Chicago Surprise

Prompt: #265 Bon Voyage

“Write about someone who’s traveling to a place they’ve never been to meet someone they’ve never met.”

Chicago Surprise

Submitted by: Jacqueline A. Bourland



           Emily’s heart was beating so hard she felt everyone on the train station platform that early morning could surely hear it pounding. Emotionally she wondered if her trip to Chicago was a good idea; leaving the comfort of the known [her life in Normal, Illinois] and venturing out into the unknown [the big city of Chicago].  Intellectually she knew she had no choice.  Her beautiful mother, Barbara (known by her dear friends as “Barbie”),  her 10 year old sister Margaret and 6 year old brother, James,  were counting on her, and there was no other answer.

           Her Father, highly-respected Professor Robert Holmes,  had been a driving force in the educational curriculum at the University of Illinois, located in their small hometown of Normal (population under 10,000)  until his untimely death 3 years earlier. Professor Holmes had been a much-loved university fixture and a much-loved and respected husband and father in a family who thrived on spending time together and making the very most of their small-town lives by filling their minds with knowledge – at the urging of Professor Holmes – and their lives with service to those less fortunate – at the urging and direction of their kind, generous Mother. 

           Now, in late 1942, with the residual effects of the 1929 Great Depression  still looming in small town America, and the onset of WWII with the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the remaining Holmes family members were uncertain of their future, as were most other middle American families. With their Father’s untimely death and Barbie’s lack of any formal college education, finding jobs to supplement their meager death-benefit pension income was making it more and more difficult to meet monthly household expenses, to say nothing of providing any additional funds for extra “fun” times for the family. 

           Their Father had been not only the bedrock of the family from a financial standpoint, but also the driving force in the family’s educational upbringing and, along with their Mother’s influence, the social and community-service-oriented activities for the family. But now, times had changed; circumstances had changed. 

           As the eldest child, Emily, at only 19, felt the pressure to take over her Father’s role as “provider”, not only financially, but in all aspects of the family’s life and the continued upbringing and education of her two, young siblings.          

           Emily had graduated at the top of her high school class and, for the last year, had been thinking of going into teaching herself. She had so admired her Father and the positive affects he had had on so many of his myriad students at the University. She knew she could never be as successful as her Professor Father, but she dreamed of going to University, right there in Normal, and getting a degree so that she could become as effective a public school teacher as she was able to be.

            Until the day came when she could save up enough to attend University, she had been able to bring in a modest additional income to the family thru work she was doing at the University, work given to her by dear friends and associates of her Father, out of their kindness and respect for Professor Holmes, and their awareness of the financial difficulties the family was beginning to experience.

           Emily and her Mother had been spending long hours, after the children were in bed, discussing what options they had available to them. A decision was made that Emily would forego her college and try to find a substantially-paying job to supplement the family income.

           Professor of Economics Raymond Tuttle, one of her Father’s University colleagues, had given her the name and address of a text book distributor in Chicago where he felt Emily might be able to gain a job as a traveling textbook salesperson, with sufficient additional income to provide not only a good life for herself,  but also to provide the needed additional income for her Mother and her siblings. Since it was a traveling job, she would not be spending all of her time in Chicago but would be able to spend time with her family in Normal as well.

           She had never been to Chicago and she knew no one at the company she had been referred to. Nonetheless, she was confident that if she gave up her dreams of going into education herself and headed to Chicago, she would be successful in taking over the “bedrock” family position that she felt was her responsibility to her family since the death of her Father.

           Thus, she found herself now standing at the station platform awaiting the arrival of the train which would take her to Chicago, a place she had never been, to meet a person she did not know,  but must somehow convince that she was qualified enough to hold down the job of a traveling textbook salesman.

           The sound of the train met her ears and her heart pounded even louder. Her impulse was to turn and run home to the comfort and security she had known all her life. She had loved and respected her Father beyond measure. The faith in herself and faith in her abilities for her future had been well-instilled in her by both of her parents. It was a sense of security that she had never questioned, nor had she ever believed she might lose, until now.

           That security,  however,  was no longer a reality in her world. But the train, now coming to a screeching stop in front of her on the platform, was now her reality.  She knew she must muster the courage to step onto that train and head into a world, and a life, of which she was totally unfamiliar.

           Emily turned her shaky head to her beautiful Mother, the only one who had accompanied her to the station,  standing proudly at the station door forcing an assuredly confident smile in her daughter’s direction: “I’m scared to death, Mom” Emily confessed.

           “I know, sweetheart, I know. You don’t have to do this, you know”. 

           “But I do, Mom. Not only for the family but for myself.” The words came out of Emily’s mouth, but her heart was full of fear and trepidation.

           “Love you”,  Emily yelled back at her Mother as she picked up the tan and plaid leather suitcase her grandmother had given  her for graduation from high school, and jumped on the train as it began to move down the tracks, leaving Emily’s image of the station a fastly-diminishing security.

           The ride was long, but the time flew by because of her fears. It was easier to just be sitting on the train than it was going to be to try to locate Mr. Scott Dunn of the Dunn and Holloway Publishing Company, the name Professor Tuttle had referred Emily to in Chicago. She was going to extend every minute she had in the comfort and security of her seat on the rapidly moving train as it clickety clacked down the tracks from Normal to Chicago.

           As the train eased to a stop in Grand Central Station on Harrison Street in Chicago, Emily reached overhead for her suitcase and purse and exited the train car with the other passengers, each with a purpose, each with their own individual story.

           “Can you tell me how to get to Van Buren Street”,  Emily impulsively chose to ask a distinguished looking man who was entering the Station through the same door she was. The self-assured way he carried himself, his expensive leather valise and the way he was dressed, quickly flashed through Emily’s mind as comfortably being one of those high-class, big city businessmen she had read so much about, but had never, in real life, met but assumed she could trust.

           “Who, specifically, are you looking for”, he asked in return.

           “A Mr. Scott Dunn of Dunn and Holloway at 401 Van Buren Street in downtown Chicago” Emily replied.

           “They are no longer in business”, he stated in a matter-of-fact tone. 

           In a mere second, with this unfeeling man’s simple statement: “They are no longer in business”, Emily’s world shattered.

           She quickly caught her breath leaned against one of the many huge Corinthian-style columns that adored the Station’s interior, afraid that she would pass out and fall to the marble floor making a horrible scene.

           “Are you okay”, the gentleman asked as he drew closer to her trembling body leaning against the column.

           Without any hope of holding it in, tears began to roll down her cheeks as she realized that she had failed in her efforts and would be returning home, without any promise of financial success for herself or her family. Her hands covered her face in embarrassment as she felt the man’s strong hand pat her back as if he was going to burp a new-born baby.

           She twirled around, wiped the tears from her cheeks and, in an effort to thank him for his concern and interest, picked up her suitcase - which she had dropped as she leaned against the column to catch her fall - and deceptively replied: “I’m fine. For a moment I was a bit taken aback, but I am fine. Thanks for your concern. Good day”.

           She turned to walk away (having no idea where she was actually headed since she now had absolutely nowhere to go and no return ticket to Normal to take her back to the security of her previous 19 years). 

           The gentleman again touched her arm and this time she could feel, through the warmth, strength, yet gentleness of his hand, a sincere compassion for her plight, even though he had no idea what her “plight” was.

           As he picked up her tan and plaid leather suitcase, he put his arm through hers and led her, with an assurance and confidence of a father figure,  through the terminal and into a seat at the terminal restaurant. “Let’s have a cup of coffee” he suggested.

           There was silence between them until the waitress set their coffee cups in front of them. Then, this handsome, well dressed, obviously well educated “stranger” looked her squarely in the eyes and, with a bit more-then-fatherly forceful tone demanded: “Now, young lady, tell me your story. What’s your name, where are you from and why are you looking for a publishing distribution company that no longer exists?”

           It didn’t seem like she had much of  an “out” to refuse his request. Taking a deep breath, she began telling him her “story”. But, who was he? Why had he taken an interest in her? Even more importantly, in a big city, where she had never been and in which she knew absolutely no one, why in the world should she tell him her “story”?  No answers came to her mind, but her mouth uncontrollably spewed it all out, as if it were a script in a play she was performing in.

           He sat quietly, staring directly at her, without interruption, seeming, to her surprise, to be really interested in what she was saying She couldn’t believe that she was unloading her heart, her hopes and her disappointment to this random person, without a thought about her safety with him or  where she was going next, or how she was going to get there. 

           She had made no accommodations for herself once she arrived in Chicago.  In her naivety, when considering this trip to Chicago, she had envisioned getting on the train in Normal, getting off the train in Chicago, going directly to Dunn and Holloway on Van Buren Street, and convincing the person in charge that she was qualified and capable for the job; then getting the job. Beyond that, she knew she could handle any other details later.  

           Never in her version of her “story” – which she was now telling this stranger – did she ever consider the possibility that she would fail. She was not raised to ever consider “failure” as an option. In truth, in her 19 years as the eldest daughter of a prominent University Professor, she could never recall having ever “failed” at anything.

           Once her story had been told, her exhausted, emotionally-drained demeanor was obvious to the stranger,  as her shoulders sagged and her head hung low at the table. With much effort, she took a sip of her now cold coffee. After what seemed an elongated silence, she raised her eyes and realized that this perfect stranger she had so willingly, and probably unwisely, opened up to was now tossing his head backwards in a belly-jiggling laugh, loud enough that others in the restaurant stopped their conversations and began staring quizzically in their direction.

           Emily’s dagger-filled eyes darted a look at this wonderfully handsome stranger and with blushed cheeks and crackling voice began yelling at him: “How dare you entice me into telling you my “story” and then turn around and laugh at me as if I was some kind of a spoiled little child”!

           “Au Contraire”, his calm and husky voice replied as his hand reached out and touched her arm across the table.

           ‘I am not laughing at you, I am laughing at the irony of the situation” he replied.

           “What irony?” she asked as she pulled her arm from the table and took another sip of cold coffee from her cup.

           “My name is Scott Walker and I am the CEO of McDermid Publications, a Chicago district office of the Scholastic Corporation out of New York. We distribute textbooks to the mid-America states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.”

           Emily gasped and in an almost undiscernibly choking voice asked: “Are you kidding me? Is that even possible? Can you prove who you are?”  

           Scott opened his expensively-bound leather valise and slid a gilded business card across the table to Emily. It read: Mr. Scott Walker, Chief Executive Officer McDermid Publications, 401 Van Buren Street, Chicago, Illinois  Chicago District Office for Scholastic Corporation, New York, New York 

           Emily stared at the card for what seemed like minutes before making her overly obvious statement: “Scholastic Corporation is one of, if not THE, largest publishers of school textbooks in the entire country!” “And, your address is the address Professor Tuttle gave me for Dunn and Holloway.   I don’t understand.”

           “Dunn and Holloway was taken over by Scholastic about 2 years ago when they almost became insolvent as a result of the depression and beginning of WWII. At that time, I was the lead salesman and, as a result of the takeover, I was made CEO of the takeover company, McDermid Publications. Now, because of the war efforts and economics of war, my Chicago branch is beginning to show a handsome profit, with a very bright future.”

           Emily could only stare off into the terminal past the stranger – now known as Scott Walker -  through the haze of the now evening sun streaming through the windows of Chicago’s Grand Central Station and bouncing off the exquisite marble floor. 

           Could it possibly be that this trip to Chicago - a place she had only heard about and read about -  and this stranger – Scott Walker, CEO -  whom she had met by sheer happenstance, be the beginning of her equally “bright future”?          

[Word Count: 2,567]