Manhattan Beach

Back at the Kerrigans’ sixth-floor walkup, Eddie greets his wife, Agnes Kerrigan, a beautiful former Follies dancer; his feisty half-sister, Brianne; and his “damaged” younger daughter, Lydia, who is disabled. Eddie feels guilty that he struggles to bond with Lydia; he neither shows her the love Agnes would wish nor can he afford to buy Lydia the care she needs. When Brianne mentions that one of her beaux, a trumpeter, has performed at one of Dexter’s nightclubs, Anna instinctively knows not to mention that they went to his house. Eddie feels grateful but also disturbed by Anna’s capacity for subterfuge. He also realizes that at nearly 12, she is “arresting” and no longer a little girl. Still, he encourages the secrecy when he asks her to not mention Dexter Styles’s name again. 

Eddie meets his friend Dunellen at Sonny’s West Shore Bar and Grill. The two men have a strong, almost familial bond, as they both attended New York Catholic Protectory in the East Bronx. Eddie also saved Dunellen’s life from a Rockaway riptide when they were boys. Eddie works for Dunellen as a “bagman,” defined as “the sap who ferried a sack containing something […] between men who should not rightly associate” (31). Eddie earns a subsistence living and can barely make ends meet, even combined with his wife’s dressmaking wages.

Although Eddie only wants one drink, Dunellen keeps the alcohol flowing. Eddie confesses that he lacks money to buy Lydia the special chair she needs, and he hopes Dunellen will offer to help him. Instead, Dunellen refers him to Nat, the loan shark, who will deduct the sum from his wages. Eddie hungers for change: He has grown tired of his subordinate position and the constant deference he has to pay to those above him. 

After Eddie’s mother died of typhus when he was only four years old, Eddie’s father took him to the New York Catholic Protectory. While there, Eddie met Mr. De Veer, an elderly poker buddy who, before his death, handed Eddie a silver pocket watch that became his most treasured possession. On leaving the Protectory, Eddie remained close to the “brothers” he encountered there, including Dunellen.

Eddie’s career began on vaudeville, where he met Agnes, then a chorus girl. Then, he became a stockbroker, finding “his perfect game of chance […] buying stocks on the margin, selling only to buy more” (47). After the crash, when Eddie lost his job and wealth, his Protectory brothers found him subsistence work as a shipper, and when that was no longer available, as a “union lackey in pinstripes” (48).

In the present day, Eddie returns home drunk, and Anna greets him. He lifts her into his arms, realizing that she will soon be too big.

Now 19, Anna works in Mr. Voss’s factory, inspecting parts for the battleship Missouri during the first years of America’s entry into World War II. Eddie disappeared when Anna was 14; she attended Brooklyn College before starting work at the factory. When Mr. Voss tells her that she is the factory’s best employee, her coworkers, incapable of understanding how a woman could be esteemed on her own merit, assume that she has entered into some salacious agreement with the boss.

One day on her lunch break, Anna spots an attractive coworker, Nell Konopka, riding a bicycle. Anna experiences a “shiver of envy” (55). She tracks Nell down and asks to borrow her bicycle. A flirt who uses her looks to gain advantage, Nell seems like less of a “good girl” than Anna’s college and neighborhood buddies, but Anna and Nell become friends. While they walk around Brooklyn Naval Yard, Anna spots a diver, who works on ships beneath the water. Anna becomes fascinated with diving, although it is a profession closed to women.

Nell takes Anna to Moonshine’s nightclub, near Madison Avenue, and instructs her not to reveal that they are working at the Naval Yard. Nell waits for her date, a married man; meanwhile, she and Anna dance with other suitors, handsome or otherwise. Moonshine is owned by Dexter Styles, a Prohibition “gangster, or so they say” (80). When Anna meets Dexter, she recognizes him as the man from Manhattan Beach and gives her name as “Anna Feeney.” She tells Dexter—and no one else—that she works at the Naval Yard.

At the end of the night, Nell praises Anna’s discretion, saying that she could be a spy. Anna says that she wants to be a diver instead.

Dexter drives home with his employee Badger and chastises him for being rude to Anna. Back home, at Manhattan Beach, Dexter catches up now 16-year-old Tabatha, who is beautiful, self-absorbed, and boy crazy.

The Styles family, including Dexter’s wife, Harriet Styles, goes to visit his wealthy Puritan in-laws, the Berringers. They discuss the war effort and the war’s as yet uncertain outcome. Thinking of Anna and “hoping to engage Tabby” (98), Dexter tells his daughter about the girls who work in welding and plumbing at Naval Yard. Tabatha expresses the desire to see Naval Yard. 

Dexter spots a lone man parked near his house. The man, Hugh Mackey, wants to discuss a serious subject. To deflect Mackey’s withering impulse, Dexter insists that Tabatha accompany them for a walk on Manhattan Beach. Tabatha—flattered by the notion that she could be an important peacemaker—dresses up and leads them onto the beach. She removes her shoes and skips ahead of them.

Mackey says that his current situation with Dexter has become untenable. Dexter, meanwhile, says that the problem is Mackey’s own. Mackey says that by helping him, Dexter will “save [him]self trouble later on” (112). Tabatha strikes up conversation with Mackey, and he removes his shoes and tears down the beach in imitation of her.