Page 33 of The Women of Oak Ridge
CHAPTER TWELVE:MAE
THANKSGIVING DAY ARRIVEDon a cold wind.
Despite the holiday, work in Oak Ridge continued nonstop. Luckily, Sissy and I were both scheduled for the early shift and made plans to enjoy roasted turkey and all the fixings that evening at the cafeteria. I invited Garlyn to join us, but Clive declined Sissy’s invitation, claiming he had to work. For some reason, I didn’t believe his story. It was more likely he’d rather not dine with Garlyn and me.
I pedaled my bicycle down the long truck alley on the second floor of K-25, passing through an area where operators processed a mystery product called C-616. Mr. Colby had sent me on an errand, but my mind was on Sissy. She’d been quieter than usual lately. When I asked if something was bothering her, she’d declared herself fine. Maybe a little tired but nothing I should concern myself with. Still, I wondered if perhaps things with Clive weren’t going so well. They continued to see each other on a regular basis, but Sissy was more closemouthed about what they did on theirdates than she had been in the beginning of their relationship. I certainly wouldn’t be sad if things between them cooled, but I also didn’t want Sissy to end up with a broken heart.
I parked the bike and made my way up metal stairs, first to a catwalk in the pipe gallery, then to the operating floor, located on the fourth level. I couldn’t count the number of women who worked on this floor, monitoring instruments on large machines. Even though I’d been told K-25 was not up to full capacity yet—doing what, I still didn’t know—the place was a beehive of activity.
The large envelope Mr. Colby asked me to deliver to one of the engineers in the control room was sealed and had the wordsRestricted Datastamped on it in red ink. This wasn’t the first time I’d handled confidential documents. Not long after I began working at the plant, Mr. Colby informed me I’d been cleared for access to the control room, operating floor, administration building, and other areas off-limits to general employees. That very day he’d handed me a thick, sealed package and directed me to take it to the incinerator in one of the outbuildings. I was to make sure the contents were completely destroyed before I returned. I never knew what was inside the envelopes and packages, but since I had no understanding of the work that took place inside the massive plant, it didn’t matter. From that point on, I’d repeated the task multiple times, as well as delivering envelopes like the one I now held to various employees throughout the plant.
The control room was a fascinating place. Instead of the miles of pipes, holding tanks, and loud machinery that filled a good portion of K-25, the walls of this room were lined with metal panels covered with lights, knobs, gauges, and dials. Desks sat in the center, occupied by men and a couple women.
When I arrived, I handed the envelope to Frank, a new engineer who’d begun work at K-25 two weeks prior. I’d just turned to leave the room when the door opened. Clive Morrison stoodthere, taking me by surprise. In the months I’d been at the plant, we had never crossed paths.
He appeared just as shocked to see me. “Mae? What are you doing here?”
His unfriendly tone rankled. “I work here, same as you.”
Frank looked up from the document I’d brought him, which appeared to be some sort of technical drawing. “Is there a problem?”
Clive immediately offered a false smile. “No, Mae is a friend. I was just surprised to see her, is all.”
Frank nodded and went back to work.
I moved around Clive and exited the room. He followed me out, closing the door behind him. As I made my way to the stairs, his voice stopped me.
“Sissy told me you worked at K-25, but I didn’t know your position. I wasn’t aware you had access to the control room.”
I faced him and crossed my arms. “Sissy shouldn’t be talking about me or my job. It isn’t anyone’s business what I do or where I go. And you shouldn’t share information that could get her into trouble. Three girls from the dorm have been fired for talking about things they shouldn’t.”
His eyes narrowed. “What has she told you?”
“Only that you work here at K-25.”
“Nothing else?”
I didn’t like being interrogated. “You’ll have to ask her, but I assure you if she had, it wasn’t anything I would repeat.”
He studied me, as though determining if I told the truth or not. After a moment, he said, “I need to get back to work.”
When he turned to leave, I decided to test my theory regarding his story about tonight. “It’s a shame you have to miss the big Thanksgiving dinner. You must have an odd schedule, being that you’re here now and yet you have to work tonight too.”
He stiffened. “As you said about yourself, what I do isn’tanyone’s business. My schedule doesn’t concern you.” He didn’t wait for my reply and disappeared into the control room without a backwards glance.
I stewed over the exchange all the way back to the maintenance shop.
What does Sissy see in him?I wondered. He wasn’t terribly handsome, but then outward appearances had never been important to me either. Garlyn was certainly nice-looking, but it was his friendly personality and kindness that drew me the first day we met. Clive, on the other hand, never smiled, never offered pleasant conversation, never acted as though he thought me worthy of his time.
By the end of the workday, I’d decided not to tell Sissy I saw Clive. Like me, she would surely wonder why he was working the day shift as well as the night shift. His loss was my gain, as I saw it. I’d make sure she had a wonderful evening with Garlyn and me and our other friends, proving to my roommate she didn’t need sour-faced Clive Morrison.
I bundled in the warm coat I’d purchased last week and made my way to the bus terminal. It had been a splurge, but the hand-me-down coat I’d brought to Tennessee stood out among the nicer garments the girls in the dorm wore. Even Sissy’s wardrobe was of better quality than the meager dresses I owned. While I didn’t usually pay mind to things like that, now that I was seeing Garlyn and attending social gatherings on a regular basis, I didn’t want to look like a girl from a Kentucky coal mining camp.
Sissy sat on her bed when I arrived, her diary in her lap. She hurried to tuck it beneath her pillow before she greeted me.
“Is Garlyn meeting us at the cafeteria?” she asked a bit too brightly.
I felt the question was more for distraction than information, since we’d discussed what time we would have dinner before weleft for work that morning. Recently, I’d noticed she was careful not to leave the small writing book on the bedside table as she’d done in the early days of keeping a journal. No doubt she’d begun to include private things about her relationship with Clive, but I hoped she knew I wouldn’t read it.
