Бетти Смит - Maggie-Now

Father Flynn was in:~ quandary. If he wells over to the basement to greet them, he might cast a pall over the evening. If he didn't go, they might think he wasn't interested, or worse, might feel they were without supervision and free to carouse.

He went over, said good evening, announced that coffee and doughnuts would be served at nine o'clock, gravely instructed everyone to have a good time, and left.

The donor of the pianola had donated but one roll with it: "The Oceana Roll." They played it four times because each feller wanted a turn at pumping the piano. They were sick of that song and were at a loss about what to do next when one of the boys, named Charlie, which they pronounced Cholly, said he could play by ear.

"Give us a tune, Cholly. Give us a tune," they urged.

He was willing. "They laughed at me when I sat down to play,' he said. Everybody thought that was a very comical remark.

Ele threw the lever that changed the plano]a into a piano. Ele sounded a few mellow chords and played the chorus of "When You Were Sweet Sixteen." When he played the chords preliminary to going into the verse, the other three fellers put their heads together and sang in fairly close harmony.

['46 1 And even though we're drifting down life's stream apart, Your face I still can see in dream's domain.

The tender little song put everybody in a misty mood.

After it had been repeated several times, the boys urged the girls to sing. They sang "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now." They refused to be coaxed into an encore and the party started to die away.

Cholly, the piano player, who had evolved into the social leader of the evening, said: "What's the idear standing around like a bunch of deadheads? Let's get some life in the party." He struclc up the ragtime rhythm tune of the day: "F.verybodNT's l~oing It!"

"Sh-h-h!" hissed the girls in horror.

"Listen, Cholly," said Son Pheid, "don't you think that tune's a little out of place here with the church right upstairs?"

"Just as you say," said Cholly agreeably. "How about a little reminiscing, then?" All agreed that that would be grand.

He played a medley of sentimental songs, old and new, and the girls stood in a loose semicircle with their arms about each other's waists and swayed in time to the music and hummed or sang the tunes, and the boys stood with their heads touching and sounded "bum, bum," from time to time for accent, and finally Cholly went into "There s Egypt in Your Dreamy Eves," and Maggie-Now sang the song in her heart: And you stole my llearr, with your cunning err. .

She closed her eyes and swayed and hummed and thought of Claude. She was filled with a delicious sadness and the sadness pleased her and she thought it was almost better than being happy. When she opened her eyes, she saNv that Son Pheid was staring at her.

Why, that's the girl, he vvas remembering. Ho c,r~ne over to the shop that night with that feller….

Maggie-Now pretended he was Claude and gave Son Pheid a big smile. Eve smiled baclc and one girl whispered to another: "Oh-oh! "

After a while, Cholly rail out of reminiscing and they pumped out "The C)ceana Roll" again. At nine, there was a tactful tap at the door. Father Flynn gave Maggie-No\v a tray Oll which

~,1~ 1

were mugs of coffee and a plate of doughnuts. He handed it over as though it Nvere contraband and backed away into the night.

They stood around nibbling daintily on the doughnuts and sipping the coffee until Cholly said: "Look, folks, I'm just an ordinary, everyday slob with no manners so I'm going to dunk my sinker."

That broke the ice. Everybody laughed and dunked and agreed that that was the only NNTay to eat a doughnut.

One of the girls, bolder than the others, said: "Cholly, you're a regular card."

"My mother thanks you," said Cholly. "My father thanks

, you. .

"He's a whole deck," said Son Pheid in an aside to Maggie-Now. She smiled at him and he smiled back.

They washed the mugs and the plate in the washtub.

There Noms no towel to dry the dishes so Son Pheid gave up his clean handkerchief, which was carefully planted in his breast pocket and folded into a miniature three-picket fence, to do the job. Maggie-No\N said, "Who wants to take the tray back to the priest's house?" and Son Pheid said he would. But, he said, he didn't know the way and Miss Moore would have to go with him. The other fellers winked at each other and the girls giggled.

The two hurried across the yard, talking in whispers.

Since the house was dark, they decided to leave tray and dishes on the back stoop. Maggie-Now whispered that they ought to say thanks, at least. Son Pheid took one of his printed cards from his pocket: Pheid ~ Son. Plumbers.

Day ~ Night, and wrote "Thanks" on the back of it while l\Iaggie-Now held a lighted match. He put the card on the tray.

When they got back. the other fellers leered and said: "Ahhah!" in a certain way and Cholly said: "We thought you two went to China."

"Go fly a Icite," said lion Pheid in an exaggerated, bored tone of voice.

They folded the undertaker's chairs and stacked them against the wall. I\laggie-Now took the key from her pocketbook to loci; the door. As a matter of course, Son Pheid took the key from her. locked the door, and, as he returned the key, he asked could he walk her home. She said he could.

~ ~8'1 They grouped on the sidewalk to make their farewells.

All agreed they had had a wonderful time and all the girls thanked Cholly for his wonderful piano playing.

"Any time," said Cholly graciously. "And listen," he went on, "being's that us fellers just been drafted. ."

"Maybe you were drafted," said Son Pheid, "but I was selected."

"Greetings!" said one of the other fellers and the girls laughed.

"Anyways," continued Cholly, "being's we might get killed or something, it's only right that we get kissed good-by."

Well, what could good, patriotic girls do in a situation like that? They did it. Each boy received a kiss on the cheek from each girl. Now it happened that Father Flynn was sitting at the window in his dark living room and telling his beads. He had heard the talk and seen the boys getting kissed. He worried.

Was I too liberal, he asked himself, leaving them alone in the cellar for two hours?

Walking home, Son Pheid said: "I expect to get sent to Camp Upton any day now. I'd like to take in a good show before I leave. Would you go with me, providing I can get tickets for Saturday night? "

"Why I would love to, Mr. Pheid," she said.

"Look," he blurted out. "It's not my fault and I can't help it, but everybody calls me Sonny."

She laughed and said: "And they call me Maggie-Now and I can't help it either."

"So long for a while, Maggie-Now."

"So long, Sonny."

He kissed her and, to her surprise, she liked it.

After the show he asked her if she'd care for some chop suey. She thought of Claude and felt a pang. She said she didn't care for chop suey, so they had butter cakes and coffee at Child's. Going home on the B.M.T., he told her he had been going with a girl but she liked a feller who could spend a lot of money on her, and the way it was with him, he was partners with his father and he got room and board and pocket money, but all the profits went back in the business. And Sonny said he thought that was all right seeing that he would get the business after his father died, but the girl found another feller who had more money to spend on her and that was that, he said.