Rocky Island

by Jim Newell

  “But it’s so nice to rub around there.”

  Allison quickly shut off the hot water and stepped out of the shower leaving her husband standing in the cold water until he could get to the tap.

  “That ought to cool you down, my love,” she laughed. He threatened revenge.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  When the DOT helicopter made its regular run in mid-August, an extra person stepped off the aircraft. The man introduced himself to Toby as Arthur Stemple, the Superintendent of Marine Installations for the Atlantic provinces. Toby invited him to the house and introduced him to Allison.

  “I came on business, but I didn’t want to give you prior warning because I didn’t want you to worry about why the Superintendent was making a visit. I don’t believe I have ever been here before in my tenure in office.”

  “Not since I’ve been here anyway, and yes I might have had a concern or two. I take it that you have no complaints.”

  “On the contrary, I came to offer you another job, a promotion, Mr. French.”

  “Really? What are you asking?”

  “I’m asking you to consider making application for the position of Inspector of Lighthouses for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. You would be based in Yarmouth, have a government vehicle and either helicopter or boat transportation to outports in Newfoundland.”

  “That would mean considerable travelling,” said Allison.

  “Not as much as you think. Maybe two weeks a month, but not all in one chunk. The salary would be roughly twice what you are now earning. Of course the downside to that is that you would be responsible for your own housing.”

  The three continued the discussion for more than an hour before Toby asked, “When would I have to make a decision?”

  “We would need your application by October 15. Quite frankly, there is no other candidate for consideration at this time. The appointment would begin next April first.”

  Stemple rose to leave. “Think it over. Work it out between yourselves. Here are the application forms. If you have more questions, phone me at my office in Halifax.” He shook hands with both Toby and Allison. “I have enjoyed meeting you both. I hope that you will apply. I really do.”

  The two did talk it over, seriously, over a period of several days. It was Allison’s thought that finally made the decision for them.

  “If we lived on the mainland, and in Yarmouth, Toby, we could have a family.”

  “You want a baby?”

  “We’ve been married for more than six years. I’m thirty-one and the biological clock is beginning to tick. I’ve been happy here on Rocky Island, but I’ve been thinking that maybe I really would like to have a child, or children. But as we have always said before when the subject came up, this is not the place to be pregnant, or to raise children. How do you feel about it?”

  “Let me think about it for a while, okay?”

  “A while” was three days. As they lay in bed on the third night, Toby said quietly, “I think you’re right Allie. If you can stand my being absent for as much time as Stemple suggested, I would like to take the job and yes, I would like to be a father as well as a husband.”

  “Oh Toby dear, that’s what I was hoping you would decide. Thank you.”

  There was a silence. Then, “I’m going to go off the pill tomorrow. If I’m going to get pregnant, I would like it to happen here on this island.”

  Toby pulled her close. “If it’s a boy, we’ll call him Rocky.”

  *

  Toby sent his application for the position of Inspector of Lighthouses for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland by the next helicopter supply flight. When he told Luke Hepburn what he was doing, the chopper pilot pulled up short in his walk to the aircraft.

  “Really? Would you believe that all of us on this crew have been transferred to Newfoundland in January. You get that job and we’ll be flying you around over there. Good luck, Toby. I hope your application is successful.”

  “I’ll take that as a good sign,” Allison told Toby when he relayed the news. “If I’m going to get pregnant, you’d better get that job or we’ll be having a baby on Rocky Island.”

  When the October helicopter flight brought Toby an official letter from Arthur Stemple confirming Toby’s appointment, the celebration took the form of a celebratory meal followed by another try at making Allison pregnant. The French’s decided to cancel their plans for a Christmas vacation and take the month of March as a time to spend getting ready to settle into a new life in Yarmouth.

  Toby expressed a concern about the cost of buying a house and furnishing it. His wife reminded him of something he had forgotten to consider. “Toby love, did you remember that I have an investment portfolio with more than a quarter of a million dollars from the sale my paintings. There’s no reason why we can’t sell off some of that and build or buy a house without even thinking of a mortgage.”

  “But that’s your money, Allie.”

  “You silly, wonderful man, that’s our money. And I intend to continue painting and selling pictures.”

  The fall hurricane season came and, for a change, went without any great happenings. The storms all moved out to sea before getting into the latitudes of Rocky Island and all that the South Shore of Nova Scotia felt was some winds that were a few knots higher than normal and some rain. Toby went about his regular fall chores of getting the place ready for winter. He mourned a little bit that he was doing it for the last time, but said nothing to Allison whose excitement was rising by the day. She completed the painting she was doing on the July day when Toby had so amorously interrupted her, and he declared it to be one of the best she had done. The surf spraying over the reef and the gulls hovering above were so real he could almost feel the spray in his face.

  “Which gull did the bombing?” he asked, and they both exploded into laughter again at the memory.

  Early in December Allison asked Toby at breakfast whether he would mind if she went to Yarmouth on the next helicopter flight to do some Christmas shopping. “I could also look at the housing market, and visit my mother in Barrington for a day. I’ll get Nick Atwood or somebody to bring me back.”

  “No, I don’t mind. But I’ll miss you. Just don’t pay Nick five hundred dollars for the trip.”

  Allison laughed. “Hey, I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck like that guy from New York.” She shook her head. “Greed sure did him in, didn’t it? A multi-millionaire and he had to go after that last one million.”

  “‘The love of money is the root of all evil,’” Toby quoted. “He’ll be in prison for most of the rest of his life, unless he’s either lucky or lives to be a very old man.”

  Toby did miss his wife very much. This was only the second time in their married life that they had been apart, and he wondered what life would be like when he was travelling around, inspecting lighthouses. He supposed that he would get used to it. But he slept very little and made his daily walks last longer during her absence.

  On the third night Allison was away, she phoned in great excitement. “Toby, I found a house today that will be available March tenth. The owner’s company has transferred him to Scotland of all places and he wants to sell the house and the furnishings, everything, rather than ship all the furniture and appliances overseas.”

  “What kind of a house it is and how much?”

  “It’s a three year-old brick bungalow with three bedrooms, finished basement, a sixty by eighty foot lot, and the furnishings and appliances are better than those we have on the island. If we don’t like any of them, it won’t be difficult to replace them. And it’s right across the street from a church, and Toby, guess who the minister is.”

  “Couldn’t. I don’t know that many ministers.”

  “It’s the man who married us—Mr. Campbell.”

  “Sounds good so far. But what’s the asking price for this marvellous place?”

  “Toby, you aren’t going to believe this: two hundred and ten thousand total—two hundred for the house and ten
for the furnishings.”

  “Go on! What’s the catch?”

  “No catch. Housing in Yarmouth is not moving much, and this guy wants to get things settled now so he can make plans for his move to Scotland. Toby, I hope you don’t mind but I phoned your dad yesterday and asked him to come down and have a look at the place and he says we could be getting a steal. He was really enthusiastic.”

  “No, of course I don’t mind. My dad knows about houses. Can you arrange to buy it now while you’re there in Yarmouth, or do I have to be there, too?”

  “Your dad says I can make all the arrangements. I wasn’t going to tell you, but I’m going to see a lawyer tomorrow and I have already phoned my agent in Boston to transfer the money to our account here in the bank in Yarmouth. I was that sure you’d say yes.”

  “You mean you were so sure you could persuade me, you schemer. Go ahead. Make the arrangements. I’ll sit down and think about all this. When are you coming home?”

  “When I get this business all signed, sealed and delivered,”

  “Well it had better be before Christmas!”

  “Don’t be silly. Probably in another eight or ten days.”

  “That long?”

  “I’ll have to spend half a day and overnight with my mother. I miss you, Toby darling. I love you.”

  “I miss you, too, and love you very dearly. See you as soon as you can get here.”

  Toby missed Allison’s homecoming. He was out on his early morning walk and didn’t hear the fishing boat arrive on the other side of the island. When he got back to the house and went inside to make breakfast, the first thing he saw was Allison’s suitcase and a box of parcels sitting on the kitchen floor.

  “Allie? You here?” he called.

  “In the bedroom.”

  He walked swiftly down the hallway and stopped in the doorway. There was his wife, glowing with the cold from the boat ride, lying in bed. She threw back the covers and revealed her naked self.

  “What are you doing with all those clothes on, Toby dear?”

  Less than two minutes later he wasn’t wearing any clothes. He didn’t even think to ask how much Nick Atwood had charged to ferry her to the island until next morning.

  “No charge. He was on his way to the lobster fishing grounds and took a little detour. Said he owed us that much.”

  *

  On December 23rd, about three o’clock in the afternoon, the phone rang. Toby was doing some paper work in the office, so he answered. The marine forecaster in Halifax was calling.

  “I wanted to give you a severe winter storm warning, Toby. Rocky Island and the entire South Shore is going to get hammered. The storm that was coming up the eastern seaboard appeared to be heading for the Bay of Fundy but it changed direction and is now heading right up the South Shore. Should hit you before midnight. The land area is going to get about three feet of snow. Both inland and marine forecasts are calling for winds gusting to eighty knots.”

  “Figured something was gonna happen. The bottom has fallen right out of the barometer. “I doubt we’ll get much snow with winds like that. The stuff will just blow right off the island. The scrub trees we have won’t stop it.”

  “You’re probably right, but the wind could do some damage if you aren’t prepared. The first winds will be from the south east and back all the way around to the north as the storm passes. I’m thinking the storm will last about thirty-six hours before the winds settle down. You going to be all right there?”

  “We’ll be fine. Thanks for the heads up. Let us know if things change. Do you want reports from here?”

  “We’d appreciate any updates you can give us, any time.”

  “Will do. Merry Christmas.”

  “Thanks Toby. Guess who’s working Christmas Day?”

  “Guess who works every day.” And they both hung up.

  Toby hurried to get ready for the storm. He got the windmill shut down and the diesel hooked up to the turbine, made sure nothing was left lying outside where it could blow away. The first blasts of the storm hit exactly as forecast, the fierce gusts hammering the side of the house where the bedroom was located. Both Toby and Allison woke, got up and looked out the windows, but they couldn’t see a thing in the blackness. They knew that snow was being blown by because they could hear it hitting the windows, but in the fierce dark, they couldn’t see.

  “You going outside, Toby?”

  “Not likely. Bed is a better place to be.”

  The storm raged all day on the day before Christmas. Toby had a difficult job refuelling the diesel engine with the wind and blowing snow fighting him all the time. He was glad for the handline he had rigged for the second year from the lighthouse to his house. Visibility was such that he could barely make out the light in the lighthouse from the ground in front of it.

  On Christmas morning, the storm had abated considerably. Allison and Toby opened their gifts, those she had brought from her shopping trip and those he had ordered by mail. When they opened them all, there was still a card on the tree. Allison handed it to Toby.

  He looked at it. It was addressed to “Daddy”.

  He tore it open. On the first page was a picture of a cuddly baby and the word, “Hello.” Inside, the same smiling infant in its mother’s arms. Written underneath in Allison’s handwriting, “Merry Christmas, Daddy, from Mommy and me.”

  “You’re—you’re pregnant.”

  Allison’s eyes were filled with tears, tears of joy. She couldn’t speak, just nod as she melted into Toby’s arms. They rocked back and forth for a full minute before he pushed her back and kissed her with great passion.

  “So you went to Yarmouth to see a doctor as well as a lawyer and shopping.”

  She nodded again, and went back into his arms.

  “And when will the baby be coming?” he murmured in her ear.

  “About the middle of June, the twelfth, according to the doctor.”

  He paused for a moment, counting. “That means September was a good month.”

  “They’re all good months, my darling. Merry Christmas.”

  “You’re right. And this is the best Christmas present I’ve ever had.”

  “I had to wait five days and then see the doctor a second time. The first lawyer I saw about handling the purchase of the house couldn’t do it because he had a conflict of interest. He’s representing the man you shot, so I had to find a second—and that took an extra day. Then I had to wait a couple of more days until the paper work was all done. It seemed to take forever.”

  “It seemed like forever to me, too. I kinda figured the legal work was taking time, but I never gave a thought to you’re seeing a doctor. Anyway, you’re here now, and you’re going to stay until we both leave.” He took her in his arms again and hugged her hard. “Then we begin a whole new life for ourselves, and a whole new life for somebody else.”

  Allison gave him a return hug that was just as intense. They sat down on the carpet in front of the driftwood fire burning with green and orange flame in the fireplace and held each other in silence as they watched the flame and each thought their own thoughts which really were not all that different. Rocky Island was already beginning to become a part of their past.