Summer at Hideaway Key

by Barbara Davis

  And it has been my way, has it not—to make a hasty exit? I’ve been making them all my life, after all. When I learned I was pregnant. When I heard you had married Caroline. When I saw you in the park that day with our daughter. I ran, and I hid. Not because I was afraid, but because I was so very tired. Tired of hurting, of weeping, of losing things I cared about. Life has left its share of marks, deep and bloody ones, but it’s the self-inflicted wounds I have suffered from most, the harms I’ve done to myself, and to you, my darling. I should have trusted you—should have trusted us, and what we had together—instead of always running. And yet here I am, making another exit. My last, as it were. At least this time I have said good-bye.

  Do not regret losing me, my love, or be angry with me for the way I have chosen to leave this world. We lost each other years ago. This time, these last few weeks, were merely stolen, a kind of dream to ease my way. And you have eased it, my love, more than you will ever know. I hurt you once, and for that I will always be sorry. But it was done for love, and love is always the right choice.

  Love endures.

  Love forgives.

  I must cross now, my dearest. Come to me when you are ready. I will be waiting for you on that other shore, with my little jar of shells.

  —LM

  Lily blinked away the tears trembling on her lashes, and they spilled down her cheeks as she raised her eyes to Dean’s. “He was here,” she whispered. “At the end, he came to her. After all the years, all the lies and betrayals, they found a way back to each other.”

  Dean took the letter, scanning it briefly before folding it carefully along its creases and laying it on the counter. “He never stopped loving her. Or she him.”

  Lily shook her head, trying to let it sink in. “All this time, I’ve been imagining her living out her last days with nothing for company but her memories. But it wasn’t like that at all. My father was here, reading to her, feeding her, carrying her down to the beach.”

  “Making up for lost time.”

  “Yes,” Lily said softly, wiping at her tears with the back of her hand. “But so much time, so much sadness and grief. How could they ever get past it?”

  Dean laid a hand on the folded letter. “It’s right here,” he said quietly. “‘Love endures. Love forgives.’” He reached for Lily’s hand then, folding her fingers warmly within his own. “You asked me once if I thought people stopped loving just because the other person wasn’t there anymore. I told you I didn’t know. But I know now, because I’ve seen it. My father never stopped loving my mother. It was the same for Lily-Mae and your father, only with a happier ending. They made mistakes. They had regrets. But they were together at the end. That they still loved each other was all that mattered.”

  Lily felt the tears welling again as Dean drew her into the circle of his arms, tucking her cheek into the warm hollow of his throat. “Love endures,” she breathed softly.

  Dean crooked a finger beneath her chin, tipping her head back to touch a kiss to her forehead, then another, featherlight against her lips. “Yes, Lily St. Claire, it does.”

  Pink Flip-Flop

  1 oz. X-Rated Pink Fusion Liqueur

  1 oz. Parrot Bay rum

  Splash of cranberry juice

  Splash of orange juice

  Splash of pineapple juice

  Splash of pure cane syrup

  Sugar the rim of martini glass. Combine all ingredients into ice-filled shaker and shake well. Pour and garnish with pineapple or watermelon slice.

  *I recommend doubling the ingredients and shaking a double. Pink Flip-Flops should always come in pairs!

  QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

  1. Mt. Zion Missionary Poor Farm was fictional but depicted conditions prevalent in many poor farms in the United States during the twentieth century. Before reading Summer at Hideaway Key, had you ever heard the term poor farm? If so, from whom, and in what context?

  2. In the first of Lily-Mae’s letters, she mentions Catherine Earnshaw, the tragic heroine of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, comparing her life with Catherine’s. If you have read Wuthering Heights, in what ways do you see Lily-Mae’s life mirroring Catherine’s?

  3. When Lily and Dean first meet they appear to be polar opposites and rather ill suited, but as their individual stories unfold, parallels begin to appear. How do their differences and similarities work together to help each become more self-aware, and ultimately embrace change?

  4. On the bureau in Lily-Mae’s bedroom stands a jar containing forty-nine shells. What did the shells symbolize for Lily-Mae, and how did that symbolism ultimately come full circle by the end of the book?

  5. Throughout the novel we see Lily pondering the question of finding her North Star, a seed planted early in her life by her father. What do you think Roland meant when he encouraged Lily to seek it, and why do you feel her finding it was so important to him?

  6. Sometimes we need a friend to help us see where we’ve gone off course. Discuss the ways Sheila helps Lily see herself more clearly and eventually face the fact that it’s time to make some changes in her life. Discuss how Lily does the same for Sheila.

  7. The theme of forgiveness recurs heavily throughout the book. Discuss the role forgiveness plays in each of the main characters’ stories, and how it ultimately allows them to finally move toward happiness.

  8. It is said that one cannot forgive others without first learning to forgive oneself. In your experience, is this true, and why? Discuss the various ways each of the main characters were holding themselves back because of an inability to forgive and move on.

  9. Another predominant theme in the book is the self-inflicted damage we do when we continually run away from the things that scare us. By the end of the book we see Lily-Mae admit that many of her woes stem from her tendency to run rather than stand and fight. What do you see as the defining moments for both Lily and Dean in learning to stand and fight?

  10. In the novel, Lily-Mae willingly sacrifices herself to spare the people she loves. In your opinion, when does sacrifice cross the line from nobility into martyrdom? Are there people in your life for whom you would make such sacrifices in spite of their ingratitude?

  11. In what ways do Lily’s and Lily-Mae’s stories mirror each other? What insights do you feel Lily-Mae’s journals provide in helping foster Lily’s emotional growth over the course of the novel?

  12. In your opinion, what would have to happen for Lily to forgive Caroline for all the years of lies and deception? Do you believe forgiveness of such grievous deeds is even possible?

  13. Discuss the ways Lily has grown as a person by the end of the novel. What factors do you feel contributed to this growth?

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  While working on Summer at Hideaway Key I have been very surprised by the number of people who had no idea poor farms actually existed. I assumed that at some point everyone had heard their mother or grandmother say, You’re going to drive us to the poorhouse, or that they might recall Ebenezer Scrooge’s callous lament, Are there no workhouses? I also assumed most people knew what those phrases meant, but I soon realized this wasn’t at all the case.

  The concept of caring for the poor in America began back in the seventeenth century and can trace its roots to the workhouses and almshouses of Europe. In the US, poorhouses were usually publicly funded institutions set up to provide housing for those who couldn’t support themselves. In addition to state- or county-run institutions, private entities like churches and other charity groups operated such facilities, providing refuge to the indigent, elderly, abandoned, and infirm. The number of inmates could range from a mere dozen to more than a hundred, based on population and economic conditions of the time.

  In rural areas, poorhouses often took the form of poor farms, where able-bodied inmates, as they were called, worked the fields and barns for their keep, and often benefitted the establishme
nt by helping to produce surplus foodstuffs, which could then be sold at a profit. Poor farms varied greatly in size, but generally consisted of crop fields, as well as small numbers of cattle, pigs, and chickens. Healthy male inmates were expected to work the farm itself, while females cooked, cleaned, or worked in the laundry.

  A common misconception about poor farms is that they were a form of debtors’ prison, where inmates were forcibly housed and made to work against their will. Residence in US poor farms was actually voluntary, though a place of last resort. In most cases inmates who came to the poor farm did so because economic circumstances left them no other choice. Conditions at the farms were stringent, and rules were strict. Populations were often put to hard manual labor, and in some instances were subjected to physical punishment.

  Births and deaths were daily occurrences. Deaths were usually recorded in ledgers, but little effort was made to mark individual graves in the poor farm cemeteries. Often, graves were merely marked with a wooden stake and a number that corresponded to a name and date recorded in an infirmary ledger. Sadly, many of these records have been lost over time, though in recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in America’s poor farms, and in particular about inmates who died while in residence. Many counties and historical societies are now making stringent efforts to research and locate burial sites and to provide families with death and burial records.

  By 1960 the need for poor farms had begun to decline, thanks to the passage of the Social Security Act of the 1950s. Ten years later, poor farms had become largely extinct, with the majority of the buildings abandoned or demolished, though a handful lingered well into the ’70s. Many facilities became county-run homes for the elderly and chronically infirm, and a few became correctional facilities, but in most cases the land was sold to private owners, often blotting the existence of the poor farm from even local memory.

  Poor farms were a sad part of our history, though I in no way mean to suggest with Lily-Mae’s story that all poor farms were nefarious entities. Many were truly caring and charitable institutions, but in certain cases abuse and graft created conditions that were less than humane, and at times bordered on criminal. Mt. Zion Missionary Poor Farm is purely fictional, a composite based on research gleaned about poor farms all over the United States. The fire that took the lives of Ruth and Harwood Zell was based on a fire that occurred at the Wood County Poor Farm infirmary in Parkersburg, West Virginia, in 1950. The fire is thought to have destroyed twenty-five years’ worth of death and burial records, and was the imaginative seed of poor Cindy Price’s lost grave in Summer at Hideaway Key. The cemetery affiliated with Wood County Poor Farm is still open today, and is located near West Virginia University.

  Photo by Lisa Aube

  After spending more than a decade in the jewelry business, Barbara Davis decided to leave the corporate world to pursue her lifelong passion for writing. She currently lives in Dover, New Hampshire, with the love of her life, Tom, and their beloved ginger cat, Simon. Summer at Hideaway Key is her third novel. She is currently working on her fourth book, anticipated in 2016.

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