then leapt over the side of the boat and hurried into the print shop to fetch a handful of old issues of the
Women's Gazette.
When I got back, I helped Ma down from the boat and gave her the papers. "Read these, Ma. Eliza and others like her all over the country are trying to change things for women, trying to change the laws."
Ma tucked the papers into one of her secret pockets, and she never asked me to return the tools again, though the next time she came to visit, and after she'd taken her scissors to my shaggy hair, she did go sneaking off to talk to Eliza. Don't know exactly what Ma said, but later that evening Eliza offered to telegraph an old friend of the Judge and ask on my behalf if he might have a job for me. Seemed this man owned a fleet of tugs and barges on the Mississippi. I told Eliza that unless she wasn't happy with my work I'd rather stay. What I didn't tell Eliza or Ma or even Hannah was that when and if I did leave I wasn't planning to leave alone.
The other visitor I'd seen face to face was Drucilla, Dru. Her ma being away and a hired girl doing all the housework, Dru came to the resting room every day except for Sunday, which was the only day her banker pa was home to notice if she was there or not.
Dru discovered me not long after her first visit. I was working in the print shop, quietly stuffing gazettes into envelopes and writing the addresses on the outside, when there came a single rap on the door. I undid the latch, then posted myself in such a way as to be out of sight when the door opened. Dru peeked in. When she saw me she grinned like she was about to tag me "it." Without thinking, I grabbed her arm, jerked her inside, and slammed the door closed behind her. It was kind of like reeling in a fish then not knowing what to do with it once it was landed. I just stood there, dumbstruck and gawking.
"You had best close your mouth before a swallow builds a nest," Dru said.
Still I stood there, saying nothing and wishing I were wearing Pa's shoes.
"You're the boy the sheriff is looking for, aren't you? Well, you needn't worry about me. My lips are sealed." Dru raised a hand to her lips and turned a make-believe key.
"Visitors aren't ... aren't allowed back here."
"Oh, I'm no visitor. I'm Drucilla Callahan, though you may call me Dru."
"How did ... did you know the signal?" I fumbled.
"I figured it out by watching Eliza and Hannah. One rap and the door opened, like magic. I love a mystery, and there are none to be found in this town, save for in Elizas novelsâand now for you. Tell me everythingâhow long you've been hiding out here, what dastardly crimes you've committed."
Another single knock at the door. Hannah. When she saw Dru and me standing there, toe to toe, the skin on her forehead puckered.
"I'm sorry, Hannah. I simply couldn't bear to wait another minute to learn who you were keeping hidden away behind the door. But you needn't worryâI'll not tell a soul." Dru then moseyed across the room and started tinkering with the press. "So this is where the blasphemous
Women's Gazette
is printed. Isaac, that's your name, isn't it? Will you show me how it works?"
"Maybe another time," Hannah said just as I'd started across the room. "The young ones are begging for another of your stories, Dru."
"My audience awaits." Dru breezed past and then was gone.
I was about to say that Dru was really something when I caught myself. She
was
really something, but I sure didn't want Hannah to get the wrong idea, so I said, "I ... uh ... do you think we can trust her?"
"I think so, but I'll talk to her, make sure she understands the trouble we'll both be in if you are found out."
And then Hannah was gone, too, and the print shop felt twice, no a hundred times as empty as it'd ever felt before.
***
After the resting room closed for the day, Hannah and I told Dru our story, the same one we'd told Eliza, leaving out the same part, about spending the night together in the haystack. I
Women's Gazette.
When I got back, I helped Ma down from the boat and gave her the papers. "Read these, Ma. Eliza and others like her all over the country are trying to change things for women, trying to change the laws."
Ma tucked the papers into one of her secret pockets, and she never asked me to return the tools again, though the next time she came to visit, and after she'd taken her scissors to my shaggy hair, she did go sneaking off to talk to Eliza. Don't know exactly what Ma said, but later that evening Eliza offered to telegraph an old friend of the Judge and ask on my behalf if he might have a job for me. Seemed this man owned a fleet of tugs and barges on the Mississippi. I told Eliza that unless she wasn't happy with my work I'd rather stay. What I didn't tell Eliza or Ma or even Hannah was that when and if I did leave I wasn't planning to leave alone.
The other visitor I'd seen face to face was Drucilla, Dru. Her ma being away and a hired girl doing all the housework, Dru came to the resting room every day except for Sunday, which was the only day her banker pa was home to notice if she was there or not.
Dru discovered me not long after her first visit. I was working in the print shop, quietly stuffing gazettes into envelopes and writing the addresses on the outside, when there came a single rap on the door. I undid the latch, then posted myself in such a way as to be out of sight when the door opened. Dru peeked in. When she saw me she grinned like she was about to tag me "it." Without thinking, I grabbed her arm, jerked her inside, and slammed the door closed behind her. It was kind of like reeling in a fish then not knowing what to do with it once it was landed. I just stood there, dumbstruck and gawking.
"You had best close your mouth before a swallow builds a nest," Dru said.
Still I stood there, saying nothing and wishing I were wearing Pa's shoes.
"You're the boy the sheriff is looking for, aren't you? Well, you needn't worry about me. My lips are sealed." Dru raised a hand to her lips and turned a make-believe key.
"Visitors aren't ... aren't allowed back here."
"Oh, I'm no visitor. I'm Drucilla Callahan, though you may call me Dru."
"How did ... did you know the signal?" I fumbled.
"I figured it out by watching Eliza and Hannah. One rap and the door opened, like magic. I love a mystery, and there are none to be found in this town, save for in Elizas novelsâand now for you. Tell me everythingâhow long you've been hiding out here, what dastardly crimes you've committed."
Another single knock at the door. Hannah. When she saw Dru and me standing there, toe to toe, the skin on her forehead puckered.
"I'm sorry, Hannah. I simply couldn't bear to wait another minute to learn who you were keeping hidden away behind the door. But you needn't worryâI'll not tell a soul." Dru then moseyed across the room and started tinkering with the press. "So this is where the blasphemous
Women's Gazette
is printed. Isaac, that's your name, isn't it? Will you show me how it works?"
"Maybe another time," Hannah said just as I'd started across the room. "The young ones are begging for another of your stories, Dru."
"My audience awaits." Dru breezed past and then was gone.
I was about to say that Dru was really something when I caught myself. She
was
really something, but I sure didn't want Hannah to get the wrong idea, so I said, "I ... uh ... do you think we can trust her?"
"I think so, but I'll talk to her, make sure she understands the trouble we'll both be in if you are found out."
And then Hannah was gone, too, and the print shop felt twice, no a hundred times as empty as it'd ever felt before.
***
After the resting room closed for the day, Hannah and I told Dru our story, the same one we'd told Eliza, leaving out the same part, about spending the night together in the haystack. I
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