4
REGINA – OCTOBER 1925
Regina finished her shift at Coney Island early and hurried home to wash off some of the odor of grease and chili that clung to her. She planned to go out for the evening, and it wouldn’t do to smell like a hot dog. Two years now she'd been at the same job, living in the same tiny apartment with no bathtub and a tiny washbasin in the closet of a bathroom. Washing her hair in the kitchen sink was an ordeal she didn't undertake very often, and she would pass on that tonight, hoping a spritz of perfume would mask whatever odor might be lingering in her hair.
She looked around at the cramped space and sighed. She'd long ago given up on the thought of going to get her girls. That thought had plagued her the first few months after leaving them at the orphanage, but the
