An Island Between Us

by K'Anne Meinel

  “Do you not want me to send the letter?” Marion had asked, slightly hurt and yet willing to do whatever Barbara wanted.

  “No, inquire away,” she encouraged her, wondering if they could get out of the mill jobs where they weren’t wanted now that the boys were back from the war. They had been just two of the very few women who clung tenaciously to the few jobs left available once the men returned. They were resented because they were female. Even more so because they were widows and survivor’s guilt riddled some of the men, knowing they had survived and not these women’s husbands. They were constant reminders that men had died, their friends had died, and they had not. These women had given their all...and then some.

  They both discussed the possibility that they could move out of the village and far away from Boston, their families, their husband’s families, and the disapproving friends, acquaintances, and even strangers, who suspected the true nature of their relationship. It was time to start over, and this ad seemed like a godsend.

  Mr. Wheeler’s letter hadn’t been welcoming, but it hadn’t been discouraging either. He had invited them up to Franklin to view the island and consider its purchase. Both women wondered if anyone in post-war America had the money to buy an island, much less visit one, and they knew it might be the most foolish venture either could consider. Once they were able to arrange the time off from work, they had penned another letter, accepting his invitation and letting him know the date of their arrival.

  Mr. Wheeler watched as the women made their way away from the boat and up into the trees. They couldn’t get lost. The island was only half a mile or so across and four miles long from tip to tip. He sat back down and pulled out a pipe.

  Marion was pointing out the beauties they were seeing, almost as though Barbara couldn’t see them for herself. There were great stone cliffs along one edge of the non-existent trail they were making. Great maple trees—hundreds of years old, thick and luxurious, and about to leaf-out in the early spring growth—were mixed with tall pines and other trees. They found other smaller beaches, one with odd shells that were crushed along the rocky shore. They heard the gulls, and other strange birds made their presence known. A majestic Great Blue Heron took wing from a meadow as they explored. The sun came out and dried up their path, making it a hike and a hot walk, which they both welcomed. They loosened their button-up jackets as they trekked along.

  “What’s that?” Barbara pointed, startled as a brown-furred animal slithered away through last year’s growth.

  “I think that was a mink,” Marion answered, amused at her usually brave girlfriend’s fright.

  It was a good thing they were here so early in the spring after the winter snows had melted; the undergrowth would have been impossible to walk through otherwise. They found a game trail that had obviously been made by deer and followed it as it made the going easier.

  “Gosh, Barbara,” Marion’s voice trembled with emotion, “how could anything be so beautiful and uninhabited?” Used to the noise of the big city, even in their small village, they both marveled at the quiet and the fact that no one was about.

  They spent quite a bit of time roaming the island. Then realizing that Mr. Wheeler might be alarmed that they had become lost, they began to make their way back, hoping to find the large cove without too much trouble. They slid down a few steep slopes in their attempt to make a trail, abandoning the animal trail in order to find a straighter route to the cove. There was lots of moss on the trees, and Marion warned Barbara never to believe that adage that moss only grew on one side of the trees. “It’ll grow wherever it can,” she informed the city girl.

  “To think these views are going to waste and we’re stuck looking into the apartments across the way from ours,” Barbara said as she took in the deep woods and ocean surrounding them as they made their way back to the boat.

  They were both relieved to see Mr. Wheeler patiently waiting for them, smoking a pipe as he sat in the bow of his boat.

  “Ya seen ‘nough?” he asked, cordially. He didn’t seem perturbed that they had kept him waiting for hours as they explored the island.

  Both women nodded enthusiastically. They helped to push the boat off the small pebble spit, less sand than they had originally thought. They both watched as the old man expertly started his motor and they puttered out of the protective cove. The feel of the open water was almost immediate beyond the trees that marked the entrance, the deeper water a little rougher but nothing like the ferry, which had a deeper draft and bucked the waves differently. They both stared at the receding island thoughtfully. Each of them looked forward to discussing it later when they were alone. They didn’t want to talk in front of the old man, and the ever-present winds blowing their hair into their faces made it difficult to be heard.

  “Thank you so much for the ride, Mr. Wheeler,” Barbara said politely as he pulled his boat onto the shore in Franklin.

  “Yes, thank you. We will let you know what we decide,” Marion told him as they both got out of the boat.

  He nodded cordially but was thinking to himself that he had wasted his entire afternoon on two women. What in the world could they have been thinking? He tied off his boat and made his way into the small town, moving away from them and not saying a word.

  “Well, are you hungry again, or should we return to the hotel and discuss what we saw?” Marion asked, wondering how Barbara’s stomach was feeling. She knew her own had recovered sufficiently that she was starving.

  “I could eat,” she began slowly, already lost in thought over the island. She was burgeoning with ideas and wondered if they could afford to act on them all.

  They didn’t talk about the island as they ate at the diner again. The locals were listening in avidly. It was so obvious it was almost amusing. They understood and smiled in a friendly manner at the eavesdroppers as they ate their meals.

  “What do you think?” Marion asked as soon as they were in the safety of their hotel room.

  “I liked it,” Barbara began cautiously, her eyes sparkling with the excitement she was feeling. She had felt so alive on that island, and she hadn’t felt like that in what seemed like forever. Then she rethought that. She felt alive in Marion’s arms, but it was so different from what this idea and concept felt like.

  “We could build a cabin...or ten and rent them out,” Marion put in, her own enthusiasm trickling out. She wasn’t fooled by Barbara’s quiet demeanor. She saw the sparkle in her eyes, and it was exciting.

  “Do you think we should?” she asked, again sounding cautious.

  “I think God puts things in your path for a reason. We both hate our lives in the mill and are slowly dying inside. I felt as though my soul got aired out on that island today. I’d like to go back and poke around. Do you think Mr. Wheeler would lend us his boat?”

  Barbara immediately shook her head. “I bet we can rent one somewhere.”

  “You think they would rent to two women?” Merion mused.

  She had to admit the blonde had a point. It was frustrating that two competent women were not allowed to do things simply because of their sex. Things had changed since before the war. Still, they had to conform a bit for society. “I want to go back,” Barbara admitted.

  “You think two people could make a living on an island like that?”

  “I wondered that too. There’s that one meadow, and we could plant an orchard and a garden, but that wouldn’t really bring in that much money,” she mused, thinking practically. “What about the initial price of the island?”

  “No bank is going to lend a woman money without a man to co-sign,” Marion pointed out, reminding her what had happened before and paraphrasing what they had been told.

  Barbara nodded. They’d already known that. Even when Marion was selling her house, they had come up against the condescension that a woman alone couldn’t possibly understand the intricacies involved in such a complicated financial transaction. “There’s the money from the sale of my house,” she mentioned, as th
ough they both hadn’t already thought of that.

  “And my house as well as the life insurance policies.”

  “Shouldn’t we save something in case something goes wrong?”

  “We could always go back and work at the mill,” Marion pointed out, although the thought of failure depressed them both, much less the thought of working at the mill for the rest of their lives. “Brian always said, ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained.’”

  Barbara nodded, a little jealous of the man in her girlfriend’s past life. Still, he was gone, killed in the war like her own husband, and nothing was going to bring them back. “Bob had the same kind of saying, but it was me that managed to get us that house,” she said nostalgically, missing the house that had been their home but not the man. She didn’t regret getting rid of the house to take up housekeeping with this woman she had come to love so much. Their love had surprised both women with its intensity and even the fact that two women could be in love with each other. After selling their homes, they ended up living in an apartment. They hadn’t realized they couldn’t get another mortgage without a man signing the financial paperwork with them. Neither one would think of bothering their male relatives with such a matter. Most of their extended family felt they were a little too independent raising their three children together. What they should have done was sold one of the houses and moved in together, but they had thought they could buy another house together...until the banks had told them no.

  “So, we buy the island outright and build from the ground up?”

  Barbara nodded slowly, worrying about the money and their finances. They had enough between them to buy the island and build a small house on it, but the thought of what else they would need scared her. It meant giving up a safety net that they just might need later.

  “We’ll need a boat, some sort of dock, as well as a million other things we haven’t even thought of.” Marion started ticking off things on her fingers.

  “The children will have to start correspondence school.”

  “The children are going to love this adventure,” the petite blonde pointed out, knowing their children hadn’t been happy to give up their homes and their yards to live in a much smaller apartment.

  They discussed a lot of things, agreeing on almost everything before they headed to bed. They were tired from the trip on the ferry, exploring the island, and the fresh air. Their initial attempts to make love proved that the bed had squeaky springs, and not wishing to be discovered, they decided to hold off until they had more privacy.

  CHAPTER TWO

  After looking long and hard the next morning, the couple found someone willing to rent them a boat. He had given them many cautions, certain his boat wouldn’t come back in one piece, but cash money was hard to come by, and they paid an outrageous deposit that ensured his cooperation. After making sure the gas tank was full, Barbara took the rudder of the launch.

  “I hope we can afford something bigger than this,” she said to Marion over the roar of the motor as they bobbed over the waves, very close to the water in the small boat.

  Marion made a note on the list she had started, which was two pages long already. It had sub-headings with lists under each, and she continually added to them, even writing in the margins.

  They followed the same path out into the channel around the islands, taking note of the way Mr. Wheeler had gone the previous day so as not to become lost. The map they now possessed identified those islands as they made their way towards Whimsical.

  “You know, if we kept going, we’d hit Canada over there,” Marion shouted over the wind as she pointed to the open ocean beyond Whimsical.

  “And if we missed it, maybe Newfoundland or Iceland?” Barbara teased, shouting to be heard.

  “Ireland or England would be a nice vacation,” Marion teased back loudly. They both sobered at the thought of getting lost at sea in such a small boat.

  They puttered once around the island, completely circumnavigating the land and avoiding the rocks offshore that protected this bump of land in the ocean. They saw several promising inlets, which they had observed from shore the previous day. They could have made their way to them, but instead, they chose to go to the inlet that led to the protected cove. They drove the boat up on the pebbled gravel and tied it off with a long rope, so they wouldn’t lose it. Only the guy they had rented the boat from knew exactly where they were. If they didn’t return, there was no guarantee he would sound an alarm. They hadn’t even asked Mr. Wheeler if they could take a second look around his island, assuming he wouldn’t mind.

  “How come no one has ever wanted to live out here?” Marion asked as she whirled around, her arms outstretched.

  “Maybe because it’s so far out?” Barbara asked, practically. “Remember, Mr. Wheeler said there was once a cabin up there,” she pointed.

  They made their way up onto the ridge that led down to this cove but didn’t find any sign of a cabin. They searched for and found the game trail again as they explored.

  “You know, this would be a great place for our cabin,” she said, gesturing towards the end of the large meadow. “It’s got a great view of the cove, and look at that,” Barbara said, pointing out beyond the granite barrier to the ocean.

  “You don’t think it would be too windy up here on the ridge?”

  “I think the trees would block most of the wind, and look, there is that outcropping,” she pointed to some bare stone that was pushed up among the trees, almost hidden beneath their growth.

  “We would need to dig a well,” Marion murmured, imagining it all.

  “Let’s explore that outcropping,” Barbara pointed through the woods again.

  While climbing around, they discovered a fresh water spring that obviously watered the meadow and the trees in this area. It was only visible for a few feet among the rocks before it slipped beneath the surface and reappeared as a thin stream along one side of the meadow.

  “Look there,” Marion breathed as they gazed at the view.

  A deer and two fawns were cautiously walking into the meadow, keeping to the shadows as they grazed.

  “Could you kill one of those?” Barbara quietly asked, enjoying the view.

  Marion nodded. “If I had to, I could, but we don’t have to worry about that now.”

  Something, a crow or a gull, scared away the cautious mama and her offspring. They bounded off into the underbrush, disappearing effortlessly as they blended into the darkness of the woods. The women exchanged smiles as they continued to explore the island.

  “We could have a second cabin here. It’s a little more remote, but look at the view,” Barbara pointed out the options.

  “Yes, we could advertise it as a little rough but a guaranteed getaway from the stresses of work and life,” Marion answered as she began to plan. She was eager to get started.

  “Would we have to dig a second well?”

  “Or we could pipe water across the island,” she lamented, imagining the work involved, but it didn’t discourage her as she enthusiastically looked forward to the challenges. “Maybe there is other fresh water on the island?”

  “Do we dare do this?”

  “It’s not the responsible choice,” Marion admitted.

  They talked back and forth, going over ideas and what-ifs, and they finally decided to sleep on it. Not realizing the tide had gone out while they explored, they discovered they had to push the boat across the mud some ways and start it before heading back the way they had come.

  “This mud is something to avoid,” Barbara commented, nearly losing a shoe to the suction.

  “It washes off,” Marion laughed as she dipped her shoe in the water before pulling it back into the boat.

  “Do we have enough gas to go around the island again?” Barbara asked, looking at the vast acres of pine and other trees hidden in their foliage as she sat down.

  Checking the tank, Marion saw it was more than half full and nodded as they cruised, avoiding the rocks that mother natu
re had piled up to protect the remote island.

  Heading back and using the various islands as mile markers, they began to feel the pull of the ocean and its strength. It bucked up against the bow of the boat, and Marion was hard-pressed to keep them on a straight course. They exchanged more than one look of consternation as a particularly strong wave hit the small boat. They didn’t go too fast, worried about being flipped by a rogue wave. It was nearly dark as they nosed the craft in among the man’s other boats. He seemed surprised to see them, then checked out the small craft and reluctantly returned their deposit.

  They headed for the diner, getting in just before the place closed for the night, so they ordered soup and sandwiches to go. They were both famished, having forgotten to bring a lunch on their outing and not having eaten since breakfast.

  “I think we should go for it. We’re going nowhere in the mill, and they don’t want us there,” Barbara said as they ate ham and cheese sandwiches back in their room.

  Marion had never told Barbara how much the men despised her. She had overheard some derisive comments about her girlfriend since the men had returned to the mill. The fact that Barbara had been married to a man and had borne a child didn’t seem to stay the comments about her decidedly masculine looks. Built like a broad farmgirl, her long hair pulled back in a tight bun, it didn’t matter how her beauty shone through in the sparkling, brown eyes or the rich smile that she bestowed kindly on most everybody. They didn’t see the kind heart or the true friendship she offered to those who earned her trust. Instead, they judged her solely on her looks, her height, her girth, and their own criteria of womanliness.

  Marion had needed that friendship when she went to work after Brian had gone off to fight, and again, especially after his death in battle. Left alone with two children, she didn’t know how she would have coped. Brian’s parents wanted her to move in with them, but they would have grieved her into an early grave, and with two children to raise, she wasn’t about to do that. She hadn’t realized her attraction to her best friend until she impulsively gave her a kiss and found it returned wholeheartedly. She remembered back to that moment when what had started as a hug of friendship, support, and consolation had turned into something much more. At first, she had been frightened, but she had been willing to pursue it.