Free Finding Eliza by Stephanie Pitcher Fishman Page B

Jack had poured her a fresh cup of coffee. Next to her steaming cup was a toasted bagel and her favorite light vegetable cream cheese.
    “Once again, you prove to me just why I keep you around.” Lizzie walked up behind Jack as he washed his breakfast dishes in the sink. She pressed her face into his back and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him like she hadn’t seen him in days.
    “Don’t you forget it,” replied Jack. Wiping mounds of soap bubbles from his hands, he swiveled in her arms and pulled her in close. “So, give me the skinny on what Gramps had to say. I woke up at two a.m., and you still had the light on. How late did you stay up reading, anyway?”
    “I wasn’t up much after that. It is so interesting, Jack. I think I’m beginning to understand Eliza’s secrets.”
    “Do tell…” Jack laced his arms across his chest and leaned back against the kitchen sink. “Secrets, huh? Sounds juicy.”
    “My great-aunt Eliza was in a relationship with an African American man. Well, if you want to call a seventeen-year-old boy a man.” Lizzie crossed the kitchen and sat down at the table to enjoy her coffee and bagel as they talked.
    “That’s not exactly the big secret that I thought it was going to be. Two teenagers dating. Really risky. Well, unless Daddy had a shot gun and little Eliza was home late after a date,” teased Jack with wink. He refilled his mug with strong, black coffee and joined Lizzie at the table. Jack checked the time on the time-worn pocket watch that he carried just as his grandfather had. Leaning back to prop his feet onto the seat across from him, he added, “I’ve got a little time for a few more details.”
    “You’ve got to put it into perspective. This was happening in 1934. I don’t think that was a normal occurrence then at all. Remember, Jim Crow laws were in effect up until the 1960s. We are talking about a time when they weren’t even allowed to go to the same school much less date. I mean, this was risky business. I’ve got a ton of questions for Gran today.”
    “What did your great-grandfather write about it? I bet he flipped his lid.”
    “I don’t know how it ended. I’m not that far into the diary yet. Alston seemed scared in the entries that I read. I spent a few hours going through them, but there’s so much more in those pages. He spent a lot of time begging her to keep herself safe. Several times he wrote that he asked her to stop seeing this boy so that she wouldn’t bring attention to herself or to their family.” Lizzie took another bite of her bagel. “I didn’t get the feeling that it offended him as much as you'd think back then. I think he was more afraid.”
    “Afraid of what? Their parents?”
    “I guess. I read a handful of entries that made it seem like Alston and my great-grandmother, Anne, discussed it at length. They even had Eliza out for the weekend so that they could talk to her. I guess it was a Depression-era version of an intervention. He wrote like it was a pretty big deal. I think they tried to handle it quietly. He seemed pretty close with his sister.”
    “Did Big Brother get his way?”
    “It doesn’t seem like it. Eliza seemed to be pretty convinced that she was in love. Can you imagine that? At fifteen or sixteen years old? She was so young.”
    “Doesn’t sound that crazy to me. I knew that I was in love when I was sixteen.” Jack stood up and put his hand on the side of Lizzie’s face giving her a gentle kiss. Crossing the worn wooden floor, he placed his used mug in the sink and started gathering his case files to take back to the station. “If Alston was talking about shame in the first entry, he couldn’t have been too pleased that she wasn’t listening to him.”
    “Like I said, it seems like he was reacting out of fear or some sense of social responsibility. I can’t get a bead on him. I’m not sure if he was scared for her or himself. I know he was concerned that others not find out. He