An online novel by Gillette Edmunds

“Oh, I didn’t,” Mrs. Fisher said. “But, mind you, the rooms were paid for, so I insisted they be kept open in case any of you four showed up. I’m glad it wasn’t the others.” A bright, denture cream smile spread across Mrs. Fisher’s round face. “Besides,” she said. “Johnny didn’t send your bags back to Paris like he did for the others.”

Mrs. Fisher was glad to be able to run around looking for Johnny and to show Barbara and Michael their rooms, because she knew when this chore was done she would find the others already around the bar and she would have news for them.

The Salazar’s were standing at the bar when Mrs. Fisher returned. They lifted their drinks to her.

“This Italian living agrees with Jerome,” Polly Salazar said. “He’s been drinking lunch for years and now he has found a whole country that lives his way.”

Jerome Salazar had a well developed habit of not responding to his wife’s remarks. Any response could lead to more pointed remarks and result in a loud and painful scene.

Polly, a tall, blond woman of Swedish descent, always wore her hair in a bun on top of her head. She had been a great beauty growing up in Chicago with wide blue eyes and a smile for all the men. Jerome owned a small building business outside Chicago when he met her. He was 25 and she was 18. Her family thought he had great promise and they were married the day of her college graduation. His business never grew as anticipated and they proved unable to conceive children. The year she turned 40, Jerome filled for bankruptcy. Polly stopped buying new clothes and make-up and began wearing her hair up. She turned to Roman Catholicism and began actively participating in all of her church’s functions. Though he was able to start a new contracting business, Jerome was still unable to keep ahead of his bills. Pitying Polly’s inability to have children and responding to the great remorse she expressed about this, a number of the young church women asked her to be their children’s godmother. Now 57, this and the current tour of Europe were the only consolations, in her mind, of her later life.