Epilogue
About three days after the court decision, Daddy took one of the Baxter motorboats and went out to sea.
He did not return. The coast guard was informed and told us they had found the boat just west of Captain Blood’s Inlet.
A search for his body was undertaken, but nothing was found.
Suspicious, I began to dig deeper into the books and found where he had worked the money that had been in that shell company back into it.
“Whoever he had been seeing probably met him at the inlet,” I told Jamie. He agreed.
Once I took full reins of the company, I saw Jamie’s elation move slowly into despair. One night in late August, we sat at the oak tree on a blanket and just looked at the stars.
“I know something is bothering you, Jamie. You can read me and I can read you. We can’t hide anything from each other.”
“Somebody, one of the jealous guys, said I was being kept.”
“Kept?”
“I wasn’t earning enough to take care of you ever. I never would be, so I would always be the kept husband, wearing the aprons.”
I laughed.
“It’s not funny.”
“No, it isn’t. I know Birdlane.”
I thought deeply about it. What was the solution? What did I feel would make me complete?
“Well, there seems to be only one solution,” I said.
“What’s that?”
“Marry me. That way, you own half of what I have, but you can’t get away with just that.
I’ve thought about our need for an office of customer relations and realized, who better than you to run it?
You know more about our suppliers and customers than I do.
I’m not making up a job for you; the company needs it.
We have to look forward. Daddy, or whoever we want to call him, was stuck in his own ways.
We’re not that far from the twenty-first century,” I said.
He was silent. Then he asked, “Did you say ‘Marry me’?”
“You idiot. Yes.”
He hugged me quickly and kissed me and said, “You took the words right out of my mouth.”
“They were stuck there so long that I was going to send you to a dentist.”
He laughed. We kissed again. I looked out at the sea and the stars and thought, I’m here; I’m really here.
Two and a half years later, I gave birth to Ishmael. We both loved Moby-Dick. For us, Anna now became a wonderful nanny.
Just before our third anniversary, I told Jamie I wanted to take a trip.
“To where?”
“Ireland,” I said.
“Really? Any particular reason?”
“Let’s just leave it as a surprise. For us both.”
He shrugged. “I’m okay with it.”
I arranged the trip. We flew into Shannon Airport, where I had a driver who knew the address just outside of Galway. The grass was truly kelly green, and the streams and hills were breathtaking. Jamie kept asking me where we were going.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Not until we get there.”
We pulled up to a sheep farm with a sign that said it was Clancy Lane.
Jamie’s eyes widened. “Are we where I think we are?”
“I don’t know.”
We got out and entered the property. We could hear children’s laughter coming from just behind the house. Jamie carried Ishmael, and I walked ahead.
I saw him playing soccer with two young boys who looked about ten or eleven. One of them saw me first and stopped playing. Then they all stopped, and he turned. He looked awestruck for a moment and then smiled and started toward me.
“Lisa,” he said. “I thought your mother was walking toward me.”
“She is,” I said, and we hugged for the first time.
“This is my husband, Jamie, and our son, Ishmael.”
“So good to meet you,” Rudy said, shaking Jamie’s hand. “Boys,” he said, turning to his sons. “Say hello to Lisa and Jamie. This is Boyd and Connor.”
“Hello,” they said. “Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Connor added. They both had reddish-blond hair and sparkling greenish-blue eyes.
“This is your half sister,” Rudy told them, and their eyes widened with surprise. “My wife, Shannon, is making cottage pie for us for dinner. How about staying for it? Start a catch-up. I’m sure there is lots to tell.”
“Oh, yes,” I said. Jamie smiled. “Lots to tell.”
We had a wonderful visit. I kept thinking about all the time I had lost with my real father.
Could you catch up on all that, or was it gone forever?
His joy in seeing me gave me the feeling it wasn’t lost. I knew every time he looked at me, he saw my mother and his memories were revived.
There it was… another gift she had given, both to me and to him.
Of course, I promised we would see each other again.
I invited them to the Crest. I really looked forward to hearing more from Rudy about his affair with my mother.
I knew that was something we had to discuss privately someday.
A day after we returned home, I went to the cemetery in Bar Harbor and told my mother and my grandfather all that I had done. I went alone.
Afterward, I headed back to the pier and found that I was walking quickly. I realized when I reached the boat that I was so eager to go home, to get back to Birdlane Island and my family and my life. It was enough after all.
The next day, almost as if it was a ritual for us, Jamie and I climbed to the Birdlane Crow’s Nest and sat watching the geese heading south. I would swear that some of them turned slightly to look at us. I thought they were as happy to see us as we were to see them.
All of life was a set of journeys for a variety of reasons.
But in the end, you always went home, not because it was the place you knew but because it was the place you needed, the place that reminded you who you really were.
We held hands and watched the geese disappearing, knowing in our hearts that they would be back, and we would be here to greet them.