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“Where’s Sister Walker? I thought she’d be
here by now,” Theta asked.
“Listen, I know Mr. Marlowe said we was to come up front, but I’d feel a whole heap better if we kept ourselves unseen,” Bill said. “There’s Shadow Men looking for Memphis and Isaiah.”
“I agree,” Theta said.
They moved farther into the crowd, away from the main event. Evie couldn’t stop thinking about Jericho. Everything between them was strained. But without him, they’d never have gotten through to Marlowe.
“Jericho…” Evie started. “About last night. I didn’t mean…” She reached for him just as the conductor played a long note on a xylophone. The Christian Crusaders hummed the pitch together, then began their somber hymn. People’s eyes were now on the stage. A wave of shushing rippled through the assembly. Evie retracted her hand.
Memphis gave Theta a sad smile. “I don’t think we should be seen together,” he whispered.
She nodded. She knew he was right, but she didn’t like it.
“Can I stay with Theta up here, so I can see better?” Isaiah pleaded, also in a whisper.
Memphis rubbed his hand across Isaiah’s head. “All right, Shrimpy. You can’t help being a Shrimpy.”
“Hey! Aunt Octavia says I grew an inch! She marked it on the wall.”
“Shhh!” a man scolded.
“Still a Shrimpy,” Memphis whispered close to Isaiah’s ear. “Don’t be trouble.”
“I won’t,” Isaiah said, irritated. Why did Memphis always treat him like a baby?
Memphis and Bill moved a few rows back, behind Evie, Theta, Isaiah, and Henry. A few feet away, Ling had found a spot where the ground was a little more even for her crutches.
“You okay?” Jericho asked, coming to Ling’s side. He knew it was hard for Ling to stand for long periods of time. And he wanted some distance from Evie.
“Yes, fine,” Ling said. It was the pain of Alma leaving that hit hardest tonight. Ling wondered if she would ever find someone who could love her as she was or if she was destined to be alone. She just wanted to get this night over with and go home to dream walk. At least in dreams, she had some control.
The Crusaders finished their hymn and the crowd applauded. It felt as if every person in New York City were packed into Times Square. The city’s neon eyes watched from above, remote as any god’s. Young girls in white gardenia corsages of the sort Sarah used to wear pushed against the barricades, wailing into their handkerchiefs.
Evie scowled. “That’s a bit much, isn’t it? Why is everything a performance nowadays?”
Theta raised an eyebrow. “That’s rich coming from you, Evil. If you could get somebody to watch you pick up your mail from the mailbox, you would.” Theta’s grin was short-lived.
“What’s the matter?” Evie whispered.
“It’s Roy.”
Evie and Henry peered around Theta to see Theta’s abusive ex-husband, Roy Stoughton, muscling through the crowd in a fine new suit, glad-handing folks as he went, Dutch Schultz’s murderous thugs on either side of him. Roy had always hated it when Theta got the attention. He’d wanted to be the important one. As he made his way to the stage, he looked smug, and Theta knew he was lapping it up.
“Why is Roy sitting up there with all the swells?” Theta asked. Under her gloves, her palms began to heat up. For comfort, she patted the pocket of her long cardigan, feeling Miss Addie’s slim spell book diary hiding inside, and imagined Miss Addie standing at her side, telling her she was brave.
Some of Dutch’s men broke off and moved among the crowd. Theta lowered her head and tugged down her veil again. She wished Sam were there to make her temporarily invisible. She wished he were there with them, period. “Can you see what they’re doing?” she asked Evie.
Evie stood on tiptoe, straining. “They’re handing something out. But not to everyone. Just some of the men. Oh, no. Here they come. Don’t look up!”
Evie and Theta huddled together, pretending to be overcome with grief. Dutch’s men moved past them. One of the thugs stopped in front of Jericho and Henry.
“You fellas look like you might want in on this.” Dutch Schultz’s thug shoved a pamphlet at Henry and Jericho, then moved on, doing more of the same.
“What’s it say?” Evie asked as she and the others crowded around Henry and Jericho.
America is in Danger!
