The Wind in Our Words

IV: 1932

I smiled so big, the city! Father didn't like small talk, so we skipped conversation and I simply read in the backseat. 

I wore my new green dress, that I had received as an Easter present. It was the last thing my mother had made for me before she passed. I wanted to make her proud. 

My trunk was filled to the brim. I could just go now! However, I felt as if our pond experience wasn't a proper goodbye to my friends. At least Charlie I'd see near holidays and during the summertimes, and Jane I'd see on weekends. I'd make new friends, and live in an exciting world.  

As we approached the city, I watched the buildings come into view. It wasn't the prettiest of times, given the state of the economy, and food lines were out the door. Still, It was beautiful and warm. 

My father had used some of Hilda's fortune to book us a stay at a small hotel near Charlotte Hill. The buildings were taller than mountains to me, they must have been a million stories tall. 

I smiled wide. This was my place, I never wanted to go back to my town, on the outskirts of all the beauty that surrounded me. 

I only wished that the color hadn't washed away from peoples faces. It was sad to me to see the terrible consequences of the depression still existed here. I would turn my head and see a man on a sidewalk, coughing, and eating his ration of food. 

We checked into the hotel, and as we unloaded from the automobile, the man on the street stared us down. He was in very simple dress, a gray beard and a mans hat. 

"Eh, huh? We get to suffer on the sides of the road while the egg mans of the world get to dine indoors." His friends cheered, and it brought a crowd. 

"Ah, he's got a little lass wit'em. Lassie, whats your name?" I was furious at these people for trying to ruin my perfect day.

I stuck my tongue out and shook my hips around. "RACHEL, stupid girl! That's highly inappropriate!" My father nodded to the men and escorted me inside. 

"Don't ever interact with those people." My father used his pointer finger at me, so I knew to obey him. 

My father checked us in, and we walked up the flights of stairs to the fourteenth floor. I scurried to the window and opened the curtains. New York City in its glory. Squealing, my father rushed me away and told me to get ready for dinner. I figured we were going somewhere fancy, so I put on my best dress. 

We walked along the streets, passing people who stared us down. "Terribly sorry," "Excuse us," "Pardon me!" I just followed father like a duckling would follow its mother duck. 

Only a few restaurants had stayed open. Father had told me that before Frank was born, (and he was three years my senior) that New York was a bustling town, of livelihood and fun. Him and mother would go to dance classes, and walk around the park. When I was four, however, everything was ruined. The "money" crashed, and many people were out of work. My only memories of the world were the ones of economic distress. Father said it was only like this in America. It made me want to live in other countries, and see what life was like. 

JIMMY POP's PIZZERIA: The sign plastered to the broken awning read. It was a family business, that people had liked enough to keep it open. Across the restaurant, a woman nodded. 

I had seen her face before, it was Lady Charlotte. My eyes must've been shaped like hearts. I was in awe to meet such a lady. She was born in London, but had moved to America when she was adopted by the Secretary of State as a baby, following her parents passing. 

She was technically of English Royal blood, but her title was so far down the pyramid that it barely mattered. 

I shook her hand. She had soft hands, but they were withered with age. She wore a plum purple dress, with the shoes to match. She complimented my clothing, and my fondness of her became ever greater.