Chapter 45
Nancy (March 1958)
...
She stared at the top of the fire escape from the bottom of the alleyway. Nancy had made it back to the hotel after spending the day at Roger's apartment, getting a room ready with his boyfriend’s help, and she was ready to climb up to the window to ask Carolyn to leave with her. She had the paper bag of money her brother gave her stuffed into her coat and her breath was visible, letting her know that she needed to get out of the cold even if it was for a short while. Nancy hopped up onto garbage cans and jumped to reach the hanging ladder that felt icy to the touch. She imagined her warm hands sticking to the frozen metal and visualized injuring herself by tearing the skin of her palms and falling back to the ground. Luckily that didn't happen and she pulled herself up with all of her strength. When she finally got herself on the fire escape, she needed a moment to catch her breath. The cold air burned her throat and lungs. Nancy climbed the fire escape steps, one by one, until she reached the window that she knew led into C7. The curtains were drawn closed but Nancy noticed that the light was still on. It was pretty late and Nancy knew of the possibility that Carolyn was already asleep. She had a habit of falling asleep with the light on. Nancy hoped that Carolyn would hear her knocking on the window. She brought her shaking hand to the glass and softly knocked four times. There was a moment of pure quiet that fell upon Nancy as she stood on the fire escape in the cold night. The light from a streetlamp glowed behind her and the light from room C7 invited her in. She heard the latch of the window click and the pane slid up, revealing a distressed-looking Carolyn in her nightgown.
"Did I wake you?" Nancy asked as she smiled.
Carolyn scoffed. "Roger wouldn't tell me a damn thing. You had me worried."
"I wanted to surprise you!"
"All you did was scare me," Carolyn frowned. "Get in here, it's so cold."
Nancy climbed in through the window and Carolyn shut it, leaving the wintery frost out in the dark.
"What were you thinking?" Carolyn scolded. "I was so worried! I didn't know if you were going to come back. I think Laurier called your father to tell him you'd gone missing!"
"That's nothing to worry about," Nancy said as she pulled the paper bag from her coat to show Carolyn.
"What is that?"
"My brother gave me money," Nancy said. "We're leaving tonight. If you'd come with me. Won't you?"
"Leaving tonight?" Carolyn said, surprised. "Where would we go?"
"Roger said we can stay with him and Oliver until we find work and get our own place!"
"Our own place?"
Nancy smiled. "Can you imagine it, Carolyn?"
Carolyn smiled back. "I can."
Nancy pulled Carolyn close and kissed her as long as she could. She could feel her girlfriend shaking, not from the cold but from the shock of her sudden return and her proposal to run away together.
"Roger and Oliver have been living together for a while now and no one suspects a thing!"
"Do you think we can get away with the same?" Carolyn asked.
Nancy nodded. "Yes! We can live together and they can't prove a damn thing! We can work and go to college and learn what we want. Things are changing, Carolyn. I promise, we're going to be okay."
Carolyn laughed. "I need to pack a few things."
"My bag is already packed in the closet if you haven't noticed," Nancy chuckled.
"I can be a librarian?"
"Of course you can!" Nancy said.
"And you can become a florist?"
"I would love to. It's my dream and gardening last fall actually helped me realize that. But don't tell Tommy yet. He wants me to be a nurse."
"And we can be together?" Carolyn began to cry.
Nancy nodded while her tears could no longer be held back. "We can be together."
"What about our families?"
"Tommy is supportive. He actually wants to meet you."
"I'm not sure if my parents will let my sisters see me. I'll have to write them and go from there. Meet with them in secret. Once they're older they may understand."
"They will see you as a hero," Nancy giggled. "Their older sister! Unafraid to make her own life for herself!"
Carolyn laughed and wiped her tears.
"I love you," Nancy whispered while pressing her forehead against Carolyn's.
"I love you too."
Carolyn grabbed her empty luggage and began stuffing it with her clothes and her precious books. She left her textbooks stacked neatly on her desk. Nancy dragged her bag out of the closet and double checked what she had already packed. She grabbed a few more things and stuffed them into her bag.
"Can we take the camera?" Carolyn asked.
"We can. Where is the photo album?" Nancy replied as she looked around for the book.
"I'm not sure where it is."
"We don't have time to look for it," Nancy said, disappointed.
"Maybe Roger has it?" Carolyn suggested.
"Maybe."
"What about our box of letters?" Carolyn asked while pulling the shoe box stuffed with their private correspondence out from under her bed. "There's no room."
Nancy thought for a moment. "Here. Give me the box." She took the box from Carolyn and brought it into the closet. "Bring me a chair."
Carolyn took the chair from her desk and brought it to the closet for Nancy who stood on it to reach the unnoticeable access panel in the closet ceiling. "We'll hide them here. Something for the room to remember us. No one will ever find it."
"Maybe we can come back one day and get them," Carolyn said.
Nancy nodded. "Maybe, or Roger. They'll be safe here in the meantime."
Nancy and Carolyn finished packing their belongings and left what they couldn't carry behind. They tidied up room C7 as best as they could and stared at the room one final time.
"Still no photo album?" Carolyn asked as she donned a coat.
Nancy shook her head. "Roger must have it. If not, then I have no idea."
"I hope he has it."
Nancy sighed. "Well, this is it."
"Goodbye room."
"Goodbye Bradley Diamond's," Nancy laughed and Carolyn laughed with her.
The two women shared a kiss before slipping out of the window and shutting it behind them. The warmth of the room stayed behind as the cold night greeted them both. They descended the fire escape and went on their way to go meet Roger, leaving their life at the Sequoia Bay Hotel behind.