The Lilac Tunnel: My Journey with Samantha

I tell everyone I would like to go to the factory. I wonder if I’m making the right decision. The relief on Samantha’s face tells me that I am. With Grandmary’s permission, Hawkins calls the foreman of the glove factory who says I can report to work tomorrow at 7:00. But today promises to be all fun. Samantha’s determined to fill every minute with something special. She asks if I wish to play Plum Pudding. Samantha leads me out front of the house. She draws a pattern on the walkway with a piece of chalk, and I realize Plum Pudding is a fancy name for hopscotch. I’m the first to reach the pudding at the top of the pattern, but Samantha might have let me win.

After that, Hawkins sets up a net for us in the backyard and we play a game of tennis, or what he calls lawn tennis. It takes me a while to get used to playing in the grass in a dress, but Samantha doesn’t have trouble at all. When I finally get a ball over the net, she dives and sends it right back to me. After two games of tennis, we plop down on the porch to catch our breath. I tell her she’s really good at the game, and she says that Uncle Gard taught her. Hopefully he’ll play with her at Piney Point this week. Then she grows silent. Is she thinking about tomorrow when we have to say goodbye?

Samantha suddenly says I’m kind of lucky. I ask her why she’d ever think I’m lucky. She says I’ll make friends with lots of girls at the boarding house. She knows I will. I’m not sure what to say to that. I tell Samantha that no matter how many new friends I meet, none will mean as much to me as she does.

The next morning, Hawkins and I take a bumpy ride across town in a horse-drawn cab. I discover a note, tied with a ribbon, in my apron pocket. It’s from Samantha who wishes me luck on my first day of work. I swallow the lump in my throat. A few minutes later, I’m standing in the office of the heavy set, gray-haired foreman who looks at me from head to toe. He lists the rules I will need to follow here about Mount Bedford Glove Factory. I try to focus, but I can barely hear him over the hum of the machines coming from the rooms beyond.

The foreman says I must be on time, not a minute late. No breaks until lunch. And my hair must be worn short. The last rule gets my attention. I have to cut my hair? He answers yes. Otherwise it will get caught in the winding machines. But I can pull it back for today. I nod, relieved, as I pull the ribbon from Samantha’s note out of the pocket of my apron. He has me follow him to the knitting room. It is a noisy room filled with about twenty workers, all young girls like me. Their eyes look nervously at the foreman, and then back to their work. The foreman leads me to a girl with cropped blonde hair sitting on a stool, winding yarn onto a cone. Her fingers are moving as fast as lightning.

He calls her by the name Mary. He says that I will be her spare hand this week. I must learn the job quickly. Mary nods, but she doesn’t seem happy about her new job. When the foreman leaves, I ask her what grade she’s in at school. And if she knows Samantha Parkington. Mary glances at the door, as if to make sure the foreman is gone, and then shakes her head. She says she doesn’t go to school. No school? How can girls as young as me not go to school? I have lots of questions for Mary, but she shuts me right down. She says we’re not allowed to talk while at work. If we do, we won’t get paid. So much for making friends at the factory. I miss Samantha.