Chapter Nine;
They boarded the first train in New York and switched trains in Philadelphia. When the train stopped in Philadelphia, Rose looked out the window and scanned through the crowd of people, not wanting to see anyone she used to socialize with. She picked up her bag and stood up, looking to Joseline who already had her bag in hand and was headed for the door.
"Get here.. beside me." Rose demanded as she pointed to her side.
"Yes, Mom.! Joseline sighed, standing next to her mother. She noticed the change in Rose's attitude and body language when they got closer to Philadelphia.
They stepped off the train and made their way through the crowd of people. Rose looked at the clock on the wall "One hour and fifteen minutes and the next train will be here."
"Maybe we could go walk around for a bit and see some things..." Joseline suggested.
Rose looked at her and frowned. "I think not!"
Joseline sat her bag down and placed her arms across her chest. "You said we could do stuff and spend more time together. So why can't we go look around for a bit?"
Rose stared at her as if she were looking through her. Thinking of her mother and the other people she knew that lived here. "I.. I really don't think we should.."
"Why not?" Joseline saw the look on her mother face and the way she was staring "What are you afraid of?"
Rose looked at her, she suddenly felt as though her legs were going to buckle and her heart was racing. She felt dizzy and her palms were sweaty. The crowd of people suddenly became moving blurs. She stumbled and almost fell.
Joseline grabbed her arm and frantically looked around for somewhere to sit. She spotted a bench and hurriedly helped Rose to it. "Mom.. are you alright?" Joseline asked, concern clear in her voice.
Rose didn't answer, instead she sat there blankly staring ahead, at nothing.
Joseline shook her "Mom, please answer me."
Rose slowly moved her head to the side and then back to look at Joseline. "I'm.. I..." she frowned, patting the spot beside her for Joseline to sit.
Joseline took the spot beside her and wrapped her arm around Rose's shoulder. "Are you alright? What's wrong?"
"I will be alright, as soon as we're away from here." She sighed. "My mother lives here..."
"Ruth lives here? You never told me that, Mom!"
"There are lots of things I've yet to tell you."
Joseline still didn't understand how Rose couldn't have a relationship with her mother. A daughter needs their mother and she was thankful that she had a relationship with Rose. She would be lost without her. "Is it alright if I ask why you don't want anything to do with her, or why I haven't been able to meet her?"
Rose hesitated and looked away. Trying to think of something to tell her. She couldn't tell her the whole truth, not yet. "Well, Ruth, your grandmother, well she.." she paused and sighed "She tried to.. well she didn't try to, she arranged for me to marry when I was a teenager."
Joseline gasped "What?"
"Yes. When my father died.." she wiped at her eyes trying to stop the tears that we're threatening to spill out. "When he died, he left behind some debt. Debts that's had to be paid or mother and I would lose everything we owned."
Joseline wrinkled her nose in disgust "A debt? What you're saying is the descendents of the deceased, have to pay their debts?"
"Yes. That is the way things work in high society, sadly." Rose sighed "We Don't have to worry about that because we're like 3rd class and have nothing of value, really."
"So that is why you don't want to be rich.. I think I understand that now."
Rose scanned the crowd once more and looked back at the clock "Still one hour left." She swallowed her pride and decided to take Joseline up on her suggestion. "Grab your bag and we'll go see if the guy at the ticket desk will keep them until we get back."
Joseline gave her the side eye "What do you mean?" Hoping she meant what she thought she did.
"We're going to go look around a bit. My favorite store, well my favorite store when I was a child, is right around the corner."
Joseline screeched in excitement. "This is so exciting! Now I get to see a place you grew up around!"
Rose forced a smile "Yep, but we'll have to be quick and be back fifteen minutes before the train is due to arrive."
After getting approval to leave their bags, they headed out of the train station and around the corner. Rose could feel her anxiety rising, but done her best to keep it in check. She wanted to turn around and hide somewhere, but she knew how excited Joseline was and she couldn't let her down.
"With any luck, we won't run into any of my old acquaintance." Rose chuckled.
Joseline looked around in amazement. "Everyone here looks so rich!" She giggled, her face lighting up. "Ohh.. look at her dress, I'd definitely wear that."
Rose grimaced remembering having to wear that type of fabric. "Believe me, you wouldn't like wearing that fabric. It's sweaty and it's annoying."
Joseline came to a quick stop and looked up at Rose "How dare you presume to tell me what I would or wouldn't like, you don't know!"
Rose gasped in complete shock. "You... No.. you just.." she was at a loss for words. She was trying to scold her for talking to her in such a manner, but she couldn't. Not really. She too had said something very similar before and she said it to Jack. "You're right."
Joseline spotted a store with toys in a window and pulled Rose towards it. "Let's go in here!"
"This is the store I wanted you to see!" Rose said. "Not sure we can afford much in here, if anything at all."
Joseline picked up a yoyo and began playing with it. "Look! It lights up when you play with it."
"That is so neat." Rose said looking around,amazed at the new things they now sold.
"Can I get it?" Joseline asked, her eyes wide with excitement.
"How much is it?"
Joseline looked at the yoyo, trying to find the price. "There isn't a price. Let me get another one." She dug through the box of yoyos looking for one with a price, but couldn't find one.
"Get one and we'll go up and ask." Rose said reaching her hand out for Joseline and going up to the check out. "Would you mind telling us the price of this." Rose asked as she laid the toy on the counter.
"That is twenty cents." The clerk said.
Joseline sighed and looked at the ground, feeling sad. There was no way her mother was paying that price for a toy.
Rose watched her and placed her hand on her back and smiled as she looked up at her. "We'll take it." Rose said as she fumbled around her bag looking for her change purse. She dug out a coin and handed it to the clerk.
Joseline looked at Rose in surprise. "You've never paid that much for a toy."
"I haven't, but there's a first time for everything." She smiled and rubbed Joseline's hair. She looked at the clock on the wall. "We gotta hurry, we have five minutes to be back."
They rushed back to the train station and heard the train pulling in. They rushed to the ticket counter and grabbed their bags. "Whew! That... was... a close call." Rose said gasping for air. "I'm not the one for running." Rose laughed.
A laughing Joseline just gripped her bag and shook her head.
Rose looked around one more time, relived that she was leaving this place and that she didn't run into anyone.