to join their husbands. The port officials are just as corrupt?"
"You know Italian officials. They take what they can get. I suppose that hasn't changed. Human nature remains the same." Angelina's words sounded cryptic, but she spoke of the infamous bribes it took to cut through the paperwork and get permission to sail, to bribe one's way out.
"You were single when you went through the port?" Maria asked.
"No. I was married by proxy in Naples before I left. Signor Allessandro sent the money to bribe an Italian judge to give us the proper marriage license, even though Signor Allessandro was still in Idaho. It was cheaper than what would have been required by a port official and safer for me. That's what he said. And it would speed me through American immigration. So you see, I am married." She didn't know why she felt she must defend her marital status.
"Aye, no!" Maria exclaimed. She was pale as a communion veil and her hands shook as she stared at Angelina. "Then you were a virgin when you went to the port! You poor, poor child!" She leaned forward to put her hand on Angelina's arm in sympathy. "The marriage, it is not legal. That can be voided easily enough if you don't like your groom, the foolish man! Doesn't he know what happens to young, attractive married women at the port?"
"Now sit here with me." Maria pointed to the empty space next to her on the couch. "What I must say, I wish no one to hear." Angelina moved to the proffered spot.
"Salvo and I were married very young, when we were both still in Italy. As you know, times were terrible in the Mezzogiorno, even ten years ago. We were so poor and there was no work for Salvo. He had heard about the land of opportunity, La Merica, and so we decided that he should go there and find work. When he had made his fortune, he would come home to me. But life doesn't always work out as planned. Salvo got a job building the railroads West, which is where he met Tonio. But the pay was meager. He did not make a fortune. I was so lonely without my Salvo that I cried every day, and after nearly two years he had saved enough money to send for me."
"With the naiveté of a wholesome bride I was ecstatic when my parents dropped me off in Naples to begin my journey. I walked into the government immigration offices full of hope and optimism. I was taken to the office of a junior official. All I can remember of him today is that he was very ugly, and he smelled of sweat. So pure was I that I did not smell the danger that awaited me. He pulled the blinds and informed me that there was a problem with my paperwork. There was only one way to fix it." She paused, hate and sorrow brimmed in the tears in her eyes. "'You are a married woman,' he said. 'You know how to please a man. Your husband will never know. You have a choice.'
"He had a couch in his office. He pushed me down onto it and shoved my skirts up before I could even answer. I tried to scream, but he covered my mouth and laughed. 'I can fix it so that you'll never leave the country,' he told me. 'Or…'
"Then he raped me. I say he raped me, though I did not fight back. As soon as he was finished, he went straight to his desk and stamped my paperwork. Then he pushed me out the door."
Maria watched her closely as she spoke.
"He smiled as I left, and told me that it had been a perfect interview. Then he wished me a pleasant trip. I nearly died with shame. I thought that I was the only one, until I boarded the ship and made friends with other young married women. Almost every one of them…" She choked on her words.
"I worried for weeks that I would be pregnant with that awful man's baby. I didn't know then that I was a barren woman. But after a few weeks at sea, the curse came and I was never so happy as that day to see the bright red flow.
"Others were not so lucky. One friend of mine got pregnant. We plied her with castor oil until the child of that evil man slid out far before its time.