A Woman's Place Read Online Free

the servicemen from the nearby navy base to arrive, so Rosa and Lorraine had time to talk.
    “I can squeeze you in my place somewhere,” Lorraine said after she’d heard Rosa’s story. She handed her a handkerchief to dry her eyes. “My place is small, but we can figure something out. You can’t live with a jerk like Bob, that’s for sure.”
    Lorraine loaned Rosa some makeup and a hairbrush. It took a long time for her hands to stop shaking so she could pour coffee. She eyed the door nervously all day, worried that Bob would show up, looking for revenge. She thought her shift would never end.
    Halfway through the afternoon, the guy from the pretzel stand on the corner burst into the diner, shouting loud enough for the whole world to hear. “Hey, did you hear the news? They just interrupted the Giants game—the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor this morning! They tried to sink the whole U.S. fleet!”
    “Aw, you’re crazy,” a customer at the counter said. “Japanese planes can’t fly that far. They’d run out of fuel.”
    “Well, they sure as shootin’ did! Turn on a radio and see for yourself.”
    Rosa brought the check to a group of sailors in a booth, pausing to flirt with them so they’d leave her a big tip. Then she hurried to the pass-though window to listen as the cook turned on the radio in the kitchen. Static hissed like frying hamburgers, then the news announcer’s voice finally tuned in:
    “… in Pearl Harbor where the United States was attacked early this morning. The battleship Arizona, the West Virginia, and as many as nineteen other ships in the U.S. Pacific Fleet have been damaged or sunk. The Japanese also destroyed more than one hundred eighty American fighter planes parked on the tarmac. The death toll is close to one thousand and rising … .”
    “Holy smokes!” the cook breathed. “We’re in this war for sure now. I may as well head on down and enlist.”
    Rosa leaned against the counter, her strength draining from her legs for the second time that day. But Bob’s clumsy attack was nothing compared to this one.
    “I don’t want to believe it’s true,” Lorraine said. She and Rosa clung to each other, listening to the grim news.
    “… The attack on Pearl Harbor has effectively crippled the American fleet, leaving the United States vulnerable to further attacks. President Roosevelt is expected to ask Congress for a declaration of war—” The cook shut off the radio in disgust.
    “I’m a mess,” Lorraine said, wiping her tear-streaked mascara on her apron. “Come on, let’s take a break.” She pulled Rosa into the ladies’ room.
    Rosa leaned against the tiled wall, staring at her hollow-eyed reflection in the dingy mirror. “You know what, Lorraine? I’m sick and tired of not knowing which way things are gonna go when I wake up every morning. My life is like riding the Scrambler at Coney Island: All I can do is hang on tight while it spins me in circles and shifts direction every other second.”
    “The Scrambler’s great if you got a cute guy to hang on to.”
    “Yeah, but at the moment, I got no one. I’m sick and tired of all the bumps and turns, tired of working dead-end jobs and fighting off creeps like Bob. I can’t count on anyone or anything to be there tomorrow. Sure, some of the sailors I dated swore up and down that they loved me, but they didn’t stick around any longer than my mother’s worthless boyfriends do. And now this—a sneak attack, another war. Everything’s gonna change.”
    Lorraine blotted her lipstick with a paper towel. “Maybe we should join the WACs or something.”
    “Nah, they make you keep your room clean and get up real early in the morning.” Rosa poked at her hair, tucking some loose strands beneath her hairnet. “I know life isn’t a fairy tale with a happy ending, but I’m really not asking for much in life—just a nice guy who loves me.”
    “Yeah, and maybe a cottage in the woods, like Snow White.”
    “With my