Hearts of Smoke and Steam by Andrew P. Mayer Read Free Book Online Page A

by way of a reply, but having already apologized, Viola's attention had returned to her brother, whom she was berating in her native tongue.
    “What are you thinking about that you have to annoy everyone on this boat with your tapping?” She waited only a moment for a reply before poking his shoulder with two fingers. “Eh? Eh? Or do I have to ask?”
    “Why did you even make me go out there to see them? There was a line out the door, and I told you that they'd never talk to me.”
    “You said you wanted to be one of the Paragons. And they make money!”
    “They have money!” He sighed. “There were dozens of men waiting there, and they didn't want some foreigner, they wanted a hero.”
    “Foreigners can be heroes!”
    Emilio shook his head. “Maybe if you're English or German…”
    “Why are you always looking for the reasons why not , Emilio? You're smarter than any ten of those idiots that were standing in the room.”
    “But I have no costume, just this.” He tapped the bag next to him, and it let out a muffled clank in response.
    Viola sighed, then grabbed his arm and rested her head on his shoulder. “In America you can be anyone you want to be. You just have to show them that you're the smartest man in the world!”
    “You say that because you're my sister.”
    Viola tilted back her head and laughed, her curls falling back around her shoulders. As she glanced around the cabin, men's eyes darted back to their wives, or dived into their handkerchiefs and newspapers. “You know me better than that!”
    Emilio smiled and rolled his eyes. “Perhaps I do.”
    “Anyway,” she said, sliding her arm around his shoulders in a show of warmth that clearly made some of the people around them uncomfortable, “our money problems aren't as bad as you think, and if you did get that job, it would mean leaving me all alone in that junkyard all day.”
    “Ha! I'm sure by the end of the week you'd have charmed ten of our neighbors into building a whole new house for you.”
    “I don't know what you're talking about,” Viola replied, batting her eyelashes with a look of mock innocence. “And anyway, I'm thinking that it isn't only the Paragons that have you feeling sorry for yourself.”
    “Maybe, maybe not.” He tried to keep his tone light, but the darkness in his mind felt like the beginning of a storm that had already begun to pull in memories best left forgotten.
    “It's been many years now, Emilio. If you could let yourself move on it wouldn't mean that you loved them any less.”
    He turned away from her and stared out through the dirt-smeared windows behind him. Outside, New York was sliding by, the buildings clearly outlined in the yellow light of the late-afternoon sun. “I don't like the way this city looks.”
    “We've come a long way from Tuscany, brother.”
    “Too far, I think.”
    “There's no going back now.”
    “Not for me anyway.”
    Viola frowned, then jumped up from her seat, spun around, and took his hand. “Come on, Emilio. Let's go look at the engines. You can tell me all about how poorly made they are.”
    He stood up and grabbed the round sack by the two thick leather handles along the top. “Which only shows you never listen to me! Those engines are beautiful, it's the lack of maintenance! Americans always build amazing machines, then hand them over to inattentive barbarians who let them rot. It's a wonder anything in this country still runs at all.”
    Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. “That's because Americans have better things to do than fall in love with hunks of metal.”
    “America invents everything and cares for nothing!” he replied defensively, and fell back into his seat. “The world is doomed!”
    “You're doomed to be an idiot.” She started to pull him up and off the chair. “What would fix you is a woman—someone pretty who can listen to your horrible whining so that your sister can get on with her life.”
    “I'm protecting the world from you!”