in New York working in a tattoo parlor, learning the art. When I described the costs, including one month’s rent in advance, something I had decided I had to have now, she started to negotiate, telling me she could get that after two months or so.
I hated those two words: or so.
At the moment, she was living with her sister and brother-in-law. She complained about her sister’s two children. I told her to call me later that afternoon. When I returned to the apartment building, Leo was working with an electrician in the lobby and again invited me to have a cup of tea. This time, I accepted. I wanted his opinion on my prospective new roommate.
“Sounds like you’re buying into trouble,” he said. “Wait for a bigger fish.”
When Marla called later, I told her I had found someone who could pay everything immediately, and I was sorry but that’s what I needed.
“Sure,” she said, and hung up abruptly.
I did eventually get a more qualified roommate, a twenty-year-old woman who was studying at the Fashion Institute. Her name was Jennifer Richards. She was quite serious about her work, but as before with Clara, my schedule and hers rarely coincided, so we could not do much together. Jennifer had her own cadre of friends, too. After five months, she informed me she was moving in with one of them who had a place closer to the Institute.
By spring, I had sung two additional gigs in two other clubs, again making extra money but not gaining any real employment. I thought I came very close at one of the open auditions, because they asked me to remain and sing again after dozens of other girls had tried out. They were nice enough to call to let me know I didn’t get the part, but they were keeping me in mind, whatever that meant.
My tea time with Leo became more regular. He was becoming more like a grandfather to me, carrying me when I didn’t have the full rent and telling me more and more about his own life and his own family, never failing to remind me not to lose mine. I knew he wanted me to return to England, but after a while, he stopped suggesting it.
“You really are a determined young lady,” he concluded. “But I’m not sure that’s always good.”
For a while afterward, he didn’t appear when I returned home from work, and he stopped inviting me in for tea or just to talk. I thought he was giving up on me, too. I had gone through another roommate and was once again in debt. Actually, I was in the most debt since I had arrived. I imagined he was getting up the courage to tell me I had to leave, find a place less expensive.
And then, one late afternoon after I had worked a long morning shift and lunch, he opened the door to his apartment when I entered the building and looked out at me.
“I have something for you,” he said, “to consider.”
“What could that be?”
“Something that will keep you from going home with your tail between your legs and stake you well enough to pursue a singing career until your voice gives out,” he said. “Interested?”
“Is the pope Catholic?” I replied. It was something he would say.
He smiled and stepped back.
I entered his apartment.
And changed my whole life.
EIGHT
When Leo Abbot first offered me his suggestion for solving my immediate problems, I thought the worst of him, worse than I could think of any man his age. Thinking that all the concern and affection he had shown me was a façade, I nearly jumped up and ran out of his apartment before he could explain further. The expression on my face should have been enough to shatter his bones.
“Just listen,” he said firmly when I started to rise. “I never told you much about my wife. She died twice, as far as I was concerned.”
“Twice?” I lowered myself back to the chair. What did this have to do with what he had just said? Had he gone mad? Was he a closet alcoholic?
“She had heart failure, and she was almost misdiagnosed, and at a big hospital here, too. But a young doctor detected her problem after they had used those paddles and gotten her heart beating again. He was already considered a talented heart surgeon. He told me she needed a heart-valve replacement. My wife was so impressed with him that she didn’t hesitate to say yes,