Chapter 13Once we collected our pay, my lover took me to a little German restaurant he knew of in the cellar of a brownstone on East Twenty-Third Street. We washed down a meal of sauerbraten and red cabbage with German beer and then caught a trolley to Mrs. Hicks’s rooming house.
“Frank Johansen! Charley!” The landlady greeted us in the first floor vestibule, pleased to see us both. “Your room’s ready for you, Frank. You won’t mind sharing with Frank, will you, Charley?”
“I do not mind sharing, Mrs. Hicks.”
Her smile told me that she hadn’t thought I would have any objections. “Your hair’s growing out. It’s good to see you looking so fit. And you, too, Frank. I guess the sea air must agree with you.”
“Thank you. The Wanderer had a good voyage.”
“You two are lucky, you’ve missed all th
