“No TV?” She looked around.
“No, too much violence.” I replied with a smile. The truth was my old set had died a few months earlier and I never bothered to replace it before leaving on a work trip.
Margo insisted on cleaning up again while I got dressed. She went into the bath and washed up and dressed. Her dress looked wrinkled but manageable. Her shoes were still a bit damp making her a little uncomfortable but she insisted she would manage. My coat was bedraggled and damp, it wasn’t expected to rain today but it wasn’t exactly the sunny warm weather I had hoped for after the rain had passed. Margo pulled the sweatshirt over her dress and I took a different coat from the closet and we began our trek.
Rather than go crazy I took her to a local consignment shop where we found her a small rolling case that would fit in an overhead bin when the time came and she began to look at the clothes. I knew of the place since many of my students who were new to the city and its extravagant expenses had mentioned finding good deals on clothing there before.
She was confused by the sizing and I pulled up a conversion chart on my phone and handed it to her. She examined it for a moment and nodded and started looking through a rack of jeans and found a pair to try that seemed to fit. She went through racks of tops and shirts and found a few she liked. I watched her looking at each and every tag, likely keeping a mental tab of how much she was spending. She put together a weekends worth of clothing and looked around. She found an area of shoes and started holding shoes up to the sole of her own. I looked up the sizes for shoes and showed them to her to give her a better idea of what to look for and she found a pair of sneakers in her size. She looked up at me for a moment and I just nodded and smiled. We checked out and went down a few blocks where we found another clothing store where she could pick up some under garments. I asked if she needed anything else?
“What?”
I nodded towards a rack of bras.
She returned an impish grin.
“You think I need?” She jutted out her chest which was well covered in my sweatshirt.
I sighed and rolled my eyes which caused her to laugh.
“One I have okay.” She said juggling her items to her other hand as she looked at another piece of lingerie, a sexy black lace body suit. She felt the fabric. “You like?” The grin returned.
“I don’t think it’s my color.”
“Me?”
“I think you’d look terrific in something like that.”
“You think about?” She pointed at her temple.
I cleared my throat and felt my cheeks warm.
“No need.” She let go of the fabric and we went and checked out. We stopped back at the apartment to unload the purchases and headed out again. I felt bad that I didn’t have a spare toothbrush in the bath to loan her this morning and we stopped by a pharmacy and got some basics, and we filled a small toiletry bag for her. She picked out a few travel sized items for her kit as well. She went to the makeup counter and she looked but didn’t look like she would buy anything at first but picked out a couple items there too. When we were done there I found a cellular store and she stopped as we entered.
“No.” She grabbed my arm.
“While you’re here I’d feel better if you had one for emergencies. Besides I was going to see about the prepaid ones. If you prefer you can leave it here when you go, I’m not sure it would work in Europe anyway.”
We found a decent model for her, not too large and not too expensive either. I had them put on a screen protector and activate it before we left. We ended up at the coffee shop we’d met at yesterday, which she was reluctant to enter after running out.
“If anyone says anything let me handle it.”
We sat and I ordered coffee and some lunch. Margo began setting up the phone. I was little or no help to her as she tapped in her information and eventually my numbers. She set it aside when the plates were set down. She fell on lunch like she hadn’t eaten breakfast and I went from humored to realizing that I wouldn’t hesitate either if I’d just spent four days on the run.
“What happens when you go home. Is this man going to come find you again?” I voiced my concern.
She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head in the negative. “I look out.”
We headed back the apartment so she could wash her new clothes and change. She insisted on keeping each and every tag and copying each receipt down and sending it to herself in an email, adamant that she was going to pay me back every cent. She plugged the phone in to charge after we connected it to the WiFi and without batting an eyelash she began disrobing in the living room.
“Uh.”
She stopped and looked at me waiting. “I wash clothes.” She resumed disrobing until she stood stark naked for a moment. I saw a grin cross her face as she reached for the sweatpants folded on the end of the sofa. She turned to me with the t-shirt still in hand and looked me in the eye as she pulled it on. “You red.”
“You certainly aren’t shy.” I said as I turned to put my new spare toothbrush in the bathroom. I showed her how to operate the washer in the closet.
“We forgot to stop for groceries.” I said chastising myself.
“You two egg only.” She held up two fingers.
I made a quick rundown and doubled it for the next few days.
“Okay, I’ll run to the corner. Don’t put the chain on, I’ll lock the door on the way out. I shouldn’t be more than thirty minutes. Stay out of trouble.” Margo’s eyes went round with fear before she smiled realizing that I was only teasing her.
As I walked down the block I wondered if I wasn’t making a grave mistake trusting her. My laptop was unlocked and open for the taking. She might find the small stash of money I had hidden in the apartment. I shook my head and thought that she would have to have had a lot of foresight to worm her way into my graces the way she did, and if she had done so with larceny as her plan she could have easily picked a much better mark. As I entered the market I thought about what she might like to eat over the next day. I wandered the aisles picking up items, remembering eggs and milk as I got to the last aisle. It was cool enough so I picked up a pint of ice cream.
When I unlocked the door and pushed it open I saw Margo stand up quickly, putting her hands at her sides. I got the distinct feeling I’d just caught a child with their hand in the cookie jar and hoped that my trust in her had not been in vain.
“Cześć.” She bit her lip seemingly unsure of herself. I cocked my head.
“Hi.” She said and smiled. She came quickly around the end table to take one of the bags from me and bring it into the kitchen.
“You eat much.”
“Well I’m eating for two right now.” I grinned at her and dug the ice cream container out first and showed it to her. She recognized it instantly and grinned. “A little treat for later.” She watched me unpack the rest of the groceries putting them in their place. She was right I had bought a lot for just myself but I wanted to make sure there was enough. I had seen many of my own students put away enough at times to feed two people. I heard her mumble and looked up. She turned shy and her cheeks colored pink.
“What did you say?”
“Tomato?” She said, and I nodded. I realized she’d been saying the names of the foods in English under her breath.
She smiled and nodded pointing at her head. “Tak mean, yes. Tomato, pomidor.”
“Pomidor.” I said. I loved that she thought of this learning as a two way thing, teaching me words in Polish as she used their English equivalent.
“You know I never thought to ask if you like seafood.”
She looked at the paper wrapped package and sniffed at it. “Ryba. Fish?” She nodded and smiled.
“Ziemniak. Potato. I no find in morning.”
“I didn’t have any. I don’t usually bother with them but thought they might go well with the fish.”
She said something that sounded distinctly like citron and I pulled a lemon out of the bag which made her laugh. She said something else and looked into the bag and let out a heavy sigh.
“I say cytrynowy, you take from bag. I say money, no in bag.” Her smile was infectious.
“No, though I wish we all could have a bag full. It would make life easier.” I said with a laugh.
“Can print?” She beckoned me back to the living room and brought up the screen on my laptop. There was a document on the screen I couldn’t read.
“What’s that?”
She pursed her lips and thought. “Report?” She switched to the browser and brought up the translation app and typed out her answer. “Report for consulate. Maybe they can find the man who brought me here.” She had an angry expression on her face.
I nodded and turned on the printer allowing it to warm up a moment. “You may want to proof read it afterwards in case some of the characters don’t come out correctly.”
“No worry.” She smiled. She took the papers once they’d printed and put them in an envelope I’d offered her, to bring with her Monday.
“What do now?”
“I don’t know. I usually relax, listen to some music, read, or write. What would you like to do?”
“You need?” She pointed at my laptop after sending the statement to herself via her email. I shook my head. “I email so parent know I safe. Angel help.” An expression of shock crossed her face. I was glad she took her situation seriously. She could have easily ended up a statistic.
“I haven’t asked because I didn’t want to pry but how in heavens name did you end up coming to New York with a man like this?”
“He friend of artist I know, photographer. I speak with him when I home.” Her angry expression returned. “I respond to post online. He take picture of me at studio.”
My expression must have given away my surprise.
She seemed frustrated for a moment. “For magazine, like black lace earlier today.” She nodded.
“Before you land yourself in jail, your photographer friend may not be aware of what’s happened. Though I certainly wouldn’t confront him alone.”
She just shrugged and pulled the computer onto her lap. I took one of my manuscripts and sat back to go over it.
I read for a while and marked up a few notes in the margin as I went. I was reading for a while when I heard a huff and groan. When I looked up Margo’s cheeks were puffed out as she typed away with the speed of a student in the computer age, fingers a blur as she let the tension out through them. She looked closely at the screen.
Leave a Reply