Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1942)

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The girl looked up, and I got the biggest shock of my life. This girl wasn't Susie! My eyes widened and my mouth must have fallen open. She looked me up and down coldly and then said, "Yes? What do you want?" I shook my head to clear the cobwebs away. "Oh. ..." I said, "I'm sorry — I'm looking for Susie Brown. Uh — I thought you were Susie." "I am Susie Brown," she said in a harsh, almost rasping voice, "but I certainly don't know you." "The Susie Brown I'm looking for," I was still floundering, "is from Oakdale, Indiana." I looked at her for a minute, trying to figure out what to say next. She was certainly a girl who had been around — it showed in her face. Her mouth was getting a little hard and there were definite lines in her face. She must have been beautiful just a few short years ago, but that beauty was fading quickly. Her hair was a brassy color that got darker near the roots. Her fingernails were blood red and not very well kept. All in all, she was everything that my Susie was not. SHE noticed my scrutiny and grew a little uncomfortable under it. "Well," she said, "I'm not the Susie you're looking for, so why don't you go away now?" "I suppose I may as well. ..." I started to say, and then just to check up on a few things, I asked her, "By the way, did you ever know anybody by the name of Julian Scott?" She winced at that, but stared me straight in the eye and said, "None of your business, soldier." Jeff had come up to the table and was listening to our conversation. He put his oar in then, "Did you ever hear of a guy named Prince Mikaloff? Do you know of a night-club called 'The Last Drink?' Did you used to have red hair?" She leaned back in her chair and glared at us defiantly. "Listen, you guys, I don't have to answer any of your questions, see? You're probably reporters in disguise. Well, I'm tired of talking to reporters. I've got nothing to say. Now go on, get out of here. Leave me alone." "We're not reporters, honest," I assured her. "We're just soldiers and we're looking for Susie Brown. I happen to be in love with her and I have to find her. That's simple enough, isn't it?" But her lip curled. "I don't care who you are or what you want. You annoy me. Now beat it. Go on — " My shoulders drooped and I turned away wearily. This was the end, then. We had come to the final blank wall. I'd never find Susie now. Jeff came up behind me and put his arm over my shoulder. "Don't take it so hard, Chip. We'll find her somehow." I tried to grin at him, but it was a pretty bad imitation. "We'll never find her now. She's just vanished into thin air. I'll probably never see her again." And then we heard the girl's voice again. She had evidently been watching us and had heard what we had said. "Okay, soldiers, come on back. Maybe I can give you a tip." We stood stock still in amazement and then hurried back to her table. "I don't know why I bother to do this," she said half angrily, "but you might try the Consolidated Insurance Company in Poughkeepsie. That's where your Susie Brown is." I stared at her. "How do you know?" "I used to know her a couple of years ago. We both lived in a roominghouse on West 86th Street. She used to eat popcorn all the time. That's where I got to liking the darn stuff." She laughed shortly and gestured toward a bag of popcorn lying on the table. Jeff and I were both speechless. We stood there looking at her, wordlessly, with our minds going around in circles — at least mine was. She glanced up at us. "Well, now you know where she is — go find her, why don't you?" and she started reading a magazine that was spread out in front of her. I finally found my tongue. "Look, Miss," I said, "I don't want to intrude on you or anything, but we've been through so darn much in the last two days, I wonder if you'd do us a favor and tell us how come we got you mixed up with the Susie Brown I know?" She looked up at us again. "It's a long story and I don't intend to go into it. But I will tell you that Susie Brown isn't my real name. When Susie left to go to Poughkeepsie, I took her name for reasons of my own." "But what about the forwarding address the woman on 86th Street gave me — the 'Last Drink' nightclub? Did Susie get the job there or did you?" "I did. And probably they got my forwarding address when the manager of 'The Last Drink' was checking the references I gave him." She laughed shortly. "Susie had excellent references!" "Well, gee, thanks Miss," I said. "I guess we better be going now." I couldn't keep the let-down sensation inside me from creeping into my voice. JUST one more thing, soldier," she said and for the first time in our conversation, her voice softened a little, "if I were you I'd get on up to Poughkeepsie in a hurry. I think your girl's waiting for you." She sighed and turned back to her magazine. "I always kinda liked that Susie," she said in a low voice. Dimly I realized that Jeff, almost dancing in impatience, was holding out his arm and pointing at his i watch. "Holy cats, Chip," he urged, "we gotta get out of here! We've , only got fifteen minutes left." I let him tug me toward the door, ! but I hardly realized what was happening. Relief and happiness were boiling around so fast inside of me that I felt as if I might explode. And then, suddenly, I was as calm as could be. Dreamily I watched Jeff signal J a taxi, and I sat beside him all the i way to the station, not saying a word. Because it was enough, just now, j to think that Susie was in Poughkeepsie, and that she'd never forgotten me, and that after all it wouldn't be so very long before I could get J, myself another two-day leave. And that leave I wouldn't spend looking for Susie. I'd spend it with her. RADIO MIRROR