“Now, Calvin,” Frank began, taking a seat opposite him, “tell me what you’re doing here today.”
“I come to see my father,” he said defensively, suspicious of Frank’s mildness. He blinked a few times as if trying to hold back tears.
“It was my understanding that you had an appointment with him two days ago. What kept you?”
Frank’s sarcasm was wasted on the boy. “I did come two days ago, just like he’d said for me to. He said he’d… Well, never mind. I was to come then, in the afternoon. At two o’clock. I waited until I heard the big clock in the tower chiming, then I went up to the front door and knocked. But didn’t nobody answer. I pounded for a long time, but nobody come. Houses like this, they got servants and such. I couldn’t figure why nobody come, so I waited awhile and knocked again. Then some copper come and told me to be on my way, he didn’t like my looks, and I was scared he’d arrest me. I figured I must’ve got the wrong day or something, so I left.”
“Are you telling me you didn’t come inside and you didn’t see your father that day?”
“No, sir. I didn’t see nobody in the house at all.”
“If you had an appointment with your father, why did you wait two days to come back?” Frank asked, keeping his tone gently inquiring. He saw no sense in frightening the boy so long as he was talking freely, even if he didn’t like his answers.
“I didn’t. I come back yesterday, but I seen that copper again. He didn’t see me, but he was walking around the park, acting like he wasn’t going nowhere very soon. I figured if he sees me, he’ll give me his stick, so I kept going. Today I didn’t see him, so I come up to the door and asked to see my father. That’s when that snooty fellow tried to throw me out.”
“I see. Now tell me, Calvin, how you came to be in the city in the first place.”
The boy frowned. He wasn’t eager to share this story, but he knew he had no choice. “I told you, I come to see my father.”
“You came an awfully long way, and it’s my understanding he’d been gone a long time. How did you even know he was here?”
Calvin shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “I seen his picture. It was a drawing. On a poster for one of his lectures. Someone sent it to my ma.”
“Who?” Frank asked, perking up.
“Don’t know. Whoever sent it didn’t write no letter or anything. It was just the poster in an envelope addressed to my ma. We could see right off it was him. It was a good likeness, even though they said his name was Edmund Blackwell. Pa was named Edward Brown. Ma said it was like him to change his name to sound more uppity.”
“Or so his family couldn’t locate him,” Frank suggested.
The boy snorted. “Likely he could’ve still called himself Eddie Brown and we couldn’st’ve found him either. How could we? Last we heard he was in Boston. Boston’s a big place. He could hide there forever without us finding him.”
The boy was right. “You could have hired a detective to locate him,” Frank suggested.
“You mean you can pay coppers to find somebody for you?” Calvin asked in amazement.
Frank forgot the boy was from the country. “No, there’s private detectives you can hire to do things like this.”
Calvin looked at him like he was crazy. “And how could we pay somebody to do that? Pa used to send us some money from time to time, but he quit a couple years ago. Must’ve been about the time he come here. Even when he did send money, it was never enough, though. There’s three of us kids. I’ve got two little sisters. Ma had to take in washing to put food on the table. I worked at whatever I could, selling newspapers and chopping firewood and whatever I could find until I got big enough to get steady work. Sometimes we didn’t even have enough to eat, so how could we hire somebody to find Pa?”
“But you had enough money to come to New York from Virginia,” Frank pointed out. “Exactly where do you live there?”
“A place called Lynchburg. I… well, there was something else in the envelope besides the poster. No letter or nothing, like I said, but there was a train ticket.”
“Someone sent you a train ticket to New York?” Frank asked in amazement. This was growing more interesting by the moment.
“Yeah, and… and a little bit of money, too.”
Frank stared at the boy. He’d been lied to by thousands of people in the course of his work, and he liked to think he could spot a lie a mile away. This boy was either telling the truth or he was the best liar Frank had ever encountered. “Sounds like someone wanted you to come to New York and find your father.”
The boy shrugged. “I guess so. Ma, she thought someone was mad at Pa and wanted to get even or something.”
“They must have wanted to get even very badly to go to all that trouble,” Frank suggested. “How did you find your father when you got to the city?”
“I just went to the place where he was going to be, where it said on the poster he was going to be. There was lots of people there. I sat way in the back so he wouldn’t see me, and then he come out on the stage. It was him, all right. I ain’t seen him for almost five years, but I was eleven when he left, so I knew him right off.”
“Did you confront him that night?”
“No. I didn’t want to warn him off. And besides, there was this man who talked that night. He said Dr. Blackwell was married to his daughter. I didn’t think that could be right. He’s married to my ma! I was confused, and I needed to think about things some, so I waited around, after the lecture. I was gonna follow him home, but he got in one of them hansom cabs. I didn’t know they was called that then, but I do now. Anyways, I heard him telling the driver where to take him. Gramercy Park. It was easy to find out where that was. I just asked somebody at the place where I’m staying.”
“And so you called on your father. When was this?”
“I don’t know. About five days ago, I guess.”
“What was his reaction?”
Calvin frowned, his youthful face revealing every emotion. Plainly, he found the memory painful. “I don’t know what I expected, but for certain it wasn’t what happened. He pretended he was real happy to see me. Asked how everybody was doing and all. I thought he’d be mad or maybe act a little guilty, but he didn’t. It was like he’d just forgot all about us, and I’d reminded him. Said he knew he’d been neglecting us, and he wanted to set things right. I thought he meant he’d bring all of us up here to live with him. That’s what he should’ve done, and he’s got plenty of room in this house, don’t he? The reason he left was so he could do better and give us a better life. This was his chance.”
“But he wasn’t going to do that, was he?”
“He said the city wasn’t the right place for us because it was so dangerous. He said we’d be better off to stay in Lynchburg. He was making money now, for the first time, and he’d start supporting us again. He’d even come to visit. But he had to stay here because that’s where his business was.” Calvin’s tone clearly expressed his bitterness.
“What did you say?”
“I said I knew he had another wife now, and what would people think if they found out about us?”
“Did that scare him?”
“It made him real mad. He said if I did anything to hurt him, he wouldn’t be able to make a living anymore, and we’d never get anything from him again. If I kept quiet, he’d send me back with some money, and he’d start sending us money regular again, too.”
“Did you believe him?”
“I didn’t know, but he was real mean. He scared me, like he might do something worse than not support us if I made any trouble for him.”
“Did he threaten you?”
“Not right out, but he made it real clear he could make sure I didn’t never get back to Lynchburg if I made trouble.”