by Paul Hina
Henry's dad.
In the fifties, during the post-war economic boom, real estate development was exploding. New houses and subdivisions seemed to be popping up everywhere, and John and Maddie's hometown was no exception. The Winthrops and the Hawthornes seemed to have their fingerprints on just about every building project in town. Their names were intertwined in the town's mind, and they had become the town's archetypes for power and success.
So, it's little wonder how shocked the locals were when word started to spread that Maddie had rejected Henry's proposal. They were essentially local royalty. It seemed that everyone was operating under the assumption that they'd end up together. After all, their fathers were the two richest men in town, and Henry and Maddie were the same age. And it was the fifties. The world was smaller. Most people married someone close to home, someone close to their economic status.
John couldn't really remember ever seeing them around, which was saying something in such a small town. They were the only two kids in the area who didn't attend the public school. Instead, they attended private schools. And, as far as John knew, they didn't attend any of the local, social functions. For this reason, they always seemed like distant figures in his mind, less real somehow than the other young people in town. Though they lived near, they always seemed a world away.
Another reason why John hadn't made the connection between Maddie and the Winthrop name was because he had only ever heard her referred to as Madeline Winthrop. Even if she had told him her name was Madeline, he's still not sure he would've made the connection. She was a proper person, and, like most proper people she was always referred to with her surname attached. He'd always heard of her as Madeline Winthrop. Not just Madeline. The Winthrops and the Hawthornes had two names, not one. This level of perceived formality was just one more wall between John's world and the world of the Winthrops and Hawthornes. In their town, John and Maddie existed in a sort of bizarro caste system, and Maddie was untouchable for a working class guy like John.
The Hawthornes and the Winthrops even lived in a world apart from the rest of the town. Both their homes, though on opposing sides like bookends, stood atop the highest hills of town, looking down on the community below.
All this is to say that John wasn't particularly thrilled when he learned Maddie's last name. It made an already strange and complex situation even more strange and complex. Not that this changed his mind about Maddie. It didn't. Even learning who she was, and what it might mean to be with her, wasn't enough to shake the image he had of her in his mind. It was like she was permanently etched in his mind as the girl who looked lost in the moonlight. Still, he couldn't help but wonder how different things might have been if he had met her under other circumstances, if he had met Madeline Winthrop instead of Maddie Moonlight.
One thing was sure though, he had no interest in her family's money, and he had even less interest in mingling in her moneyed social circles. He abhorred the snobby, judgmental types that frequented the boat shop. They held themselves with an air of entitlement and ordained privilege that sickened John. He couldn't help but wonder how much of that he had projected because he assumed their wealth. What if he had known Maddie was wealthy that first night? Would he have approached her? Would she have seemed as vulnerable?
And now that he understood the characters involved in this bit of theater he had thrusted himself into, John knew that the Hawthornes would not take kindly to being publicly embarrassed. The whole town knew that Henry and Maddie had been engaged. Even if Maddie didn't quite see it that way, everyone else did. And if the news of her breaking the engagement had found its way to John in the boat shop by Monday, then the whole town must've known. And the gossip was not relegated to the simple fact of the engagement's end, the whispers had evolved to the open question of how the Hawthornes would react.
Hank Hawthorne, Henry's dad, was well known for his hot temper and aggressiveness, particularly in his business dealings. Once the whispers made their way to the boathouse, John's dad began to worry.
When John's parents first met Maddie, they were as thrilled by their engagement as they were shocked by it. It was right after their boat ride that second day and he took her home to introduce her to them. He and Maddie had purposely designed it to be a brief in-and-out encounter, a way to gauge an outside reaction to their engagement. They were fully cognizant that if someone asked too many questions, they would quickly learn that they had only just met and skepticism would soon follow. John and Maddie had decided that they weren't interested in entertaining the skepticism of others. They were in love, and they were going to get married. So, before John's parents got to ask how they met, or how long they'd known each other, or even Maddie's last name, they were off to buy Maddie's new engagement ring.
But once the gossip made its way to John's dad, and he learned about Maddie and Henry's broken engagement, he quickly put two and two together. He now understood that his son was going to be seen as stealing Madeline Winthrop from Henry Hawthorne. This is when he began to worry about what this might mean for his business.
Again, by Monday just about everyone in town knew about Maddie breaking off her engagement with Henry. But, as far as John knew, no one, other than his parents, knew about John and Maddie's engagement. There were some vague whispers that Madeline had found someone new, but there was nothing concrete attached to those whispers. But it was only a matter of time before the word would get out. And John's dad was more than aware that the wealthy folks in and around town were the ones who were most likely to buy boats. Sure, there were hobbyists and rural fisherman, but they weren't enough to support his business alone. It was the wealthy that made the difference between the success of his business or its failure. Because of the boom in development in the area, the wealthy folks had the disposable income, and they were giving John's dad plenty of business recently. And he was inclined to believe that they would continue buying boats in the future. But, if word got out about John and Maddie, he was concerned that there could be retribution from Hank Hawthorne. Hank was an extremely powerful and influential man in the area, and he had business dealings with just about every businessman in town. John's dad was afraid that now only would Henry stop doing business with the shop, but others might follow his influence and stop buying boats from the family that was perceived to have thwarted his son's future.
It wasn't as if John's dad expected John to break off the engagement, but he did ask that they keep things quiet until the gossip died down a bit.
But John's dad wasn't the only one who could be hurt by Hank Hawthorne's retribution. It turns out Maddie's dad, Bob, had a lot to lose if her and Henry's engagement fell through. After all, Hank and Bob were preparing to break ground on a big, new project. And with all the gossip swirling around Henry and Maddie, Maddie started to worry that her dad would learn about her calling off the engagement before she had a chance to tell him herself.
So, that Monday afternoon, John and Maddie made a quiet and tense journey to her parents' house.
It wasn't as if this tenseness was anything deeper than the natural tension one feels when preparing to deliver news that you know someone doesn't want delivered. John and Maddie had spent a lot of time together over the last few days. The plans they had made had already firmly sunk in. So, they weren't feeling the kind of tenseness you might feel after some time and quiet reflection leads to regret. No, they were still madly happy, and deeply satisfied with the decision they'd made.
John held her hand the whole way, and she felt that his firmness gave her the strength to do something she would have found impossible to do only days earlier.
As they pulled up to the Winthrop house, it was an intimidating moment for John. For a home in the 1950's, it seemed like a palace. It was a three-story house, and was meticulously cared for, even including a long, paved driveway and professional landscaping. John had never really seen the house up close before. Since the house was largely buried in the woods off the main road, he'd only ever seen it in pieces t
hrough the trees, or from the city as a tiny white dot atop the hill.
They parked by the door, walked up a set of wide, white stone stairs, and waited by the elaborately decorated doorway. They stood there for a second like nervous solicitors. Then he grabbed her hand. She took a deep breath, slowly opened the door, and they walked inside.
The inside was about what he expected it would be. There was a lot of white. The floor was whitish, and much of the decor was white and clean, made all the cleaner by its whiteness. But there was something sacrificed in all this clean order. John felt no warmth in the house. And this coldness didn't thaw as they moved into the sitting room where Maddie's mom, Helen, was sitting with a book.
There were lots of books in the room, as many as John has seen anywhere other than a public library. There were four leather chairs at the corner of a large area rug that sat in the center of the room, and a grand piano to the right of the door where John and Maddie were standing. To John, the room seemed showy and excessive. Really, the whole house seemed excessive.
They stood there for a second in the doorway without her mom even taking notice of them. When she
