3 bar menu

Tobacco Road Cake – Part 03

La Guardia continued to peer around with a sense of unease and curiosity, but she eventually shrugged it off.

“I’ve ascended the golden staircase of wealth with honor and dignity,” she continued. “I haven’t taken anything from anyone. I’ve never incurred a grudge. There’s no way anyone here could have a motive.”

“That’s right!” The elderly priest adorned in glittering golden robes, clutching a bible emblazoned with gold leaf in one hand and a trumpet in the other, stepped forward. “Lady La Guardia is the goddess of money! She’s the guiding light for all of us. Isn’t that right, young man?”

The young man beside him jumped in surprise. He nodded vigorously. The elderly priest returned the nod cheerfully, but before he could say more, an irritated female voice cut through the air.

“Hold it! I know you, young man.”

“What?!”

Startled by the sudden interjection from the middle-aged woman in a navy evening dress, the young man jumped again.

The woman narrowed her eyes. “You’re a lead dancer at Broadway, aren’t you? But aren’t you originally from a poor Southern town? That little town where Lady La Guardia’s tobacco farm was located. You brought it up at another party. Thanks to the Bluecandy family, the men in town got jobs as tobacco craftsmen, the town prospered, and everyone was happy… until Lady La Guardia built a mass-production factory and suddenly laid everyone off.”

The young man froze, while La Guardia, smoking her pipe next to Bon Vivant, nodded with an oddly graceful smile.

“That’s right!” she interjected delightfully. “That’s exactly how it went.”

Victorique quietly observed their exchange from within the folds of the fabric.

“One day, I visited a fully mechanized pig slaughterhouse and got the idea. I thought, the same could be done for tobacco manufacturing, except do it in reverse. If you dry it with machines and wrap it in paper, you won’t need workers anymore, and you reduce the salaries you have to pay. It’s market mechanisms.”

The woman nodded solemnly. With eyes burning with hatred, she glared at La Guardia. “But then, all the men in the town lost their jobs because of that. They protested, and demonstrators surrounded the factory. And then… overnight, Bluecandy disappeared from the town along with the entire company. When they woke up one morning, the factory was gone, and the company expanded to New York.”

“Yeah, I remember,” the young man said, trembling. “But that’s all in the past now.”

“Your father and brother, who were workers, also lost their jobs. You said you’d never forgive her.”

“So what if I said that? I’m doing well for myself now. That’s behind me. P-Please don’t take offense, Lady La Guardia.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” the woman teased.

The young man shrunk back, continuing to apologize to La Guardia. La Guardia kept on puffing on her pipe with a smile.

Then, a slim middle-aged man stepped forward, looking displeased. “Madam,” he said. “If I recall correctly, you mentioned something about hating her for blocking an anti-smoking law.”

This time, the woman in the navy dress curled up. “Wh-What?” she stammered.

The middle-aged man creased his forehead. “You grew up in a strict Puritan household, and you have a famous activist uncle. But while you were tirelessly campaigning for the smoking ban following the prohibition, the emerging force in the tobacco industry, Bluecandy, moved into New York.”

“L-Let’s not talk about that.”

“Hmph! You were ranting about dragging Lady La Guardia to Congress and lambasting her. And while your uncle was strolling in Little Italy, a basil pot fell from above, splitting his head open.”

“Stop…”

“Your poor uncle died instantly! And the smoking ban was also shelved, leading to this point.”

“Stop it!” the woman shouted, cradling her head in her hands. She choked back tears. “We don’t know who the culprit is! It might have been just an accident!”

“There’s no way it was just an accident. He was in Little Italy.”

“Stop it. We’re fine with just the happy memories of my uncle,” the woman said shakily.

The middle-aged man went on persistently. “Always accusing others when you’ve been hiding your grudge against Lady La Guardia yourself!”

The woman lowered her head, wiping away tears. La Guardia, for some reason, was smiling as she glanced back and forth between the two.

Then, an elderly woman stepped forward, as if to defend the woman in the navy dress, and pointed at the middle-aged man’s face.

“You’re one to talk! I know everything. I’ve been living in New York for a long time, you see.”

“Huh?” The middle-aged man looked confused.

“I saw that unfortunate accident on Fifth Avenue that day too!”

“Oh…!”

With a disapproving expression, the elderly woman moved and gestured sharply at the towering cake surrounded by sugar figurines. Everyone turned their attention to the Tobacco Road Cake. The sugar decor spiraled from bottom to top, depicting the colorful journey of Tobacco Road and the success story of Mrs. La Guardia Bluecandy.

At the base, an immigrant ship arriving at Ellis Island was portrayed, with the Statue of Liberty overseeing its arrival. Then came depictions of life in the impoverished tobacco farms of the South, followed by the onset of mass production in factories and the subsequent layoffs of workers. The rise of the Miss Cigarette brand to popularity, and the expansion into New York. The grand parade of the glamorous Cigarette Girls traversing Manhattan Island on a blue double-decker bus adorned with flowers.

The elderly woman pointed to the miniature double-decker bus. “You young folks wouldn’t know, would you? When Bluecandy initially expanded to New York as one of the emerging tobacco companies from the South, there were actually many companies more powerful than Bluecandy. So Lady La Guardia came up with a secret plan. First, they held beauty pageants in each state of the United States to stir up excitement, and then they gathered the winners to form the Cigarette Girls. They made special cards of them in beautiful swimsuits and put them randomly in boxes. The boys went crazy collecting the cards. And then they planned an event where all of them paraded across New York. Newspapers and radio stations covered the event. That day…”

The elderly woman held up one of the sugar figure of the Cigarette Girls, and staring silently at the middle-aged man, dropped it to the floor. The female figure’s limbs came apart.

The man shrieked. The other guests looked around in surprise, exchanging puzzled glances.

The elderly woman smiled wickedly. “One of the girls fell from the double-decker bus. A very tragic accident.”

“Shut up!” The man covered his face with both hands.

La Guardia’s smile deepened even more.

“Newspaper reporters witnessed the moment of the accident from up close, and photographers captured it. The screams of the announcers were heard on the radio. As a result, the parade was extensively covered in the news. The tragic death of an all-American girl. The Miss Cigarette brand name became known throughout the United States along with the news of the tragedy.”

“N-No… that’s not…”

“Apparently, one railing of the double-decker bus was broken. Nobody knew which girl from which state was standing there. That girl wanted to stand out more than the others, so she forced her way to the front. She was very beautiful, one of the most popular among the girls that year. And when the parade reached Fifth Avenue, the most exciting moment, she pushed aside the others and waved to the cameras.”

“You’re wrong! That girl’s father, mother, and brothers, and all her relatives traveled to New York, excited to see the appearance of their most beautiful girl. When she noticed them, she was overjoyed. She talked to the other girls first before leaning forward and jumped up like a child, saying her family was here. She looked like a little girl again. That girl that used to sit on my lap. She was so proud. Her lips moved, calling for her family…”

“The girl smiled broadly, leaned on the railing, and then fell headlong into the abyss.”

“It was an accident! An unfortunate one. Please… stop…”

“She was crushed flat by the following car.”

“Stop it!”

“That was your daughter, wasn’t it?”

“She was. She was my daughter!”

The woman clapped her hands triumphantly. “See, you’re all the same! You’re all miserable people who put on fake smiles and pretend to enjoy the party because of social obligations while secretly harboring a grudge against Lady La Guardia and the Bluecandy family. All the guests here… they’re all the same!”

“No, it was an accident. Lady La Guardia didn’t plan it… I want to believe that,” the man groaned. “She didn’t do it for her company. That my lovely daughter was killed by such a scheming, vulgar, despicable, miserly, pretentious old woman is too much! Am I wrong?! You people understand, don’t you?!”

The hall fell eerily silent. The guests paled at his words. The dark chandeliers started swinging, sighing mournfully. Everyone stood frozen, as if struck by lightning. The wind from the broken windows blew fiercely, threatening to knock everything down. Dishes and glasses fell to the floor, shattering to pieces.

Victorique, keeping her head down, watched silently.