An Island Between Us

by K'Anne Meinel

  “Ma’am, we’d be happy to take your applications,” the bank manager assured both Marion and Barbara when they submitted them, but they didn’t believe his fake smile.

  They went to the next town over that had a library and looked up addresses where people could claim the benefits that G.I.s and their families were to receive, and they wrote letters asking for information. While the bank had taken their applications, neither one of them were fooled by this. They knew they would be turned down by the male bankers, who didn’t believe two women could own a home and generate adequate income to repay them.

  “Are you sure about this?” Barbara asked Marion as she wrote the check for the wood, the tarpaper, and the other things they had just ordered for their cabin and the two rental cabins they were hoping to build that summer.

  “Yes, we have no choice,” she admitted, but she was scared too. They not only had to live through the summer, fall, winter, and into spring with three children, but they had to finish building the cabins, and time was running out. They were short of funds, and while they hadn’t spent frivolously, they were getting close to where concern about money was becoming paramount. She was frightened at the idea of running back to Massachusetts with their tails tucked between their legs. They already knew they would probably not get their jobs back, and their parents and in-laws would probably love to rub their failure in their faces. Returning to Massachusetts was not an option!

  The lumberyard promised to have their order delivered to their dock within the week. Now, they had to arrange with someone to haul it out to their island since their boat was simply too small. They took some supplies with them, like the tarpaper, additional chicken wire they had purchased, a couple of windows, a roll of mosquito netting, and the two doors. At that point, the boat was fully loaded because they also had a few pallets strapped to the front.

  They also collected their mail while they were in town. There were two letters from the mother-in-law as they were calling Marion’s tenacious in-law, who seemed to take delight in threatening her over the loss of her grandchildren. There was another letter from Barbara’s mother and one from her brother. Strangely, there was also a letter from Marion’s father-in-law, who had remained outside this situation, most of which had been brought on by his wife. Marion had stopped writing to defend herself, or even answering any of the woman’s letters, to avoid wasting postage. She hadn’t wanted to give her mother-in-law their address, thinking the post office box would suffice, but she realized anyone in the town of Franklin could direct them to Whimsical Island, if they asked. Thankfully, so far, no one had come calling.

  They arranged for the barge people who had transported Grady and her supplies, to bring all their deliveries from the lumberyard in a week. That was a relief and didn’t cost nearly as much as they feared. They were a jocular bunch of good ole boys, who liked Grady and appreciated the extra work. Marion and Barbara were surprised to see them back from the island with the barge already, but the two women and their children had been in town long enough that they lucky and caught them. It worked out well for everyone involved.

  Returning with their groceries and supplies, they were pleased to be able to use their own pier. The white looked bright in the late afternoon sun in the cove. “If someone can’t see that pier, they’re blind,” Marion quipped as Barbara motored up happily, so they could tie the boat off and unload.

  Using the wheelbarrow, they were able to get up the steep incline easier, but while they waited for their supplies, Marion determined their next project would be the elongated steps to this section of the cove.

  “You would think we were stealing these books,” Barbara whispered as they carefully put away the treasured, borrowed library books they had gotten in the next town over. When she learned they wanted library cards, the librarian had been pleased, but after seeing their post office box in their address, she had lost her welcoming smile.

  “This is a county library, right?” Barbara had asked, feeling annoyed since the librarian was giving them an unnecessary hassle.

  “Yes,” she admitted sullenly, not being helpful in the least.

  “And Franklin is in the same county, right?” she continued her questioning, and the woman had no choice but to issue them all cards. They also learned they could use a mail service to order books they might like to read. This delighted both women, and they checked out several books after the librarian begrudgingly gave them the information and issued them cards.

  “We have to get the water hooked up to the cabin, dig a drainage system for a septic tank, and...” Marion started fretting, listing a litany of chores they still had to do as she counted them off on her fingers. She was being careful to avoid the cigarette between two of her fingers.

  “We’ll get it all done in time,” Barbara assured her. She’d easily dug the hole for the septic tank, and they lined it with both sand and gravel before they would place the septic tank. They had pipe they’d brought back from Franklin, both waste pipe and water pipe. Barbara began to dig a trench towards their spring, wondering what they would do for the cabins and filing away that thought for later consideration. They could move into the cabin now, and Marion was hammering boards together to make beds for each of the children. There were bunks for the boys and as well as two full-sized beds for the adults. They also had a full-sized bed for Brenda, which they had purchased from a used furniture store.

  “I’d imagined us having twin beds that we would push together every night,” Barbara had teased in a low voice.

  “We could put them on rollers, so they V together,” Marion teased back, delighted by the idea.

  “I bet the rollers would make a path in our wood floor and give us away,” she started giggling, imagining the questions those troughs in the wood would engender in the children. They had decided two full-sized beds in the master bedroom would suffice, and they could alternate as they shared. They were looking forward to having some privacy again.

  The children didn’t think anything about the fact that their moms would be sharing a room. They were just excited to see the walls going up in the cabin knowing they were going to have their own rooms.

  “We can’t depend on Franklin for anything,” Marion sighed, trying to make do with the wood they were using from the mismatched pallets. They were using different wood and different sizes they sawed to the required lengths. The exposed wood looked harsh in the bedrooms, and she eagerly anticipated being able to paint or wallpaper some of it.

  “There will be a change, now that they are building for G.I.s,” Barbara pointed out.

  “Think we’ll get our loan?”

  “No,” she shrugged, not worried about it as she finished her trench and began assembling the pipes to lead up to the house. They’d have to figure out a filter system, so some of the foreign matter in the spring didn’t end up in their sink or bath. One of the junk sinks Grady had brought had been cleaned up, and the cabinets would hold it when they arrived.

  “Just stretch this like so,” Marion said slowly as the children held the end of the roll tightly. “Next, we cut here,” she showed them, and then, “Voila! We have mosquito netting on the frame.” She held up the frame she had measured, remeasured, and for form’s sake, measured a third time to fit in the cabin window. She wanted it to fit perfectly. There were a couple of these made, and they were waiting on the barge to bring the latest of their supplies. She smiled around the cigarette in her mouth, glad for the children’s enthusiasm and support.

  She’d also had the children help her make box frames in the evenings around the fire for the path up from the beach to their meadow. They’d made different sizes and staked them in, filling them with dirt and gravel from the path, then stamping it down with shovels and hammers. Now, the steep grade was a series of steps that made hauling things up from the dock and the cove easier. She’d left a slick path along one side for the wheelbarrow, but in a couple of places she knocked down the dirt, so it wasn’t such a struggle.

 
“Richard, did you track mud into the cabin?” Barbara asked, recognizing the shoe tracks. She had been hanging the doors on the cabin, adjusting them repeatedly with shims as she hung them, so they wouldn’t catch, wouldn’t drag, and would even look right. A cigarette was dangling from her mouth as she eyed her work, and then, she caught sight of the mud.

  “No...” he began, then flushed when she pointed it out. She then pointed to the broom that stood in the corner of the bare room. He sheepishly hung his head at the lie he had been about to tell and began to sweep.

  Scrubbing and sanding, they made sure all the walls and floors were smooth. Each of them had scraped knuckles, bruised knees, and an ache that wouldn’t go away between their shoulders and neck. They’d cleaned out each of the rooms, dusting and sweeping the floors, the walls, and even the ceilings until every bit of dust and dirt was gone. Then, they’d wetted everything down and waited for it to dry before applying the sealer. It had been difficult to find the product up here in Maine that their building books had recommended, but the finished look when they applied a special coat in the living room and on the log walls was worth all the hard work.

  “How long do you think they are going to take to arrive with the barge?” Marion worriedly asked when the week was almost up. They’d been futzing about the cabin, doing the little things that needed doing, but they were anxiously waiting on their other supplies. Just the idea of having a hot water heater was exciting her. She relished the idea of taking a bath in the small closet where they had installed the bathtub Grady brought them. They had forced water through the shower portion of it to prove it worked, but until they hooked up all the pipes that Barbara had so diligently laid and insulated, they were not ready to use it. They’d buried those pipes deep below what was called the frost line, and they marked the line, so they wouldn’t accidentally dig it up again in some future project.

  “You don’t think they are keeping our supplies, do you?” Barbara fretted, remembering they had taken an extra week to come out and retrieve Grady and their barge. They were still learning that Franklin had its own time zone...slow and steady.

  In the meantime, the windows they had brought were in the cabin with mosquito netting over them. This would keep out the bugs, who were drawn by the lights in the cabin as they worked. The tarpaper was on the roof now, but the roof was still covered by the tarp until they could lay the shingles they were also waiting on. The lantern they bought was a little more expensive than they had planned, but it cast a broad shadow over the room.

  “Why don’t we clean all this up?” Marion suggested as the children fished in the cove. She pointed to the junk pile they had tried to hide under the trees. Although Grady’s contributions had been helpful, and everything she brought had been things they wanted or would eventually need, seeing dirty, rusting items sitting on the shore as you entered the cove was depressing. She wanted visitors, especially unexpected visitors, to be impressed with the cove and not think they were lazy or slovenly.

  They had plenty to do. The chicken wire had been placed around the garden to keep some of the invaders at bay. The cats had helped by catching mice and rats, preventing them from stealing. The crows taunted the cats mercilessly as they set up squawking to let everyone in the vicinity know where these mighty hunters were located. “Maybe we could train one of the crows to let us know where Gray and Tiger are when we want them?” Barbara suggested, tired of the noise.

  The noise was previously something they had relished. For both city girls, the absolute quiet on the island had taken some getting used to. The noises they now heard were from the wind, the sea, and the animals that shared their paradise. They learned the difference between a woodpecker pecking a tree for bugs versus Barbara cutting down a tree. The pileated woodpecker was huge, with a red head and up to sixteen inches long. When he decided to peck on a tree it made a sharp tattoo that echoed through their forest. They shared their land with many wild neighbors. They hadn’t realized they were buying an entire neighborhood, but it was fascinating learning along with the children.

  They could have done without the raccoons and mink, which caused them to worry about their chickens and guineas as they grew, but they found that sinking chicken wire down a good foot into the dirt kept the wild animals from digging into the pen they had built. This didn’t, however, stop the predators from attempting to gain entry and upsetting the birds. The cats, the dogs, and their humans all tried to prevent these incursions, but these unwelcome neighbors were tenacious.

  “Where do we want this?” Marion murmured as they used the wheelbarrow to move a bathtub to one of the cabin sites they had decided on. They had already constructed the foundation and placed a log up around its base. Barbara was still cutting trees for the rest of the floor, but most of the cabin was going to be built with the boards they had purchased. They had enough money to build the one summer cabin they were hoping to rent out, but they still had hopes for the loan to come through and finance the other four they were planning.

  They dumped a tub, sink, stove, and a few other things Grady had brought them for each of the cabins by the appropriate site, realizing they needed to get better paths and grading for them all as they determined the best routes to each of the sites.

  “That looks better,” Barbara admitted as they got rid of the junk pile on the beach. There was a big bare spot where the junk had inhibited plant growth, and she took her boot and brushed aside one corner of the eyesore.

  “Mom, the sheep are over on the far side, and Feathers won’t listen to me,” Richard lamented. It was his turn to watch them, and he had wanted to bring them in to play with Brian and Brenda.

  “Isn’t it early?” Barbara asked from where she was sanding down the steps to the cabin. Marion was finishing the enclosed mosquito netting for part of the porch. It was nice to sit there at night and look down into their cove. Having a cigarette after a long day of work was relaxing. and they were trying to figure out how to make Adirondack chairs from wood that had washed up on their beach or from any remaining wood from the various pallets, which they were using up so rapidly.

  “That dog has more sense than you do,” Marion told him, laughing as she tapped in the last frame and secured it. If they wanted, someday, they could put windows up in place of the screens.

  “She knows when it’s time to bring the sheep home,” Barbara agreed, glancing towards the shed they had constructed from pallet wood, its roof now covered in tarpaper too. The pen they had built was able to hold the sheep, but it wasn’t quite big enough to allow them to graze. “We are going to have to put in feed and cut hay for them.”

  “What? For the sheep?” Marion asked as she looked about in wonder at all they had accomplished and grinned as Richard sulkily headed back towards the far side of island where the sheep were grazing.

  “No, silly, the children,” Barbara returned, laughing at her partner.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The barge was late, but it turned out they’d had an accident. The barge they had been towing foundered well outside the cove and everything on it was lost to the waves. The storm that came up unexpectedly took everything out to sea. The captain came to the cove to weather the storm and explained apologetically what had happened. It was rare that he had accidents, but there had been a lot on his barge, and they had been overconfident seeing the island in view. Fortunately, they were insured for catastrophe, but the women were dismayed to learn they had to wait for the money before their order would be replaced. They did benefit from the disaster since they were able to recover a lot of the wood through their beachcombing.

  “Here’s another two by four,” Brenda said importantly as she dragged the long piece of wood to the pile they were creating under the trees. She and her brother and her friend had been running up and down the long beach finding wood that managed to make its way into the cove on the waves and current.

  “We’re going to have to go around the entire island, maybe Fir Island too, and see what else we can fin
d,” Barbara reminded Marion, who nodded sagely. The wood was theirs, but since an insurance claim was being processed, the wood was for anyone who scavenged it. As far as they knew, distant Fir Island was unoccupied, and they could take whatever they found on its beaches as well.

  “Oh, these sad frames,” Marion lamented as they found a couple with their glass broken.

  “Still, glass can be replaced,” Barbara pointed out.

  “If the sea water hasn’t warped them.”

  They scavenged a lot of the wood they had ordered, but none of the shingles, piping, or anything of weight ever showed up. Worried that the insurance company would think they had done some of this deliberately, they took the remaining wood they found back into their island to the cabin sites and out of sight after using what they could to finish their own cabin.

  “I’ll have to sew mattresses unless we can find some within our budget,” Barbara said as they finished making the beds and put up the walls using the halved logs and some lumber.

  “Why is my room the smallest?” Brenda asked, looking at the full-sized bed frame that took up so much room.

  Her bedroom had been cut off by the bathroom, and they explained that her room had to be smaller since she had a room all to herself and didn’t have to share with her brothers, including Richard as a brother in their explanation.

  Joyfully, they hauled their sleeping bags and camp beds into the cabin to get them out of the weather. Summer was definitely coming to an end, and the storms were getting worse. Still, it was warm and on sunny days they continued to work madly.

  The extra lumber was a bonus. They managed to put up the frames of the first cabin on the halved logs that formed its floor. Slowly, board by board, they erected the sides on the frames they constructed, using shorter boards for the windowless frames they put in.