Albany Park (14 page)

Sitting up, he slowly wobbled on his skates as he pushed himself up. Taking her hands, he helped her to her feet. Once upright, they stood, still holding both hands, he a little taller and looking down at her. Quickly releasing her left hand, he ran his free hand through his own tangled dark hair. She smiled and turned away but hung tight to his hand as she pushed off on her skates. He went along, allowing her to set the slow pace as they returned to the group. They separated as they got closer and he picked up speed to join the other boys, who were now playing tag.

In the days that followed they sought each other out. If she were on the sidewalk playing ball or jumping rope, she always waved when she saw him look her way. He would respond with a smile or sometimes make a face to get her to laugh. When they played together, he always tried to be near her and she did the same
with him
.

Two years later when they reached the fifth grade, Shirley made sure all the girls knew that Victor Wayne was her guy. He, being the shyer of the two, tried to keep his distance, but when the girls began having parties and kissing games he really liked kissing Shirley better than the other girls. In school, he would watch her, noticing how she brushed the hair out of her eyes while reading. Sometimes she frowned when concentrating on a difficult problem. Catching him looking, she would smile and he would quickly turn away. He caught her staring at him sometimes too; immediately, he would turn red. Many of the other girls were also pretty, but they didn’t have the same effect on him or make him feel something stirring inside of him like she did.

As they got older, Vic, without admitting that he liked Shirley, still went to the parties to be with her. She, along with the other girls, often watched him as the boys played baseball or basketball. Occasionally, he walked her home afterward, but by the time they’d turned twelve, they had begun to drift apart.

Things changed dramatically for Vic the summer they were starting seventh grade. Pa had come home one Saturday in April after a slow day at the cleaning store. The landlord, a short older man with a white beard, caught him coming up the stairs.

“Say, Wayne,” he said pronouncing it “Vayne” in his heavy accent, “I need the rent.”

“Oh yeah, I’ll take care of it, don’t worry,” Pa said without stopping.

The old man tried to block his way, “That’s what you said last week. You know you owe me two month’s already; another week, it’ll be three months,”

Stopping, Pa pushed his hat back and shrugged. “Look, business has been slow at the cleaning store, but it’s starting to pick up. And I got a second job at the Ward office, working as a night watchman.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, Wayne, but I got a big family to feed and I can’t wait around any longer. You know I gave you a break on the rent, but now with the war and expenses going up, I need my money. Next week, or I’ll have to evict you. My married daughter wants your apartment anyway.”

“Okay, don’t worry, I’ll have money for you this week,” Pa sputtered, pushing past the old man into the apartment.

Closing the door behind him, he stood in the hallway shaking his head.

Ma, wiping her hands on her apron, walked from the kitchen, hearing him come in. “What’s wrong?”

Motioning with his head toward the kitchen, he moved in that direction.

She retreated with him, not saying anything.

Looking around to see if the kids might overhear, he sat and nodded to her to do the same.

“So,” she said softly.

He sighed and after brushing a few crumbs off the oilcloth, put both hands on the table. “We gotta move again; the old man is after us for the rent and we don’t have the money.”

“Oy,” Ma sighed, shaking her head. “Did you talk to him?”

“Yeah, I talked to him. He must have just come back from
Schul,
still in his
Shabbos
suit, carrying his prayer books. You would think that someone that religious would be more understanding, but he’s been hounding me for weeks,” he said looking down. “Even if I gave him some money, I think he’ll throw us out.”

“Ah, I never liked this place anyway,” Ma said quietly, reaching out to cover his hand. “That old man and his kids, they’re so nosy. And he never fixes anything. Remember when the boiler broke last March and we had no hot water or heat for two weeks?”

He looked at her hand covering his. “Look, Ma, do you think we can move next week? I may know of a place a block south of here. The rent is a little less and they’ll give one month’s free rent for decorating.”

Squeezing his hand, she nodded and shrugged.

The following Saturday, the family moved. And that summer, Vic went to work.

His first job was as a helper for Abe, their milkman, a wiry guy with massive forearms and cheery disposition. Together, they drove through the alleys between Central Park and Pulaski road, in the small white truck, stopping every few buildings to drag heavy milk, cream and butter to the back porches of customers. Vic, the young helper, got most of the third-floor stops.

Starting at six a.m., they worked until a short lunch break at ten-thirty and then finished the route around one-thirty. Vic was paid a dollar a day. It was tiring work, but Vic liked the job, especially Abe’s never-ending stories about the neighborhood and customers. The minute Abe crinkled his eyes and formed a smile as they approached a building, Vic knew another tale was about to unfold.

“You see that apartment on the second floor,” as they approached a six-flat on the right, Abe would motion with his hand. “The one where I deliver a quart of milk every other day,” and Vic would answer with a nod.

“That’s Mrs. Weissman, she lost her six-month-old son about five years ago. He went to sleep one night, and the next morning, he was dead. They never found out what killed him. She hasn’t stepped out of that apartment since that day. No one has even seen her since. “

“Really,” Vic would respond with a nod or shrug.

“In fact, I’ve been her milkman all that time and I’ve never seen her. She leaves an envelope stuffed in a milk bottle with my money every week,” Abe answered, shaking his head.

Laughing one day, he winked at Vic, “This next stop may take a little while. I gotta collect the bill from Mrs. Fink. You just take care of the customers in the rest of the building and wait for me.” A half-hour later, Abe returned to the truck with a grin.

“Everything okay?” asked Vic.

“Well, let’s just say I collected,” Abe said, winking and pulling the truck away.

Many of the stories were nothing more than juicy gossip not really fit for a twelve year-old, about divorcees or married men who had girlfriends. But Vic got a real kick out of knowing all the neighborhood secrets. He knew Ma would be mad if she found out that Abe was filling his head with such trash. Pa, on the other hand, would probably laugh, figuring it was just man-talk on the job. Vic took it all in and egged Abe on.

When school started that fall, he got a job after school in a grocery store on Lawrence near Central Park, doing stock work and making deliveries, and a few months later, a friend of Pa’s recommended Vic for a stock boy and salesman’s job at Joe Freidman’s menswear store at the Six Corners shopping district on Milwaukee Avenue near Irving Park and Cicero.

The summer before high school started, Vic was still working at Freidman’s clothing store and in his free time, played a lot of sports. He had also begun sneaking into to see Mitzi Rubin, an attractive, young married woman whose Army husband was serving in the war. He liked her better than most of the girls his age but was confused about their exciting relationship and frightened that someone would find out.

Shirley, meanwhile, had been going on dates with older boys, and Vic had heard that her most recent flame was old enough to drive a car. So he was taken aback one afternoon when he ran into her on the sidewalk on his way to meet Al Gordon at Lou’s for a game of pool and she invited him to a beach party that Saturday night.

The party took place on a warm July evening and Foster beach was crowded with people of all ages trying to get relief from the heat. On the sand close to the lake, small kids were splashing in water up to their knees or making castles in the sand. Sprinkled between the blankets, were baby buggies with little ones sleeping or sucking on bottles. Older folks sat in folding chairs on the rocks that formed the breakfront to the rambling Lake Michigan shore. Their picnic baskets stood open as sandwiches and soda pops were dispensed to waiting hands. A short, bald man with a dark sunburned complexion and shaggy white beard sat on an upside-down bucket with a fishing pole over the water. Alongside him was a line into the water with a string of fish he had caught.

The grassy area beyond and around the sand and rocks was where the older kids and couples went to relax and enjoy the lake breeze. Softballs and footballs were being tossed in the air and a few fires blazed amid the blankets and lawn chairs occupying almost every foot of space. The mix of music and jumbled conversations of the thousands of people enjoying a leisurely warm Chicago lakefront evening was a like a symphony of contentment.

A shrill whistle from one of the boys caught their attention as Shirley and Vic headed for their group. Vic set the picnic basket down.

Sipping on a Coke, he sat with his arms linked around his knees on the blanket he had helped Shirley spread and watched the girls as they arranged the food and drinks near the fire that was starting to glow. He hardly recognized some of them. It seemed like only yesterday when they had pigtails and were wearing short plaid skirts. Now, most looked like women, especially the ones who were smoking. Shirley looked especially good. It surprised him when she slipped out of her loose-fitting over blouse and removed her shorts to reveal a clinging black bathing suit. Watching every move as she folded her clothes and carefully placed them near her bag, he felt an exciting surge within. He knew she was deliberately moving slowly as he watched and was enjoying the sexy show she was putting on, especially when she bent low to remove her white moccasins. He also saw the look she gave him as she turned her head up, as if taunting him with her eyes and sly smile to come grab her. He remembered the sensation he’d had when she touched him lightly earlier in the evening as she straightened his collar and then brushed his hair away from his face. His eyes stayed glued to her as he took in the curve of her tempting tush and the small but very obvious breasts that he longed to touch. She wasn’t as pretty as some of the girls, but there was something about her that made not only him, but some of the guys, remark about how they would like to get in her pants. The comments, he knew, were just guys talking, but they didn’t talk about other girls the same way.

Jim called him to go swimming and he stripped down to his suit, looking at Shirley for her okay.

“Go ahead, I’ll get us set here,” she said, waving him to go.

He took off, joining Jim, Sam and some other guys, diving off the rocks into the lake. Twenty minutes later, they came back and started throwing around a football. It wasn’t long before the girls called them to stoke the fire so they could eat as the sun disappeared. Shirley brought out some long wire forks for roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. She passed them around to the sounds of sultry music coming from Fern Schwartz’s portable radio. From the baskets, potato chips, cokes, cookies and candy started to appear.

When “Embraceable You” started playing, Fern turned up the volume and she and Sam started dancing. Shirley pulled Vic up and they, along with several others, joined in, slow dancing in the grass.

As the night wore on, the crowds at the lakefront began thinning; allowing more room. The couples also started separating their blankets from the others a bit. The fire was slowly dying, creating a few sparks and crackling noise, mingling with the low droning sounds of the crowds all around them. As the batteries in Fern’s radio wore down a distant radio could be heard playing, “That old black magic has me in its spell”.

Feeling the soft summer quilt and the bumps of the uneven grass underneath, Shirley and Vic lay on their backs looking up at the stars. He casually put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close so he could kiss her. Her arms hugged him close and her lips opened to welcome him. They clung to each other, Vic rubbing his hips with the hardness of excitement against her, careful not to touch her with his hands in a way that would frighten her. She pushed back, electrifying him with her sighs.

Not a word passed between them for many minutes until Shirley whispered, “I love you, Victor Wayne. Since the day I met you, I’ve loved you.”

With a crooked smile, Vic looked at her and said, “I always thought you had great taste in men.”

Her laugh and soft playful slap across his cheek made him grin and snuggle her closer. “You know what? I think I love you, too.”

“Oh Victor, you said it!” She smiled. “I knew it, but wanted to hear it from you so much. Say it again…please.”

“C’mon Shirley, don’t make it so hard for me. You know how I feel. It’s just hard to say it.”

Walking from the beach down Foster on the way to the bus, he took her hand and laced his fingers into hers. At Broadway they waited for the bus away from the folks waiting on the corner. It was darker there and easier to enjoy a few more kisses.

The light turned red and traffic stopped. A baby faced man in an Army uniform, with a short crew cut and a cigarette dangling from his lips pulled up in a white Buick convertible with the top down. Alongside him was a chunky blonde who waved at Vic and Shirley, “Where you kids going?” she squealed. “Want a ride?”

With a quick look and a smile between them, Vic answered, “We’re going as far as Central Park.”

The blonde pulled the seat forward and the soldier chuckled, “Hop in.”

The blonde turned around as Shirley and Vic settled into the luxurious back seat. “How do you like our car? Johnny got it only a year before he was drafted and it’s been in a garage ever since. When he came in on furlough a week ago, we got married. As a wedding present to ourselves, we decided to go out for a spin before he heads back in two days to go overseas.”