“My father gave it to me for my twelfth birthday, and he taught me how to use it safely. We might need it on the island to shoot rabbits.” The rabbits were hard on the garden, another reason for the chicken fencing surrounding it. She stopped talking to smile at the children. Exchanging a glance with Marion, she hurried to get more things from the trailer. She wanted to fit as much as they could into the boat.
“Hello, Mrs. Jenkins, Mrs. Whiting,” Thomas O’Flaherty said heartily, saluting them with his non-existent cap.
“Why, Mr. O’Flaherty. It has been quite a while,” Marion answered from where she was stowing away things the children and Barbara had brought her. They were a lot more careful now about overloading the boat. “We haven’t seen you since the beginning of summer.”
“Well, it’s been a busy season, and we are only in for the day to unload our catch and fuel up,” he told her, smiling as he gestured towards his boat and the activity of his brothers. They were industriously scrubbing and cleaning the fishing vessel.
“We owe you and your brothers a meal. When are you going to bring everyone out?” Barbara asked.
“Ach, we are too busy now. We probably can’t come again until spring. I see you are emptying your trailer again. Did you buy some more things for your island?”
“Oh, we just brought the rest of our things up from Massachusetts,” Marion said airily, moving aside a two by four, so she could fit in a box.
“So, you’re moving up here for sure and staying for winter?” he asked, sounding pleased at the prospect.
“Ayuh,” Barbara answered, imitating Mr. Wheeler from long ago and sounding like one of the Mainers they had met, who had spoken like that. Not everyone had an accent, but they were fascinated by the different dialects from Massachusetts to Maine.
“You going to be warm enough in that cabin you were building?” he fretted, frowning slightly in concern.
“Oh, it’s built,” Barbara assured him. “We even have one of the summer cottages almost done and another halfway built.”
“We’re moving right along,” Marion assured him, knowing Franklin was in short supply of eligible women and that’s why he was asking. She wanted him as a friend, not a husband.
“You should come over when your season is less busy and before winter sets in,” Barbara said generously and then wanted to kick herself at the look Marion glared at her.
“That sounds good,” he admitted, smiling all for Marion, who looked awkward.
“We should get going,” Marion said, helping Brenda onto the boat and moving things to make room for the young girl.
“I’ll lock up the trailer and be with you in a minute,” Barbara said as she passed the two boys, each carrying a box they handed Marion as they clambered on board.
“Well, I’ll see you around,” Thomas said, clearly feeling awkward around the children and being almost alone with Marion.
“Thanks, Thomas. Remember that invitation is for you and your brothers and their wives and girlfriends,” she said trying to lighten the mood as she could see he was feeling awkward. She glanced beyond him to where Barbara was locking up the trailer, a piece of furniture at her feet.
“I’ll do that,” he said and waved as he continued down the white pier, marveling that the many footsteps hadn’t worn off all the paint already.
“Why’d you do that?” Marion hissed to Barbara as they got settled, the small shelf unit Barbara handed to her in her hands. There wasn’t a lot of room to move on the packed boat. Barbara made her way to the first rope to untie them from the pier.
“Do what?” she asked, knowing very well what Marion was talking about and wanting to avoid discussing it.
“You know very well I don’t want to encourage him!”
Barbara untied the rope and wrapped it neatly away, so it wouldn’t dangle. She made her way to the second rope, seeing Marion looking indignant in the middle of the boat as she stood there with the shelf she’d handed her. “You might want to sit down,” she advised, glancing at the children, who were all cozy on the damaged cushions and chatting animatedly about the tests and their answers. That reminded her she had forgotten to fix the damaged cushions this summer. She glanced up at the clouds moving in, knowing another storm was set to come in because she could feel it in the hot, sultry air. She was puzzled. It was far enough along into fall that the weather should be colder. She untied the other rope and quickly stowed it to go to the driver’s seat, passing by Marion again, who was still looking at her angrily. “I was just trying to be polite,” she said in her own defense.
“Polite my–” she began, and then glanced at the children and decided not to finish saying what she had planned. She sat down sulkily in the other seat across from the driver’s seat as Barbara went to start the engine. It took three tries before it caught.“I better get that checked for winter,” Barbara said over the roar of the engine. Was it louder than usual, or was that just her imagination? She didn’t know anything about boats other than how to drive them, and she carefully pulled away from their pier and went to gas up before heading out towards the island.
Neither of the women noticed the various brothers, especially Thomas, watching them from their fishing vessel as they left.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Since they’d originally purchased enough lumber to build two of the cabins, then had to replace that order and had been able to scavenge a lot, technically, they now had enough lumber for nearly four cabins; however, they hadn’t yet cleared the areas or built paths to the places designated for the various vacation spots. Also, some of the lumber was warped from the sea water, the damaging waves, and being tossed against the rocks. They discovered that building a summer cabin was a lot easier than building their log cabin had been. It took less time as they didn’t have to put in as many finishing touches, the walls weren’t made of halved logs, and it was so much lighter without insulation. Still, they wanted certain things incorporated in them, and a foundation for each was a must.
“Why don’t we just make the foundation out of concrete?” Richard asked as they gathered stones for the third cabin with Marion while Barbara was working with Brian and Brenda on putting boards up on the second cabin.
“Because we want it to look nice, and concrete wouldn’t be nearly as nice as the stones,” she answered, although she had to admit his idea had merit. She was getting sick of mixing concrete with sand and gravel then applying it between the various layers of stones until they were even. She was proud to admit she had learned a lot. Marion wanted to have the foundations laid for all five of the summer cottages they had planned, hoping they could get them built before winter set in, but she knew that was an unreasonable goal. She and Barbara had discussed it and were amazed that their cabin was finished and had running water, and in addition, they’d already completed one of the summer cottages. Considering how long their cabin had taken, they were ahead of the game. They just might get the second summer cottage up before winter, which meant they could advertise it for rent for next summer.
“Mom said she wanted to get a second wheelbarrow, so we could take sand and gravel up from the beach and line the paths,” he reminded her, wishing he was working with Brian and Brenda and his mom today instead of Aunt Marion. He liked her and all, but today she was kind of quiet, and it was unnerving him.
“That’s a great idea, and we should plan on taking a day to do as much of that as we can for the first cabin,” she said agreeably. She realized there was still a lot of work to do. Marion wanted to build a cabin on the beach that could hold refrigeration and be a little store for their visitors too. That might mean expanding their dock too when people realized they had the safe anchorage in the cove and they could buy food and drinks from their store. Marion had a lot of plans, but not all of them were compatible with Barbara’s.
“Are you putting in a tennis court or a pool?” Richard asked as he dropped off another dozen rocks for the foundation. Marion had a small bucket of concrete already made and was pl
acing the rocks.
Laughter bubbled up and nearly spilled over. She had to be careful about laughing at the children and their ideas. “Where would we put those?” she asked instead. Imagining the upkeep on a pool alone boggled her mind.
“Well,” he gestured, not knowing. “Maybe the meadow?”
“I thought that was for our cabin and animals. If we put in a tennis court and pool, they sure would take up a lot of room. We’d have people coming and going in our area all the time,” she pointed out.
“Won’t they be all over our island anyway?” he asked, astutely.
“Sure, and we want to share this, don’t we?” she gestured at the beauty around the cabin and its remoteness, but even she had to admit that without the view of the ocean and another small beach they could hike to, it would have been spooky.
He nodded and went to get more rocks. She quickly used up the ones he had brought her and went to help fill the wheelbarrow before her mixed concrete dried up.
* * * * *
“There you go,” Barbara encouraged the other two children as they attached boards on the rapidly rising cabin. At this rate, they could soon advertise several cabins for rent. Still, she had trees to fell for the floors, which would give them an authentic Northwoods feel. The women had discussed using boards for the floor, but both she and Marion felt that a split tree floor would give their guests more of the “woodsy” feel. It also gave a solid feel to the cabins that these boards they were attaching on the frames didn’t.
Almost as though he had read her mind, Brian asked, “Why don’t we cut trees and make a cabin that way?”
“Remember how much work it was building our cabin?” she asked in return as she nailed her section. Brenda held up the remainder while Brian proudly nailed his end. She knew they should have brought a mule or horse out to the island to haul all those trees. Many times, the tackle hadn’t been enough, and the sheer muscle effort had almost defeated them. She remembered how exhausted she had often become while cutting and sawing the trees down, removing their branches, and hauling them up to the clearing.
Both children nodded in answer to her question and she continued, “We want summer cabins, so our guests don’t stay all year. We want to share our wonderful island, but it would be too much work to put in all log cabins. These thin boards will keep out the weather during the summer but won’t heat up the cabin. Remember how hot it got this summer?”
They all remembered the oppressive heat and how the ocean water felt marvelous but was too cold to swim in; splashing in the waves with the heat was a good contrast. Spending a spring and summer in the tent hadn’t always been fun either. They’d had to move the tent a couple times: once, because they found they had staked it out on an ant hill, and the second time, because of mice. Then a third move had been necessary when all the rain seemed to pool under the tent, and they awoke to wet sleeping bags and a squishy floor. The warmth of the cabin and getting out of the weather was a relief for them all.
“This way, they have a place to sleep and sit,” she indicated where the screened-in porch would go, “and they can enjoy the great outdoors.” At least that was their theory, and they built these cabins with that intention. All they could do was hope their guests would agree.
* * * * *
“Let’s take some time off day after tomorrow. We can picnic and enjoy our island,” Barbara suggested at dinner that evening. “Then, we should work on the paths a little, don’t you think?” She directed that question at Marion but included the children.
“What does work on the paths mean?” Brenda asked. It sounded like a lot of work for time off, and they’d done an awful lot of work already.
“Well, we cut back any trees or bushes jutting into the paths to the cabins, and in some places, we will put down more gravel, so it’s easier to walk. We have some rather muddy spots now.”
“It will look nice too,” Marion put in.
“If we cut back the tress and bushes now and people ain’t, um, aren’t coming until spring, won’t they grow back?” Brian asked.
“You are absolutely right,” his mother smiled at his deductive reasoning, “so, we cut a little more than necessary and keep on top of it.”
“You know, we couldn’t ask for a better crew,” Barbara commented as they took bucket loads from the heavy wheelbarrow a couple days later and spread gravel wherever there was a low spot on the path to the first cabin. It was heavy and hard work lugging it up from the beach, but fortunately they seemed to have an endless supply.
“I hope they appreciate what we are building here,” Marion responded, tired from the constant work. Their day off had been beautiful. They’d packed a picnic lunch and the dogs had been invited to join them. The cats had even shown up as they lay out on a cloth near the farthest point on the eastern shoreline.
“What’s out there if we kept going?” Richard asked, his mouth full of food.
“Don’t talk with food in your mouth and take smaller bites,” Barbara warned. Manners were important to her, and while they had let things slide while they roughed it this summer, that was no excuse.
He waited until he had chewed and swallowed before asking again, “What’s out there if we took the boat out and kept going?”
“Canada,” Marion answered and then flushed. She’d just taken a bite of her sandwich and had pushed it aside to answer.
“Another country?” he asked, surprised.
“Sure, remember when I showed you the maps? Maine is the most eastern and northern state and next to it is Canada,” Barbara answered, waving north and east with her hand as she spoke.
“You mean, we wouldn’t end up in England if we went out to sea?” Brenda asked, being careful that her mouth was empty before she said anything.
“No,” Barbara shook her head, reaching for some fruit. “Nova Scotia would stop us that way,” she pointed to the east, “and if you went north, you’d hit New Brunswick.”
“Oh, so we’re not an island?” she asked, suddenly confused.
“We’re an island because we are surrounded by water. You can have an island in a lake or even a river.”
“But there is land and not the ocean...” she tapered off, more confused.
“The ocean surrounds us, but you couldn’t get lost, and Nova Scotia is a ways off in that direction.” She pointed to the east. “I could have sworn we had this conversation already,” she stated, frowning at Marion as though one of them had explained this to the children before.
It didn’t really matter. They weren’t taking any trips to Canada, so they really didn’t have to worry about it. In the meantime, they were working hard at preparing the island for eventual guests and for winter as it was already getting very cold. The weather change had almost seemed to happen overnight with the temperatures going from hot summer to cold nights and hot days. Now, the morning cold lasted longer into the day, and it was getting colder earlier in the evening.
“Brrr, I have to go start the fire,” Barbara said a week later, reluctantly getting out of bed.
“Attractive,” Marion murmured, seeing the long underwear her girlfriend was sporting. She got up and moved into the other bed in case any of the children came in, feeling sorry for herself because the new bed had no shared body heat.
Getting the fire started in the morning became a routine, and they took turns making sure they banked it the night before. Because the fireplace was in the middle of the cabin, it did a rather efficient job of warming the whole place. When the stove was on too, the combination sometimes made the cabin almost too warm.
“We should be ready to roof the second cabin if we hurry,” Barbara stated at breakfast as they each had a hot bowl of oatmeal.
“I was going to go fishing,” Richard complained.
“I wanted to explore the–” began Brian.
“The sooner we finish it, the sooner we are done,” Marion put in to keep the children from complaining any more. She too was sick of the constant work. They’d gotten the f
oundations on cabin three and four done, and she’d started a fireplace in both cabins since she was already mixing concrete and mortar for the stones. She didn’t know if Barbara would have time to cut the logs for the floors they had agreed on, but in the meantime, she’d cleared some of the brush from around the sites and even stacked some wood. The fifth site was totally overgrown but had one of the prettiest views.
“Wish we had a camera to take pictures of the cabins at various times of the year to make up brochures at the printer,” Barbara told Marion as they both put on mittens that morning. They were all dressed in layers with sweaters from their storage, which they would take off later if the sun came out. It sometimes got very warm with all the work they did.
“Maybe, someday. We still have ads to get out. When do you think we’ll do that?” she asked while carrying one roll of tarpaper. She saw how easily Barbara carried two over her broad shoulders. The boys were carrying a roll between them and Brenda followed with some of the nails. Their tools were already at the site. The dogs were following, but only because the sheep were grazing in the area around the second cabin. Glancing back, she saw they were leading the parade, the cats following along the trail behind them, their tails jauntily in the air as though they hadn’t a care in the world.
“I think we should start either late January or early February, and I think we should advertise in both American and Canadian papers and magazines in order to maximize our visibility.”
“That makes sense. Canadians are just like us and need the same kind of vacations away from life’s stresses, so they should also love to come here. And their money is as good as ours.”
They discussed things like this openly, and the children absorbed it, but when they caught the children talking about it to someone in Franklin, they warned them not to repeat things they heard to others outside the family. “Why not?” they asked, puzzled. It took a diplomatic approach to explain that this was their business, and they didn’t want people outside the family to know their private business, especially about their rentals and money.
An Island Between Us Page 20
