"Go to sleep, Jack."
Much later, the sound of whispering woke Jack. The three women sat on the edge of Saskia's bed in the glow from the lamp with the red glass shade; there was hardly any room on the bed for Jack, who didn't let them know he was awake. His mom's string of pearls was broken. Els and Saskia were trying to help Alice put her necklace back together. "The clumsy oaf," Saskia said. "That's the trouble with virgins."
"He didn't mean to--he'd just never taken off a necklace before," Alice whispered. "I think they're cultured pearls. Is that good or bad?"
"You should have kept the necklace on, Alice," Els told her.
"He was really very sweet--he'd just never done anything before," Alice whispered.
"He must have had a lot of money, for all that time," Saskia said.
"Oh, I didn't charge him--that would have made me a prostitute!" The three women laughed. "Shhh! We'll wake up Jack," Alice whispered.
"I'm awake," he told them. "Did you give that boy some good advice?" he asked his mom. She gave Jack a hug and a kiss while Saskia and Els went on trying to reassemble her broken necklace.
"Yes, it was pretty good advice, I think," Alice replied.
"The best advice he'll ever get," Saskia said.
"At least for free," Els added. The three women laughed again.
"You'll have to take this damn thing to a jeweler," Saskia said, handing Alice the damaged necklace and a bunch of unstrung pearls. Alice put the loose pearls and the necklace in her purse.
Saskia and Els volunteered to walk them back to the Krasnapolsky, but Alice proposed a slight detour. She wanted to walk by the Oudekerksplein, just to show those old prostitutes she was still standing. "It's too late--most of them will have stopped working," Els told her.
"It's worth doing," Saskia said. "Even if only one woman is working, the others will hear about it."
It must have been two or three in the morning. They had just come off the Oudekennissteeg when the music hit them; it was even louder on the bridge across the old canal. That organ in the Oude Kerk was a holy monster. "Bach?" Jack asked his mother.
"It's Bach, all right," Alice said, "but it's not your father."
"How do you know?" Els asked. "Femke is such a bitch. You should at least have a look and see."
"It's Bach's Fantasy in G Major," Alice said. "It's popular at weddings." Weddings were not exactly William's cup of tea, apparently, but Saskia and Els insisted on having a look at the organist.
Alice wanted to walk around the Oudekerksplein before going inside the Old Church, so they did. Only one prostitute was standing in her doorway, listening to the music. She was one of the younger ones--Margriet. "You're up late, Jackie," Margriet said.
"We're all up late," Els told her.
They went into the Oude Kerk. Two of the older prostitutes were sitting in a pew, and one of them, Naughty Nanda, appeared to be asleep; the other one, Angry Anouk, wouldn't look at Alice.
They went to the staircase at the back of the great congregation hall, but only Saskia and Els and Jack started up the narrow stairs. Alice waited for them at the bottom of the staircase. "He's in Australia, or sailing to it," she said stubbornly. "Just imagine all the ladies he'll get to meet on a cruise ship!"
The faint, innocent smell of baby powder preceded their view of Frans Donker, the junior organist. The sudden appearance of Saskia and Els startled the boy genius--he stopped playing. Then Donker saw Jack standing between the two prostitutes.
"Oh, I suppose you thought it was your father," Frans said to Jack.
"Not really," Saskia said.
"Don't talk--just keep playing," Els told him. The child prodigy had returned to the Bach before they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"It's that Donker kid, right?" Alice asked. They all nodded. "He plays like an organ-tuner," Alice said.
Bach's Fantasy in G Major followed them past the Trompettersteeg, where several of the younger prostitutes were still selling themselves. They were nearly to the end of the Sint Annenstraat when they finally outdistanced the music.
"You're not going to Australia, are you?" Els may have asked Alice.
"No. Australia is too long and hard a trip for Jack," Alice might have answered.