Young Love in Old Chicago

  Chapter Three

  I woke up to a distant sound. My heavy eyelids blinked a few times and I wondered if I had dreamed it. Then it came again, closer this time. I sat up with a start and felt my hair brush against my neck. It reminded me that I was supposed to be awake, waiting for Mason. I stood up in my bed and looked out of my window at the front lawn below. There he was, in his messy stained up shirt, holding a long branch in one hand.

  For a second, I wondered how he knew which window was mine. I must have said something to him about where my room is.

  Another thrill shot through me as he smiled up at me and waved me down. It felt like I was floating as I carefully inched my door open and then hurried down the stairs silently. I pulled my coat off the rack and walked outside.

  He met me on the porch and wrapped both arms around me again. I felt a bag at his side lean against me. I hadn’t noticed it before. His arms were warm and strong.

  “I tried to stay awake. Sorry,” I whispered.

  He let go. “That’s okay. I just—wanted to see you for a little while since I probably won’t see you for days…Will you come with me?”

  “Where?”

  “I want to show you the city.”

  “But I’ve seen the city. I was born here, seventeen years ago on the fourteenth of this month.”

  “Not like I can show you. Just come with me for a little while…It’ll be worth it, I promise.”

  “But, it’s dangerous to be out after dark. I’ve heard of terrible things happening, especially to girls.” Rapists and muggers would be out.

  And what if someone saw us? It would ruin me.

  Mason moved closer to me, putting his face right in front of mine. His eyes shone in the darkness like two silver coins. I stopped breathing. “I promise you, no one will hurt you while you’re with me,” he said firmly. I felt his hand take mine. His palm pressed against mine and his fingers laced themselves through my own.

  My head was spinning. I couldn’t think straight. Something inside me told me not to do it, but I found myself caving under the pressure of his stunning face. I nearly coughed as I struggled to breathe out, “All right.”

  He smiled, the light in his eyes remaining. We walked off the porch and through the yard to the sidewalk, his hand never letting go of mine. He was careful to keep to the shadows and avoid streetlights, I noticed.

  The gears in my brain started turning as what I’d just agreed to do began to set in. I had never done anything like that before and couldn’t believe I was doing it now. Why can’t I say no to him?

  The night air was still and icy, but adrenaline pumped through me, knowing that I shouldn’t be doing what I was doing.

  “Mason?” I whispered.

  “Yeah?”

  “What if we get caught?” My parents would never let me see him again.

  “Your parents check on you during the night?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Then you’ll probably be fine. I won’t keep you up too late. And as long as we’re quiet we won’t wake up anyone out here.”

  I really, really hoped he was right.

  We turned left onto Emmaline’s street. “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “You’ll see.” We made it halfway to my school before I started to shiver. Mason stopped and took off his coat to drape around the one I already had on. Then we continued to walk past the school and past the park, neither of us saying anything for fear of getting caught.

  We didn’t pass another living soul.

  So many things played through my mind as we walked—the places we could be going and what would happen when we got there. Hopefully, wherever we were going, we wouldn’t have to be afraid to say anything to each other. I also hoped we would be quick, so I could get back to my home where I wouldn’t have to be so fearful anymore.

  We walked through an open field that stood alone in the middle of several neighborhoods, which were all a good distance away. Long blades of grass swung back and forth in the gentle breeze. The only other thing in the field was a giant water tower. Mason led me through the grass and over to one of the tower’s enormous legs. I looked up at the mountainous structure that towered over us. “Are we here?” I asked uncertainly.

  “Sort of. There’s a leak, so a temporary lift is on the other side. We’ll take it up.”

  “Up there? Isn’t that dangerous?”

  “It’s safe enough for the guys that’ve been riding it up every day.” He pushed the strap of his pack up on his shoulder and I wondered what was inside of it. “I’ve ridden on it. It was fine.”

  “I’m sorry, Mason, I can’t. It’s risky enough being out in the night like this, but riding a lift to the top of the water tower? We could get in big trouble.”

  “No, we can’t. Everyone’s asleep, and there’s no house near enough to here for anyone to see or hear anything.”

  I shook my head and took a step back.

  “Please, it would be such a shame to turn back now after we came all this way. And I’ve got a surprise for you in here.” He patted his bag. “I’ll give it to you as soon as we get to the top.”

  I was torn. I didn’t want to disappoint him, but I didn’t want to go up there either. As I debated with myself, I studied our surroundings. The houses were far enough away and it was dark enough out there that no one should be able to see us. And the field was empty and still. “If you’re sure…” I said hesitantly.

  He took my hand again and I followed him to the other side. He led me to a phone booth-sized cage with wires coming out of the top and attaching to something above us. Mason slid the door to the side and we climbed in. The door slid back into place with a loud click, locking us in.

  “Ready?” he asked. I would never be ready to let that rickety box carry me up a hundred and fifty feet, but I grabbed a bar beside me and nodded. Mason grabbed one of the two levers beside the door and pulled it down. The cage began to tremble, and then with a great lurch and a deafening metallic scraping sound, it shot up.

  I lost my footing and fell against Mason, grabbing onto his arm in the process. He put an arm behind my back and held me close to him. “Guess I should have warned you about that,” he said. My other arm still clung desperately to the bar. The cage rocked back and forth as it flew up higher and higher. I felt completely out of control, like the cables would snap at any second, sending us plummeting to our deaths.

  “Are you all right?” Mason asked. I couldn’t answer. I just closed my eyes and leaned my head against him. “We’re almost there.” A few seconds passed by before we slowed down. And then we stopped. I realized I was trembling. “Alexandra, are you okay?” I refused to let go of the bar or his arm. “Are you afraid of heights?”

  “N, no. Just that thing we rode up on.” I’d never been on a lift before. It was terrible.

  “It’s not really built for women. Let’s get you out of here.” Mason kept an arm around me as he opened the door and helped me onto a wide landing. Railing surrounded the surface and wrapped all the way around the top of the water tower. A couple of inches of open air separated the lift from the landing. Even though I felt a lot better on solid, sturdy ground, I moved up against the wall that held water behind it and sat down.

  I was pretty sure being up there was illegal, but I was too afraid of the ride back down to worry about it. “Is there another way down?” I asked.

  Mason sat beside me and opened his bag. “There’s a ladder, but I don’t think that would be as safe. By the time you get to the bottom, assuming you don’t fall, you’d be exhausted.” He pulled a blanket out of his bag and moved closer to me as he wrapped it around both of us.

  It startled me a little at first, because it seemed so wrong. But he had proved that he was a good man so far, so I felt I could trust him not to cross any lines.

  “What do you think of the view?” he asked, looking straight ahead of us.

  I looked out for the first time at the lights of the skyscrapers in the distance.
The differently shaped houses below almost looked like rows of strange, rolling hills. Everything seemed so peaceful from up there. “I love it,” I said. It was almost worth the ride up.

  Mason slipped one arm around me under the blanket. I pinched the leg my hand was resting on to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, and tried to calm my panicky nerves from the ride up.

  “You did write the note telling me to stay awake, didn’t you?” I asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Did you put the note that said thank you in the coat, too?”

  “Yep.”

  “I thought it was just left there by whoever used to own it. What were you thanking me for?”

  He looked over at me. “Believing me. For making me smile…I’m grateful that you stayed after I told you who my father is. Most people wouldn’t have.” He reached up to brush my hair away from my face. I almost felt frozen in place by his gentle touch. Without even thinking, I reached up for his hand. He held onto it as he laid his hand on his leg.

  “I have a confession to make,” he said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Yesterday I was running through the rain to Swatches to see if I could pick up some extra work. I wasn’t planning on stopping until I got there, but when I saw you standing there, I felt drawn to you. And up close you were so beautiful.”

  I had to smile.

  “It’s been hard to stay away from you ever since.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. I’m not happy about the next few days. I would come see you every night, but I can’t keep you up like that, and I’ll be exhausted after so many straight hours of work every day.”

  “You think I’m beautiful?” I couldn’t get past this.

  He laughed softly. “Of course I do. I could stare at you all night.” His thumb rubbed the back of my hand softly.

  Playing his words over in my head, I was sure that I’d heard him wrong or that I had imagined them. Looking out at the city, I shook my head. “I must be dreaming.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because this can’t be real. I can’t believe someone like you would say something like that to me.”

  “Who’s someone like me?”

  I took in a deep breath and tried to find the courage to answer his question truthfully. “You’re more handsome than I deserve. You’re spontaneous and fun, two things that could never be used to describe me. I can’t believe you could think of me the way you just said you do.”

  “Well, I think you’ve got it all backwards.”

  I wished that I did, but I seemed to be the only one seeing things clearly.

  “Your hands were dirty that day,” I said as a thought came to me.

  “What?”

  “Yesterday, when you reached out to shake my hand, your hands were all dirty like you had been working on cars already.”

  “Oh yeah, I told you they’re always that way. The oil and dirt never all washes away, and half the time I don’t even bother with it. Between work and sleep I don’t see a lot of people.

  Mason let go of my hand and leaned forward to pull two thick slices of bread out of his bag, each wrapped in a napkin. “Do you like banana nut bread?” Mason asked as he handed one to me and then pulled his arm away to begin unwrapping the other.

  “Yeah, it’s my favorite.”

  “Me too. I picked these up on the way home at that bakery I met you beside yesterday.”

  I bit into mine. “This is really good. I’ve never had their banana bread.” It was fresh and buttery. We sat in silence for a few minutes as we ate.

  My mind began to wander to Hayden and what he would say if he knew I was on top of a water tower with Mason in the middle of the night. That was one thing he could never find out about.

  “Thank you, Mason,” I said when I was finished.

  “Sure.” He took my napkin and shoved it into his pack. He had finished his in a small fraction of the time it took me.

  “When have you been up here before?” I asked him.

  “I couldn’t sleep a few nights ago, so I got up and walked around the city. No one was here, so I rode the lift up.”

  “Don’t you ever worry about getting in trouble with the police?”

  “Nah, I figure I’ll just tell them who my old man is if I get into any trouble. Hopefully it’ll scare em enough to let me go.”

  I gave him a peculiar look. He was planning to use his father’s name if he got caught doing something illegal?

  He burst out laughing. “I’m only kidding.”

  I laughed along. “Good, because that would never work.”

  Mason stopped laughing and smiled over at me. “It might. A lot of cops are afraid of the mob. I wouldn’t try to use it to get out of trouble, though. I don’t really worry about it because I’m not hurting anyone. I’m not a vandal or a thief.”

  “I know.”

  He sat back against the wall behind me and put his arm around me again. “You really are beautiful, Alexandra.”

  I scooted closer to him and laid my head on his shoulder. Knowing how he felt made me feel completely at ease with him. I still couldn’t believe it, that he felt the same way about me.

  Mason wrapped both arms around me and laid his head against the top of mine. I inhaled deeply and silently wished on the brightest star in the sky that the night would never end, that he would never let me go.

  But a little while later I felt his arms withdraw, so I sat up and looked over at him. “I hate to do it,” Mason said, “but I should get you home. You need to sleep.”

  “No, I don’t.” I was really enjoying being so close to him, and the regret and fear I was feeling before were all but gone.

  He smiled and stood up. “It wouldn’t be right for me to keep you up all night, and who knows how long you have before your parents figure out you’re gone, but I’ll walk you home.” I stood up reluctantly and waited while Mason stuffed the blanket back into his bag. I was still wearing his coat.

  Then he took my hand and led me back to the lift. I could feel fear welling up inside of me as the memory of the ride up told me not to get in it. I don’t have a choice, I told myself. It’s the only way down. So I fought against my anxiety and stepped into the shaky box.

  “Just hold onto me and it’ll be okay,” Mason said. He must have seen the fear in my face. I leaned against him and put my arms around his back. He pulled the lever that would send us down and then put his arms around me.

  The box began to tremble, or was that me? There was the same tremendous sound, and then we were going down. I felt my grip on Mason tighten as I closed my eyes. “We’re halfway down, almost there,” Mason said soothingly. For a second I thought I would throw up. It felt like we were falling. “It’s almost over,” his voice came again. Then we began to slow down. A few seconds later we stopped. Something above us let out a low moan and then became quiet.

  “I won’t make you do that again,” Mason said as he let go of me to slide open the door.

  I held his arm as I climbed out and tried to stand steady. When I felt like I was okay we started walking home.

  I waited until we reached the park to say anything. No one would be anywhere near us there. “Thank you for taking me up to the water tower, Mason. The lift was a little scary, but the view was really something.”

  “You’re welcome. I’m glad you—” Mason stopped suddenly and pulled me behind a thick tree trunk, into the shadows.

  “What are you—”

  He put a hand over my mouth and pointed in the direction we had been walking as he mouthed out, policeman. We leaned carefully around the tree to see a man walking towards us, Officer Cheery. If he found us he would have told my parents for sure. I felt the same fear I had on the lift.

  Mason and I leaned back behind the tree and stood perfectly still. He reached up very slowly and put his arm behind my back. Then I felt his fingers going up and down over it. I tried not to shiver. Mason pulled me around the tree when he saw Officer Cheery walking pa
st us, trying to keep us always on the opposite side of the tree. Several minutes later we were on the other side of where we had started, waiting for him to get out of sight. “That was close,” Mason whispered when he was sure the policeman was gone.

  “Yeah.”

  I began to want to be home where it was safe again. I didn’t want to leave Mason, but the close call and everything it brought to mind reminded me that we were doing a very dangerous thing.

  After that, we didn’t speak until I got home. Mason walked me to my door. I took off his coat and handed it back to him. “Thanks, Mason. I had a lot of fun…I guess I’ll see you later,” I said, feeling sad that it would be so much later.

  “I’ll meet you after school as soon as I can.” He reached out to hug me, this time leaning down to kiss my cheek and holding me longer than before. The same protests screamed out inside of my head as he let go. “Good night, Alexandra.” He reached out to brush the hair away from my face again. The sweet moment of his fingers brushing against my skin was over too quickly.

  “Good night, Mason.”

  I turned away and walked into my house. I put my coat on the coat rack and went to sit down on the second stair. My fingers touched the spot on my cheek where he had kissed me and I smiled, wondering when his perfect lips would caress my own.

  Suddenly a thought came to me and I reached into my dress pocket. I felt a small piece of paper and was immediately filled with anticipation. Standing up, I climbed the stairs as quickly and quietly as I could and then dashed into my room. I closed the door before I rushed over to my bed and turned on my lamp. It was Mason’s handwriting. But this was the most confusing one yet. Don’t wander. “Don’t wander?” I whispered to myself. What did that mean? Don’t wander from the city, from my home? It didn’t make any sense. Unfortunately, I knew that I would have to wait awhile to find out.