When The Spirit Moves You

by Thomas DePrima

  Made from white jacquard silk, Amelia's beautiful wedding dress had white silk skirt draping and a fully gathered and pleated underskirt. As dictated by the fashion of the day, the bodice was very tight, and the posterior bustle very full. Her bridesmaids were dressed in similar dresses, with white silk faille for their skirt draping.

  As Amelia stared at her reflection on the morning of the wedding, she wondered about her future. Not since Martha's death had she thought about the spirit that had brought them here, but seeing herself in her wedding gown, she couldn't help but wonder once again if they would remain here, or if a paradox might yet send them back to the future. She wondered if she was making a dreadful mistake by marrying. She didn't want Jeremy to suffer if this body died, but she wanted so much to be with him for as long as possible. A sudden realization calmed her and made her smile. A spirit that had gone to so much trouble to bring them here for Anne's happiness, would surely want his only son to also know such happiness. She realized that the spirit, having once embarked on this journey, would do whatever was necessary to see it through. She realized then that she was here permanently. She could relax and look forward to a life with Jeremy.

  The harpsichord had been carried out to the garden for the wedding, and as its pleasant music began to fill the air, the bridal procession entered the garden area. A young flower girl, unaccustomed to floor length dresses, tripped on the hem of her long gown and fell on the red carpet that passed between the seating before she was even halfway to the minister. Her father, Gerald's cousin, rushed over, picked her up, and started her on her path again as light laughter rippled through the guest seating.

  When the minister asked the all important question, Jeremy said, "I do," and when Amelia responded likewise, the minister made the final pronouncement. She was Mrs. Jeremy Westfield, until death did part them. Jeremy lifted her veil, and after staring at her face for a few seconds, wiped away her tears of happiness and bent his head to kiss her.

  With so many guests, Amelia and Jeremy were kept busy through much of the afternoon visiting with and thanking everyone who came. The weather remained perfect throughout the day, and there was no need for the ballroom, which had been partially prepared in case of rain. The orchestra played up on the terrace, for those that wished to dance, while the other guests stayed below in the garden, enjoying the magnificent feast prepared by a temporarily augmented household staff.

  After circulating among the guests for almost two hours, Jeremy led Amelia to the terrace for their first dance as a married couple. All the noise and commotion in the garden seemed to fade away as Amelia lost herself in Jeremy's arms. She knew that she could never be happier than she was at that moment.

  Jeremy and Amelia consummated their marriage in the same suite where Anne and Gerald had done so just a year before. It was sufficiently isolated in the family wing of the mansion so that the noise made by two young people finally free to release their pent-up passions, and express their genuine affections, would not carry far enough to disturb others.

  The following day, Amelia and Jeremy left for a two-week honeymoon at Niagara Falls, the choice of newlyweds everywhere at that time. The ushers, bridesmaids, and all the other young friends that still remained at the mansion, gave them a noisy send-off at the train station, following a raucous ride through the countryside from the estate to town.

  Stopping in Albany, New York, on the first evening out, Amelia and Jeremy left the train depot on Broadway and took a carriage to the Globe Hotel on the corner of State Street and Pearl. It was only a few blocks from the station, but they could not possibly have carried Amelia's luggage that far. From Broadway, State Street rises quickly uphill. Prominently visible from the lower end, where their hotel was located, the couple could see the impressive six-story State Capitol Building. Though partially occupied, it was still uncompleted after twelve years of building effort.

  Located on the west bank of the Hudson River, the capitol of New York State was emerging as a major crossroads of transportation. With a deepwater port a hundred forty miles inland from New York Harbor, and the eastern terminus of the Erie Barge Canal in nearby Waterford, commercial water traffic flowed through the area in all but the severest winter months. The city also served numerous railroads traveling from points north, east, south, and west.

  After checking into their room, Amelia wanted to change for dinner. Jeremy smiled when she told him that he would have to help her. This would be the first time that he had assisted her in dressing. As he helped her remove her dress, his breathing became irregular. Amelia knew that he was becoming excited. They never did make it out for dinner that evening. Instead, Jeremy ordered dinner from room service a couple of hours later.

  The happy couple was westbound once again in the morning. Basically following the course of the Erie Canal, the train passed huge barges being pulled by horses that walked along the banks. Amelia spent hours watching in rapt fascination.

  It was late in the evening when they arrived in Niagara Falls, after changing trains only once more, in Buffalo. Jeremy had made reservations at the International Hotel on Falls and Bridge Street, not far from the American side of the falls, and the thunderous sound made by millions of gallons of rushing water falling to the river below filled the air.

  The happy couple spent the next full day in their hotel room, not because they were too tired to go out, but rather because as husband and wife they simply exercised their prerogative to spend the day in bed, making love. Amelia taught Jeremy the proper ways to satisfy a woman, and he proved to be a most willing pupil. Amelia pretended ignorance about the male body, although she had learned about it in sex education class when she was Arlene, and she let him show her what excited him. The day passed quickly as they alternated between intervals of love-making and napping.

  The couple did eventually spend several days touring the area. They visited the very first hydro-electric plant, which had been completed only a couple of years earlier, and Goat Island, situated in the Niagara River towards the American Shore. The small island separates the American Falls from the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. The most impressive view of the Falls was then, as it remains in the future, available from the Canadian shore and they spent a lot of time marveling at the majestic spectacles. Each day would culminate in hours of lovemaking.

  At the end of their wonderful two weeks, they returned to Westfield Mansion to begin their lives together. With Anne having moved to Boston, and Jeremy's mother having long ago passed away, Amelia became the mistress of the household. She organized all parties and social functions, and worked with Mrs. Thompson, the housekeeper, in planning the meals and coordinating the duties of the staff. Her light duties permitted her to spend a lot of time reading, or shopping in nearby New Bedford. In the pre-telephone era, she corresponded regularly by post with her friends. The telephone had been introduced seven years earlier, but its use was not widespread yet. It takes time and money to erect poles, string wires, and build switchboard networks around the country. So for the time being they each wrote a letter once a week. Amelia did manage to convince Jeremy's father to invest part of his fortune in Bell's fledgling telephone company.

  Jeremy's seemingly unlimited energy and enthusiasm for his work took the family business to new heights after he joined the firm, but he always made time for Amelia. She learned a great deal about the business just from listening to the conversations between Jeremy and his father during meals or afterwards. She even cultivated an interest in reading the financial newspapers of the day. She found it fascinating to observe what to her was history, being created. Many things were happening that she had read about in school, but so much more happened that she had never heard about.

  * * *

  Amelia was exquisitely happy at the mansion and felt that life couldn't be much better. During the year following her wedding to Jeremy, Elizabeth and Roberta married. Roberta and Charles married first, followed quickly by Elizabeth and Donald. Jeremy and Amelia participated in both weddin
g ceremonies. Amelia hoped that each couple would be as happy as she and Jeremy were. None of the girls gave any more thought to the spirit that had brought them to these lives, except when they were together and started to reminisce. They had become comfortable as nineteenth century women and wives, and would never have regretted the decision to remain here in this time, if they had been given the choice.

  Just after their first wedding anniversary, Amelia informed Jeremy that she was pregnant with their first child. Beside himself with joy, Jeremy ran all over the mansion, telling first his father, then the household staff. When he got back to Amelia, he was winded from running, but deliriously happy.

  "What shall it be, a boy or a girl?" Jeremy asked.

  "Yes, it'll be one of those, dear," she said, smiling.

  He laughed. "You know what I mean, darling. Which should we have?"

  "I'm sure that it's too late to change now, but which would you prefer?"

  "As long as the baby is healthy and there are no complications, I'll be ecstatically happy with whatever you choose."

  "Me? I don't make the choice, darling, you do."

  "What do you mean?"

  "You know, the male provides either an X or a Y chromosome where the female can only provide an X chromosome."

  Jeremy looked totally bewildered. "I have no idea what you're talking about, dearest. What's a— chromosome?"

  Amelia bit her lip, realizing that the field of genealogy wouldn't exist until sometime in the twentieth century. "It's a bit complicated," she said. "I'll explain some other time, dearest. It doesn't matter right now because I feel certain that our first child will be a boy. What shall we name him?"

  "A boy? You're sure?"

  "I can't be sure, of course, since sonograms don't exist yet, so we should decide on two sets of names."

  "Sonograms?"

  "In the future, doctors will use ultra high frequency sound waves to observe a fetus while it's still in its mother's womb. As the fetus matures, the sex can usually be determined by scrutinizing its genitalia area."

  Jeremy stared incredulously at her. "While still in the womb? Without damaging the baby?"

  Amelia nodded her head in agreement. "Without damaging the baby."

  "The future must be a wonderful time in which to live."

  "The present state of medical science does oftentimes seem like the dark ages, compared to what they'll have in the twenty-first century. How about Jeremy if it's a boy and Susan, after your mother, if it's a girl?"

  "Wonderful, but what about our fathers and your mother?"

  "We'll have lots of opportunities to name babies after them, won't we?"

  "I couldn't think of anything I'd like more," he said, grinning unabashedly.

  "I thought that you might feel that way," Amelia said, smiling.

  * * *

  Jeremy doted on Amelia for the rest of her pregnancy, and Jeremy Jr. was born the following January. With a birth weight of seven-pounds seven-ounces, Junior was a happy little baby, who bore a strong resemblance to his father. He was joined in the nursery a year later by William. Then Susan, Martha, Thomas, Michael, Kathleen, and Peter joined the family over the following ten years. Complications resulting during the birth of Peter would prevent Amelia from having any more children. The jests from her friends that she was single handedly trying to double the population of their town stopped after that.

  Jeremy proved to be as loving and caring a father, as he was a husband. And Jeremy's father, whom Amelia now referred to as Grandfather Westfield around the house, loved to spend time with his grandchildren. He frequently left work early to come home and play with the children before their bedtimes.

  Elizabeth and Roberta proved to be almost as fertile as Amelia; each having a large brood of her own. Anne came quite often with her four girls, and the house fairly reverberated at times with the happy or excited sounds of children. The four families had many happy, large, and noisy reunions at the Westfield mansion over the years.

  As befit a wealthy family of the times, Jeremy and Amelia traveled often, but their first big trip was in 1889 to see the world's fair in Paris. Amelia was newly pregnant with Martha at the time and they wanted to go somewhere before her condition prevented her from getting around easily. They traveled to Europe in one of the company's ships that had several staterooms available. Passenger traffic wasn't generally sought for the freighters, but space was available for those people who needed a timely passage, and could stand not having all the amenities found on the company's passenger ships.

  The newly completed Eiffel Tower was the center piece of the 1889 World's Fair. Towering over the fair pavilions, it could hardly have been missed. A marvel of engineering at the time, plans called for the steel structure to be dismantled when the fair ended. That the tower remained in Arlene Watson's day is testament to the fierce pride developed in Parisians for their nineteenth century wonder.

  Less imposing technological advances, but in many cases every bit as awe inspiring, were shown in the Palais de Machines where one could see amazing 'glimpses of the future.' Amelia couldn't help but think about the things that would develop from these first primitive steps forward. Amelia and Jeremy also spent a lot of time viewing the exhibits in the Palais des Beaux-Arts and the Palais des Arts-Libereraux.

  Unable to speak French, Jeremy had to rely on Amelia to interpret everywhere they went, so he was delighted when he struck up a conversation with a young school teacher from Wales. Herbert, he learned, was touring the fair with his cousin, Isabel. The couples toured together for the rest of the day and Jeremy invited the other couple to dine with them that evening.

  Their conversation during the meal revolved mainly around the exhibits at the fair, and when the meal was over, and they had opened their fourth bottle of wine, Herbert asked Jeremy what he expected the future to be like, in light of having just seen the newest inventions on the planet.

  "In our family, my wife is the expert on the future, Herbert," Jeremy said. "I'm sure she could tell you a few things."

  "Really?" Herbert said. Then, looking at Amelia, he said, "What say you Amelia, is our future a bright one then?"

  Amelia looked at Jeremy, knowing that the quantity of wine he had consumed was responsible for his allusion to her special knowledge. Still, he hadn't revealed her secret, and it wouldn't hurt to suggest to their young guests a few things that the new inventions might lead to. Herbert was fascinated with Amelia's speculations of what the future held in store for the human race and kept plying her with questions as it grew later and later. She finally called a halt to the discussion after several hours, because she knew that Herbert would keep them there all night if she allowed it. Jeremy paid the bill and the couples said goodnight. Since Herbert and Isabel had to return to London in the morning, their goodnight was also goodbye, but they promised to write.

  After seeing the entire fair, Amelia and Jeremy spent several weeks touring France before it was time to go home. They returned to America aboard a passenger ship from another line, since the company didn't have any ships returning to America on their timetable. Amelia had greatly missed Jeremy Jr., William, and Susan during their trip, but it would have been too difficult to take the three toddlers with them. The trip to France was their last long trip until their last child, Peter, was almost six.

  Thereafter they traveled to Europe every few years, and in between traveled to Cuba and the Caribbean. At least once each year, Amelia and Jeremy would take a small trip without the children. They looked upon each such trip as another 'second' honeymoon. Those were happy days.

  But there were some very sad times as well. Amelia's son Peter was killed in France during the Great War, when his plane was shot down beyond the enemy lines. One of Elizabeth's boys, a captain in the US First Army, was killed on the battlefield at the Battle of the Argonne. Grandfather Westfield passed away in 1921 at the age of 78, and Amelia's parents passed away a few years later, within months of one another. Her mother just lost her will
to live after her husband passed. Amelia had tried to get her to move to the mansion, but she had steadfastly refused.

  Overall, it was a good life, and the family business flourished. Jeremy Jr., William, Thomas, and Michael all chose to follow in their father's footsteps. After graduating from college they joined the company in various capacities. Susan, Martha, and Kathleen all attended college, but declined to work in the family businesses, preferring instead to marry and raise large families.

  Being a woman, Amelia could never assume an active role in the management of the businesses during her early years with Jeremy, but she always operated in the background. Jeremy and the children marveled at her acute business sense, and her uncanny ability to predict the future of so many companies. Early in 1929, she made every one of her children slowly sell off their stock holdings and amass cash. She had quite a time with Thomas, who saw the way that stock prices were climbing and felt that his mother was being ridiculous. But in the end, he acknowledged her previous precognitive successes and divested his stock holdings. When the big crash came in the fall of 1929, he apologized repeatedly for ever having doubted her. Amelia had tried to warn Gerald of the impending disaster, but had little success. His bank suffered great losses in the big crash, but because of the Westfield family's solid cash position, they were able to keep his bank afloat until financial markets stabilized and he was once again able to handle matters on his own.

  In 1932 Amelia established a trust, in the name of Arlene Catherine Watson, to maintain the mansion after she and Jeremy passed away. She wanted to ensure that it would be available, and unoccupied, for four teenage spirit hunters in the twenty-first century. She charged the trust with protecting the home against damage from the elements and vandalism, and keeping the property taxes current. But no one would be allowed to occupy the house until the year 2007, when it would be turned over to Arlene's family. She also used part of their personal wealth to create trusts in the names of Megan Kearney, Renee Dennis, and Erin McDonald. None had been able to say goodbye to their original families so long ago, so this was Amelia's way of giving those families something in loving memory from their daughters.