The Echo of Old Books: A Novel

Hemi waits all night for Belle to call or return, but she does neither. He heads to the station the next day, but she doesn’t show, and the train leaves without them. Hemi returns to his apartment, numb. Someone slips a note underneath the door, and Hemi rushes out to find Dickey. Dickey tells Hemi he is supposed to just deliver the note and leave and is not allowed to talk to Hemi. Hemi reads the note, then promptly crumples it up and begins drinking. Goldie calls and offers him one last chance to come back to the newspaper. Hemi accepts immediately.

The day after they were supposed to leave, Belle heads out to Hemi’s apartment, wishing she had been able to decide about him sooner. However, she plans for them to buy fresh tickets at the station that day and sent along a note with Dickey the previous day to Hemi. When she arrives at the apartment, however, it is empty, save her packed suitcase in the hallway. A neighbor tells Belle that Hemi packed up and left to cover the war the previous evening.

Stunned and heartbroken, Belle leaves the suitcase behind and returns home, taking a sleeping powder and going straight to bed.