Mamma, dammit Aunt Paula!" Tea cups, teaspoons stopped midair. She couldn't help it, she was disgusted with their self-centered prattling, the way they'd been monopolizing everyone's attention with their trivialities — she couldn't stand their babbling. "Trees in the city? Look around you, don't you realize people are starving. Trees aren't going to help. There are children all around us in the city who need your help, not tree-planting people for God's sake!"
It was one of those fickle fate, fantastical coincidences of right people, right place, right time — Uncle Milton being there, Ferris putting the sisters into such a receptive mood, and the unexpected passion of her plea which touched them, especially Uncle Milton.
"By God, Marian is right. Let her help the children who live around here in the neighborhood, or the children of the whole damn world if she wants to. The trees can help themselves!" Uncle Milton pounded the table. "Give your daughter that money, Hannah. Whatever you give her, Paula and I will match!" Milton got out his address book, gave Marian a name and phone number of a wealthy friend who also might want to help a good cause.
And from that moment on, she was in fund-raising. Eventually, all the names in the notebook were contacted.
A family project developed into a business which grew and expanded into a major Fund-Raising Corporation with Marian Melnik Cooper as President, Director and Boss. Also, chief cook and bottle washer.
Marian picked up a pencil and opened her schedule book with a sigh. She doodled a wavy line around the date. The wavy line became the waves, the boat crossing the Atlantic.
Under PHONE MISS CRESSET, she wrote
ORDER GROCERIES
SORT LAUNDRY
THANK YOU NOTES
CALL OFFICE
She nibbled on her pencil eraser. There needed to be a staff meeting to figure out a spectacular way for getting money for the California kids. Separate lists needed to be made — one for herself and one for Elena, itemizing how they were going to proceed.
Suddenly it fused. "A style show!" Marian said out loud to the empty maid's room. "What the Caucus Club ladies need is a style show benefit to start the ball rolling!"
"And when I do the 'kickoff' speech, I'll tell my story — how I got started in fund-raising because my own Mamma was worrying about planting trees instead of children..."
She was hearing it in her mind already.
DISCUSS TREE SPEECH ANECDOTE
Marian made an exclamation point after ANECDOTE, doodled on top of it thinking which of the staff writers should be assigned to the project, making the exclamation mark darker and darker.
The exclamation mark became a black bobby pin.
At 6:30 p.m. the telephone rang. She reached to answer before it could ring a second time.
"Hello?"
There was no response.
"Hello?" She repeated it loudly.
Whoever was on the line said nothing.
"Who is this? Who's calling please?" She made her voice sing-song, as if she were an answering service.
Whoever it was hung on for another second but it seemed like a long minute not a second. Then, Marian heard the click and they were disconnected.
...Robbers sometimes telephone before they break in — oh God, where is Ferris? I can't telephone his family in Ohio, how could I explain that I came home three days early — that he hasn't been home — that the place feels as if he hasn't been living here for weeks...
But there were contradictions. The milk was from yesterday. The bath mat had been damp.
...I could phone the police, but what can I say? He's only been gone since yesterday. He took his shower this morning. What would the police think of me? They'll think I'm a typical wife whose husband drinks and runs around with other women...
In a crack-the-whip command, Marian ordered herself to be silent, to pull herself together.
...You are being unreasonable, you've got to organize it, make a deadline, perhaps forty-eight hours. Then, if you don't hear from Ferris, it's reasonable to make a few phone calls.
It was one of those fickle fate, fantastical coincidences of right people, right place, right time — Uncle Milton being there, Ferris putting the sisters into such a receptive mood, and the unexpected passion of her plea which touched them, especially Uncle Milton.
"By God, Marian is right. Let her help the children who live around here in the neighborhood, or the children of the whole damn world if she wants to. The trees can help themselves!" Uncle Milton pounded the table. "Give your daughter that money, Hannah. Whatever you give her, Paula and I will match!" Milton got out his address book, gave Marian a name and phone number of a wealthy friend who also might want to help a good cause.
And from that moment on, she was in fund-raising. Eventually, all the names in the notebook were contacted.
A family project developed into a business which grew and expanded into a major Fund-Raising Corporation with Marian Melnik Cooper as President, Director and Boss. Also, chief cook and bottle washer.
Marian picked up a pencil and opened her schedule book with a sigh. She doodled a wavy line around the date. The wavy line became the waves, the boat crossing the Atlantic.
Under PHONE MISS CRESSET, she wrote
ORDER GROCERIES
SORT LAUNDRY
THANK YOU NOTES
CALL OFFICE
She nibbled on her pencil eraser. There needed to be a staff meeting to figure out a spectacular way for getting money for the California kids. Separate lists needed to be made — one for herself and one for Elena, itemizing how they were going to proceed.
Suddenly it fused. "A style show!" Marian said out loud to the empty maid's room. "What the Caucus Club ladies need is a style show benefit to start the ball rolling!"
"And when I do the 'kickoff' speech, I'll tell my story — how I got started in fund-raising because my own Mamma was worrying about planting trees instead of children..."
She was hearing it in her mind already.
DISCUSS TREE SPEECH ANECDOTE
Marian made an exclamation point after ANECDOTE, doodled on top of it thinking which of the staff writers should be assigned to the project, making the exclamation mark darker and darker.
The exclamation mark became a black bobby pin.
At 6:30 p.m. the telephone rang. She reached to answer before it could ring a second time.
"Hello?"
There was no response.
"Hello?" She repeated it loudly.
Whoever was on the line said nothing.
"Who is this? Who's calling please?" She made her voice sing-song, as if she were an answering service.
Whoever it was hung on for another second but it seemed like a long minute not a second. Then, Marian heard the click and they were disconnected.
...Robbers sometimes telephone before they break in — oh God, where is Ferris? I can't telephone his family in Ohio, how could I explain that I came home three days early — that he hasn't been home — that the place feels as if he hasn't been living here for weeks...
But there were contradictions. The milk was from yesterday. The bath mat had been damp.
...I could phone the police, but what can I say? He's only been gone since yesterday. He took his shower this morning. What would the police think of me? They'll think I'm a typical wife whose husband drinks and runs around with other women...
In a crack-the-whip command, Marian ordered herself to be silent, to pull herself together.
...You are being unreasonable, you've got to organize it, make a deadline, perhaps forty-eight hours. Then, if you don't hear from Ferris, it's reasonable to make a few phone calls.
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