that you have an opportunity here, Mr. Ellis, to right some of the wrongs that your family inflicted on my family over the years.”
Mr. Ellis did not reply.
“If you ever felt like cleaning up your conscience a bit, this might be your big chance.”
Mr. Ellis still did not reply.
“I shouldn’t have to spell this out for you, Mr. Ellis.”
“No,” he said. He sighed again, took off his glasses, and folded them. “You should not have to.”
“You understand then?”
He nodded once and turned his head to regard the fire.
Ruth said, “Good.”
They sat in silence. David was asleep by now, and his body made a hot, damp imprint against Ruth’s body. He was heavy. And yet Ruth was comfortable. She thought this brief and forthright exchange with Mr. Ellis was both important and proper. And true. It had gone well. Restitution. Yes. And it was about time. She felt quite at ease.
Ruth watched Mr. Ellis as he watched the fire. She was not angry or sad. Nor did he appear to be so. She felt no resentment toward him. It was a nice fire, she thought. It was unusual, but not unpleasant, to have such a big, Christmasy fire blazing away in the middle of June. With the draperies drawn over the windows, with the smell of woodsmoke in the room, there was no way to know that the day was bright. It was a beautiful fireplace, the pride of the room. It was made of heavy, dark wood—mahogany, perhaps—decorated with nymphs and grapes and dolphins. It was capped by a marble mantelpiece of greenish hue. Ruth admired the workmanship of the fireplace for some time.
“I’ll take the house, too,” she said, at last.
“Of course,” said Mr. Ellis. His hands were clasped on the card table in front of him. His hands were spotty and papery, but now they did not tremble.
“Good.”
“Fine.”
“You’re with me?”
“Yes.”
“And you do understand what all this means, Mr. Ellis? It means you’ll have to leave Fort Niles.” Ruth did not say this in an unkind manner. She was simply correct. “You and Cal should both return to Concord now. Don’t you think?”
He nodded. He was still looking at the fire. He said, “When the weather is good enough to set sail in the Stonecutter . . .”
“Oh, there’s no hurry. You don’t have to leave here today. But I don’t want you dying in this house, do you understand? And I do not want you dying on this island. That would not be appropriate, and it would unsettle everyone too much. I don’t want to have to deal with that. So you do have to leave. And there’s no immediate hurry. But sometime over the next few weeks, we’ll pack you up and move you out of here. I don’t think it’ll be too hard.”
“Mr. Cooley can take care of all that.”
“Of course,” Ruth said. She smiled. “That’ll be a perfect job for Cal.”
They sat for another long time in silence. The fire crackled and shimmered. Mr. Ellis unfolded his eyeglasses and returned them to his face. He turned his gaze upon Ruth.
“Your little boy is sleepy,” he said.
“Actually, I think he’s sleeping. I should get him home to his father. He likes to see his father in the afternoons. Waits for him, you know, to come home from fishing.”
“He’s a handsome boy.”
“We think so. We love him.”
“Naturally you do. He is your son.”
Ruth sat up straighter. Then she said, “I should get back to the harbor now, Mr. Ellis.”
“You won’t have a cup of tea?”
“No. But we are in agreement, yes?”
“I am enormously proud of you, Ruth.”
“Well.” she smiled broadly and made an ironic little flourish with her left hand. “It’s all part of the service, Mr. Ellis.”
With some effort, Ruth got herself up out of the deep chair, still holding David. Her son made a small noise of protest, and she shifted his weight, trying to hold him in a way that would be comfortable for them both. At this point in her pregnancy, she shouldn’t have been carrying him around, but she enjoyed it. She liked holding David, and knew she only had a few more years of it, before he got too big and too independent to permit it. Ruth smoothed back her boy’s fair hair and picked up her canvas bag, which was filled with snacks for David and co-op files for herself. Ruth started toward the door and then changed her mind.
She turned around to confirm a suspicion. She looked over at Mr. Ellis, and, yes, just as she had expected, he was grinning and grinning. He made no attempt to hide his grin from her. Indeed, he let it grow wider. As she saw this, Ruth felt the oddest, the most unaccountable fondness for the man. So she did not walk out. Not just yet. Instead, she walked to Mr. Ellis’s chair and—leaning awkwardly around the weight of her son and her pregnancy—bent down and kissed the old dragon right on the forehead.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I WOULD LIKE to thank the New York Public Library for offering me the essential sanctuary of the Allen Room. I also extend my appreciation to the staff of the Vinalhaven Historical Society for helping me sift through that island’s remarkable history. While I consulted many books during this project, I was most helped by The Lobster Gangs of Maine, Lobstering and the Maine Coast, Perils of the Sea, Fish Scales and Stone Chips, the collected works of Edwin Mitchell, the unpublished but thorough “Tales of Matinicus Island,” and a disturbing 1943 volume called Shipwreck Survivors: A Medical Study.
Thanks to Wade Schuman for giving me the idea in the first place; to Sarah Chalfant for nudging it along; to Dawn Seferian for picking it up; to Janet Silver for seeing it through; and to Frances Apt for straightening it out. I am profoundly grateful to the residents of Matinicus Island, Vinalhaven Island, and Long Island for taking me into their homes and onto their boats. Special appreciation goes to Ed and Nan Mitchell, Barbara and David Ramsey, Ira Warren, Stan MacVane, Bunky MacVane, Donny MacVane, Katie Murphy, Randy Wood, Patti Rich, Earl Johnson, Andy Creelman, Harold Poole, Paula Hopkins, Larry Ames, Beba Rosen, John Beckman, and the legendary Ms. Bunny Beckman. Thank you, Dad, for attending U. of M. and for remembering your friends after all those many years. Thank you, John Hodgman, for taking time from your work to help me in the final moments of mine. Thank you, Deborah Luepnitz, for going lobster-by-lobster with me, right from the beginning. And God Bless the Fat Kids.