Бетти Смит - Maggie-Now

He took down from the shelf the broken-spout teapot in which Maggie-Now kept the household money. There was only twenty-eight cents in it. EJe stuffed two dirty dollar bills in the teapot and put it back on the shelf. He changed his mind, took it down again and brought it over to the table. He removed the bills and smoothed them out on the table. After a little hesitation, he took another bill from his pocket. He put the three bills side by side on the table where Maggie-Now would see them the first thing in the morning. He put the teapot on top of them so they wouldn't blow away.

After Maggie-Now went into her house, Claude walked over to Lorimer Street to catch a streetcar. There was none in sight so he went into a bakery and got two doughnuts. He stood on the corner and ate them w bile he waited for a car. A newsboy turned the corner calling: "Extra! Extra! Read all about it. The President asks for war!"

Claude beckoned to the boy. "Don't you know that according to books and stories you should call lliuxtry and not Extra?" he said The boy said "Huh?" and backed off staring at Claude as if he were a freak.

I thought she had no sense of humor, thought Claude.

But nobody seems to in Brooklyn.

He bought a paper. The extra announced that President Wil 1 15~]

son had spoken before Congress that night at eight-thirty and had asked for a declaration of war. Claude felt a tingle of excitement.

War! he thought.

He looked at the books and posters he was carrying, with revulsion. What am I doing with this r~oizser~se' he asked himself.

ONLY l\,Iaggie-Now, three women and the old man showed up for class the next night. Maggie-Now wore her blue dress with the lace collar and cuffs and the new hat she had bought for the coming Easter Sunday. She smiled widely at Claude when she came in. She put her quarter on the table as the others had done. He looked up and frowned. Her heart sank. She thought perhaps he was offended that she had put a quarter down. He frowned, however, because he lidn't like her to wear a hat. It made her seem like a stranger.

The three girls were sitting on the settee, leaving the old man sitting alone in the middle of the room. Maggie-Now felt sorry for him. She took the chair next to him. Claude Bassett arranged the five quarters in a row, then in a circle. Finally, as if coming to a definite decision about them, he piled them one on top of the other. He stood up.

"I appreciate more than I can say your willingness to come here again but. ."

He announced that the course would be discontinued.

The enrollment, while interested, was small and there was the rent on the classroom and he smiled and said he didn't believe anyone would be interested in The Book of Everything. War was inevitable.. he had decided to enlist….

He spoke at length.

Maggie-Now thought: I'll clever see him again! She envisioned him Iying on the field of battle; torn, bleeding and dying. She shuddered.

"The money will be refunded, of course." [lS6] There was a chorus of objections.

"No.'' "I don't want my quarter back."

"You should get something for your time."

"You will have to pay the rent for these two nights," said Maggie-Now.

Everyone was friendly now and they spoke back and forth. The girl who lived alone in a hall bedroom took off her glasses and wiped them and put them in her lap. She had a suggestion. A sort of organization or club was badly needed in the neighborhood a place where people could get together and meet other people and just talk and maybe serve refreshments. .

"I mean," she said, "couldn't we just keep on meeting here nights and just sit around and talk; read books, say, and talk about them? I mean, it would be worth a quarter a night to me," she said defiantly, "just to have someplace to go to."

There was a hush. The other women looked away from this girl, ashamed that one of them would display her loneliness so nakedly.

"I don't see any haml in asking," she said. She put her glasses back on.

"That is a fine suggestion," said Claude. "Nothing would please me more, but. ."

Again he spoke of America at war and the uncertainty of war years. They sat around for the rest of the hour discussing the war touching vaguely on the changes it would make in th community and so on.

At the end of the hour, he tried to give each his quarter back. There was great indignation at the idea on the part of the three girls. Maggie-Now and the old man did not press the matter one way or the other. Finally Claude said he'd keep the quarters if each would accept a copy of The Book of Everything in return. The three girls accepted enthusiastically. They wanted their copies autographed.

Claude obli~,red. His inscriptions were flowery, which was the way the girls wanted them: In memory of a brief encounter. .

With gratitude for pleasant hours. .

With the hope that we shall meet again. .

— 1'9?1 When Maggie-Now held out her book for autographing, he said: "Later." The old man said he didn't want a book.

"I'd sooner have my quarter back," he said. Claude gave him his quarter and a copy of the book inscribed simply: In friendship.

After Maggie-Now and Claude had straightened up the room, turned out the lights and gone down the stairs, they found the three girls standing on the sidewalk comparing inscriptions.

"That was real swell of you, Mr. Bassett," said one.

"That's nice of you," he answered.

"It was a real pleasant evening," said another.

"The pleasure was surely mine," he said.

"I still think. ." began the girl with the glasses.

"And I agree with you," he said.

"Good night, good r;ight," they said singly and in chorus.

They withdrew a little, waiting for Maggie-Now to join them. Claude took Maggie-Now's hand and drew her arm through his.

"Good night, ladies," he said.

"Good night, girls," said Maggie-Now.

The girls walked down the street discussing Maggie-Now.

"Ain't she got the luck?"

"It's not that she's classy or anything."

"Old-fashioned, if you ask me."

"Whatever he sees in her. ."

"I know what he see s in her. She's got one of them big busts and some men like that. You know. puts them in mind of their mother? "

Going down the street, Maggie-Now turned to wave to them. They waved back and made their smiles friendly.

"Take your hat off,' said Claude.

"My hat? Why?" asked Maggie-Now.

"Here." He removed it and handed it to her. "You should never wear a hat."

"Where'll I put it?"

"Carry it."

"Like this?"

"In the hand away from me. You can swing it now and again as we walk, if you like" "I thought it was a pretty hat," she said sadly. She stared at it. ~ IS8] It was made of soft straw with a wide brim, flat crown and a band of velvet.

"It is a pretty hat. Very pretty. And you rushed out today and bought it to, wear tonight." She hung her head because it was true. "It's a pretty thing to carry," he said.

"And nothing looks prettier than a woman with lovely hair holding her pretty hat as she walks. Now don't hold it between us. The outside hand I said." She changed. Again he took her hand and drew her arm through his.

They walked slowly in step and she remembered to swing her hat a little from time to time. They walked without talking, savoring the warm night and the wind from the west. (He broke the silence to tell her the wind was from the west and she, having always taken the wind for granted, was pleased to know it was from the west.)