The Faeries In Central Park ~ 6
Installment six:
Nell tossed and turned all through their last night on the ship. Ma and her sisters slept well, but all Nell could think about was America. Excited and a little scared, she wondered what New York City would be like. Ma and the girls were staying with Aunt Helen, but there wasn’t enough room in her brownstone for Da and the boys so they would stay in a rooming house a few blocks away. Once Da found work they would find a place big enough for all of them. Ma said Nell was Aunt Helen’s namesake, but Nell didn’t really understand why, since her name was Nell, not Helen.
There was no time for breakfast the morning they arrived in New York. Da was bustling through the cabins, making sure no one had forgotten anything. The ship docked and the family was pushed along like cattle with everyone else on board to the gangway opening. It was hours later before they finally found themselves breathing their first stale breaths of New York air. The daunting processing center at Ellis Island was a large, red brick building with ornate cornices and trim. The atmosphere was far too busy and frenetic for anyone to appreciate the architectural beauty of the buildings and the waterfront. Nell held tightly to Anna’s hand as they moved along with the mass of people trying to find their place in the correct line.
“Nell, I told you to leave your sore spot alone. You’ve made it bleed again!” Anna dabbed her lace handkerchief and pressed it against Nell’s cheek. “This is my last good one, I hope the stain comes out.” She sighed. Anna was worried about Daphne. She’d been locked in Anna’s case being bumped about since early that morning.
“Da, how much longer?” Nell scuffed the toe of her shoe on the smooth marble floor. “I’m tired of standing up. I want to sit down somewhere!”
All around them children were vocalizing the same complaints, in twenty different languages. Many of the adults were, as well.
“Soon, Nellie. We’re getting much closer to the front now.” Da’s knees were beginning to ache, and he was slowly getting his land legs back.
An hour or so later, it was the Darlington family’s turn at the processing desk. Da answered all the questions about where they’d come from, what family they were joining in America, how much money they had, what kind of work could he do and so on. The clerk stamped their papers, then sent them to stand in the lines waiting to see the doctor. The boys were sent to one line, the girls to another.
Ma, and the girls were in an exam room where the doctor measured them, checked their teeth and their hair, and asked them questions about the times they had been sick (ma didn’t mention being sick on the ship). He was checking Nell’s eyes and ears when he noticed the ringed spot on her cheek in front of her left ear.
“Mrs. Darlington, how long has your daughter had this mark?” he asked, gently rubbing the raised bump.
“A week or so, doctor. I’ve been putting a tincture on it since we left Ireland. It’s almost completely healed now..”
“Mmmmm.” The doctor scribbled some notes on his pad and excused himself from the room. When he returned, a man with an official badge came with him.
“Mrs Darlington,” the man wearing the badge began, “your daughter has a contagious form of ringworm and it is against US immigration policy to allow her admittance into the country. You and your family will have to return to Ireland.”
“Oh, sir! My husband is in the other examination line with our sons! Please, will you speak to him? We have family here and money for a doctor to see to Nell’s wen! It won’t be a problem, we can take care of it!”. Ma’s tears softened the immigration officer’s stance a bit. He guided her and the girls to his office and went in search of Da.
“We don’t usually agree to quarantine children so young,” the officer began, “as they cannot behave on their own and we do not have adequate staff to look after them. However, her situation does not seem so desperate and she appears to be quite well behaved so I am willing to make an exception. Nellie, do you understand that you will have to stay here, without your parents, until the spot on your face heals?”
“Yes”, Nell replied. “Can I keep Sally with me?” She clutched the doll tightly to her chest.
“Sally can stay but if you cause any trouble at all, I will have to send for your parents and you will all have to return to Ireland. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir” sniffled Nell, already growing afraid of being left alone in this big brick place but more afraid of being put on a return ship to Ireland.
Ma cried and clung to Nell in the hallway as she promised to come visit every day. Ellis Island was a long way from Yorkville, but Ma didn’t understand the distance yet. It was all New York to her.
The joy of being off the ship and outside of the processing center was dampened by Nell’s absence. Ma and the other children stood looking out over the harbor at the city, while Da went in search of transportation into the city. He returned with directions and they headed for the ferry. Their New York life had officially begun.
As had Nell’s, sitting in a bed in the large ladies dormitory at Ellis Island. She was next to the window so she could catch the sea breeze that occasionally broke the stifling industrial smell. And, she could see the statue of the green lady, beckoning and mocking her. By the end of her second day, she hated the site of that statue.
Da and the boys settled into the rooming house around the corner from his sister’s brownstone. The proprietor told him about an opening for a doorman at the Abbey Hotel and Da immediately made plans to go see about it the next morning,
Around the corner, Aunt Helen’s house was old and dusty, just like she was. She'd been widowed young and never remarried, living in the same house, alone for almost 40 years. The drapes were kept drawn all the time so it always seemed like twilight. It felt sad, not like their sunny house in Dublin, always full of life and people, or the openness of the farm in Wexford. Anna could swear the walls were closing in on her. She hoped she could get away soon, to find Central Park before Daphne faded away. She’d hidden Daphne behind the curtain in a window seat upstairs, but there wasn’t much to look at with the sunlight hidden behind the surrounding buildings and Daphne was growing as sad and still as the house itself.
Aunt Helen warned Anna to avoid the streets the gangsters were known to frequent. Not that they’d bother with the likes of a young girl, but getting caught in the middle of one of their turf-wars could be dangerous. Anna didn’t really understand it and found it a little exciting, but she followed her aunt’s instructions when she took Daphne out for a little air in the mornings. Better safe than sorry, she knew she needed to get the ailing faery to the park, and soon.
Ma tried to keep her promise to Nell, to visit her every day. The first day, she got lost on her way to the train and by the time she found the station, she’d missed the last ferry to Ellis Island. She was so exhausted and distraught that she couldn’t bring herself to try again the following day.
The day after that, she set out determinedly to visit Nell. When she arrived, it broke her heart, seeing Nellie propped in the big bed like an invalid.
“Ma, I’m not sick. Why do the nurses make me stay in bed? There’s nothing to do and nothing to look at except that ugly statue. I want to go home!” She kicked the covers off onto the floor.
“Soon, Nell, soon. The spot on your head is almost gone. The nurse says if she can’t feel a bump on Friday that we can come collect you on Saturday. That’s only three more days.” She smoothed Nell’s hair away from the spot near her ear. Her hair was greasy and stuck to her head, from the medicine the nurses had applied.
She held Nell and sang to her until she fell asleep, and before long it was time to catch the last train back to the city. She left a note with the nurse, instructing her to assure Nell that she’d be back on Friday to see about taking her home.
Da went to the Abbey Hotel every day that week, but the manager was never available to see him. He began to worry that the position would be filled before he had the chance to apply. On Thursday evening, the proprietor at the rooming house stopped him.
“Frank, when do you start work? I reckon you’ll look quite smart in your doorman’s uniform.” He smiled and winked.
Da sighed and jingled the few coins in his pocket. “I’d hoped I could start this week, but I can’t seem to catch the manager.”
The proprietor replied, ”He is my uncle. I’ll send word over right away for him to expect you tomorrow morning. I can’t make him give you the job, but I can sure let him know I think you should have it!”
Da shook his hand “I do thank you, sometimes all a man needs is a little boost. If I could get in and talk with him, I know I can convince him to give me the job”. Da gave his new friend's hand one last shake. “Thank you for everything.” He said as turned to go upstairs to bed.
On Friday, Ma made the trek out to Ellis Island to see Nell. The nurse came round to inspect her and noted that she could go home the next day. Ma pulled her aside and convinced her to ask the doctor to release her that day. Due to the length of the trip and the expense of the journey, she wanted to take her back that evening. A few minutes later, the nurse returned with Nell’s release papers. “Never hurts to ask”, Ma whispered to Nell as they gathered her few things and hurried out of the dormitory, toward the ferry.
That same day, Da had a meeting with the manager of the Abbey Hotel. Although Da had no doorman experience, he convinced the manager that he was more than capable of doing the job, demonstrating his skills on the manager’s office door. This, in addition to the good word sent by the manager’s nephew, (who’d said he’d have already given Da a job if he’d had one to give) secured the position for Da and he would be able to start the following week. The pay was fair and the tips were good so he should earn more than enough money to set them up in a place of their own.
In addition, the hotel manager also owned a few flats in the area and had a vacant one for rent. It only had two bedrooms but the manager said the front room would be big enough for the boys to sleep in and he’d make sure Da could afford the rent. In one afternoon, he found a job and a place to live. And, Nell was coming home, wherever home was.
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