Eleanor was a tiny woman – tiny in stature but not mind or emotion. Born at the turn of the 19th century in Chicago with so much promise, she now found herself stuck in sewing circles and ladies groups as she approached spinsterhood.
She longed for a world in which a woman was not defined by her gender, but by her contributions. And she really wants to take off her corset. Like really.
Eleanor had resolved that the only way to bring that about was to find an open-minded man who would be her husband. She impressed upon her family the need to go to university, for where else could she find an enlightened man, but her father was opposed, and her mother always agreed with her father. Her brother went to the University of Chicago, became an accountant, and married Eleanor’s best friend, Phyllis.
Eleanor hated tea or dinner at their house, though she was invited often and always attended. She hated sitting primly on the edge of the chair, being aware of any crumbs that might stray from her plate to the Berber carpet.
She needed a path towards a convenient union. A man who would allow his wife the comfort of breathing freely, the ease of moving unimpeded throughout the day. Where was she to find that?
She became enamored of maps – big, table-sized maps with the names of cities and valleys, of countries and continents. She needed a husband who would allow her to travel, to learn, and to experience life without a ribbed cage compressing her diaphragm.
Her father, a doctor, allowed her to accompany him to the countryside where he made house calls for farming families – an annual event that she had attended man times in the past. Eleanor searched the schoolyard where the families had met to greet her father. She saw no single men as far as she could tell. She donned a pair of dark specs and laid a map out on on the table.
“What are you looking at?”
An old farmer, as old as her father, was looking at the map on the table. He looked sideways at her and smiled.
“It’s a map of Illinois. See Chicago at the top? And Lake Michigan, just north?”
“I haven’t seen a map ever before,” the old man drawled. “Can you explain this to me?”
Eleanor took off her glasses, started at the man, glanced at his empty ring finger and smiled. “I would love to.”
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