He started up. I followed behind. The walls, the stairs, everything looked well worn and in need of some good repainting and polishing. There were apartment buildings in Guildford that were twice this age, I was sure, that looked much newer, but one of the things Mr. Wollard warned me about was the overall grittiness of New York compared to what I was used to seeing.
“New and well-kept-up places are way out of your league right now, but you’ll be comfortable enough. You’ll be out working and pursuing your career anyway. Where you live, as long as it’s safe, is incidental,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons the song about New York says, ‘If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.’ ”
However, the moment we entered the apartment, I could see my mother crying for me. It was much smaller than I had envisioned. The furnishings weren’t inexpensive so much as they were worn and looking more like things from a secondhand shop. The kitchen had a small dark-wood table and four matching chairs, two in particular looking stained and chipped. There was a living room with a brown sofa and two chairs with cushions, an oval wood coffee table, and two lamps with shades that looked discolored by something I didn’t want to imagine. A television set on a table that seemed too weak to hold it was in the far right corner. A splash of a dark-brown area rug was in front of the sofa.
The bathroom was between the two bedrooms. Each had a double bed. One was totally stripped. The mattress looked okay, but without bedding, the room looked very depressing. I hoped it wouldn’t keep someone from moving in to share the rent. Both rooms had dressers and closets with mirrors over the dressers, but the furniture here, too, needed a good polish, and there were nicks and scratches on everything. The wood floors were worn down to the stone or tile beneath them in places. Area rugs would do well to cover the blemishes, I thought. I’d have to do a lot to make it look warm and cozy.
As I gazed at it all, I had a flush of sadness and regret, thinking about the beautiful bedroom Julia and I shared in Guildford. I visualized the flowery pattern of our wallpaper, the Wedgwood-blue floor siding and cornices, and our beautiful silk curtains. Everything in our house was always sparkling clean. And it was certainly ten times quieter. Right now, even though the windows were closed, the traffic sounded as loud as it did on the street.
“In New York ’specially,” Leo Abbot said, perhaps because of the expression on my face, “it ain’t so much what the apartment looks like as it is about location. ‘Location, location, location,’ that’s the song the real estate agents sing here.
“You can walk to the restaurant and to Broadway from here quickly. You don’t even hafta ride the subway. There’s a supermarket ’round the corner and a drugstore on the same street, as well as a bank. Everything’s at your fingertips, which is why you should have no problem findin’ a roommate. In fact, Donald Manning told me he posted the openin’ in his restaurant for you today.”
“That’s wonderful and kind of him.”
He looked around and nodded. “I know you’re far from home, Emma. You don’t hesitate to come knockin’ on my door if you need to know somethin’ or want somethin’. I’ll leave two sets of keys on the kitchen table. Oh,” he said, turning back. “If you want that phone in the kitchen turned on, let me know. You’ll need it to get calls from producers, I’m sure,” he said, smiling. “I’ll put your name in the directory tonight, too. Okay? Any questions?”
“I’m not sure how to get to Mr. Manning’s restaurant,” I said.
“Oh, right. You’re startin’ tomorrow, right?”
“I am.”
“Okay. I’m sure you know it’s called the Last Diner. It looks like one with its booths and long counter. It’s two blocks east and one block north. Probably no more than a ten-minute walk for someone your age. It takes me double that.”
“Thank you.”
He studied me a moment. “You ain’t much younger than my wife was when we first met.”
“My mother wasn’t much older than me when she married my father.”
“Bet your parents weren’t happy to see you leave and go so far, eh?”
“No, not happy.”
He nodded. “Yeah, well, that’s only natural. Don’t lose the love of your family, Emma. No one champions you as