Big Bangs, Prohibition, and a Sugar Daddy

After The Fire

I found her more sympathetic to my condition than male doctors. It had taken some time to find a doctor who understood my androgynous condition. She found me an interesting patient. I found her to be a good doctor.

After I got home, Luke had carried me up the stairs, because I still had problems breathing. I was put in bed while Clara fussed over me. Dr. Harrison arrived soon after I was brought home.

Jane placed the stethoscope between my breasts. "Now just breath." She told me.

"It doesn't burn as much anymore." I said.

"Don't talk. Breath. Nice even breathes." Jane said. I did as I was told. "Good."

"You have a mild concussion." Jane told me. "Your lungs are congested too. You are to stay in bed for the next few days until I come back in and examine you again. Understand?"

"Yes, Doctor." I said. "When Jane took that tone with her patients she tolerated no nonsense."

Mother, Carol, Phillip, Luke, Rae, Clara, and Henry all crowded in the room. Once Jane stepped outside and told them they could see me. As soon as Jane had begun to put things in her doctor's bag, proving she was done with me; Mother and Carol sat on either side of the bed.

"What were you thinking, dear?" Mother asked.

"I saw a girl who the crowd had abandoned in the theater. I couldn't leave her there, she would have died." I said.

"Well, she had enough strength to push you down and run for the exit." Rae said.

"Little quiff panicked was all." I said. Forgetting my Mother was there.

"What's a quiff?" Mother asked.

"Never mind, Mommy." Carol said. "But I bet she was one, that's for sure."

"She was just scared." I said. "But that whole crowd was all wet. They acted like a bunch of rats abandoning a ship trying to get out of the theater."

My lungs still burned as I breathed. Not as badly, but it hurt to talk. "Can I have some water."

A glass was shoved in my hand. I drank the entire glass. "I'm glad you are home safe, Miss Ellen." I heard Clara say as she took the glass from me to refill it. I drank some more and laid the glass on my nightstand.

I had drifted off to sleep. At some point I woke up. Still in my own bed. The glass and a pitcher was still there. My head hurt so much I cried. I tried to sit up and I got dizzy. As I tried to get out of bed I vomited the water I drank earlier. Now I was upset about the mess. I fell straight into it. Furious I tried to get myself to stand up. The disorienting nausea I felt wouldn't let me stand. I managed to grab the bell to call Clara.

Clara arrived in her nightclothes. She helped me out of my old negligee, cleaned me up, then changed me into fresh. I was so upset that I couldn't sleep and my head still hurt. I turned on the light, read a book by Agatha Christie and eventually drifted to sleep. I woke the next morning to find Luke looking down at me, holding my hand.

My breathing was still a little ragged. "What's wrong, my Prince." We had taken to calling each other Prince and Princess. We were getting that sappy for each other.

"What were you thinking my dizzy Princess." Luke said. "The doctor told you to stay in bed."

My head hurt too much to explain. As I tried to sit up pain shot through my skull. I began to cry again. All I wanted was to sit up. I coughed some, then tried to sit up again.

"Stop that, just lay there, like the doctor told you." Luke said.

"I was able to sit up last night." I croaked out.

Luke gently sat me up in the bed, putting my pillow between me and the headboard to make me comfortable. The whole time my head seemed to split. Luke poured me a fresh glass of water. It felt so good going down my sore throat. I watch Luke take a powder packet out of his pocket. He put the powder in the water he poured for me after I drank the first glass.

"What is it." I asked.

"Just some headache powder." Luke said.

Drinking the water I could taste the medicine. I didn't care, anything to stop my head from pounding the way it was.

"Clara is very concerned, she's going to be nursing you back to health. She'll help you to the bathroom, fetch what you want, but she has my orders to make sure you stay in bed." Luke told me.

After a bath I had Clara fetch me the paper. Poor Rae's theater didn't even make headlines. It was on the fourth page, and rated only a minimal amount of attention. She did get her picture over the story. That was always good publicity.

Warehouse Theater Catches Fire

The Warehouse Theater in lower Manhattan caught fire today. At roughly three in the afternoon. Rae North had bought the theater two weeks ago. One young woman suffered from a concussion and smoke inhalation. Several audience members panicked, they obtained an assortment of bumps and bruises while trying to get out. Otherwise there were no serious injuries. Rae had insurance and assured this reporter that she will reopen her theater in a few weeks.

Rae found a propaganda sheet on her car in the parking lot across from the building. This is a copy of its contents:

Remember this!

We will not tolerate such filth.

Free yourself of sin.

If not you will surely die.

America's Moral Advocates

I called Clara to find Luke.

Luke came into the bedroom. "Have you read this?" I asked.

"Sounds like the same nonsense that they found the day after the explosion on Wall Street." Luke said. "They are pretty sure that the bombing was Sicilian anarchists. A man said he shoed the horse they used, and the man who paid for it was Sicilian."

"This note claims the fire was started by religious fanatics."

"No, it doesn't, my silly princess." Luke said. "It could have meant anything, you know how people feel about Rae North in general. She's too wild for most people. The woman is a walking, talking sex object."

"It's too coincidental." I said.

"You are simply reading too much into it." Luke said. "You know how you exaggerate things."

"I do not."

After Doctor Jane Harrison came back to check on me in three days, I was well enough to sit up in bed. Make bathroom trips without Clara's help. That horrid doctor made me spend four more days in bed. She said my lungs were still congested. Not as much as previously, but enough to worry her. At last I was out of bed and moved to Luke's bed that night.

Luke had been a little testy the last few days. When I finally moved back into his bedroom after the eighth day he proved to be very frisky that night.

Rae visited me the next morning and noted that I had that 'special glow of a satisfied woman'. It was no wonder that the censors hated her. She couldn't hold a conversation without insinuating something sexual.

"My insurance covered the damage to the theater. It was more smoke than fire, to be honest. Someone threw glass bottles full of gasoline against the wall where you saw the smoke coming from." Rae told me as we sat in the upstairs parlor drinking tea. "You must have had a warm reception in Luke's bed when you finally slipped into it."

"It was more than warm." I said with a smile. "It was very vigorous to say the least. You must not have any warm receptions lately, since you keep asking about mine."

Rae laughed. "Tell me, my darling girl, are you truly as happy as you seem?"

"I think we are both happy. Luke infuriates me sometimes, but I do love him."