by Anna Maclean
“I have no idea,” said Abba, stirring the pot and looking, to use a phrase, like the cat that has swallowed the canary.
The letter was on old shipping letterhead, for Uncle Benjamin had done well in that industry before settling in Walpole with his books and various hobbies. It was also brief. “Come visit, my dear,” he had scrawled. “I could use some companionship. Fine weather up north, though I understand it’s sodden in Boston. I’ve a litter of kittens for you to play with.”
“Does Uncle Benjamin know my age, Abba?” I asked, looking up.
“He can be forgetful,” she admitted. “Widowers get that way.” Uncle Benjamin had been married to Abba’s sister, who had died a few years before. “But there’s more, Louy. He wrote on the back side, as well.”
I turned the paper over. “There’s a theater here,” the old-fashioned spidery writing with the arabesque capitals continued. “The Walpole Amateur Dramatic Company, a flock of young people who would look kindly upon your joining them.”
Abba was humming as she stirred and looked up at the cracked, flaking ceiling.
“You’ve arranged this,” I said, giving her a quick hug.
“You need time away.” Abba, with her free left hand, sketched a circle in the air that encompassed my household duties, the little school I ran to earn a little money, my baskets of take-in sewing with which I earned a little more money. Father was a philosopher and while they make for very interesting conversation, philosophers do not provide much of a secure living for their offspring.
“I will go, then,” I said. And in my mind, I was already thinking of the plays I would write and help produce with the Walpole Amateur Dramatic Company. They would all be comedies. I’d had enough of tragedy, and death.
It would seem, though, that they hadn’t had quite enough of me.
ANNA MACLEAN is the pseudonym of Jeanne Mackin, an award-winning journalist and the author of several historical novels. She lives in the Finger Lakes area of New York with her husband, artist and writer Stephen Poleskie. Visit her Web site at www.annamaclean.net.