Bellagrand: A Novel by Paullina Simons Read Free Book Online Page A

contract barely four months ago. Are you saying it’s not enough?”
    “SHORT PAY!”
    “Why would we pay you more for working less? That hardly seems fair.”
    “NO CUT IN PAY! NO CUT IN PAY!”
    “What’s not fair is the cut in pay,” Angela shouted into Lester’s face, strengthened by the yelling women at her back, like a sail in the tail winds.
    “But you didn’t receive a cut in pay,” Lester said amiably.
    “Yes, a cut in pay!”
    “You’re playing with the big boys now, Annie LoPizo,” Lester told her. “In the real world you get paid for the hours you work. You don’t work, you don’t get paid.”
    The women had no strategy but to continue shouting. Lester had had enough. Before he left he pointed a finger at Gina. “You have a good job,” he said to her. “You get paid well for the work you do. Don’t ruin your life by involving yourself in this malarkey. Stay away. I’ve seen this before. It’s nothing but trouble.”
    All the nerve endings in Gina’s body agreed.
    ***
     
    That evening when he heard what had happened, Arturo ordered Angela and Gina to march right back to the mill doors the following morning and make clear to this Mr. Evans that not a single worker was returning to the looms until the “accounting error” was rectified. “Not a single one.”
    Shaking his head, Harry got up from the table. “Angie, you do what you want,” he said. “Listen to Arturo, don’t listen to him, it’s no difference to me. You’re a grown woman. But don’t involve my wife in this.”
    “She is also a grown woman! She also got paid two hours less.”
    “Yes, Harry, what are you talking about?” Arturo said, frowning. “You’re involved in this.”
    “I didn’t say me. I said her.”
    “What could you be thinking?”
    “You know what I’m thinking,” Harry said, pulling Gina by her wrist from the table, nudging her up the stairs, away, away. “Because I just told you. I’ll do what I have to, but keep her out of it.”
    Angela followed Gina upstairs behind a shut bedroom door. “Are you really not going to come with me?” she asked disbelievingly.
    “I can’t, Ange. We’re having a baby. We need the money.”
    “What money? There is no money. Gina, if there is a strike, no one will get paid.”
    Gina turned jelly-legged. She sat on the bed. “Maybe it’ll all be over by tomorrow.”
    “How in the world . . .”
    “Maybe cooler heads will prevail.”
    “Are you saying I’m not in my right mind?”
    “I’m saying we need the money. Don’t you?”
    “I need justice more.”
    “Harry doesn’t want me involved. What am I going to do? Go against his wishes?”
    “I’m family!” yelled Angela. “You’re not going to stand by your own family?”
    “Angie, don’t go! He’s my family, too. And we’re having a baby. Why can’t you understand?”
    “Oh, I understand. I understand being pushed away.”
    “Ask Pam to go.”
    “Lester hates Pam after she nearly lost her hand at the double loom and made such a stink about it. But he likes you . He’s apt to give in to you.”
    “Did he give in to me this morning?” Gina shook her head. “Harry said no.”
    “Look at you, all your feminist virtues into the trash as soon as there’s a hint of trouble!”
    “It’s because there’s trouble that he’s telling me to keep out of it.”
    “And you’re listening. What happened to the right to your own soul?”
    “We’re having a baby!”
    “This is social change. Progress! The revolution. It’s all the things we’ve been talking about finally carried into action. Are you really going to stand idly by while the blood of other men and women is spilled onto your sidewalk?”
    “Angela, maybe you don’t hear yourself, but you’re making my argument for me. The time for radical action is not when I’m pregnant.”
    “History is not going to stand still for your baby, Gina.”
    “Well, then, I’ll just hop on the next train if it’s all the same to you.