tunnel feing out of Grand Central Station Crossing
Lexington and park in Madison and fifth Avenues the hundreds and hundreds of girls some of them
look eager and some look resentful and some of them look as if they haven't left their beds
yet some of them have been up since 6:30 in the morning the ones who commute from Brooklyn some
of them look eager and you you see them every morning at A4 to 9 rushing out of the M of the
subway tunnel feing out of Grand Central Station Crossing Lexington
and Park in Madison and fifth
Avenues the hundreds and hundreds of girls some of them look eager and some look resentful and
some of them look as if they haven't left their beds yet some of them have been up since 6:30 in
the morning the ones who commute from Brooklyn and Yonkers in New Jersey and Staten Island in
Connecticut they carry the morning newspapers and overstuffed Handbags some of them are wearing pink
or chartreuse fuzzy overcoats and 5-year-old ankle strap shoes and have their
hair up in pin curls
underneath CFS some of them are wearing Chic black suits maybe last year's but who can tell and kid
gloves and are carrying their lunches in Violet sprayed Bonet teller paper bags none of them has
enough money at 8:45 Wednesday morning January 2nd 1952 a 20-year-old girl named Caroline Bender
came out of Grand Central Station and headed west and Uptown toward Radio City she was a more than
pretty girl with dark hair and light eyes and a face with a good deal of softnes
s and intelligence
in it she was wearing a gray Tweed suit which had been her dressup suit in college and was carrying
a small atache case which contained a wallet with $5 in it a book of commuter tickets some makeup
in three magazines entitled respectively the cross my secret life and America's woman it was one of
those cold foggy midwinter Mornings in New York the kind that makes you think of lung ailments
Caroline hurried along with the rest of the crowd hardly noticing anybody nervous a
nd frightened
and slightly elated it was her first day at the first job she had ever had in her hfe and she did
not consider herself basically a career girl last year looking ahead to this damp day in January
she had thought she would be married since she' had a fiance it seemed logical now she had no
fiance and no one she was interested in and the new job was more than an economic convenience
it was an emotional necessity she wasn't sure that being a secretary in a typing pool could
possi
bly be engrossing but she was going to have to make it so otherwise she would have time
to think and would remember too much Fabian Publications occupied five air conditioned floors
in one of the modern buildings in radio C on this first week of the New Year the annual hiring had
just been completed three secretaries had left the typing pool one to get married the other two
for better jobs three new secretaries had been hired to start on Wednesday the second of January
one of these was Caro
line Bender it was 5 minutes before 9 when Caroline reached the floor where the
typing pool was located and she was surprised to find the large room dark and all the typewriters
still neatly covered she had been afraid she would be late and now she was she was the fust one she
found the switch that turned on the seeing lights and prowled around waiting for someone to appear
there was a large Center room with rows of desks for the secret Ares and on the edges of this room
were the closed doo
rs of the awful BCS for editors tinsel Christmas bells and red bows were still
taped to some of the doors looking bedraggled and sad now that the season was over she looked
into several of the awful BCS and saw that they seem to progress in order of the occupants
importance from small tile floor cubicles with two desks to larger ones with one desk and
finally to two large aul feces with carpet on the floor leather lounging chairs and wood paneled
walls from the books and magazines lying aro
und in them she could see that one of these belonged
to the editor of Derby books and the other to the editor of the Cross she heard voices then in the
main room and the sound of laughter and greetings stricken with a sudden attack of shyness she
came slowly out of the editor's awful face it was 9:00 and the room was suddenly filling up
with girls none of whom noticed her Presence at all the teletype operator was combing her hair
out of its pin curls one of the hpus was going from desk to d
esk collecting empty glass jars and
taking coffee orders covers were being pulled off typewriters coats hung up newspapers spread out on
desks to be read and as each new arrival came in she was greeted with delighted cries it sounded
as though they had all been separated from one another for 4 weeks not 4 days Caroline didn't
know which desk was hers and she was afraid to sit at someone else's so she kept standing watching
and feeling for the first time that morning that she was an Outsider
at a private club a lone
man came in then briskly with an amused rather self-conscious look as if he were intruding on
a lady's teeth at the S side of him some of the girls sat up and tried to look more businesslike
he was in his late 40s of medium height but wiry so that he looked smaller with a pale dissipated
face that looked even more ravaged because there were signs that it had once been very handsome
he stopped at the water fountain and drank for a long time then he straightened up a
nd went on
into one of the editor's offices he was wearing a camel's hair coat with a large cigarette bum
on the lapel who's that Caroline asked the girl nearest her Mr rice editor of the Cross you're new
aren't you the girl said my name is Mary Agnes TM Caroline I hope you like it here Mary Agnes
said she was a thin plain looking girl with wavy dark hair and she wore a black wool skirt and
a transparent white nylon blouse she was extremely flatchested I hope so too Caroline said well
you
can have either of those two desks over there if you want to put anything away you'll
be working for miss phoh this week because her secretary quit on her she usually comes in around
10:00 she'll take you around and introduce you to everybody would you like some coffee I'd love
some Caroline said she put her attached case and gloves into the drawer of one of the empty desks
and hung her jacket over the back of the chair Mary Agnes waved over the girl who was taking
coffee orders Brenda this
is Caroline hi Brenda said she was a plump quite pretty blonde but when
she smiled there was a tooth conspicuously absent on either side giving her the look of a werewolf
how do you want your coffee you'd better take it in a jar instead of a paper container Thank You
Caroline said Brenda walked back to her desk with a the twitch of her hips watch out for Mary Agnes
said conspiratorially when she was out of earshot she makes you pay for the coffee in the jar and
then she gives back tily jar
s and keeps all the deposit money don't let her get away with it I'll
try not to Caroline said do you have a key to the lady's room no well you can use mine until you
get one just ask did you notice her teeth who's Brenda's she's engaged to be married and she's
having all her bad teeth pulled so her husband will have to pay for the new once did you ever
hear of such a thing Mary Agnes giggled and began putting sheets of carbon paper and letter paper
into the roller of her typewriter what's
Mr rice is that his name what's he like asked Caroline
she liked camel's hair coats on men they reminded her of the front page a genuinely stricken look
of piety came over Mary Agnes's plain face it's very sad she said I always feel sorry for a
person like him I wish somebody could help him what's the matter with him wait till you read
that magazine he puts out it will sicken you you mean he writes that stuff because he believes
it is that it worse said Mary Agnes he writes it because he do
esn't believe in anything those
articles he writes sound very Pious but they're just a lot of words I feel sorry for the poor
souls who believe them but I feel sorer for Mr rice I often think he must be very lonely she
smiled ruul well don't get me started on Mr Rice's lack of faith it's a subject I feel very
strongly about and right now I've got to get T's letters typed maybe you and I can have lunch
together Caroline suggested oh that would have been fun but I can't I always have lunch wi
th
of my boyfriend that is some days he brings his lunch up here and eats it with me and some days I
bring my sandwiches downtown and eat them with him he works downtown in a Furniture Factory we're
saving up to get married we're getting married a year from this this coming June that's a
long time from now Caroline said first two girls one no Mary Agnes said matter of factly
but it could have been even longer I serly wish you luck Caroline said she went over to
her desk and sat down she'd
come here to get away from thoughts of marriage and the first
two girls she had met were engaged well she would clean out the drawers of this desk and
then miss what's her name would arrive and give her more work probably than she could handle
nervous as she was on her first day and soon her mind would be so filled with office problems
that there would be no room for remembering things she shouldn't she had a mental list now
of things she had to keep out of her mind but it was hard because
they were everyday things for
anyone else and they kept cropping up boys named Eddie Paris almost any null coward song three or
four particular restaurants any book or Story by F Scott Fitzgerald Kean WB Yates steam ships
going to Europe steam Ships coming back from Europe she didn't really want to forget all of it
because it didn't all me happiness at the time it happened she only wanted to be able someday
to remember without finding it painful that was the trick to keep all the good thing
s from
tpass and Cast Away the ones that hurt she had been a junior at Radcliff when met Eddie Harris he
was a senior at Harvard he was a marvelous funny appealing looking boy he played jazz piano he read
books none of the others had even heard of he had a sense of humor that could keep her laughing
for hours he had Moody spells too when he walked around his room in a turtleneck sweater and khaki
pants and bare feet and played n coward songs on the photograph and wouldn't talk to anyone but
her
for days he got all a in school with a minimum of study it seemed and his family had had money she
couldn't really believe it was happening to her a girl of 18 who had never met a boy she cared
about at all and now Eddie Harris was in love with her and she adored him she was quite sure
that she loved him more than he loved her but he was a man after all and men had other things to
worry about they planned to get married the Autumn after he was graduated from Harvard meanwhile she
was
to go to summer school and get her diploma it was something her parents insisted upon she was
only 19 then and they told her she would regret it someday if she had gone this far toward a
degree and then given it up girls of 19 didn't have to rush into marriage they told her although
they were as pleased about her engagement to Eddie as she was Eddie encouraged her and of course she
would do anything he wanted although she couldn't really see how another few months of classes
could make any
difference when simply being near Eddie made her so much more aware of everything
she read and heard and saw that she felt like a different person call know was supposed to make
you think wasn't it well Eddie made her think and what she really wanted out of life was to
good an interesting wife for him and be a good and interesting wife for him and make him happy
not cram down another hundred lines of [Music] Shakespeare be a good and interesting interesting wife for him and make
him happy n
ot cram down another 100 lines of Shakespeare anyway she went to summer school
and Eddie's parents sent him to Europe for a graduation present she thought it would have been
nicer if they had waited and then let Eddie and her go there on their honeymoon but the thought
struck her as so selfish that she didn't even mention it to him there had been a big boom in
World Travel at Harvard and Radcliffe in those years everyone went travel was a new experience
for their generation those early year
s after the war and Caroline had already grown tired of
the constant cocktail party conversation which consisted mainly of place dropping she kept her
mouth shut and everyone said to her you've been to Europe of course haven't you she thought the
college boys who ran to Paris and then sat around in cafes looking for American girls whom they had
known at home were very funny she knew Eddie would get a lot more out of his trip than that when
she saw him off on the ship she gave him a bottle o
f champagne and a brave smile although all the
time they were kissing goodbye she wanted to cry out take me with you don't go alone he told her
it would be only 6 weeks that the time would go quickly that he would think of her all the time
he told her miss me a little smiling when they both knew he meant she should miss him a great
deal and that she would whether he told her to or not on the deck he discovered the parents of
a girl he had known years ago when he was in Prep School Hellen lo
w and he latched on to the father
see his smile said comfortingly to Caroline as the ship pulled away from the harbor here I am with
this nice middle-aged man see how well I'm keeping out of trouble Helen had been on the ship too she
had been down in her State room with four of her class from Sarah Lawrence getting drunk together
she was a tall slim bosami girl with the kind of ash blonde hair that looks almost gray and was
not a really popular color until several years later she had a whit
e French poodle and she had
taken French lessons before she left on the ship when the 6 weeks were finally over a lad arrived
for Caroline on the day Eddie's ship came into New York without him I don't know how to tell you
this the letter began this is the fourth time I've tried to write you about it the other three
e efforts I've torn up he sounded rather sorry for himself because he had to tell her he probably
thought what a mess what a mess how much easier to declare love than to withdra
w it especially from
someone you still like very much he sounded even sorer for himself and his unpleasant predicament
than he was for her who only had to read what he had written and see her future and her happiness
shattered quietly around her Eddie had always hated anything unpleasant perhaps he thought
marriage to Helen l would solve everything she was sophisticated and what poised and intelligent
and pretty and her father owned oil wells you couldn't say much against oil wells or perha
ps
he had been just like those other lonely college boys in Paris sitting in the cafes or in his
case on shipboard looking for a familiar face perhaps Caroline had overestimated him so Helen
and her parents accompanied him back on the ship to America and a month later there was a monst
L expensive wedding in Dallas having finished summer school Caroline did not have another term
of college to help her occupy herself so she took a business and shorthand course and the day after
she was grad
uated she took the first job she was oful for it didn't make much difference to her
really as long as it was something from 9 to 5 which meant 8 hours less to think about herself
she was rather glad however when it turned out to be a job in publishing she bought three of
the Fabian magazines and read them from cover to cover the night before her first day at Fabian
and she couldn't make up her mind who seemed more startling the people who read such trash or the
people who Pub it the strange
thing was though that lately whenever she read a story with a
happy ending she found herself crying tour the new secretary I'm Amanda pharoh Caroline jumped to her
feet shaking off her Daydream the woman in front of her desk was in her late 30s tall and slim with
bright copper hair pulled back into a shinan she was cool and Polished and fashionably dressed
she even wore a little hat two fluffy feathers really with a tiny black veil my name's Caroline
Bender you can come into my office in a
moment number nine she watched Amanda Pharaoh disappear
into office 9 and then found a Shand pad and some pencils in the drawer of her new desk from
her investigation in the early morning Caroline knew that Amanda pharoh's office was one of the
executive ones one rank lower than the offices with carpet she saw the overhead lights go on to
number nine and waited a moment more then opened the door and went it Amanda phoh was seated behind
her large desk she was still wearing her hat and she
was busy applying nail poh to her fingernails
there was a large filing cabinet against one wall and two armchairs in front of the desk first you
can order me some coffee black with sugar Amanda Pharaoh said all the filing to be done is in this
box here my secretary left last week and the place is a mess the mail comes four times a day you
open it and anything that requires a personal answer goes in this box some of the letters you
can answer yourself if they're from cranks for instance but
show me everything you write before
you send it out do you have a Social Security card not yet well you'll have to get it on your lunch
hour Mr Fabian is very strict about employees working without their social security cards you
get 1 hour for lunch and I want you back here on time so you can answer my phone oh and if you have
time you can pick up a box of dusting powder for me at saxs Caroline was beginning to dislike this
woman she talked so fast it was hard to follow her she sat down in
one of the armchairs beside Amanda
pharoh's desk and picked up the telephone receiver to dial the coffee shop not Harold Miss phoh said
in annoyance capping her bottle of nail polish use your phone outside you always answer my telephone
at your desk and say Miss Pharaoh's office after you've ordered my cofi you can come back in
here and take some dictation Caroline hurry back to her desk called the coffee shop went back
to take dictation was interrupted in her filing to take another letter
was interrupted in her typing
of the letters to do more filing Amanda Pharaoh seemed to have anything but an orderly mind the
minute she thought of something she wanted to have done immediately she thought of something else
she wanted done more immediately every time the phone rang Caroline had to run out of the office
if she was filing and answer it at her own desk once in a while miss Farah would stroll out of her
office and come to peer over Caroline's shoulder the first time she did th
is it made Caroline so
nervous she made two mistakes I thought you were supposed to be a good typist Miss pharoh said at
12:00 noon on the dot having been in the office 2 hours Miss Pharaoh went out to lunch how do you
like your new boss Mary Agnes asked I hope hope she's only going to be my temporary boss Caroline
said worriedly she's had 12 secretaries in 3 years Mary Agnes said she took a sandwich wrapped in
brown paper out of her desk drawer and put on a white Orland sweater with glass
beads sewn on
It come on I'll ride you down in the elevator can you tell me where I can get a Social Security
card there's a place two blocks from here you'd better eat first it will take you hours to get
one oh but I only have an hour for lunch Caroline said she doesn't come back until 3:30 she'll
never know just get back by 3: how does she get any work done Caroline asked or is that a naive
question Executives don't do the work Mary Agnes said the higher up you get the less you have to do
until you're the top man and then you have to make decisions and that's hard it's the ones just under
the top who have the best deal when Mary Agnes had gone off in the direction of the subway Caroline
strolled down down Fifth Avenue looking around everyone seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere
meet someone do something the girls trying to do some Hasty lunch hour shopping in the department
stores the messenger shuffling along to get the envelope or the package to its destination before
the recipient went out to lunch TI Executives rushing to embrace that first Martini on the steps
of sing Patrick's Cathedral were some tourists focusing leather encase cameras on each other
beaming in front of the historic architecture a flock of pigeons rose up with a dry snapping
sound from the top step like white wood shavings flung into the cold air the sun had come out and
everything was glittering Caroline was suddenly taken with excitement it was her first day at
a new job she was
going to make $50 a week it seemed like a fortune she was still living with
her parents in Port Blair New York and she had almost no expenses except for clothes lunches and
commer tickets perhaps by Summer she would get a raise and then she could rent an apartment in New
York with another girl there must be a 100 girls working at Fabian she thought and I'll certainly
find someone I'll really like who want to share an apartment with me she jostled her way along with
the stream of people blin
king in the unexpected winter sunshine and she realized that she had been
smiling because a delivery boy in a leather jacket grinned at her and said hi beautiful he thinks
he's being so fresh she thought if I turned around and said hello yourself he'd probably faint
she laughed she was still used to the friendly informality of a small college town where in the
15 minutes it took you to walk from the dorms to classes your face could get stiff from smiling
greetings to all your casual acquain
tances and of course in poor Blair everyone knew everyone
else if not in person then at least through gossip she found the grimy looking gray building
that housed the Social Security off IAS and went upstairs she realized that she had forgotten to
stop for lunch but she was too excited to eat anyway anyway the small room was crowded with
people sitting Dolly and Rose of straight backed wooden chairs she took her place at the end of
the line and looked around what a group of unhappy looking
people all of them looked as if they
were waiting in line to pour out their troubles to Miss Lonely Hearts perhaps it was only because
they had all been waiting in line for a long time boredom has a tendency to bring out the worst in
people's said hello yourself he'd probably faint she laughed she was still used to the friendly
informality of a small college town where in the 15 minutes it took you to walk from the dorms
to classes your face could get stiff from smiling greetings to all you
r casual acquaintances and
of course in poort Blair everyone knew everyone else if not in person then at least through God
gosip she found the grimy looking gray building that housed the Social Security OAS and went
upstairs she realized that she had forgotten to stop for lunch but she was too excited to eat
anyway the small room was crowded with people sitting dolly in rows of straight backed wooden
chairs she took her place at the end of the line and looked around what a group of unhappy
looking
people all of them looked as if they were waiting in line to pour out their troubles to Miss Lonely
Hearts perhaps it was only because they had all been waiting in line for a long time boredom has a
tendency to bring out the worst in people's faces she looked at their clothes most of them were
afraid at the cuff and run down at the heel it made her feel self-conscious with her raccoon
collar and clean kid gloves where were all the happy comfortably off people didn't they work or
we
re the people in this room the ones who had not worked for a long time perhaps she had come to the
Social Security office for failures and there was another one Uptown or downtown for successes I'll
never look like that she thought firmly no matter what I'll never let myself look like that as long
as I have to work I'm going to get something out of it these people look as if they have just
jobs they don't look as if they particularly like their work they look as if they can't help
themselve
s I don't want to look like them I want my job to be one of the happy things in my
life next said the board man behind the counter the line moved up one it's like musical chair
Caroline thought except no one is having a good time and they all want to get out of here soon
so they won't be fired she looked at her watch and began to glance through a leaflet the woman
ahead of her had left on her chair protect your future the leaflet said 65 years old for women it
seems so long away Caroline co
uld hardly imagine what she would be like at 25 last year even
6 months ago she had been sure now the future was a mystery she wondered whether it could ever
be for her this same thing at once was going to be she came back to her desk at 2:00 with her
lunch in a paper bag her social security card in her wallet and Miss pharoh's dusting powder
gift wrapped in a golden white stripe box Mary Agnes was sitting at her own desk looking
contented Brenda was talking animatedly on the telephone maki
ng use of the office to save on
her personal phone bill the desk next to Carolines which had been unoccupied that morning now bore a
straw handbag with flowers sewn on it and a pair of white cotton gloves with a hole in one of the
fingers hi Mary Agnes said did you get everything all right yes said Caroline is Miss Ferell back
yet are you kidding she sat down at her desk and began to eat her sandwich the coffee container had
already leaked through the bottom of the bag and now was making ri
ngs on her new bladder looking
at them she began to feel as if she'd been at this desk for a long time the third new girl
finally came Mary Agnes said gesturing toward the other desk she told Mr R she was sick this
morning and he was very nice about it but she told me that she forgot to set her alarm clock
can you imagine such a scatterbrain I was up all night the day before I went to my first job oh is
it her first job too yes and she's only been in New York for a few weeks she comes from
Springs
Colorado she just got out of Junior College Mary Agnes the L Parsons of the 35th floor Caroline
thought her name is April Morrison Mary Agnes went on tell it's a pretty name isn't it April
that's her with the long hair she nodded toward a girl crossing the bullpen from one of the side
offices to another carrying a shorthand pad one of the oddest girls Caroline had ever seen April
Morrison had an almost breathtakingly beautiful face and she wore no makeup except for some pale
pink l
ipstick but her hairir which was a tonny gold cascaded down her back to the middle of her
shoulder blades thick and Tangled making her look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm she wore a shiny
baby blue gavine suit she had big blue eyes and freckles on her delicately sculptured nose and
carollyn almost expected to see her carrying a sun Bonnet it's lucky for her she hasn't got
your job Mary Agnes whispered as April went into an office and closed the door Miss phell would
eat her alive well than
k you Caroline said you mean I look like I could hold my own against Miss
Pharaoh you should be able to if anyone can but if she asks you if you want to be promoted out
of the typing pool to be her private secretary say no no no what would I ever have done without
someone to give me tips and advice on my first day Caroline thought gratefully were you ever her
secretary oh I worked for her a few times from the pool that's all but everyone knows what a terror
she is what were her regular Secr
et secretaries like sophisticated said Mary Agnes like you
a little college graduates usually pretty she always hires a secretary who has the qualities
to make a successful career woman eventually and then she always hates the poor girls guts I guess
working for Miss Pharaoh is kind of like hell week for getting into a sorority is that it hey said
Mary Agnes that's cute doesn't anyone else need a private secretary right now uh all the other
girls like that jobs see being a private secretary
is a good deal around here because from there you
can get into editorial work if you're interested that is me I wouldn't want to be a reader even
though they pay $75 a week to start I like to read magazines but I wouldn't know where to begin
to criticize them I would Caroline thought I'd start with my secret life and tell them tly up my
two days in an attic with a sexm Criminal is the worst piece of trash I ever rid and I bet they'd
sell more copies if they didn't have covers that people w
ere ashamed to have lying around their
living rooms look sharp Mary Agnes said and bent over her work with a diligent expression
Miss Pharaoh pink of cheek and long of breath was walking dreamily toward her office Caroline
picked up the box of dusting powder and followed her here's your powder Miss Pharaoh I charged
it to you what's clim matter didn't you have any money it was obvious that Miss pharoh's lunch hour
Euphoria did not extent to her treatment of the office help as a matter of fa
ct I didn't miss phoh
raised her eyebrows that's funny I thought to look at you that you were another one of those Vasser
girls who wants to be an editor just because she majored in English Radcliffe and I did major
in English Caroline smiled I suppose you think it's easy to be an editor I'm not even sure it's
easy to be a secretary Miss phell looked at her sharply to determine if she was being sarcastic
or serious Caroline tried to keep a very Bland and amused and slightly humble expressio
n on
her face and not to look frightened it's not easy to be my secretary Miss Pharaoh said finally
I'll try to do the best I can until your regular secretary comes how much are you making now $50
a week no experience e I've just finished 6 weeks of a business in secretarial kuse so my Shand is
better than a girls who hasn't been working for a while private secretaries start here at 65 you
know are you ambitious what a look of dislike and mistrust this woman has on her face Caroline
though
t was surprise what in the world does she think I might do to her well 65 sounds a lot
better than 50 Caroline answered gently the look of mistrust softened a little I haven't looked
for a permanent replacement for my other girl yet maybe I won't have to we'll see if your typing
improves it will if you you stopped peering over my shoulder Caroline thought I have some letters
at my desk for you to sign she said I'll bring them in is that all for now yes Miss pharoh
said with a little half sm
ile that's all for now the rest of the afternoon went by as rapidly
as the morning had with Miss Pharaoh firing her disjointed commands and Caroline trying to follow
them as woo as she could she felt like a girl who knows she is going to be invited to a dance by the
football hero who also happens to be the notorious class wolf and has to decide what she really wants
she didn't know what she wanted a pleasant job yes but to be in a rut like Mary Agnes no something
in between would be ideal b
ut she was already beginning to realize that the Working World was
more complicated than she had ever dreamed she knew that although right now she found the office
routine exciting and tiring that was only because it was new to her and in a few weeks she would
find it boring her mind wanted more creative work but most important of all if she found herself
Meer down in a job that bored her she would be thinking about Eddie and what might have been
and that was what she had come here to escap
e at a qu to 5 Miss Pharaoh came out of her awful BCE
pulling on her gloves there's an editorial report on my desk she said type it up for me double
spaced that's all for today unless you have some work left over good night good night Miss Pharaoh
ooh what next Mary Agnes whispered in righteous indignation she's the only editor who doesn't
hype her own reading reports she's probably afraid she'll mess up her nail polish Caroline
laughed and went into Miss pharoh's awful BCE it was already d
ark outside the huge window that
made up the entire fourth wall and through the open blinds Caroline could see the lights of the
city she pulled up the Bund and stood there for a moment every square of light was an off lbce and
in every office all over the Twilight City there were girls much like herself happy or disappointed
ambitious or bored covering their typewriters hastily and going OE to meet people they loved
or delaying the minutes of departure because home meant the loneliness of
a long dark night suddenly
her throat hurt so that she could hardly swallow she turned to miss pharoh's desk and picked up
the manuscript it was a heavy manuscript of loose sheets of white typing paper held together
with a thick rubber band she Leed through the first few pages curiously the top sheet was
headed Derby books comment sheet she read Miss pharoh's comments which had been scrolled in
a large ostentatious hand it was a rave review clever writing plot held me from beginning
to end
she typed the review neatly on a clean comment sheet and attached the typed copy to the
manuscript from State Patrick's outside Bells were chiming 5:00 Mary Agnes opened the office door and
looked in she was already wearing her sweater and coat and was carrying her pinners good night
Caroline good night don't stay here all night haha Mary Agnes waved and started to leave Mary
Agnes what do you think it would be all right if I took this manuscript home with me tonight to
read I mean are the
re any rules about it you want to read it on your own time I think it would be
exciting to read a book that's this good before it's even been published Mary Agnes Shrugged help
yourself there are some big red envelopes in that filing cabinet thank you so long the door shut and
Caroline found an envelope and put the manuscript carefully into it then she gathered her things
together and walked to the elevator at 5 minutes 5 the bullpen was empty it had cleared out as
rapidly as if an air raid
alarm had sounded from a lone office down the hall she could hear the sound
of a typewriter it had been a long day and she was just beginning to realize how tired she was she
remembered riding down in the elevator that Miss Pharaoh had never gotten around to taking her on
the introduction to her Mary Agnes had promised it didn't matter she'd had quite an introduction
anyway and she could hardly wait to read the novel she'd found she hugged the manuscript underg
grader than her arm as she w
alked quickly to catch the 529 chapter 2 New York is a city of
constant architectural change buildings laid and torn down new ones being put up in their
places streets being torn up fenced off signs proclaiming politely sorry we AOE making way for a
growing New York its inhabitants more likely than not live in recently converted houses converted
Brownstones converted white stones converted Roco Mansions all partitioned off into two and
three room apartments and what is euphemistically calle
d the 1 and a half April Morrison waking up
in her new apartment at 7:00 on a Thursday morning in January lived in a 1 and a half her apartment
building was a converted north of Columbus [Music] Circle it was a walk up apartment three stories
above what the landlord called a winter garden which was really a kind of small enclosed
Courtyard with metal chairs piled upside down on one another and going to rust and a patch
of dirt where someone might someday plant flowers it consisted of one la
rge room with a kitchen
that was in a closet and a bed that came out of the wall and had an uncoiled spring that made her
sleep in a fetal position the uncoiled spring did not bother her sleep particularly however because
April was an extremely relaxed and healthy girl there was also a bathroom in this apartment with
a makeshift shower in the bathtub and a fair siiz closet on this morning the moment her alarm clock
went off April was out of bed and standing on her feet the day before had be
en the first day of her
first job in New York and excited as she was she had forgotten to set her alarm and had gotten to
tily off office at noon it wasn't going to happen again heating water for her instant coffee and
a pot from the five ANS in April sang a little song she hadn't Remembered in years it was a song
she had learned in Sunday school her two older sisters back home in Springs had both been Sunday
school teachers before their early marriages and when April had announced that she
wanted to go to
dramatic school instead they had laughed after all there were thousands of pretty girls with long
gold hair who wanted to go to Hollywood they had told her and even though she'd always had the
lead in the high school plays if she had any sense she would forget that nonsense in a hurry
why her father had said why shouldn't April be an actress but fathers always thought their youngest
daughters were rather special in junior college she had studied speech ballet and singing an
d
to appease the family T ping and shorthand for a graduation present her parents gave her a train
ticket to New York and $500 she was to stay in New York for as as long as the money lasted and
do as she pleased go to the theater sightsee go to museums look up a high school classmate of her
mothers who had married a man from Brooklyn and had gone there to live April arrived just after
Thanksgiving and did all these things for 3 Days on the fourth day she read in the newspaper of a
chorus c
all for girl dancers for a new musical she went to it with mingled hope and Terror had
her turn with what seemed like at least 500 other girls and was told politely that she would
hear she never heard anything at the end of the second week she had been in New York she answered
a call for girl singers most of the singers were quite unattractive she noticed with private hope
they seemed much less pretty than the dancers had been why were tly singers in shows never as
pretty as the dancers she
discovered why very soon with their trained voices these girls did
not have to be pretty you could listen to them and you didn't have to look T to too closely with
her semi-trained Voice kurch Choir in the 2 years of Junior College April didn't stand a chance
she was thanked for coming and told politely that she would hear the next day she went to
a chorus call at the Copa Cabana at least she could walk straight when she got to the Copa she
felt like a [ __ ] all the girls were 6 fet tall
or at least they looked that large to her April
was 5'3 in her bare feet they didn't even ask her to show her legs for which she was just as glad
because she de decided at the last minute that she
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