No Crystal Stair by Eva Rutland Read Free Book Online Page A

door.
    â€œSurprise!” Her crowd—Doris, Etta May, Jennie Lou and Millie. All seniors and all members of the Debutante Club, except Etta May who was from Brunswick, Georgia, and roomed with Doris.
    â€œMoonlight feast for Mrs. Moonlight,” announced Millie. “We even got permission.”
    Ann Elizabeth’s eyes brightened at the sight of hot dogs and hot chocolate. “Mrs. Moonlight thanks you from the bottom of her starving heart.”
    â€œLord, Ann Elizabeth, are you ever not hungry?”
    â€œYeah, when I’m asleep. Pass the mustard, please. This is great!”
    â€œYou were really very good, Ann Elizabeth,” said Millie
    â€œ She was good? What about Ed Sanford?” Etta May, Her hair tied up for the night in a strange assortment of old socks, leaned over her hot dog and crooned, “ ‘I love you, Mrs. Moonlight, very very dearly.’ Oh, if he’d just say that to me!”
    Millie chuckled. “Forget it, Etta May. He whispers to Ann Elizabeth onstage and to Eloise Jenkins offstage.”
    â€œDon’t see what you want with him anyway.” Doris poured herself another cup of chocolate. “He drinks too much.”
    â€œAnd when he’s not lapping it up, he’s quoting Shakespeare,” Jennie Lou chimed in. “If he ever does make it out of college, he won’t have two cents to rub together. Now, if I wanted to hook someone, I’d go after Dan Trent.”
    Doris fingered a button on her plaid robe and didn’t look at Ann Elizabeth. “Yep, he’s already established. Gonna be one rich nigger.”

    â€œWell—” Jennie Lou smirked “—you’d have to fight half of Atlanta to get him.”
    â€œShut up, Jennie Lou!” Millie’s voice was sharp.
    â€œWell, I think Ann Elizabeth ought to know she’s not the only pebble on the beach. He’s a skirt-chaser.”
    â€œMaybe it’s the skirts who chase him.” Millie bristled and glanced protectively at Ann Elizabeth, who blew on her hot chocolate.
    â€œMaybe.” Jennie Lou, glamorous even at bedtime, tightened her silk scarf around her head. “Personally I can’t stand the man.”
    â€œGood.”Millie smiled. “Then it’s lucky for you that you won’t get a chance to marry him.”
    â€œOh, I didn’t say I wouldn’t marry him. Just that I can’t stand him. A girl would be a fool to turn him down. But take my word for it—he ain’t the marrying kind.”
    All eyes swung to Ann Elizabeth. She looked up and smiled.
    â€œHey,” she asked, “is anybody going to eat this other hot dog?”

CHAPTER 3
    June 1942
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    T he debutante ball was held on the Roof Garden of the Odd Fellows Building, an impressive ten-story structure housing the offices of many black professionals. It was located on Auburn Avenue.
    Auburn Avenue was across town, but as familiar to Ann Elizabeth as the West Side neighborhood in which she lived. How many times had she traversed the marble foyer of the Odd Fellows Building and mounted the marble steps or boarded the rickety old elevator to her father’s office on the third floor? She’d run up and down the hall to visit and receive candy and gifts from the secretaries of other professionals. She’d enjoyed the soda fountain in Yates and Milton’s drugstore on the corner of Butler and Auburn, stepped across the street to the Citizen’s Trust Bank to make deposits for her father, learned to swim at the Colored YMCA, the neat little building where her father often played bridge with his cronies. She had dined at Mrs. Sutton’s Café farther up Auburn and been sent flowers from Sanson’s Florist shop. The Herndon Building, another site that housed Negro professionals, was across the street from the Odd Fellows. It was named after Norris Herndon, a family friend of the Carters. Ann Elizabeth seldom had occasion to