Once more they were made aware of the sudden changeability of the city. In no time at all, they were out of the frightening streets of the Bowery and in the crowded, noisy, bright-colored center of Chinatown. The streets, so narrow that in some places the sidewalks were scarcely a foot wide, were lined with restaurants, gift shops, importing houses that specialized in tea and spices, and more of the oddly stocked Oriental groceries and markets. Somewhat shaken by their fear on the Bowery, they stopped for tea and rice cookies in a large Chinese restaurant, where they sat at a small table on a balcony overhanging the main street of the district.
“I think we’d better stop looking for theaters today,” Peggy suggested. “Besides, it’s after five-thirty now, and almost time for dinner. Why don’t we look around some of the shops here, and then come back to this restaurant for dinner? We can look for theaters again tomorrow.”
Amy agreed, but looked pained at the suggestion that they do more searching the next day. “I don’t know how you can stand it,” she said. “My feet are killing me from today’s walk. Why don’t we wait awhile?”
“Because tomorrow’s Sunday,” Peggy replied firmly, “and it’s our last chance to get in a full day’s looking before next week. After-school hours just aren’t enough. If we really want to check out this whole list, we have to work weekends.”
Amy sighed. “My worst habit isn’t laziness,” she said, “it’s picking the wrong kind of friends. If I had known, when we first met, how much energy you have, I would have refused to know you!”
XIV
The Hidden Theater
Sunday, like Saturday, produced one blank after another.
Peggy and Amy saw theaters that had been turned into television studios, union halls, social clubs, and lodges; theaters converted to restaurants and supermarkets; sites of theaters long vanished and forgotten now occupied by office buildings, apartment houses or the blank-faced, featureless warehouses that fill much of lower Manhattan.
On Monday, when their last class was over at two-thirty, Peggy once more took up her list and her bundle of city maps and guides. “Let’s go, Amy,” she said in tones of mixed determination and resignation. “We’ve got a couple of hours this afternoon, and we might as well use them.”
“Why don’t we take the afternoon off?” Amy asked. “My feet are just killing me, and I’m sure if I walk for another two hours I’ll come down with an awful blister. We can look again tomorrow, after a day’s rest.”