The Girl in the Torch (12 page)

S
ARAH TOSSED AND TURNED
all that night, worried that Maryk might pay another unexpected visit or that she had angered him so much that he would kick her out of the building. And then where would she go? She couldn't imagine going back to 111 Essex Street. But how else could she make any real money?

At breakfast, he didn't even glance at her once as she came around pouring the coffee and delivering oatmeal. And she grew even more unsettled.

As she dried the final breakfast dish, Mrs. Lee approached her, carrying a blue leather change purse.

“I need you to run errand for me. Buy newspapers. Get three—two for people in house to share, one for me.”

Mrs. Lee handed Sarah three pennies. “Mrs. Lee like to read all the bad news before bed,” she said. “Make me feel better to know some people have it worse.”

Sarah put on her coat and headed west through Chinatown. She passed several newsies on each street corner, but she wanted
to find Tommy Grogan and give him her business like she had promised.

“Get your
New York World
!”

Sarah's ears perked up as she heard Tommy calling out above the street noise.

“All the dirt, only a penny!”

She followed the sound of his voice to the end of the block, where she found him in his floppy wool hat, holding up his papers and trying to interest people as they walked by.

“Jewel thieves terrorize the shops of Broadway!” he called. “Read all about it. Shopkeepers looted by gangs in broad daylight!”

Sarah approached him.

“Hey, Red!” he said. “You ready to buy a paper?”

“I'll take three,” she said, handing him the pennies.

“Thanks,” he said.

He gave her three papers from his bag. “Feels good to lighten the load a little.”

Sarah noticed Tommy rehoisting the heavy bag onto his shoulder and she had an idea.

“Do you need help?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if I carry your bag, you could probably move faster and sell more. I need to make money and you need the help. I have time after I clean up from breakfast and lunch.”

“I'm not sure Mr. Duffy would want me to,” he said.

“Who's Mr. Duffy?”

“He's kind of like my boss. But we take care of each other.”

“Do you really think he'd mind?”

“Well, I guess I could use an assistant. And the more I sell, the more I make.”

“With me helping, you'd sell a lot more than you do now.”

Tommy paused, considering the offer.

“Okay,” he finally said. “We can give it a try.”

He spit into his palm and held out his hand. She recoiled.

“Why did you spit on yourself?”

“To seal the deal. We both spit and shake on it to make it stick. You in?”

She looked at his hand and then tentatively spit into hers and shook.

“It is a deal,” she said. “I've got to bring these back and finish my chores. But I'll come find you tomorrow.”

“Okay, partner,” Tommy said, tipping his cap. The word “partner” filled Sarah with a new sense of hope.

A
FTER DELIVERING THE PAPERS
to Mrs. Lee, Sarah entered the parlor and was surprised to discover Maryk sitting at the table. And even more surprised to see him freshly shaven, dressed in relatively clean clothing, and setting up the pieces on his chess set. He was wiping off each piece with a handkerchief.

“Since you already messed around with it, I thought I'd take it out and dust it off,” Maryk said.

“I can help,” Sarah said, tentatively. “If you want me to.”

“Sure,” he grunted. “Why not.”

She went to the kitchen and retrieved a rag and returned to the parlor. Sitting across from Maryk, she started to wipe off and set up pieces on her side of the board. They worked in silence until all the pieces were clean and the board set for action.

“You know how to play?”

“Yes.” Sarah nodded. “My father taught me.”

“Well, back in my circus days, I was known as a bit of a chess shark.”

“A fish that plays chess?” She cocked her head doubtfully.

“A shark, not a fish. Sharks are killers. That means I was good. Real good.”

Sarah nodded. “I am good too.”

“Oh, yeah?” he said.

“Best in my village,” she said, unable to suppress a grin.

“Never played a girl before.”

“I have never played a shark before.”

Maryk gestured for her to make the first move. She slid one of her pawns forward. Just a few moves into the game, Sarah took one of his pawns and then another. Maryk squinted at the board.

“Hmmm,” he grunted.

An old Chinese man who lived in the building entered the room and stood beside the table, silently watching with his hands behind his back. Maryk shifted uncomfortably in his seat and made his next move. The Chinese man frowned. Sarah quickly moved one of her pieces and captured another pawn.

Smitty walked in the front door and noticed the game in progress.

“What do we have here?”

He stood beside the Chinese man and examined the board.

“Oh, I see what she's doing,” Smitty said, nodding his head. “Not a bad strategy.”

“Don't know how anyone's supposed to concentrate with all this chatter going on,” Maryk snapped.

He made another move but kept his hand on the piece, glancing
up at Sarah to gauge her reaction. She raised an eyebrow but made sure he wouldn't be able to tell if she was impressed or disapproved of his move. He finally pulled back his hand and moved another piece. Sarah instantly captured one of his knights.

“Drat,” Maryk muttered.

Sarah smiled.

Bao Yu and two of the other Chinese girls also wandered in. Bao Yu stood at the back but watched Sarah's every move with interest. Maryk fidgeted in his seat.

Within a dozen moves Sarah had taken a rook, the second knight, and both bishops, while Maryk had barely collected a few of her pieces. Finally, she had him trapped.

“Check,” she said.

He gruffly moved his queen.

Sarah made one more move, feeling the thrill of victory rise up in her chest.

“Checkmate.” She smiled.

Maryk slammed his hand on the table, scattering the pieces on the board. Sarah jerked as a rook and a bishop fell into her lap. Some of the spectators took a step back.

“I haven't played in years,” he said. “Just out of practice is all.”

“I'll give her a game,” Smitty chimed in.

“No,” Maryk snapped. “I want a rematch.”

“Rematch?” Sarah said.

“Another game,” he said impatiently. “Now set up the pieces.”

After a moment, she warily reset the board.

When the pieces were in place, he gruffly slid a pawn forward. A few moves into the game, Maryk captured one of her pieces.

“Ha,” he said. “I won't lie down so easy this time.”

A few more moves and he captured another piece. And then a third. He was about to capture another when he paused and looked at Sarah's face. She stared at the board, biting her bottom lip. He leaned back and sighed.

“Play it straight,” he said.

“What?” she said.

“I said play it straight!”

He wiped the pieces off the board in one swift motion. Everyone gasped. Sarah stood up and backed away from the table.

“I know what you're doing,” he said, leaning toward her. “Now, play to win or I'm gonna get even madder. You understand?”

She nodded slowly.

“All right then,” he said. And he began to reset the pieces to start a new game.

“My move,” he said.

They started a third game. This one was played more evenly. But Sarah eventually had him trapped again.

“Checkmate,” she said, and then held her breath, waiting for the explosion.

Maryk just grunted and stood up.

“I know when I'm licked,” he said.

He stepped back away from the table. Sarah exhaled.

Bao Yu smiled at Sarah, clearly impressed.

“You up for another game?” Smitty gestured to the board.

Sarah nodded.

“Then I guess I'm the next lamb to the slaughter,” Smitty said. “But I'm warning you, girl, I'm a smart old lamb. I was school champ at Tuskegee for three years running.”

Smitty was a more formidable opponent. Sarah took longer pauses between moves and considered her strategy carefully.

At first, Maryk stood back with his arms tightly crossed, still smarting from his defeat. But as the game progressed, he moved closer to the other spectators.

Smitty played aggressively, capturing several of her important pieces. Sarah battled back, matching his daring moves until she had him trapped.

“Checkmate,” Sarah said.

Smitty shook his head with a resigned grin, rose from the chair, and saluted her.

“You got me this time, Miss Sarah. But I'll get you the next one.”

The spectators clapped. Bao Yu applauded the loudest, but then seemed to catch herself and stopped.

Sarah felt her face flush from all the attention. But as she looked around at the people applauding for her, she felt, for the first time, a true sense of belonging.

“That's my chess set,” Maryk said to no one in particular.

Mrs. Lee entered the room, drawn in by the noise.

“What goes on in here? I thought I hired worker, not chess hustler. You come help in kitchen now.”

T
HE NEXT MORNING
S
ARAH'S
eyes darted left and right as she wound through the streets searching for Tommy. She finally found him, calling out his headlines on the corner of Canal and West Broadway.

“Read all about it! Crooked politicians in bribe scandal! Get your
New York World
, right here!”

Tommy's face lit up as he saw her approaching.

“There you are, Red! I've been waiting for you. Big news day. There's a scandal in City Hall. Good stuff. Here.”

He gruffly handed her his bag of papers.

“Just follow me and watch a real salesman in action.”

Free of the weight of the bag, Tommy snaked in and around the crowd much more easily and planted himself in front of potential customers. Each one got a different pitch.

“Dirty politicians are influencing the banking industry. Get the story right here,” he said to a neatly dressed businessman.

To a middle-aged woman pushing a baby stroller, he said,
“There's a masher loose in Central Park attacking innocent women. Everything you need to know is in today's
World
!”

Sarah chased after him, collecting their pennies and making change for nickels and dimes.

Eventually, the pile of papers in the bag dwindled until the last one was sold. Tommy and Sarah sat on the stoop of a building and carefully counted out and divided their coins.

“Mr. Duffy'll be happy tonight,” Tommy said. “I haven't sold my whole load in weeks.”

“What about your parents?”

“I don't have any,” he said.

Sarah's heartbeat quickened. “You don't?”

“I never knew my mom. She died giving birth to me right after they came over from Ireland. Then it was just my dad and me. He worked tending the machines at a printer's shop. But he got the flu a couple years back. Been on my own ever since.”

“I lost my parents too,” she said. It felt good to be sharing her story with someone who had gone through the same thing. “My mother died a few weeks ago.”

“I'm real sorry,” he said. “Who've you got looking out for you then?”

“For now, my uncle,” she said. “But I'm going to have to find my own place to live soon. Do you know of anywhere?”

“Well, there are a few boardinghouses for boys that some of the newsies live in. But you need to pay five cents a night for rent. And they can be kinda rough. I don't think they have them for
girls, 'cause there aren't really girl newsies.”

“Oh,” she said. “That's too bad.”

“I wish I could let you stay with me and Mr. Duffy. But he's awfully strict and there's not much room anyway.”

“Where do you live?”

“Oh, we've got a great little spot right near the corner of Bleecker and Wooster Street.”

“Bleecker and Wooster? Where is that?”

“It's just a little uptown from here. Maybe we'll have you around for dinner sometime. You can be my date.”

She laughed.

“What's the matter?” he said, crossing his arms. “You don't like shorter guys?”

“I would be happy to join you for dinner,” she said.

“Do you have to ask your uncle?”

“My uncle?” Caught off guard, she stared at him, confused.

“Yeah.”

“Oh! No, he wouldn't mind.”

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Sarah noticed someone staring at her from across the street—a short man with glasses in a brown uniform. He looked familiar, but she couldn't immediately place him. Then it came to her: Johnson, the guard from the Lady's island who had called Maryk a half-breed.

The breath instantly drained from her lungs.

“Hey,” Tommy said, “what's wrong?”

Johnson held her gaze for another moment and then walked away.

Sarah's body unclenched, but her face was still filled with concern.

“Who was that?”

“Nobody,” she said.

“I've never seen anyone get so spooked by ‘nobody' before. Is there something you're not telling me?” His eyes narrowed with suspicion.

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

More than anything, Sarah wanted to tell Tommy her whole story. But she didn't want to risk getting Maryk and Mrs. Lee in trouble, since she wasn't supposed to be here.

“No,” she said. “Everything's fine.”

“Okay. If you say so. Well, I gotta go,” he said. “Mr. Duffy gets mad if I don't check in with him every couple of hours.”

Tommy rose and hurried off uptown. As Sarah watched him go, she felt a chilling fear settle inside her. What was Johnson doing in Chinatown? Did he live there? It seemed unlikely. Could he have been spying on Maryk? Or maybe even looking for her?