A Crisis With Hop

Sickness and Health

Phillip was pale from his time in the cellar. The cellar was damp, chilly. Despite being heated by a radiator. It was pretty stark. Just a table, a make shift bed, a book shelf. With a few pulp books and magazines in it. Phillip was playing cards with the two men. From the poker chips I guessed poker. All of the men were smoking cigarettes. A bottle of whiskey sat in the middle of the table.

Phillip's eyes lit up when Carol came in the room. Carol sighed. Despite the pale skin, dark circles under his eyes. Phillip looked better. He had gained weight. His clothes were clean and mended. His hygiene greatly improved. Carol smiled at him.

"You look radiant." Phillip stood up and walked over to Carol. "I am so sorry for being such a pill. I wish I could blame it all on the hop. If I'd been stronger, none of this would have happen."

Luke and I stood by the door coming into the cellar. Waiting for a response from Carol.

"I just found out where you were." Carol said. "They were trying to protect me. In case---"

Carol had trailed off. Phillip drew in a breath. If he didn't know how close he came to death, he did now. "I've thought about that too. I'm glad you didn't see me earlier. I was pretty grungy to Ellen when she was trying to help me. Luke too."

"That's over now." Carol said firmly. "Luke said you can have your job back, if you can stay off the hop. If you stay off the hop, I'll take you back. If not. Well, I want you to know. If you are found dead in an alleyway somewhere I'll just get on with my life. It's up to you."

I saw the change. Phillip hadn't expected Carol to lay down some conditions for his return to her life. Phillip hadn't completely recovered, but it was still no excuse. His hand shot out. Slapping her before the men could stop him. The shock of being slapped confused Carol

"You'd do that. You'd just put me aside." Phil was being held back by the two men. "You're my wife. Do you really think you can set conditions for my coming back to you."

Carol slapped Phil back. It was no gentle or half hearted slap. It echoed through the cellar. Carol turned and walked back up the stairs.

"Phillip you are an idiot." I said to him.

"Let me assure you, Phillip, you could still end up in a back alley." Luke said. His voice was like ice. Taking my arm Luke escorted me to the cellar door.

"Go up stairs, get Carol a whiskey and soda." Luke said. "I'll be up in a moment."

I went through the door and closed it behind me. I stood at the door. Listening. I saw Carol halfway up the stairs. She was crying. I motioned for her to go on up. "I'll be up in a moment." I whispered to her.

"Listen to me, Phillip. You are lucky that woman still wants you." Luke said firmly. "She is the only reason we went to all of this trouble to get you off the hop."

I had put my ear to the door. I heard Phillip mumble something in reply.

"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to Carol. Beg her to accept you back. Promise her you will never raise a hand against her again." I heard Luke's voice clearly.

"She threatened to leave me. She's my wife. She can't leave me." Phillip whined.

"It's called 'a divorce'." One of the men added. "Yeah, she can leave you. If she proves you are abusive or worthless."

"And you are both." Luke said.

I walked up the stairs to meet Carol at the top of the stairs.

"What is Luke saying to Phillip?" Carol was sitting at the bar.

"He's telling that sap he's all wet." I told Carol. "I told Phillip flat out he's an idiot. Luke is telling him off, so are the men who were with him."

"I don't even know if I want him, now." Carol rubbed her face. Remembering the slap. "I don't even know why I thought I loved him."

"You loved the man you married." I told Carol. "Not the addict that Phillip became."

"He was sweet when he was dating me. Before the attack on wall street." Carol sighed. "I want that Phillip again."

Phillip had a large chunk of metal lodged in his shoulder when we drove up on that explosion back in September last year. He started using morphine at the hospital. He picked up the opiates on the street when the doctors tried to wean him off the morphine. From what I learned from Carol the addiction led him to spend days on the streets and in opium dens. Stealing money or anything he could sell from Carol when he did come home.

"Things seem to have accelerated for both of us since that day of the bombing." It was after the bombing that Luke had offered me what seemed like a cruel bargain. "You already know what I did with Luke after the bombing."

"He blackmailed you." Carol said. "Yet, you love him. You told me he was concerned after. He has given you so much. What started as a blackmail has turned into a caring relationship."

Luke had never forced himself on me. It was a negotiation. If I had refused I could have gone home. I was offered the choice of going home. I chose to give myself to Luke in exchange for the money to pay the bills for Phillip and my Mother who was ill. I sold myself. I admit that. That was how it had started. As an arrangement. What it became was still mystery for me. I think for Luke as well. Since he seems to be as perplexed with all of this as I am.

"Phillip beat you. Luke offered me a choice." I said. I suppose that was why I eventually loved him.

"I chose Phillip in sickness and in health. I know that Phillip is sick. I want to honor that vow. I just don't know how." Carol admitted. She never mentioned love.

"Perhaps, like with Luke and I, it will work out as you stay together." I suggested. "There are times when I swear I hate the man, yet other times I would never trade Luke for anyone else. Even if I thought anyone else would have me."

As we talked I mixed us both whiskey and soda. Unlike many bootleggers we didn't have bathtub gin. This was Canadian Whiskey. We brought it in for the men who were guarding Phillip. Many of the cheaper clubs had bathtub gin or Southern corn whiskey commonly referred to as moonshine.

Luke wanted dependable sources of real liquor that wasn't made in bathtubs or Southern stills. I helped arrange some of that. Only the party boats and upper end establishments had real liquor. Most of the booze was Southern corn whiskey in a majority of the speakeasies that Luke operated on land.