Chapter Eleven
Kit decided to spend the following day in the local library, going through old newspapers searching for any mention of the Camp in the Meadows or any member of the Meadows family.
After a brief chat with the librarian, who thankfully was not a lifelong resident of Tolerance and therefore did not know the family history, Kit was shown to a microfiche station and began her search.
There were a number of stories in the social pages, of one or another Meadows attending a party or a wedding, or hosting guests for a birthday or holiday party, and for hours, she was lost in the past. So lost that when someone touched her back, she jumped.
“Oh, gosh, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Elly stepped back quickly. “I’m so sorry.”
“Elly.” Kit laughed just a tad shakily. “I was so engrossed in reading that I didn’t know you were there. Who’s minding the inn?”
“Greta Crimmins offered to spell me for a bit so I could come down here and look up a few books for a project I’m working on.”
“Not enough info on the internet?”
“Sometimes I like to look at the source material myself. Besides, I like it here.”
“I always enjoyed a book more than just about anything, so I totally understand.”
“Oh, look there.” Elly looked over Kit’s shoulder. “Who’s that?”
“That’s my mother. That’s her engagement picture that ran in the local paper. She was Barbara Meadows then.” Kit slid the chair to one side so Elly could get a better look.
“‘Mr. and Mrs. Thomas L. Meadows are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter, Barbara Lee Meadows, to Edwin Matthew Clark, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Clark, all of Tolerance.’” Elly read aloud.
“‘Mr. Clark and Miss Meadows are both graduates of Tolerance High School, class of 1960. Mr. Clark is a recent graduate of the University of Maine, where he pursued a degree in business. The new Mrs. Clark is a graduate of the Katharine Gibbs School in Boston, Massachusetts, and is employed by her future father-in-law as a secretary and bookkeeper.’ So formal!” Elly exclaimed.
Kit brought the image into better focus.
“So many things were different back then. I remember my mother telling me how proud she was of having attended ‘Katie Gibbs.’ She said in the time and place where she lived, there were only three acceptable career avenues available for girls: secretary, nurse, or teacher. Her father didn’t think girls should go to college, so that eliminated teaching.
She couldn’t stand the sight of blood, so nursing school was a big no.
She decided if she was to be a secretary, she was going to be the best. She applied to Gibbs without her parents knowing, and once she was accepted, she sat them down and told them how the school was so highly regarded that the girls were recruited by the best companies.
The dress code was strict. Even to class, they had to dress like professionals: suits, heels, stockings. And always, white gloves.”
Kit recalled then how Barbie had laughed. “I had such a time keeping those white gloves white.”
Elly sat back on the desk. “So she went to school in Boston, then came back here and worked for the Clarks?”
“She worked in Boston for about six months, then she came back and worked for Mr. Clark until my dad graduated from U. Maine and took over the store.”
“Didn’t she like working in Boston?”
“She told me she loved it.”
“Why’d she come back after only six months?”
“Ed’s dad—my grandfather—thought it wasn’t right for her, a young single girl, to be living far off in Boston when she knew she and Ed were going to be married as soon as he graduated.
Mom said he called on her parents and told them he thought living and working in Boston might ‘compromise’ her somehow. ”
“How would it have?” Elly made a face.
Kit shrugged. “I asked her what her parents had to say about all that and she said her dad said old Wilbur had a point, that she should come home and just wait for Ed to graduate so they could get married and start their life together.”
“And her mother?”
“Her mother was just happy to have her back home. She’d worried about Mom being in the city, living with a bunch of girls she knew nothing about in a place she’d never seen and hadn’t personally inspected, and it just seemed easier for Mom to come home instead of arguing about it.”
“Doesn’t sound like anyone had her back. I’m sorry that happened to her.” Elly stood up. “Well, I need to get to work so Greta isn’t late getting home. She doesn’t like to drive after dark these days. Happy hunting. I hope you find something really cool.”
“It’s been interesting so far.” Kit turned back to the desk.
“Maybe I’ll see you back at the inn,” Elly said as she started to walk away. “Wait, didn’t you say your mother was Maxine’s sister?”
“Maxine’s older sister, yes.”
“I wonder what she had to say about all that nonsense. She was so outspoken about everything else. I mean, Maxine went to a four-year college. I’d think she would have stuck up for her sister.”
“Wait, Maxine went to college?” This was news. “Even though her father didn’t believe in college for girls?”
Elly nodded. “She went to the University of Southern Maine. She and my aunt April used to drive home for breaks together. I would have expected that she’d gone to bat for her sister.”
“We don’t know that she didn’t,” Kit pointed out.
“No, I guess not.” Elly disappeared into the stacks, leaving Kit to wonder what Maxine had had to say about her older sister being forced to leave a job and a life she was enjoying to return home and wait for her future husband to finish college.
Knowing what she knew now about her aunt, Kit would bet Maxine had had plenty to say. But Maxine’s advocacy for her older sister’s right to make her own decisions hadn’t been enough to sway their father.
Or maybe she hadn’t taken her sister’s side at all. Maybe that had been the beginning of their ill will toward each other.
Suddenly Kit felt exhausted, as if the weight of her mother’s disappointment had been slung across her shoulders. Kit signed off the machine and gathered her bag, waved goodbye to the librarian who’d helped her earlier, and headed back to the inn.
Kit took an hour-long nap, met with Elly for a quick dinner, then went back to her room to call home.
Russ didn’t pick up, so she left a voicemail, then called her son, and had to leave a voicemail for him as well when she remembered he’d be at work at his day job.
She tried Beth next, and was not surprised when she didn’t pick up, either.
“Batting one thousand,” she murmured as she sat in the deep chair near the window, her Kindle in hand. “Let’s see what Abby’s up to.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Kit said after her daughter answered the call. “How’re things going?”
Abby immediately burst into tears. For the next twenty minutes, Kit tried to soothe her daughter’s wounded spirit as she listened to Abby’s list of Evan’s offenses: He was even worse than she’d thought.
He hadn’t called to see how Benny was. He hadn’t bothered to try to find them.
He was a total narcissist, and how could she possibly have loved such a person?
How could she have been so blind? How could he expect her to come back when he clearly hadn’t cared that she was gone even after he’d realized she’d left and taken their son?
“Did you tell him you were speaking with a divorce lawyer?”
“Oh, yeah. And you know what he said? He said, ‘So I suppose I should get one, too.’ I was going to tell him I didn’t want anything except half the proceeds from the sale of the house, and support for Benny.
I mean, I can support Benny when I’m working, but I think he needs to take responsibility for his son.
You know what he said? ‘I’m assuming you want full custody of the boy. ’ Mom, he actually said the boy.”
“Abby, I hope at that point you told him your lawyer would be in touch with him.”
“I did. Right before I hung up on him. Damn, I wish we still had those old phones that hung on the wall or sat on a table.” Abby hiccuped. “It was so satisfying to slam down that receiver when you needed to really hang up on someone. Cell phones—meh. No sound of the slam. I miss it.”
Kit laughed in spite of the circumstances, and seconds later, Abby was laughing, too.
“Oh, Mom. My life is such a mess right now,” she wailed.
“It won’t be forever. Just get through this divorce and then you can move on to your next act.”
“Mom, please. No play analogies.”
“Sorry.”
“I keep trying to remember why I thought I was in love with him. I guess there was something about him being this brooding writer—oh, God, what a cliché—and him having convinced me he was brilliant. There was something so cool about thinking that this brilliant man fell in love with me. How could I have fallen for such crap? What was I thinking?”
Kit heard the crunch of something. “Are you snacking? Have you had dinner?”
“I fed Benny when I got home but not myself. I’m thinking about calling for something to be delivered. Maybe something Italian.”
“Check with your father and see what he has planned.”
“Dad hasn’t had a plan since you left, Mom.”
Of course he hasn’t.
“Well, put him on the phone.”
“He’s not here. When I was leaving this morning, he said something about meeting up with some people after work. Honestly, he’s been acting so weird. He’s either texting, talking on the phone, or watching those biking shows.”
Kit checked her watch for the time, and was surprised to find it was after nine.
Strange that Russ was still out. He never missed the ten o’clock news and was always in bed before eleven.
In all the years she’d known him, he’d never liked to do the happy hour thing.
He’d always headed straight home once he’d left the office.
Dinner. TV. News. Bed. His routine almost never varied.
And texting? Talking on the phone after work hours? He hated talking on the phone. Strange indeed.