Heaven's Gate Bridge twenty

Heaven’s Gate Bridge twenty

Taylor Munson had no problems handling the few customers who came into the shop. There were not many because the men either picked up their suits on Thursday for the Easter celebrations or they were going to come by some time this week. One man came in who paid on his suit that he would pick up next week. A final customer came in to ask if the alterations were completed. This was done by Joan, the seamstress. She fixed tears, lengthened the pant legs and sometimes embroidered initials on handkerchiefs for a special customer. She really worked hard and sometimes had to put her sewing down because her hands cramped so much.

Joan was a single lady who immigrated from England. She had such lovely speech that both men agreed that they could listen to her for a long time. She also had interesting story about being one of the many brides who were brought to New York in America on the Baltic ship in 1907. She sung the tune “I Want You, Honey, Yes I Do” that she heard as she lined up with other lovely ladies looking for a chance to marry a man who might make all of their dreams come true. Her handsome husband, Orson, was tall and strong. He treated her so nicely that she felt just like the royalty that she remembered in her homeland. The next year, Nora was born. However her dream fell apart when they moved south to this area. Her husband got pneumonia and died. All she had was the money in her purse and a young child in its bed after his funeral. She was grateful that her friends gave her some easy sewing jobs until she could find a job with Mr. Miller. The only problem was that she lived just on the other side of Heaven’s Gate Bridge. She walked to the job most of the time after she delivered Nora to a friend to watch. In return, Joan did all of that friend’s sewing for free and watched her son when that lady had an errand to do.

Taylor recorded the time of Joan’s arrival on a special time sheet that they had. He had no doubt that Joan would try to work to make up the time that she missed. She put her hand bag and lunch in the corner where she worked. She trusted the people she worked with because they were nice and sometimes let her go fifteen minutes early if it looked like bad weather. This afternoon it looked fairly sure that rain would come before her six o’clock check out time.

Joan seemed to have a special smile for today, even though it was late. She was laying out the clothes pieces that were to be sewn for a customer who was coming in for a fitting on Wednesday. She had a small dish of pins at the corner of her table.

“My goodness Joan, what is in you today?” Taylor asked as he arranged the bobbins of threads.

“I shouldn’t say, but since you and Mr. Miller are so fine, I earned a little extra five dollars with a special tatting job that I finished on Friday night. I am going to pay a bill early on my way home and then pick up some meat for Nora and me. We are going to have some decent meat and vegetable soup for dinner.” she said as she beamed.

“Tatting?”

“Oh yes. You must see the fine work. It takes a while but if you know what you are doing, it is easy.” she said as she went to the corner and pulled a sample out of her purse. She had intended to work for a few minutes as she ate on her break.

“How lovely,” he said as he watched her put the sample back. Before she closed her purse, his eye caught the five dollars at one side of her cloth purse. She walked back to the corner and put the purse back down.

“Yes but I am a little behind on my work and I guess you have something to do.” she stopped as the shop door bell rang for another customer. She walked to the back part of the shop and examined what was left for her to do as Taylor walked to the front to greet the customer.

But this was not a customer. It was a man who wore a suit that smelled of smoke and greasy food. He looked like he had not shaved. His suit coat was so tight that anyone who saw him might think that a button would pop off at any moment.

Taylor stopped as he passed through the doorway from the back to the front. His legs felt a little weak and his throat suddenly became dry. He pulled himself together and pulled the curtain in the doorway closed. He then walked up to the counter where he could talk in a soft voice to this person. As he stopped at the counter, he tugged at the vest that he had on.

“Good afternoon Mr. Jones. What may I help you with today?” he said as he tried to act normal.

“You know my name is. Oh I see. Yes. I am looking at some place to get a suit, but I don’t have enough money. You know what I mean?” he said as he leaned over the counter to get closer to Taylor. His breath was so smelly with fish and chips and beer that Taylor had to steady himself from passing out.

“Well I think that if you wait until the end of the week, things might be arranged.” responded Taylor as he flicked his head towards the back to indicate that there was another person in the back.

“I don’t know. It seems that there needs to be a show of good faith.” Mr. Jones whispered with a little rasp in it, as he held out his hand that had cuts and dirt on it.

“Well, I ah.” Taylor thought for a moment “Please wait here.” he said as he went into the back. He was going to ask to borrow some money but just as he entered he saw the dish fall on the floor and the pins scatter all around.

“Oh my goodness, my goodness Joan. You have done it now.” she said to herself. She immediately got down on her knees and crawled around the floor with her back to the front of the shop.

Taylor quickly walked over to her purse and opened it quickly. He saw the same five dollar bill and pulled it out. He quietly closed the purse and put it back in its place. Then he tiptoed out to the front again and turned to face Mr. Jones who stood in the same place.

“Here. Five dollars. I hope that is faith enough.” Taylor said as he shoved the money towards the frightful figure.

Mr. Jones snatched the money and thrust it in his pocket. A sneer slowly formed on his face. He gave Taylor a very evil looking glare.

“For now I guess it will have to do. But the boss will not let you penny, nickel or dime your way out of your debt. And you have a deadline to pay up by the end of the month. Ya hear?” he said as he spun around and walked out of the door.

Taylor felt like someone had jerked every bone out of his body. He never thought that he would steal from a friend and someone who was poorer than he was. He wanted to walk back into the back to confess to Joan but then she would tell Mr. Miller. He would most certainly lose his job if not be put into jail for theft. If only he could win one card game or one big race. He thought that he would swear off gambling and never do that again. If only he had money to try.