“What’ll happen when Peter realizes it’s missing?” Ruth asked.
“Impossible.” Lillian smiled and set her hands on her hips in a Superman stance. “He doesn’t know it exists.” She sat on an empty chair, ready to do her part, whatever that was. “Now what did I miss?”
Chapter 26
RUTH
After Lillian surprised them all with a coffee can full of money, the women decided to move into the living room.
“Carrie looks exhausted. She’s had a difficult day so far, and you remember what it’s like in early pregnancy. The smell of all that food might not be the easiest thing to deal with right now. I know it made me feel queasy for the first three months.” Irene looked at Carrie as she said this. “It gets better as you go along,” she reassured her friend.
Ruth knew that, in a few years, that most likely would be her journey too, after she passed the bar exam and went to work. She helped Carrie put her feet up on the sofa while the rest of them perched on chairs.
Lillian got right down to business, repeating, “So, what did I miss?”
“Shirley was just about to explain how she’s done this before. Hidden girls from their dangerous husbands, I assume,” Ruth said. She couldn’t believe she was saying this about her mother-in-law.
“Or fiancés. Or boyfriends,” Shirley said.
“I’ve known you for more than ten years, and I never suspected. You never said . . .” Lillian trailed off.
“It wasn’t necessary for you to know. I’m only telling you today because Carrie needs our help. The fact is, I’m a member of a local group called the Secret Esther Society,” Shirley said.
Her mother-in-law! A member of a secret society. Ruth looked at Shirley anew—fascinated and impressed.
Shirley had kept many secrets. She suddenly felt that she didn’t know her mother-in-law at all. Maybe she’d be more sympathetic to Ruth’s desire for a career than Ruth had thought.
Not thought. Assumed.
“We hide women who are in danger from the men in their lives—and as a group, we hide in plain sight until we’re needed. We have no official meetings. We communicate by letter or in person, in small groups like this. If we make telephone calls, like we’ll have to, we don’t share personal information; we use a code name.”
“I get it. Esther,” Ruth said. “Like in the Megillah.”
Shirley nodded.
“Clever,” Irene said.
“Being clever has nothing to do with it. The organization was started out of necessity. I wasn’t the only one in an abusive relationship.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. It was a compliment to the clever choice of name. And the meaning it would have to Jewish women.”
Ruth wanted Shirley to know she admired her, but now was not the time.
“How long has this been going on?” Lillian asked.
“The violence? Since the beginning of time, I imagine,” Shirley said, her voice taking on a weary note.
Could it be that they actually had something important in common? Wanting to care for women in situations like Carrie’s?
“So how did this rescue operation happen?” Ruth held up her page of notes. “How did the society get started?”
“About twenty years ago, a friend came to me, concerned about her niece in California. Her husband beat her up, and my friend wanted to send her someplace to recover. Somewhere the man wouldn’t be able to find her.”
“And after what had happened to you, you couldn’t say no,” she said.
Shirley cocked her head. “I didn’t want to say no. I wanted to help these girls change their lives. After a while, word got around, and we started arranging to hide any girl who reached out.”
“That’s incredible. And no one outside the organization knows it even exists?” Ruth asked.
“It’s the only way it can work. So we’re sworn to secrecy.”
“That’s why I’ve never heard of it,” Ruth said. She wished there’d been something like that when she lived in New York. She’d known girls there who could’ve used a safe hiding place.
“Good. You’re not supposed to have heard of us,” Shirley said.
So, to the outside world, Shirley adhered to the perfect social system, yet a select few knew that she had a system of her own.
Ruth realized that she had misunderstood Shirley for all these days. Her mother-in-law might understand Ruth wanting more for her life.
“It sounds risky for everyone,” Carrie said dubiously. “Even with code names.”
Ruth hoped she wasn’t changing her mind.
“It’s less risky than leaving you in that house,” Shirley said. “And if it goes according to plan . . .”
“We save you and the baby,” Ruth said.
“So what’s next?” Irene asked.
“A safe place for Carrie to go?” Ruth asked.
“Yes.” Shirley nodded. “Ruth, you and I will make phone calls tomorrow when Leon and Asher go to the office. Lillian, I assume you can do the same when Peter leaves. You and Irene, stop by with your lists of telephone numbers in the morning. We’ll call anyone you haven’t been able to reach and mark a map with the locations we’re able to secure. Remember, only call people you can trust to be empathetic and discreet. Even better, ask them to refer you to someone else so it’s harder to connect the dots. It’s not easy to find helpers at this level, but Carrie has the hardest job—and that is to pretend things are okay.”
Shirley leaned down to whisper something in Carrie’s ear.
Carrie blushed. “Shirley says I can act affectionate if I feel safe enough.”
“You’re not serious!” Lillian said.
“Anything to throw him off track,” Shirley said.
“What if something happens in the meantime? Before Carrie’s out of there?” Ruth asked. She hated to bring up doubts at this point and didn’t want to frighten Carrie any more than necessary, but she knew the violence wasn’t likely to stop. They needed to be prepared, especially Carrie.
“I think she’ll be safe for a few days because he’ll want the bruises to fade before Rosh Hashanah services, where someone might notice.”
“Ruth thought we ought to have called the police. Are you saying we shouldn’t?” Lillian said.
Shirley answered promptly. She’d obviously thought about this before. “We should leave the law out of this. We will not get any solutions from them. They’re all men, for one thing, and they stick together. It’s up to us to help women in trouble.”
It struck Ruth how much Shirley’s history was like that of the women she’d tried to help at Legal Aid. And that Ruth’s own beloved husband could have been a child living in a violent home if Shirley had married that man. She felt a new sadness over this. Shirley had tried the legal system after she’d been injured, and it had failed her.
Another reason Ruth had to become an attorney. This system had to be changed.
“Up to all of us.” Shirley shuffled her notes into a tidy stack as if accentuating her point. Then she unrolled a map of the United States that had been lying unnoticed on top of some books in the bookcase. “As we go, we’ll mark an X where we can confirm possible shelter for Carrie. We’ll keep a detailed list, and my people will use that information to set up her itinerary.”