The Cure for Dreaming(78)
You can’t stop seeing it, can you?
I glanced up and witnessed a girl near my age with a bruise swelling near her eye. A second later, her body puffed into a thin haze of smoke.
A young bearded man with burning coals for irises glared at the black porter walking by him with my bag, and I swore I saw the man tying a rope into a noose.
My eyes strayed back to the message.
There is some of the unexplainable in me, ma chérie, but there is also a great deal of enchantment in you. Keep telling the world what you see.
Help others to see it, too.
I dropped into an empty seat and slid across the bench to the window. Using my fist, I rubbed a circle against the condensation fogging up the glass.
Down below, Henry and Genevieve roamed the length of the car with their bags at their sides and craned their necks, as if they were looking for me as well. With a frenzied wave, I caught Henry’s eye, and I pressed the letter against the glass. He stopped and gave a small nod.
The train lurched forward, and the Rhodeses stood there on the platform, amid other travelers in black and gray and the faded browns of the autumn leaves. They blended in with the surroundings, and I held my breath in fear of them going one step farther and disappearing.
“Don’t fade,” I said. “Please don’t fade.”
Time seemed poised to swallow them up, but before the train chugged past them, a switch flipped. Henry and Genevieve ignited into the blaze of colors from their Halloween performance, Henry in his bold crimson vest and Genevieve in her peacock-blue gown. I pushed my palm harder against the glass to see them more clearly—a beautiful, blinding brilliance.
Another light flared to life in the glass—the reflection of a girl with an ordinary face and unremarkable black hair, but she shone like the brightest stage lights of the Metropolitan.
The train clacked onward, gathering speed. My reflection remained, but the Reveries fell out of my view. I felt them around me, though, in the velvet-padded seats, between the strangers. Henry and Genevieve. Frannie and Kate. Agnes, Gerda, and Mr. and Mrs. Harrison. Even Mother and Father. They were all there, everyone a part of me, by my side, making sure I stayed on that train until I reached my destination.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’M EXTREMELY GRATEFUL TO THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS and organizations.
My husband and two kids, my parents, my sister, and the rest of my close family and friends, for always being supportive of my dreams, even when they’ve seemed impossible.
My agent, Barbara Poelle, for becoming an instant champion of this book as soon as she read the first chapters.
My editor, Maggie Lehrman, for believing in me a second time around and for spinning her magic to make my work shine.
The rest of the team at Abrams: Susan Van Metre, Tamar Brazis, Laura Mihalick, Jason Wells, Maria T. Middleton (designer extraordinaire!), Tina Mories in the UK, the copyeditor, proofreaders, and everyone else who played a role in making this book as strong as it could possibly be and putting it into the hands of readers. Such diligent work is much appreciated.
My early readers, Carrie Raleigh, Kim Murphy, Francesca Miller, Adam Karp, and Meggie, for their enthusiasm and much-needed feedback.
Miriam Forster, Teri Brown, Amber J. Keyser, and Kelly Garrett—my Thursday Morning Coffee and Writing Team— for getting me out of the house!
My fellow members of The Lucky 13s, Corsets, Cutlasses, & Candlesticks, and SCBWI Oregon, whom I can always count on for advice, emotional support, and exuberant cheers of celebration.
The Mark Twain Foundation, for assistance and permission to quote the great Mr. Clemens.
The Oregon Historical Society, the University of Oregon Libraries, the Library of Congress, the National Library of Medicine, and the Women of the West Museum, for their indispensable research archives.
David Burke, Wade Major, Oliver Fabris, and Jamie Lucero for their help with Henri Reverie’s French. Merci! Any errors in translation are entirely my own.
Last of all, my deepest gratitude extends to every single woman and man who fought to end inequality at the voting polls in the United States and elsewhere. Their sacrifices and struggles to give the silenced a voice should never be forgotten.
May equality spread even farther across the globe in the very near future.
WHEN AND WHERE U.S. WOMEN GAINED FULL SUFFRAGE
1869 Wyoming territory1
1893 Colorado
1896 Utah2 and Idaho
1910 Washington State3
1911 California
1912 Oregon,4 Kansas, and Arizona 1913 Alaska5
1914 Montana and Nevada
1917 New York
1918 Michigan, South Dakota, and Oklahoma 1 Wyoming became a state in 1890, and Wyoming women retained the right to vote.
2 Women in the territory of Utah were given full suffrage in 1870. In 1887 that right was taken away until Utah became a state in 1896.
3 The territory of Washington briefly granted women, including African American women, full suffrage in 1883, but in 1887 the Territorial Supreme Court overturned that law.
4 The men of Oregon voted down suffrage referendums in 1884, 1900, 1906, 1908, and 1910, before approving the sixth measure in 1911.
5 The territory of Alaska granted women full suffrage forty-six years before it became a state in 1959.
August 26, 1920 The 19th Amendment to the Constitution is signed into law. Female U.S. citizens age twenty-one and older are granted the right to vote in all states.