Sunday Sept 3 - Delores

[Gaffer]

Delores awoke later than usual and took a moment to enjoy not having to rush to get to the paper. While most of the other lodgers were at church, she took a leisurely bath. Going down to the dining room when she heard the others returning, Delores found Mrs. Wozniczka setting out platters of ham and scrambled eggs and toast. Ignoring the ‘tsk-tsk’ of her landlady in recognition of her failure to observe the Sabbath, Delores had a light breakfast, before returning to her room.

[Delores Brown]

Delores flicks through the books she was reading the night before but struggles to get interested. She glances out of the window, peers up at the sky to try to judge the weather. Turning to her wardrobe, she flicks through the dresses on hangers, settling on a floral print that she thought brought out the best in her eyes. Matching it with a scarf and handbag, she looks in the mirror to make sure she looks presentable.

She sits on the bed, trying again with the books until 11.00am then she heads out of the door, shouting goodbye to Mrs Wozniczka and walking briskly towards the 'L'.

[Gaffer]

Delores has just barely looked into An Inquiry into the Religious Tenets of the Yezeedees, somewhat daunted by the fragility of its age-brittled pages, if not the rather archaic language. She's about two-thirds through Adventures in Arabia, finding its modern phrasing more congenial reading. So far, one passage has particularly caught her attention, so much so that she's written it on a piece of notepaper tucked into the front cover:

“Most modern Turks regard as old wives’ tales the belief that the Yezidee worship Satan, as such. Rather they consider them to be a wayward sect of Islam, too long isolated in their mountains and holding archaic superstitions.”

She looks up abruptly from her reading, noting that it's almost quarter-past eleven. She has to hurry to catch her train uptown in time to arrive at the Russian Tea Room on time.

As Delores enters the restaurant (a little breathless) at five past noon, a man rises from a bench. He is tall and athletic-looking with handsome features, dressed in a nice ready-made suit.

"Miss Brown, I presume?" he says in a gentle voice tinged with a Texas twang that almost makes Delores homesick. He signals the maitre d' who shows you to a table and leaves menus.

[Delores Brown]

"You presume correctly," smiles Delores as she takes her seat. "And it's Mr Manton - Jerry, right?" She glances over the menu, waiting for a reply.

[Gaffer]

Jerry Manton smiles broadly.

"That's right, I'm him. Or I am he, since we're both literary folk in the big city. I don’t know if Dewlap mentioned it, but I’m a copy editor at The New Yorker, I proof the articles before they go to the compositor. Of course, you know that since you’re in the business yourself.” He hunches forward to speak more quietly. “Marlene hasn’t been heard from at the office since last Monday. Oh, she called the switchboard Wednesday to say she had a family emergency and might be gone for a while. But she didn’t speak to her boss, which seems out of character. Frankly, I’m surprised she didn’t call me or send a note because... Well, we’ve been going out a mite, but no one at the magazine knows. I called all her friends I can think of – and no one’s heard from her. I’m kind of worried. What do you know about it?”

[Delores Brown]

Delores finds herself warming to Jerry and his candidness. "I met Marlene last Friday," she replies, leaning forward so they won't be overheard. "She said her brother had got into trouble and she was worried about him. Did she say anything about him to you?"

[Gaffer]

I'm sure glad you've seen her so recently. Did she say where she was, what's been going on. I don't mean to pry, of course. I reckon she'd have told me if she wanted me to know." Jerry seems a bit rueful as the implications sink in, but he rouses himself and returns to the subject.

"I haven't met Alphonse, though Marlene speaks of him often. Sometimes it seems like she's the big sister, you know, like a mother hen. His drifting worries her. She feels he has such talents, but he's frittering them away. And it gets to her when he goes off without telling her where or for how long."

[Delores Brown]

"She didn't say much," replies Delores, not sure how much to say to Jerry. "She was at the Police Station, concerned about her brother and asked them for help. They didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry to help so she turned to me for help. Well, I say me, us rather. There's a few of us trying to help her out."

[Gaffer]

Jerry grins, "Well, I'm glad to hear she's got folks on her side. And the Power of the Press behind her, too. Can you tell me anything about the others working for her? I don't mean to pry, of course."

The waiter brings your meals.

[Delores Brown]

Delores takes a bite of her meal, chewing slowly. Something about the question bothers her. She understands Jerry's concern but she feels like she's being grilled - perhaps it's his newsman's style. It doesn't make her feel comfortable though.

She swallows the mouthful of food and says, "There's a private dick and some guy who works at City Hall. Don't know much about them, to be honest."

OOC,Has Delores got any sixth sense thing going on?

[Gaffer]

Delores has been a reporter for quite a while with a well-developed sense of when a person's words can be trusted (Assess Honesty 6). Jerry Manton seems like a straight shooter. Besides, he didn't come looking for you, you found him.

Jerry swallows a mouthful of food and grins. "A shamus and a reporter, I don't guess the two of you'll miss much. I don't think she's been at home the past few days, but here's her address, if you want to try to go see her. It's just east of the Central Park."

He gives you an index card:

Marlene Hirt
1288 Lexington Avenue
Manhattan
DRexel 6723

"Well, I'm afraid I'm going to have to go. I'm sorry to eat and run, but I've got a little dog at home that'll need walked right soon." He walks out to the lobby with you and shakes your hand.

"It was a pure pleasure to meet you, Miss Brown. Please let me know if you find out anything about Marlene. I'll get in touch, if I find her first."

[Delores Brown]

"I will, thank you," she replies, feeling suddenly ashamed for not being more open with Jerry. She sits and watches him go, chewing thoughtfully on the remains of her lunch.

When she finishes, she pays and leaves. Standing on the sidewalk, she looks at the card Jerry had given her, tapping it against her gloved fingers. Deciding what she wants to do, she turns in the direction of the 'L'. She's decided to go uptown and check out Marlene Hart.

[Gaffer]

Walking east on 57th Street and taking the bus up Madison Avenue to 86th Street, then walking the two blocks east to Lexington Avenue, Delores is standing in front of 1288 Lexington Avenue in about 25 minutes. It looks like a very classy place, clearly more costly than Alphonse Hirt’s apartment in Greenwich village, just for the location, about three blocks from Central Park.

There's a doorman out front, sweeping the sidewalk. He's a portly, red-nosed, middle-aged Irishman in a navy-blue uniform with gold epaulets.

OOC,Phil, I'd like to wrap up Sunday pretty soon. I hat to rush your role-playing, but if you can compress this a bit -- let me know Delores's ultimate goal coming here rather than play it out sentence by sentence -- I'd much appreciate it.

[Delores Brown]

OOC,Sorry for the delay,been another busy week. :(

I guessDelores is just trying to get a feel for Marlene Hirt, make sure she's on the level. Possibly bribe the doorman with a reasonably hefty tip for him to give her the nod when she appears - see if she's the same girl that they met at the police station, see if she's got any acquaintances, that sorta thing? If the doorman's game, she'll take a seat in a nearby cafe and pass the time of day, waiting for the nod.

[Gaffer]

Danny Boyle is genial and chatty, always ready to help out a resident or her friends.

Delores convinces (Reassurance & Oral History) Danny that she's an old school chum of Marlene Hirt's who's just in town for a couple of days and hasn't been able to get Marlene on the phone.

“Miss Hirt, is it? Now there’s a proper young woman, not like some a these wild ones nowadays. Very kind at Christmas, too, let me tell yez. She’s not been home in a few days. She has a number of friends out ta Long Island what she visits pretty regular. Society types, y’know. Miss Hirt moves in very fine circles, she does. I can't say as ta when she might be home -- tomorra bein a holiday for most people.

"Will yez look at that now.” He points to the corner across the street where a couple of ragged fellows tunelessly tootle on tin whistles and jingle a rattling tambourine. “I can’t stand loafers an loungers, specially these foreign types. Why, last week I had ta run a couple of em off three times, Y’know them as wears them Shriner hats. The police should do something about these foreign types hanging about respectable neighborhoods. Let 'em find work or run 'em outta town, I say. I worked hard every day of me life, right?”

Delores asks (1-point Oral History spend) if Marlene has changed much?; has she kept her figure?; is her blonde hair still cut in a bob?

"I've only been knowin her these two years she's lived in dis buildin, Miss, but I don't mind tellin yez, she's pretty as a picture. An that golden hair a hers, why it shines like the mornin sun."

He turns down Delores's tip, though.

"I couldn't take it, Miss, cuz I've no way a knowin whether I'd do yez any good. But if you'll write down yer name an address, I'll give it to her, soon as I see her. That way she can contact you."

SCENE

[Don't miss the following post.]

[Gaffer]

[Don't miss the previous post.]

Arriving home, you return to reading Adventures in Arabia: Among the Bedouins, Druses, Whirling Dervishes & Yezidee Devil Worshipers by W.B. Seabrook, finishing it as the dinner gong sounds. In addition to your earlier notation that “Most modern Turks regard as old wives’ tales the belief that the Yezidee worship Satan, as such. Rather they consider them to be a wayward sect of Islam, too long isolated in their mountains and holding archaic superstitions,” you’ve made these additional notes:

-They have taken many religious observances from different bodies--Mohammedans, Christians, Jews, Pagan Arabs, Shiites, and Sabaians.
-The writer of the revealed book goes on to trace the origin of the "elect" to the very beginning of human history.
-A secretive people who are not permitted to reveal their religion to outsiders, they keep their real beliefs hidden.

After supper, you start in on An Inquiry into the Religious Tenets of the Yezeedees by George Percy Badger. Despite the fragile paper and archaic language, you finish it about three hours later. You’ve noted the following as particularly interesting:

- Yezidis have been victims of mass murder and genocide at the hands of others, mainly of those of the Christian and Musselman religions. In the year 1415 AD, Kara Yusuf's Black Sheep Turkmen desecrated and burned the tomb of their prophet, Shaikh Adī ibn Musāfir, ransacking his grave and removing his bones and burning them in front of the Yezidis.
-Most Yezidis are illiterate and the few doctrines they have are passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth.
-In order to avoid persecution, the Yezidi people have purposely deceived outsiders concerning their beliefs and doctrines. This explains why there are so many conflicting accounts of their faith.
-The Yezidis sometimes use the name “Nilar-Shodib” for Malak Taaous. The Yezidis also have a reputation for being adepts at black magick.
-Among Yezidi superstitions is the belief that, in certain places and at certain times, the rays of the Moon can be focused to construct a path or ‘bridge’ from the Earth to the Moon, where they hold that their ancestors’ home city, called by them Irem of the Thousand Pillars, was removed by the angels (or demons) set by Malak Taaous to defend them.
-The Yezidi play the flute and tambourine at their festivals and dance; “a worship which led to every excess of debauchery and lust.”

At this point, you’re very aware that you have to be at work at eight o’clock tomorrow morning.[/color]