Kallah, get a smile on that face,
you look like a sour puss.”
“I'm wearing ridiculous
underwear in front of everyone and being held here against my will. Why should I smile? This place is horrible. You people are
all crazy. You girls are all like zombies, what the heck is wrong
with you.”
“Smile dammit! Do it now! We don't
have all day, we just need a simple shot of you for now. Just get it
over with.”
“Then take a picture, but I
refuse to smile.”
Brother Rickenbacher looked over his
shoulder to a dark corner where there at a seated figure leaning on a cane.
“Corrective lacing, two days. That'll
squeeze a smile out of her.” Said Brother Tobias with a grin that could be heard from the shadows.
“Two days? But Mr Hagstrom is coming
in two days.”
“Then maybe he can get her to smile;
two days. I know this girl's type,” he said as if Ruby and the
others weren't right there, “You'd better break her now and do it
right or she'll infect the others. Lace her up.”
The girls on the benches seemed to get
excited. This more than anything made Ruby nervous. Brother
Rickenbacher pointed at two of the older girls, which caused the rest
to start chanting.
“Lace her, lace her, lace her...”
The girls took something off the wall
that looked like some sort of orthopedic device with a mile of string
laced through one side and a series of metal buttons on the other.
They pulled Ruby up off the couch into a standing position. One girl
stood in front of her and grabbed her wrists while the other wrapped
the thing around her middle and closed the metal buttons in front. It
went from low on her hips to up over her bust.
This isn't so bad Ruby thought. Mama
used to talk about wearing these things when she was younger, how she
hated them but...
The girl behind Ruby began pulling on
the laces. The corset closed around her and began squeezing her waist
in.
I can see what Mama was talking about
now... “Ooph.” said Ruby quite involuntarily. The girl pulled the
laces a second time making the thing even tighter.
“Hey, what's the idea? Stop, it I
can't hardly...oomph!”
It tightened again. Ruby's eyes went
wide. She realized it was going to get worse.
“Lace her, lace her...”
Between each cinching of her middle,
Ruby could feel the girl behind her working the laces on the upper
and lower portions of her torso, squeezing her ribcage and her hips
before a crescendo with a big pull at the center drawing her further
and further into hourglass like rich old ladies still did.
Ruby kept thinking the thing couldn't
get any tighter but then the girl would yank on the laces and Ruby
would feel the thing close around her. The final pull had the girl
place her boot on Ruby's back for leverage and pulled hard with a
grunt.
Ruby felt like she would split in two.
The girls all cheered and jeered. Ruby
could barely make a squeak.
The laces were brought in front of her
and tied in a large bow. The girl in front of her let go of her
wrists. Ruby nearly toppled over. She was lightheaded and weak. Each
shallow breath she could take was an effort. The two girls guided Ruby back to the wall. She knew she
would not be sitting down. Bending at the middle was not possible. She looked down at the
lace ends tied before her. She promised herself would loosen them at the first
opportunity, when no one was looking.
They dashed her plans by binding her hands behind her. They looped a rope around her
spindled waist and attached it to a nail high on the wall like a dog
on a leash, not tight, but only allowing her a few inches of travel.
The other girls took turns on the couch
having their pictures taken in their underwear, sometimes less,
sometimes apart, sometimes together. Ruby could hardly believe the depravity
she was seeing, but mostly all she could think about trying to breathe.
It was all clear now. This was no cult,
maybe the folks like Caleb and Esther still thought it was, but their
religious fever and Caleb's greedy dream of having multiple wives was
just bait to bring young women to this place for dirty pictures. Now
they were slaves, all three of them. Ruby thought she had it better,
not toiling in the hot sun all day, but now she wasn't sure.
“You can't leave!” She grabbed my
habit covered arm when I tried to stand up.
“But the nurse just said I have to,
visiting hours are over.”
“You can't leave without me.”
Charlotte clung to my arm in
desperation.
“Wait a minute, you're sick, I can't
take you from your hospital bed.”
“I'm not sick, I was never ill,
I was stricken with sadness but you just cured me of that when
you said you'd found my baby. The doctors say my womb is making me hysterical, they want to take it out."
“Dear lord! that's horrible", I said, "but remember, I can't be
completely sure about your baby till you see it, till you have her in your arms.”
“It doesn't matter,” she said, “you
have to take me with you. Tomorrow they will operate on me and as soon as i recover my father is having me sent back
to Philadelphia.” Charlotte laughed. “It used to be all I dreamed
of, going back, but now... Now, there's my child, now there's... you.”
I was stunned. It was all I had dreamed
of; for the beautiful Charlotte to ask me to take her away. To chosen over her wealthy family. I felt fear cloud my joy, though.
It was one thing to climb to a rooftop and to dress like a nun and
sneak into a hospital, but this was kidnapping, willing though she was,
that's how her family would see it and therefore how a judge
would.
“I... I'll come back tomorrow. I need
time to plan this out.”
“No, it's no good my darling, it has
to be now.”
“But...”
“Don't you see? I don't think the
nuns loaned you that get-up. They may know it's missing, even now. If
we wait...”
I did see. It was all happening so
fast. Then I looked at her face, and felt her hands close around my
own. I would do anything for her. Nothing was impossible and I was
fearless... mostly.
“Sister, sorry, I'm afraid you really
have to leave now.” said the nurse as she passed by the room.
“Um yes child... um.” I converted
to my ridiculous nun's voice. Charlotte bit her lip to suppress her
laughter. I myself heard my voice break and I choked back a chortle.
“I just need a moment.”
I closed my eyes, seeing Charlotte's
face trying not to laugh would have made it impossible not to laugh myself. Then
I had a thought.
“Nurse.” I said.
The nurse came back in. “Yes sister?”
This lady has decided to take
confession before her surgery tomorrow. I know that visiting hours are over but certainly I
could take her to the chapel and try to catch the Chaplin before he leaves... on a safari.”
"Father Vecci, is going on a safari?"
“Uh why yes of course, they need chaplins too, all those elephants and tigers.”
Charlotte and I made faces at each other.
“Well I supposed they wouldn't blame
me for allowing a confession. I'll get a wheel chair.”
It was difficult not to break into a
run when we passed the doors of the hospital and headed towards
the street. I managed to keep my countenance about me. Charlotte
herself had to keep herself from looking around and keep her head
hung low like someone ill and forlorn. Once or twice, footfalls in
the corridors behind us made us worry the gig was up. It was not much
better out on the sidewalk. A nun walking a wheel chair is not nearly as
easy to explain away on the street as it is in a hospital.
Our hearts both nearly stopped as we
saw a superfluity of nuns headed straight for us. Charlotte gripped
the suitcase she held in her lap with white knuckles. They parted for
us and nodded as I did. I was about to breath again when I heard it.
First a flutter of conversation between them, then it happened.
“Sister? Oh Sister.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. I turned
just enough to turn, but stopped short of showing my face through the wings of the habit.
“What is your name?”
“Sister Catherine... Jones of...
Cleveland... I'm, uh... new.”
“What's wrong with your voice sister?
Let us have a look at you?” Said one of the older nuns in a haughty
tone.
I looked down at Charlotte. She angled
back up at me carefully. I was ready to make a run for it, wheelchair
and all. I could already see how it would end though with a
policeman twirling his nightstick at the the end of the block.
I heard someone running behind
us. My heart stopped. I turned to see Olaf, the milk boy, running up
to the nuns.
“Damn, damn, hell... liquor...
pool... Holy crap!” he said dancing around trying to engage their
ire.
He was remarkably successful given the
chase that followed. He was saved by his ability to dodge carriages
and the fact the nuns were only armed with harsh scolding, not rulers
or yardsticks.
“I didn't know nuns could run so
swiftly.” Charlotte said after we past the policeman calmly with a
friendly nod.
“I know, without our young milk boy
coming to our aid, they would have caught us for sure. I couldn't run
like that in this habit even without the wheelchair.”
“I'm glad poor Olaf got away. It was
good of you to bring him.”
“I didn't. He must have followed me.”
I took off my nun's habit as gracefully
as possible, which was to say not very graceful at all.
There we stood at the corner of
Leavenworth and 24th Street like two children that had
just run away from home and just realized it was real. We were two
people who barely knew the other now bound by our crimes, the one we
had just committed, and the one we were about to.
“What now darling?” Charlotte said.
“First, we get rid of this wheel
chair then we go and get your baby back.”
She took my hand and squeezed it
gently.
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