The Next Ship Home

by Heather Webb

“Not at all. We need the help. The crowds are large and many of them are needy, as you will soon see. You’ll barely have a moment to think, but the pay is reasonable, especially for a young woman.”

“Don’t worry, Alma. It’ll be fine. Just remember one thing. The immigrants aren’t the brightest of human beings. Keep them in their place. You work for the U.S. government now, so you are their superior.”

The inspectors ask questions, review papers. They’re trying to find reasons to deport the immigrants,

Here, at Ellis Island, all of their fright, courage, and—most of all—hope funneled into this one moment: passing through the registry office to the stairwell, the exit to their freedom, and to possibilities of which they could only dream before now.

Each day at Ellis Island, she realized how little she knew about anything.

She knew what the man wanted. They had all been the same, the men who needed to feel powerful, those who had been mocked and ridiculed as children. Those who were unloved. They were starved inside, and desperate to prove to themselves they were strong and worthy, to feel whole again. She knew the kind all too well.

Since she’d started at Ellis Island, her usual logic and beliefs were flipped and spun and turned inside out until she couldn’t understand who she was before she’d been there. She couldn’t believe the way she’d swallowed her parents’ opinions and ideals whole, and adopted them as her own. Not anymore. Not ever again. Alma saw the same desires and needs as her own painted on the faces of those who swept through these halls.

For the first time in her life, she realized things weren’t black and white, not even the laws of the land. That nearly anything could be justified, given the right circumstances.

Having a new friend outside of the carefully controlled circle of traditional German families her parents had cultivated was more than welcome, it felt like a gift.

“Alma, listen to me. You always have a choice. It may not be the easiest path, but there’s always a choice. If you don’t want to marry him, you don’t have to. It’s time to be brave.”

She’d realized in the midst of the arguing that she had been on the path to becoming exactly like her mother: compliant, afraid to speak her mind or follow her heart. But that life wasn’t for Alma. She had bigger plans.

“No one understands what a woman in difficult times must bear, except another woman in the same situation.