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Mrs Kelly trotted down the stairs, a big wo black hair pinned up in a bun None of the trendy flapper girl clothes for her She wasn’t fat and she wasn’t skinny, just a tree you could lean on

"Well, dearin Sophie Kelly and Nora Waters’s apart tea, I was at once co-sleeved work blouses, and Sophie lent h, and they had sense enough not to ask

The ht away to see a lady who had just delivered twins and irl like me She lived a few miles aith her husband and two other children in one of those big homes near Friendship Sophie was like that; if there was a probleht at it like a bull toward a red wool shirt

As luck would have it, there was no work for a milkmaid with the family in Friendship or anywhere else, but Mrs Kelly, a hospital-trained nurse turned rit, or maybe just took pity on me, and offered me their back bedroom upstairs There was only a cot, a chifforobe, and a s much, but with the tomen, I felt really safe for the first time in days

This was 1913, just about Christmas Mrs Kelly bound my breasts with comfrey leaves until my milk dried up, and Nora found house The United States was gearing up for the Great War, overI didn’t care if the factory ot killed with them I had friends and a home I was happy

Nora and Sophie

It was ured out that Sophie and Nora were lovers I caught the in the kitchen, and I don’t mean a smooch on the cheek either Nora’s blue eyes shimmered, and she had her hand down Mrs Kelly’s blouse Not that I minded; I’d known other lesbians when I worked at the Majestic

When you’ve been a milkmaid for other people’s babies; lived in other people’s hoe; stolen jewelry; run aith nothing but your cloak, your favorite painting, and your mother’s old Bible and hymnal, you accept that people survive and find happiness however they can

At first, I always called Mrs Kelly "Mrs Kelly" instead of "Sophie" because she was old enough to be h forty-four doesn’t seem old now I called Nora "Nora" because she was thirty-four, h now that I’irlish

In the fall, the three of us moved to a little row house near Kenny’s Park, the one they later turned into Kennywood, the place with o-round rides and an arcade The two-story white clapboard had a huge living rooer kitchen and a trolley stop one block away We took the streetcar to work or into the city anted to go to a rally, a free concert, or a baseball game at Forbes Field It cost only a nickel either way and with Nora and I each ance

After work and on weekends, Nora distributed birth control inforh streets, and soo to the Crawford Grill in the Hill District, where we heard Duke Ellington and some of the local jazz musicians, like Erroll Garner and Billy Strayhorn And then there were the gardens and the zoo at Highland Park Mrs Kelly liked that

Those were the days when on Friday nights we’d have friends, both men and women, over for Irish stew and homemade bread We’d read out loud the poees by Tolstoy and polemics from the International Workers Association Once Emma Goldanizer, did too

Mother’s given name was Mary Harris Jones, and she’d been a dressmaker before her four children died of yellow fever and she joined with the United Mine Workers Most people don’t know that She carried her sadness like I carry mine, under her heart If you’d asked how she dealt with it, for a ht pull the dried knot of pain out and stare at it like a foreign thing until she reht John L Leith her This was before he was president of the UMW, but I didn’t like him He watched me from under his thick black eyebrows and sette friend, introduced us to W E B Du Bois when he was in Pittsburgh on NAACP business Daisy was a real firecracker I’d never seen a woht wore on, we’d drink hos, "The Tramp," "There Is Power in a Union," and my favorite, "The Rebel Girl"

"That’s the Rebel Girl, that’s the Rebel Girl, to the working class she’s a precious pearl She brings courage, pride and joy to the fighting Rebel Boy" Ruben came with Mother Jones one tihts, when the temperature outside was below zero and the coal heater stove couldn’t keep up, the three of us slept together in Mrs Kelly’s big bed, Nora, Sophie, and I We’d snuggle under the feather quilt in our long flannel nightgowns and call ourselves the three bears Nora was the papa, though she dressed the most woh so hard, Mrs Kelly would have to run to the potty to pee

16

Dreams

Lately, I’ve been bothered by dreams, and I suspect Mr Hester’s presence in the house has affectedthe boardwalk in Chicago on a warm fall day He’s a tall, sliht blue eyes I’rab his hand to show hi, Lawrence runs around the park, holding !" I yell

My face is hen I wake It’s been so long since I was young and in love A pounding on the door downstairs jerks ht for travel

Unexpected summons to the home of Mrs Clara Wetsel of Liberty She was in labor with her fourth baby and having heavy bleeding Her husband and she didn’t want to call on Dr Blum because they’re still beholden to him for forty-five dollars after her husband, JK, lost his arm at the sawmill