Don't belong to me. I'm just having fun.

Chapter Four: Just Someone to Love Me

Chicago was just what Marian had been afraid it would be: hot, humid, noisy, and crowded. She missed home already, and they'd only been there two days.

The train ride up had been fun. Marian had only been out of River City a couple of times, once when she was a little girl, and then when she went to school to become a librarian. Seeing the different countryside that the train went by was an experience. She enjoyed seeing the patchwork of green and gold out of the window. Sean was enthralled with the whole experience. It was his first time away from home. He had questions about everything. Gregory had been very patient, answering his questions to the best of his ability, and asking the conductor about things Gregory didn't know.

Eating in the dining car was another experience Marian loved. Being waited on, and not having to cook was a novelty Marian enjoyed tremendously. Marian understood what her mother meant when she said eating on board ship made her feel like a queen. Having someone serve you did make you feel special.

Once they arrived in Chicago, they had taken a taxi to the hotel. Automobiles were all over the place in Chicago. The ride had been uncomfortable, due to the noise of all the autos on the road, and the horns honking. Once they got to the hotel, they were shown to their rooms. They had two adjoining rooms, one for them and one for Sean. The windows overlooked a grassy area at the rear of the hotel. That much was nice. Marian would have hated to have looked at the street all the time.

The first day had been spent doing some sightseeing. There were some worthwhile landmarks, and Marian and Sean had been fascinated. The second day, they had planned to go to the lakeshore, but the weather was not cooperating. It had turned overcast and muggy, with thunderstorms threatening. Gregory and Marian decided not to risk being caught near water if it began to storm. Gregory decided this would be a good time to take Marian to see where he grew up. Sean had made friends with some other children staying at the hotel, and their mother had been agreeable to keeping an eye on him while he played with them in the park across the square.

The area Gregory took Marian to was in one of the worst parts of town. He had borrowed a car for the trip from the hotel, rather than risking walking through the rundown neighborhood.

"It was better when I lived here, and it still wasn't very good. It's gone downhill since then."

"This was where you grew up?"

"The orphanage was just on the corner there. It looks like it is vacant now."

"Gregory, this was not a good environment to grow up in. I can understand why you left as soon as you could."

"The people at the orphanage were good people, Marian. They tried the best they could. Not enough money, and too many unwanted children did them in. I understood even then the limitations they worked under. But, I hated having to work in a factory. I liked school. I wanted to stay there. School didn't help bring in money, though.

One factory I worked in, they had a school in the factory. The children who worked there would go to school for three hours in the morning, then spend the rest of the day working. I guess it was a pretty progressive thing for them to do. I liked working there, but they didn't pay as well as some of the others. I had to leave there after one year."

"How long did you live at the orphanage?"

"My parents died when I was six. I lived there until I was 16. They didn't send me out to work until I was 10." As he talked, he continued to drive through the rundown neighborhoods.

"Why did you quit the factories?"

"Some of the other children had made friends with some unsavory characters. I began hanging around with them after I got done at the factory. One of them ran con games on people, telling them they had money waiting, but he needed some front money to get it for them. He liked my looks. He said I could go far working with him, we could make a lot of money together. It seemed as if money was my ticket out of here. I began working with him, and we did make some money. Enough for me to save up and go to New York."

"You mentioned you tried to get into show business."

"Yes. Someone mentioned that with my looks, I should be in the movies. I took them seriously." Gregory laughed, but it wasn't a happy laugh.

"And…"

"And when I got there I found out that good looks and a glib tongue weren't all that was needed. You needed a break. I never quite got mine. Eventually, I found a guy like the one I worked with here. We began running games again. After a while, he got caught. I ran. I started running cons on my own. That's how I ended up in the band business. The rest is history. Until there was you. Marian, I don't know if you know just how much I love you." By this time they were on their way back to the hotel. Gregory pulled over under a tree and parked the car. He turned toward Marian and grabbed her hands.

"Marian, I'm fully convinced that if I hadn't found you, I would be dead or in jail by now. You saved me from the downward spiral my life was in. I was getting more cynical, more jaundiced every day. The games I was running were hurting more and more people, and I didn't care. I had a shell around me, and a shell around my heart. You broke through both. You showed me that I did have something good in me. I had to have, because you stood up for me, and befriended me. I knew you wouldn't do that for someone who was totally worthless. Even after Charlie Cowell came, you tried to find a reason for what he told you about me.

At the "trial", you stood up for me in front of the whole town, in front of people you'd known all your life. You stood up for someone you'd only known a few weeks. That totally shattered me inside. It wasn't the threat of tar and feathers that scared me. It was the knowledge that you looked at me and saw someone I wasn't sure still existed. You saw a good person. You saw Gregory. You didn't see Harold Hill, at least not as he had been. I began changing back into Gregory that day."

"I thought Marcellus called you Gregory."

"He and I go back to the orphanage together. We began running games. He helped me at first, but we got separated when I went to New York. We kept up with each other for a while, but then we lost touch until I showed up in River City."

Marian squeezed Gregory's hands, then released them.

"Why don't we get back to the hotel."

"You want to check up on the kid?"

"No. I'm going to ask Mrs. Lawrence if she can watch him a little longer. I want to spend some time, just the two of us, so I can show you how much I love you. You were more than Harold Hill to me from the moment Winthrop began to talk about his coronet. Anyone who could bring Winthrop out of his shell was worth getting to know. You were too smooth, and too pretty, but I had to find out what Winthrop saw in you. It's pretty hard to fool kids, you know. You had the heart of every boy from six to 18 in town. There had to be a reason."

"Madame Librarian, I have never been so overwhelmed in a long time. You are my life." By this time they were back at the hotel, and he turned the keys to the car back to the desk clerk.

They went upstairs to the Lawrence's room. Mrs. Lawrence said it was no problem to keep Sean a little longer. He was playing a game of checkers with her son, and it was keeping him amused as well.

Gregory and Marian walked to the door of their room. As Gregory unlocked the door, he and Marian put their arms around each other. When Gregory shut the door, he shut out the world for the next hour or so.

Later, they retrieved Sean from Mrs. Lawrence, and went to dinner. The three of them spent the evening playing games. When Sean went to bed, Gregory and Marian talked more of his childhood. The knowledge that his past truly did not matter to Marian was very freeing.

The next day, the weather cleared up and they moved from downtown Chicago to a hotel on the shore of the lake. They spent the next two days playing in the water and on the beach. Then they packed everything up, and went home.

A week later, Sean started school.

Two weeks later, Gregory and Marian moved to Detroit.