Ah but when I hear the laughter
'Round a jangling country fair
Or hear a pennywhistler
In a merry market square
In a field of twilight children
Her face is laughing up at me
And then she ain't nothing but time
-Tony Bird, "Nothing But Time"
Eddie was hard at work on the latest brief for the factory management when the whistle blew down the street. He looked up at Mr. Croft and grinned.
"Go ahead," the older man said. "But I don't need to tell you, you've got to keep your mouth shut about that brief. She's union and you're management, you'd best not forget that, Edward."
"You know whose side I'm on, Mr. Croft," Eddie said with a grin as he pulled his suit coat, despite the summer heat. The Dawes men always appeared presentable in public, at least in Maxon Cove, and rules were rules. "We only need to indulge those silly little girls until November anyway. Once Dewey beats Truman, the unions'll crumble like a house of cards."
"That 'silly little girl' is three years older than you, Eddie," Mr. Croft reminded him. "And she's got a good five years in the factory. Your private life is your business, but if I ever find you've let it compromise anything..."
"You won't, you know that!" Eddie protested, choosing not to correct his boss' error. Therèse was
four
years older than he. That was just enough for him to remember her hanging around the village green back when his father would bring him into town on his business jaunts in the summertime, a listless teenage girl lolling about with her girlfriends, sassing the factory workers on their lunchbreak back when they were all male, back when girls were icky and all he cared about was baseball. "Besides, she's older, but I'm the man and I go to Harvard! She knows who's boss."
"Just don't underestimate a woman's ability to manipulate you, Eddie," Mr. Croft warned. "They're irrational and emotional, but they're clever."
"Tell me somethin' I don't know!" Eddie quipped. "That's why I'm here for the summer, isn't it?"
"That's right, Eddie, you're here to learn. Not to spite your mother and father by fooling around with the enemy behind their backs."
"Oh, they'd love Therèse if they gave her half a chance!" A lie and both men knew it, but Eddie didn't care. And after perching his hat at the perfect cocky angle, off he pranced into the July sun to wait discreetly for his forbidden love.
He didn't begrudge Mr. Croft his paranoia about Therèse at all; with the unionization battle heating up by the day, it was the old folks' job to be worried about her ability to sway the other girls her way with her flirtatious yet serious manner, and it certainly wouldn't do for the son of the town's bluest-blooded family to be caught with her. That they hadn't been caught all summer wasn't the miracle it appeared to be, so much as it was a matter of most of the folks who were neither management nor union having no desire to get involved. Or maybe they just didn't care. Or both. Mr. Croft was the only guy among Eddie's old man's social circle who knew about Therèse. But Eddie could trust Mr. Croft, for there were certain accounting practices of his that he also preferred to keep secret from Eddie's parents.
Old Man Blanchette had kept the girls on at the factory after the war ended. He could pay them less, after all, and he'd figured -- correctly -- that the boys who came back alive wouldn't be willing to settle back in Maxon Cove, New Hampshire anyway. Not after they'd seen the world, no matter how ugly the side of it they'd seen. There'd been a bit of grumbling at first about the girls not giving the boys back what was rightfully theirs, but three years later no one was complaining anymore. Seeing the young women strutting off to work in the morning was just another part of life in their village, like the bonfire in October and the White Mountain gales in winter and the mix of French and English spoken in the streets. For plenty of the young men of Maxon Cove, the site of the factory girls looking proud and determined in their work clothes had come to be quite a pleasure.
Eddie Dawes was one such young man -- just twenty and just home from Harvard for the summer -- but he was from one of the oldest families in Maxon Cove. His ancestors had been in town for over a century by the time the Quebecois had come down after the Civil War looking for work, and from Eddie's great grandparents down to his father, they had never forgiven the Canucks for invading their once-serene country roads. For decades that animosity had only simmered, but of late it had come to a nearly-violent boil due to calls for unionization among the factory girls.
That, coupled with the fact that she was a scandalous four years his senior, was why Eddie had kept his beloved Therèse Lanier a carefully guarded secret from his parents. Borne of a long line of troublemakers, she had barely made it through high school and, if not for the war and the labor shortage, would likely have joined her father and brothers among those the factory wouldn't touch due to their drunk and lazy reputation. But to the management's surprise, she had proven herself to be a more than capable worker; and to their chagrin, an even more capable labor organizer. The unionization battle had made her perhaps the most controversial citizen of Maxon Cove -- and it had also made her all the more irresistible to Eddie, who shared his father's politics but not his snobbery. For nearly two months now, they had never missed a chance to bridge their class and political divides in the sweetest way.
Most of the young women who poured through the factory gates at lunchtime were lovely in one way or another - at least Eddie thought so - but Therèse and her defiant smile stood out against the crowd every time. Never more than on that day, when he spotted the twinkle in her eye almost before he could be sure it was her among the throng of her colleagues.
But it was her, flanked as usual by her old school chums Maggie and Celine, the only ones in town who knew -- officially, at least -- where Therèse disappeared to every day at lunch. Her palpable cheer was contagious, and despite a rough morning at Croft's office, Eddie found himself grinning back at her as she made her way across the street. Of course their lunchtime trysts were always a reason to be cheerful.
The protocol never varied. As soon as he spotted her in the crowd, Eddie slipped into the stairway that led up to the tiny apartment Mr. Croft pretended not to know they used almost every day. At first he'd made a point of looking around to see if anyone noticed, but they had both realized early on that it only drew attention they otherwise wouldn't get. Eddie glowed behind his golden-boy exterior as he made his way up the dark, narrow steps, knowing the town villain had her hungry eyes on his back.
Therèse let herself into the Spartan but clean little room moments after Eddie as usual, and once again found him standing in the noonday sunbeam with that expectant grin on his face. "So what was the warning today?" she asked as she locked the door and threw herself into his arms.
"Older and management this time," Eddie said, returning the embrace. "I think he's retired the naughty-girl stuff. He must have guessed that would only encourage me more!"
"Very funny!" She gave him a chuck on the arm as she pulled back, then leaned in again for a kiss. It was but a quick one, then she grabbed him by the hand and whispered, "Come on, have a seat on the bed. I have big news!"
Eddie felt a stab of panic in his heart. Hadn't it only been three weeks since the last time she wouldn't let him touch her for a week? Or was it five? But she looked too happy for it to be that, he reasoned as he sat down beside her and tried to keep a brave face. Smiling through his panic, he ventured a guess: "You talked Maggie into joining us tomorrow?"
"Always such a dirty mind!" Therèse said, punching him on the arm. Then she drew a deep breath and continued, "Heavens, it was a dreadful morning! Monsieur Blanchette was absolutely on a tear, even threatened to fire us all if he heard one more word about organizing! But I hear he's taking the afternoon off, so there'll be some peace then."
"And some organizing, no doubt," Eddie grumbled in his usual disapproving tone.
"And some organizing," Therèse agreed defiantly. Then she pulled back and gave him that look that she knew would melt him. "Eddie, why do you think it's such a bad thing if we girls want better pay and better conditions?"
"I don't," Eddie said. "But you get so greedy sometimes! You already have these great jobs that -- and I'm sorry, but they're really meant for men -- and you make enough money to help out at home, don't you?"
