A Thousand and One Afternoons in ChicagoHecht, Ben
General
A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago
Hecht, Ben
Chicago (Ill.) -- Literary collections; Hecht, Ben, 1893-1964 -- Homes and haunts -- Illinois -- Chicago
In the evening Mrs. Rodjezke usually rode home in the street car. There
were several odd items about Mrs. Rodjezke that one could observe as she
sat motionless and staring in her seat waiting for the 2900 block to
appear. First, there were her clothes. Mrs. Rodjezke was not of the
light-minded type of woman that changes styles with the season. Winter and
summer she wore the same.
Then there were her hands. Mrs. Rodjezke's fingernails were a contrast to
the rest of her. The rest of her was somewhat vigorous and buxom looking.
The fingernails, however, were pale--a colorless light blue. And the tips
of her fingers looked a trifle swollen. Also the tips of her fingers were
different in shade from the rest of her hands.
Another item of note was her coiffure. Mrs. Rodjezke was always
indifferently dressed, her clothes looking as if they had been thrown on
and pinned together. Yet her coiffure was almost a proud and
careful-looking thing. It proclaimed, alas, that the scrubwoman, despite
the sensible employment of her time, was not entirely free from the
vanities of her sex. The deliberate coiling and arranging of her stringy
black hair must have taken a good fifteen minutes regularly out of Mrs.
Rodjezke's otherwise industrious day.
These items are given in order that Mrs. Rodjezke may be visualized for a
moment as she rode home on a recent evening. It was very hot and the
papers carried news on the front page: "Hot Spell to Continue."
Mrs. Rodjezke got off the car at 29th and Halsted streets and walked to
her flat. Here the two Rodjezke children, who were 8 and 10 years old
respectively, were demanding their supper. After the food was eaten Mrs.
Rodjezke said, in Bohemian:
"We are going down to the beach to-night and go in swimming."
Shouts from the younger Rodjezkes.
* * * * *
When the family appeared on the 51st Street beach it was alive with people
from everywhere. They stood around cooling off in their bathing suits and
trying to forget how hot it was by covering themselves in the chill sand.
Mrs. Rodjezke's bathing suit was of the kind that attracts attention these
days. It was voluminous and hand made and it looked as if it might have
functioned as a "wrapper" in its palmier days. For a long time nobody
noticed Mrs. Rodjezke. She sat on the sand. Her head felt dizzy. Her eyes
burned. And there was a burn in the small of her back. Her knees also
burned and the tips of her fingers throbbed.
These symptoms failed to startle Mrs. Rodjezke. Their absence would have
been more of a surprise. She sat staring at the lake and trying to keep
track of her children. But their dark heads lost themselves in the noisy
crowds in front of her and she gave that up. They would return in due
time. Mrs. Rodjezke must not be criticized for a maternal indifference.
The children of scrubwomen always return in due time.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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