Sold on a Monday

Ellis approaches Ruby’s house. She smiles at him, introduces herself, and says that she is eight and one half years old. She is standing with her little brother, Calvin. Ellis introduces himself to Ruby and Calvin’s mother, Geraldine Dillard, who is wearing a “cotton house dress” and has stepped outside her front door (44). Ellis convinces Geraldine to accept payment for pictures of the children. Geraldine tells Ellis that he can take the pictures until she is done collecting her wash from the line.

Ruby directs and encourages her brother, so Ellis gets the shot he needs. On the way back to Philly, he sees men protesting with signs hung around their necks advertising their need for a job. One reads, “Will take any work. Do not want charity” (46). Ellis reflects on the men and their signs, thinking that he needs to keep sight of his own goals or he will be joining them. But Ellis is worrying about his choice to use stand-ins for the photos because he does not want to deceive or lie. But as he reaches the Examiner offices on Market Street, he is grateful that the rattle of his old Model-T’s engine can “drown out the whispers of his conscience” (47).

Ellis’s story elicits widespread reactions, including outrage; but most readers are sympathetic to the family’s plight. Trimble selected the picture with Geraldine and the two children holding one another, with the sign in the background. Readers send gifts for the children, many of them hand delivered to Ellis.

Trimble arrives early to the office but Lily has not prepared his morning coffee or cleaned up his desk. Yet Lily asks if Schiller is retiring and whether they need a reporter to replace him. Trimble thinks she knows someone and so asks for the man’s name. He also reminds her about his coffee. But Lily continues. She asks Trimble to look at some writing samples, without saying they are hers. When Trimble asks who wrote them, she admits that she did and reminds him that she has published several letters to the editor. Trimble suggests, however, that she write recipes for the women’s Food section. Lily recalls that even Nellie Bly started out writing those types of articles. Clayton then interrupts to tell Trimble they have the scoop on a known mobster murdered by the Irish mob. Lily initially thinks he rejected her pitch because of bad timing, but she knows the truth.

Two months after he pitched the story, Ellis’s article is in newspapers across the United States. But Ellis feels worse, especially given all the praise he receives. He wonders if he sold his integrity with the story. 

He is home for the first time since the story published. He is proud of his new story about coalminers and cannot wait to tell his father, Jim, even though the only thing they have in common is a dark complexion from their Portuguese roots.

Ellis recalls visiting the coal mine where his father worked near their home in Hazelton, PA. Ellis saw the “breaker boys,” children who worked in the mines for 10-hour days and suffered serious illnesses. When Ellis heard a woman commend the reporters for reporting on the breaker boys, he vowed to become a reporter.

His father disapproved because he strongly dislikes reporters. So, Ellis tried to do what was expected: He graduated high school and worked at a battery factory to earn parts money for his car. His heart was not in it. When he quit and started at the newspaper, he sent his clips to his mother, Myrna; she shared his dreams. 

During a tense dinner, Ellis is thinking about his baby brother who stopped breathing and died when Ellis was five. Since that day, Ellis cannot recall his father smiling or laughing. Jim offers to check on Ellis’s car radiator, a sign that Ellis should be on his way. But his mother, who maintains the balance between Ellis and his father, insists that Ellis stay, which gives him a chance to tell them about his feature. When he does, “something changed in the room” (62), and his father was angry and left the table. Ellis cannot figure out if the change is due to his father’s dislike of his career, or Ellis’s attempt to prove his father wrong, or something else? 

Lily is lying to her co-workers. She is not feeling well, but says she is. She is worrying about Samuel. She lives during the week in Philadelphia at a home for unwed mothers and learned the night before that Samuel has a fever.

Samuel is a blessing, but so too is her family, even though initially her pregnancy at 17 years old was a problem. Her family never looks at her with disgust, though, like some people do. She is working hard to move Samuel to a new town so he never questions whether “he was wanted” (65).

Lily decides to call home, but Clayton overhears the call and offers to take her home. She tries to pretend that he misunderstood, but Clayton says, “if your son is sick, you ought to look in on him” (66). Lily finishes her call, tries to tell him that it was her nephew, but he is a good reporter. Clayton now knows her secret, but tells her he will keep it.

Lily is ready to leave with Clayton. She walks by Ellis’s desk and he tells her about a job offer from the New York Herald Tribune. He still cannot believe it, and Lily suggests that he has a guilty conscience from making a career based on children’s misfortune. Ellis tells Lily that he has not decided about the job. Lily hopes that she is the reason Ellis is hesitating. Clayton tells Lily that he is ready. When Lily says to Ellis that she will see him tomorrow, he responds that it is unlikely because he will be packing for his move to New York.