City for Ransom

She threw her hands up and shouted, “I am right for this world! It is the rest of the population that is strange and odd and foreign.”

“Really?”

“Indeed! Look at everyone around you—all the city!”

“I have many times over.”

“Look deeper then—it is made up of—of—”

“—of Martian men? Is that what you’re saying?” Gabby genuinely wanted to know.

“Men! Men like Chief Kohler, Christian Fenger, Thomas Carmichael, Mayor Carter Harrison, the governor, Philo Keane, Marshall Field, Alastair Ransom! We are simply not like them.” “Whataya mean to say?” Gabby asked, confused.

“They will stop at nothing to get what they want, to gain what they perceive are their entitlements!”

“Perhaps it’s part of the character of a Chicagoan.”

“The character of a man,” Jane countered.

“And you believe, Mother, that you’re not at all like them?

Frankly, going about as Dr. Tewes . . . well how like them do you think is Tewes?”

“That’s what I’m telling you. There’s no way we are like CITY FOR RANSOM

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them under our clothes, under our skin! They are takers, pickpockets, boodlers, and Machiavellians.”

“But we’re all human, Mother, and—”

“Tewes, for all his faults or due to them, he is accepted by Chicagoans—isn’t he? Still, you miss my point.”

“It all sounds so very cynical, Mother.”

Jane became thoughtful, speaking in a near whisper. “No, no child, it’s not cynicism I feel. My father alone understood the truth about me, but he could not tell me; he knew I had to learn for myself, and I did today.” “Learned what?”

“Behavior I’ve thought of as defective— brainwashed to think so by men! Behavior that in fact keeps me sane . . .

and Alicia and Polly, and so many trapped women in our society.”

“So does this mean you’ll support our suffrage march?”

Jane gritted her teeth. “I fear for your safety.”

“Oh, come! Who’s gonna throw stones and bottles at women standing in their knickers with a brass band playing?”

“I just want you to know how I feel now. This is so important.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt, but the vote’s important to me!”

“I pray it’s not wasted energy, like the senseless self-loathing that is spoon-fed to women. Imagine, a lifetime of apology for being different—but no more.”

Seeing her mother’s tears come freely, Gabrielle again wrapped her arms about Jane, saying nothing, just listening.

“All the lost opportunity. But never again will I hide.”

“Hide?”

“Within myself yes . . . Sadly, it’s taken all these years to come to an accounting of just how bloody distorted my self-perceptions have been.”

“Mother! You never curse!”

“Forget about the cursing and concentrate, child, on what I’m saying. It’s so important that you understand early. You mustn’t waste your most precious commodity— time.”

246

ROBERT W. WALKER

“Per-perhaps this is what we’re here for; to find ourselves, and maybe shake things up . . . change things a little!”

“Yes . . . that’s exactly what I’m feeling, but look closer, more deeply.”

“Sounds like . . . an epiphany.”

“A threshold . . . yes, a portal of mind that—”

A rapping noise like a gunshot came at the door. Through the sash, they made out Ransom’s silhouette with cane.

Gabby said, “Here is your favorite Martian now.”

Jane erupted in laughter. “That man! Why doesn’t he ring the bell?”

“I rather think he uses that cane for everything.”

“So right, including interrogations.”

“Are you going to tell him?”

“I’d like to but . . .”

“Surely he suspects by now. After all, he’s a detective!”

“It would throw him a good shock!”

Gabby’s evil smile shadowed Jane’s. “Serve him right after what he did at the train station.”

“You’ve heard?”

“It’s all over.”

Again Ransom rapped at the door.

“God,” Jane wondered aloud, “what do you do with a bear at the door?”

“The truth, now!”

“But it could destroy any chance I might have of—”

“You’re attracted to him?”

“Yes!”

“Oh, dear.”

Jane secretly feared doing any harm to Alastair’s sense of self-worth and professional acumen. She grabbed ascot and mustache. “Gabby, stall him!”

“What? No!” As Jane rushed for mirror and glue, Gabby yelled through her locked door. “But you’re finished with masquerades!”

“Not like this . . . it’s too sudden. Go, do as I say. Answer CITY FOR RANSOM

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the door. I shall pop out the back and come around the front door as though Dr. Tewes is home from an appointment.”

“But what of that wonderful speech?”

“Just do it!”

“But your true sentiment?”

“It’ll happen when it happens, not before.”

By now Jane sat at her secret mirror, applying makeup, planning to exit through a nearby window. She’d stopped short of telling her daughter of her father’s ignoble end; perhaps the tale of his dying a brave soldier could stand, at least for now.

So here she was, Tewes again. This time climbing out a back window. She’d given Polly advice to get clear of Ransom, and here she was concerned about the man’s sensibilities? Whatever is wrong with me?

Despite Gabby’s disappointment in Jane’s latest decision, she followed her mother’s orders, inviting the unsuspecting Inspector into the parlor for tea. As she poured the tea and stalled for time, her mother preened as Dr. Tewes in a back room. Meanwhile, Gabby must field more questions about her “auntie”—Jane Francis Ayers— although Ransom said he was here to see Dr. Tewes.

“Auntie’s abed by this hour every night. An early riser, that one.”

“And what of you?” he asked between sips, favoring a headache that threatened to blind him. “Shouldn’t you be asleep?”