Excerpt

Toward the end of July Dan returned to Wolfeboro for another long weekend and offered to take Ellen out to lunch.

Lets go across the street to the Inn, Ellen suggested eagerly.

Seems kind of silly, doesnt it? Dan said. I thought we could go for a drive around the lake and find some little place that we havent been to before.

That does sound nice, Ellen said, but I really want to sit in that front room now that Im learning all about Nathaniel. I want to envision him there in the house he built.

Dan gave in gracefully. Okay. But dont embarrass us. Does Frannie want to come? Maybe shed like to invite Steve?

Is he in Wolfeboro? Ellen asked.

Yes, he is, and yes, I would like to invite him, said Frannie entering the kitchen through the door to the back stairs. She was still in her robe and pajamas.

Tell him twelve oclock. Dadll be hungry by then, Ellen said, trying not to sound too pleased.

* * *

The front room of the Inn where the hostess seated them was not very large and no other parties were there yet. The other rooms were busy, though. Ellen looked around trying to imagine the room as it had been a hundred and sixty years ago and it was not hard. The wide pine floorboards were well worn. There had been no recent attempt to sand and varnish them which Ellen appreciated.

Since no one else was there, she got up and moved to the fireplace. Had Nathaniel fitted this mantle himself, she wondered. Had he laid this hearth and built the huge chimney?

She remembered what William had written to his sister, Mary. We cannot always expect to assemble around our fathers fireside and well-spread board. Was this the fireside he meant? It was pleasant to think of the large family sitting around a table laden with good food.

Ellen wondered what Nathaniel would have thought about all the beer steins hanging from the ceiling beams out in the other room. He had been an ardent supporter of Temperance.

She looked out the window and could see Grammys house across the street. It was what William and Nathaniel would have seen back then except for the car in the driveway and the missing barn. What a strange feeling to be in the very space where they had lived. They were not famous or important people, just ordinary beings, but made extraordinary because their words and thoughts had survived them to be read by her. The past seemed very close.

Mom, look at this! Frannie had joined Ellen at the fireplace and was pointing at a thin horizontal board used as a piece of decorative trim. Its exactly the same as the one in Grammys house!

Ellen ran her fingers over the green painted board with its simple design of incised slanted lines, running first one way and then the other. Frannie was right. It was just like the fireplace across the street. This must have been Nathaniels work, still here after all these years. The houses were connected by this one slender piece of wood, the workmanship of the same man, her great-great-grandfather.

Ellen looked at Frannie and could tell that her daughter was sharing her own feelings. They returned to the table without saying anything.

Oh, Ellen, Dans sing-song tone brought her back to the present. Do you know what youd like to order? He gestured toward the waitress who stood by, her pencil poised to write down what Ellen wanted.

Did you and Steve already order? she asked.

Mom, why dont you have the tuna salad? Thats the special and thats what Im having, Frannie told her.

That sounds fine, Ellen decided quickly. And tea, please. With milk.

Did you feel any ghostly vibes when you touched the mantlepiece? Dan teased her.

Actually, yes, she responded.

DOO-doo-Doo-doo, Dan hummed. Im only teasing, he smiled.

I know. Thats why Im not taking offense, she said, realizing that he could not be expected to share what she and Frannie had felt. I didnt mean I felt something from the fireplace. I just felt such a strong connection to the past. It makes me more sad than anything.

Sad?

Its just that these people have disappeared so completely. I bet no one connected with this Inn knows anything at all about Nathaniel. I didnt, and Im his great-great grandchild. So many stories, so many vibrant lives, just gone. And if Id followed your suggestion to have a dealer come in and clear the house, I might never have read those letters or known anything about the people who wrote them.

Well, you wouldnt be sitting here feeling sad, in that case, Dan pointed out.

Im glad I feel that way, Ellen said. It enriches me somehow, to not live totally in the present.

I get what youre saying, Mom. I feel that way about Kevin. Her eyes grew large and bright with unshed tears. She glanced at Steve and gave him a small smile. Steve knows about Kevin.

He reached over and held the hand that rested on her lap but didnt say anything.

Dan reached for Frannies other hand. Well, the waitress is going to wonder if there was something wrong the water, he said trying to lighten the atmosphere.

I think Moms right, Frannie said. Its good for us to remember the people who came before us.

What would Nathaniel think if he saw us sitting in this room, his own home, and knew that his great-great granddaughter and his wifes great-great nephew or some such relation were having lunch here at his fireside? Its too much for him to have imagined, Ellen concluded. I suppose most of us cant see further than ourselves and our children.

And grandchildren, when they come along, Dan added.

This time it was Ellen who was ready to throttle him.