CHAPTER TWENTY

Chapter Twenty

Vonnie stopped to see how Lisa was doing getting her new house ready. She knew Lisa didn’t like to be alone. She didn’t like being with Dylan either. He had taken an extra job loading trucks to make extra money to pay his dad back for the house.

Lisa sat in front of the radio humming to herself.

“Hey, I thought you were so busy.”

“I got tired.” Lisa admitted.

“This house should not be too difficult to keep up. It’s small.”

“Too small,” Lisa said. “Make me some coffee?”

“You could make it yourself,” Vonnie told her. “After all, this is your house.”

“I’m tired.”

“Okay,” Vonnie got up and poured some A&P coffee into the pot. She added cold water.

“I’m gaining weight,” Lisa said. She played with the front of her dress “Nothing fits anymore.”

“You need to get more exercise. And leave the Fig Newtons alone,” Vonnie glanced at a package of cookies on the counter.

“Those are Dylan’s cookies. They make me nauseous. I can’t believe I’m gaining weight. I’ve been sick every morning.”

Vonnie had been half listening as she made a tray of crackers, cheese and cucumber slices. Then she looked at her sister. “Honey, when is the last time you had a period?”

“Not for awhile. Do you think I‘m sick? Maybe I have cancer.”

“I don’t think so, honey. But you need to see a doctor.”

“Vonnie, I don’t want to have a baby.”

Vonnie took the job at Almasy House. She wasn’t sure how much money Dylan and Lisa had. They had just purchased a house with Emil’s help. Now there was a baby on the way. Could Lisa care for a baby by herself?

She had been good with little Louis until… Vonnie thought about her son often, but always with great sorrow. She never discussed what happened with anyone, not even Walt.

Lisa had not been with any small children since that awful day. Vonnie could never predict Lisa’s reaction to anything. She had no doubt Dylan would make a great father. She just hoped he could manage Lisa and a baby. She would need to hire maids for Almasy House. Lisa could do some of that work. It would be extra money for her and for Dylan. Maybe if Lisa kept busy, she wouldn’t be so difficult to get along with.

The restored Almasy house would need a nursery. Some of the people who stayed there would have children, so a playroom would be ideal She could add a few cribs. She must ask Jack about the wisdom of adding facilities for children. Would the new owners allow that?

Even though Vonnie had been guaranteed full autonomy, she still liked to check her decisions; so she did that by calling Jack.

The bed and breakfast wouldn’t be just for vacationing couples? Weren’t lots of people having children now? She had read an article about something called the Baby Boom in one of the women’s magazines.

Vonnie walked the hallways of Almasy House. She checked on all the work and was disappointed that no secret passages were found and no treasure. She found an ancient desk in one of the rooms. An old timer who was assisting the carpenters said, it had been Rose Almasy’s desk. Vonnie cleaned it herself and had it brought to her new office. She would have a kitchen and a bedroom there at the house. She chose the suite that had once belonged to Rose Almasy. The old woman had died in those rooms, but Vonnie had no fear of ghosts.

She would welcome the ghosts of her late parents and her child if only she could be with them again.

“We can fix you a larger apartment,” Walt told her.

“Remember I have my own home,” she said.

“But you’ll be working long hours. Staying here will be like staying at a hotel,” Walt winked at her. Wherever Vonnie stayed, Walt would be staying too. Vonnie had already hired Walt as chief of maintenance. But Walt had become more than that. Maybe she could make Walt an assistant with a bigger salary. She had already increased Walt’s salary, and knew Walt was worth every penny.

“I don’t want to be anything more than handyman,” Walt assured her.

Some people in town now knew Walt was a woman and a special friend of Vonnie’s. They could only speculate how deep that friendship went.

Vonnie was glad she didn’t always have to be so careful with pronouns anymore.

Penny 1970

Bev poured my coffee at the Yorkie Cafe and said it was on the house if I had news of Lisa.

“She’s getting out of jail tomorrow,” I said.

“Not good enough. You’ll have to pay.”

“Okay,” I said. “What I need is a word with the cook.”

So long as you don’t give anyone else the scoop.” She turned to the kitchen. “Elaine, someone here to talk to you.”

Elaine is fifty-something now and she showed every year. Her hair is gray, her face lined; her body carried too much weight. She frowned when she saw me. I wasn’t someone she’d want to talk with. “What do you want?” she asked. She sat on the stool beside me, grateful for a chance to take some of that weight off her legs.

“Thought you’d want to know. One of the reporters is asking about Jeff Hollander.”


 “Let him ask. You didn’t tell him to come see me, did you?”

“No, but someone else might. I thought I’d give you advance warning.”

Bev brought her a cup of coffee “Guess I’ll take a break,” Elaine said. “What did he want to know about Jeff?”

“Why there aren’t pictures of him in Almasy House. Wasn’t he part of the history?”

“Not a good part,” Elaine said.

“In case he talks to you, I thought I’d give you a chance to decide what you’re gonna say.”

“I was underage, and the good priest took advantage. Well, that’s not fair. I knew what I was doing.”

“You wanted a better life People say he was handsome, and there was a Depression. You can’t be blamed for…”

“And he was ready to dump me,” Elaine said, “I knew that. I didn’t push him down those stairs though. I wasn’t there when - when it happened.”

“I believe you.” I said.

“Someone pushed him though. I saw his body; it had been bashed in. It was like he’d been hit several times with a heavy board or something. Who would do that? I keep asking myself that. Why?”

“It was right after he said he found bodies of murdered women in one of the tunnels.”

“You think it had something to do with that?”

I got up to leave. She put her hand on my arm. “Do you ever see Lucinda? Tell her I’m sorry.”

“I don’t see Lucinda,” That part was true. I saw Jack, but if I ever mentioned Elaine he might throw me down the cellar stairs at Almasy House. “We don’t want the past drudged up,” I said.

1947

Lisa and Dylan’s baby was born in the middle of a snow storm. They had settled on Dr. Tracie and the hospital at the last minute, and that was partly because there was no way to get to Danni and the farm. Danni was married to Dennis now, and often out of reach in Michigan blizzards. Dylan wanted the baby born in a hospital.

Huge mirrors hung above the delivery room table. A dozen stainless steel instruments offered mirror-like images. Lisa kept her eyes closed, but she did look up just as the baby slid out from under the hospital gown she wore.

The baby had a tail that Dr. Tracie immediately cut off. Lisa and the nurse both saw the procedure and heard the baby scream when the knife cut off its tail.

Lisa started screamed too. It wasn’t the pain even though that was bad enough. She had just given birth to a little devil. She wouldn’t hold the baby, a little girl she and Dylan had named Dorothy.

Lisa turned unresponsive after the birth. “Kill it,’ she told Dr. Tracie. “ You have to kill it.”

“You have a healthy baby girl,” he assured her.

“Take it away, I don’t want it,” she whined. “It’s devil. My dad had hooves and horns.” The nuns had told her this at the orphanage. She hadn't believed them, but now her baby had a tail. “Does it have feet or hooves?” she asked one of the nurses. Sometimes Lisa would be quiet for long periods. Once she screamed, “This is Emil’s fault. He raped me.”

Dylan was rattled by the accusation.

Dr. Tracie suggested sending Lisa back to Newberry.

Dylan shook his head.

Vonnie talked to Dylan in the waiting room. “What Lisa needs is to keep busy. And I’m hiring maids.”

“But I need her at home. Who will take care of Dorothy?”

“I was hoping one of your sisters or sisters-in-law.”

“I want my wife to take care of our baby.”

“Lisa was so good with my baby.” Vonnie remembered. “Little Louis loved her.”

“I don’t know why she can’t care for a baby of her own.” Dylan wanted to care for his wife, but she was difficult. His family had talked to him about another divorce, but he couldn’t go through that again. “Lisa needs me,” he said.

“She should never have had this baby.” Vonnie sat down heavily in the hospital waiting room and began crying.

Dylan hated seeing a woman cry, and Vonnie was such a good person and so good with Lisa when she had her moods.

“I’ll ask Lillain,” he said knowing his brother’s wife had only one child of her own and liked to care for youngsters. Marry and Elsie were always off on shopping trips to Detroit or more recently New York and Boston. Lillian took care of their children. “Pa could do it too. But Lisa doesn’t like my pa.”

“Lisa’s confused. She doesn’t know what she wants or what she likes.”

Soon the town gossips were talking abut the child born with a tail.

“Dr. Tracie swore it wasn’t true.”

“The mother’s crazy. No one could deny that.

Lisa took a job helping Vonnie at Almasy House.

“Keep the baby away from me,” she moaned if anyone suggested she hold her child.

“Why?” Vonnie asked her. She held Dorothy in her arms, and gently rocked her.

“Remember how in the orphanage they said our dad had hoofed feet?”

“You didn’t believe that.”

“She had a tail; Dr. Tracie cut it off.”

“No,” Vonnie said. “You imagined that. You were drugged. I remember how it was when I had Little Louis. The pain is so bad, you get confused.”

“It’s true. There’s a scar on Dorothy’s butt. I can see where he cut off the tail.”

“Please stop talking about this.” Vonnie was angry now “You know this town never forgets anything bad about us.”

“It’s because of Emil. He raped me that night. He’s the devil, and he raped me and his child was born with a tail.”

Vonnie gave up arguing with her sister.

Local civic groups were quick to want the restored Almasy House as a meeting place. Both the local Democrats and the local Republicans reserved rooms for monthly meetings. Vonnie agreed to accept an “I Like Ike” sticker, but said she would place it on her farm house door. She couldn’t take sides at Almasy House. But if anyone asked, she admitted that she did like Ike Eisenhower and would vote for him in November.

The house was a remarkable success. Newlyweds honeymooned at Almasy House. Older couples and families vacationed. One large Detroit family reserved all the rooms one October for a huge family reunion. Wedding receptions and birthday parties dotted the calendar.

With clean windows and bright-colored paint, the house no longer looked spooky.

Most nights and weekends local clubs of one type or another had meetings there. The Latter Day Saints even had church services there on Sunday. They were saving to build a church, but in the meanwhile, they used Almasy House.

Vonnie had not guessed she would be so busy, but Walt was a big help. They seldom went to the farm anymore. Instead Dennis took care of the animals, and even rented Vonnie’s fields.

Dylan would drop Dorothy off at his sister-in-law Lillian’s house and then drop his wife off at work.

“That daughter of yours is so pretty. When are you going to start taking an interest in her?” Vonnie asked Lisa.

“She’s a brat. She screams all night.”

“She’s a baby.”

“She’s a brat.”

“Little Louis used to keep me up nights sometimes too. How I wish I still had him.“

Ike Eisenhower was in his first term of office when Dorothy started school.

Almasy House was closer to the school than Dylan’s or Lillian’s house, so Dylan brought his wife to work in the mornings and brought Dorothy along. Vonnie would walk Dorothy to school because Lisa said she was busy. She wouldn’t even touch her daughter.

“Auntie, the kids say, I’m a monkey.”

“You know that’s not true.”

“Mama believes it.”

“Your mama gets confused sometimes.”

“I got a scar on my butt. Are you sure I wasn’t born with a tail?”

“Of course, you weren’t born with a tail.”

“The other kids say I was. They’re mean.”

Vonnie stopped walking, squatted there on the sidewalk and took her niece into her arms and hugged her.

Dorothy started crying, “They’re real mean.”

“I know they are, Honey.”

Penny 1970

Sometimes people ask me what happened to Dorothy. We used be close friends. If she went away, wouldn’t she tell me where she was going?

“I wish you’d tell me what happened with Dorothy,” Mary Mynter Smith said one day on the museum.

“She’s your niece. You mean you don’t know?”

“We worry about her.”

“Lots of people disappear,” I said. “Did you know Rose Almasy had a daughter.”

“That’s what they say. I can’t find any record of her in the town birth records.”

Things get lost. Just like people.

1954

For Christmas that year Dylan bought his daughter a doll that was as big as she was. Dorothy named the doll Penny after the department store. He also bought his family a television set.

“It’s like a radio,” the salesman said. “With a picture.”

In the store, Lisa, Dorothy and Dylan watched as Hopalong Cassidy drew his pistols. Dorothy loved the horses that stood tied to a railing in the street. Lisa loved William Boyd, the actor who played Hopalong Cassidy. How she wished she had a beautiful husband like William Boyd instead of stupid Dylan.

Dorothy clung to her daddy and watched with glee. “I like cowboys,” she said.

Dylan loved seeing the awe on the faces of his wife and daughter. “What do you say? Should we buy one?” he asked his wife.

It was his daughter who answered, “Yes, Daddy, yes.”

“She’ll be spoiled.” Lisa said.

“Some of the kids at her school already have television sets,” Dylan told Lisa.

“Pretty soon every household in America is going to have a TV,” the salesman said confidently.

He showed them a magazine called “TV Guide” with Loretta Young’s picture on the cover.

Lisa loved movie magazines; this book was small, but it had a picture of this pretty actress on the cover. “She’s so pretty,” Lisa said.

“I’ll throw in the magazine absolutely free,” the salesman promised. Then to Lisa he said, “Loretta Young has her own show. Yes, siree. Every Sunday night. There’s all kinds of great movie stars on television now. Robert Montgomery has his own show and so do Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney. And my favorite is on every Monday. My wife and I never miss ‘I Love Lucy.’ Lucille Ball is hilarious. Wait until you get a chance to watch.” He glanced down at Dorothy. “And you’ll like Roy Rogers, little lady.”

“Who?” Dorothy asked.

“He’s a cowboy, just like that one.” He pointed to the screen where Hopalong was still holding a gun in each hand.

Lisa thumbed through the “TV Guide” at least a dozen times before the television was delivered. She had viewing plans for every night.

She knew two channels, 5 and 11 came out of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and channel 6 came out of Marquette, Michigan. She would be able to get all three major networks, so they could watch almost anything listed in “TV Guide.” Most areas of the country weren’t that lucky. They might get one or two channels and one network.

The first time she turned the television on, she got a test pattern. She knew that would go away at two p.m. when the stations started broadcasting. First there was local news and weather and a midget named Uncle Tom hosted a children’s program out of Marquette.

Dylan thought one day he would drive Dorothy to Marquette, and she would be a guest on Uncle Tom’s program. Tom always had an audience of children in the studio with him, and the station advertised for kids to come down and be part of the show. Uncle Tom would interview the children.

“She’ll embarrass us,” Lisa said.

Television allowed Lisa to indulge in her crush on actor Jon Hall. Every weekday Channel 6 showed reruns of his television program, “Ramar of the Jungle.” It had been cancelled, but she could watch these reruns.

She imagined life as Jon Hall’s wife. She would wear evening gowns every night, and she would have pretty children. Dorothy frightened her. She was such a plain looking child. What had Dr. Tracie done with that tail?

Real life scared Lisa. A father hung; a nephew drowned; a child born with a tail. Was Dorothy her punishment for not taking good enough care of Little Louis? She still heard the child scream in her nightmares.

But television was always great. Scary things always went away quickly. The scene changed; commercials promised shiny hair like that of a Break girl and spotless appliances in the kitchen.

Dorothy loved “The Mickey Mouse Club.” Lisa was sure she couldn’t stand to hear another one of those awful songs, and Dorothy marched around the house doing the show’s dances and singing the show’s songs. Lisa decided she had to find a way to turn off the set when that program was on.

Maybe she could unplug the set and say that it was broken.

1957

Jack invited Lisa’s family and Vonnie to Detroit. He was getting married, and he wanted them to meet his wife.

“Who is she? What’s her name? Blond, brunette or redhead? What’s she like?” Vonnie wanted to know.

“Wait until you meet her?” Jack had said. They would have a small wedding at his home in Detroit.

“I hope she’s not a gold digger,” Lisa said when she heard. “Jack has lots and lots of money.”

Dorothy hated school. The school lunches tasted crappy. She had no one to play with. The kids called her monkey because her mother had said she was born with a tail, and that story had circulated all over town. During winter months, students had to stay outside at recess time. Dorothy shivered and huddled in a corner of the building. The other kids played around her. No one invited her to join them.

Then a new girl, Penelope Jane Payton moved to town. Penelope had scabs on both of knees that she sat and picked them in class. She had unruly brown hair, freckles and glasses that seemed almost too big for her face.

Dorothy disliked meeting new people because it was only a matter of time before they found out she had a crazy mom, and that she had been born with a tail. She was sitting by herself at recess when Penelope came up to her. “So how was Oz?”

“What?”

“You’re Dorothy. What was it like on the Yellow Brick Road? What’s the scarecrow really like?”

Dorothy shrugged. Was this girl making fun of her?

“I’m Penny. I won’t offer you a penny for your thoughts. Most people don’t have interesting thoughts. Thoughts aren’t worth a penny. How much do you think your thoughts are worth?”

“I don’t know,” Dorothy said.

“What do you know?”

Dorothy didn’t answer. Penny looked like someone who would offer her friendship and then take it away.

“What do you like to do?” Penny asked. “We could go on the swings. No one else is on them now.” Penny was a talker.

Dorothy nodded and then followed Penny to the swings.

After school Dorothy and Penny walked home together.

“Tell me a secret,“ Penny said.

“I don’t have any.”

“Everyone has secrets. I’ll tell you mine. I have a crush on Kookie.”

“You mean Edd Byrnes.” Dorothy laughed and said, Byrnes was the star of a hit television program, “77 Sunset Strip,” and his trademark was the comb. He talked Kookie talk, calling all older men “dad” and he kept combing his hair. Lots of the little girls in their class loved Kookie.

“I bet you love him a lot too,” Penny said.

Dorothy shook her head. “I like Robert Horton on ‘Wagon Train’.”

“He is cool,” Penny said. The girls both nodded.

When they came to Mary Mynter Smith’s house they paused. “Let’s go inside,” Penny said.

“Nobody’s home.” Dorothy said.

“That is the best time to go inside.”

“She keeps the door locked,” Dorothy told her friend. “Mama says she’s afraid of being robbed.”

“Who wants to rob her? Anyway I just want to look inside.”

They walked up to the front door. Locked.

“I told you so,” Dorothy said.

They walked around back. The door was locked there too. Penny started trying to raise some windows.

It was Dorothy who found the basement window unlocked. She didn’t really think Penny would go inside, but Penny slid down into the basement.

“You better come out,“ Dorothy called. “You’ll get caught.”

“She’s at work for at least another hour. I’ve watched her car come and go.”

“Please come out,” Dorothy begged. Then she squeezed her body through the window and she was downstairs with Penny. “What are we doing here anyway?”

“Looking for stuff.”

“You aren’t going to steal anything. Tell me you aren’t going to steal anything.”

“Oh, shut up. I just want to look.”

They moved up the basement steps and into the kitchen. “ Nice appliances,” Penny said. “And expensive.”

“They’re new. Mama says Daddy’s relatives always have lots of money. Everyone in the family has money except her and daddy.”

“Family?”

“She’s my aunt,” Dorothy admitted.

“I forgot your last name is Mynter. You just don’t seem as stuck up as the rest of them.”

“Mama doesn’t like Daddy’s family.”

“Why not?”


 “Like you said, they’re snooty.”

“I said stuck up. It’s different.”

Dorothy didn’t see how it was different, but she followed Penny through the house. They opened drawers and looked at bills and records and check books.

One closet door was locked. “We have to come back and get in here,” Penny said.

“No way, I’m not breaking in again.”

“She’s your aunt. You’re not breaking and entering.”

The girls heard a car in the driveway and dived for the basement steps.

“Who is your new friend?” Dylan asked Dorothy that night after supper.

“Her name is Penny.”

Lisa said, “You know she got caught shoplifting at Pancheri’s store.”

“No. She wouldn’t do that.”

“You keep chumming with that one, and you’re going to get into trouble, girl.” Lisa scolded.

“If she’s a shop lifter, you should stay away from her,” Dylan advised his daughter.

A week later, Mary drove to her dad’s house to make sure he didn’t need anything. Something puzzled her.

“Pa, remember that notebook.”

“What notebook?”

“The one I keep my figures in.” It’s missing. I think someone took it”

“That old notebook ain’t worth anything. You probably just misplaced it.”

“It’s gone. Someone’s been going through my closet, Pa.”

Emil shrugged. “Why would someone steal that old notebook? You misplaced it.”

The next day Mary and Elsie bought safety deposit boxes and brought the remainder of Emil’s stash to the bank in grocery bags.

Lisa went though the Sears catalog twice looking for a gift for Jack and his new bride. It was hard not knowing his fiancé. What were her tastes like? Was she a poor waitress or doctor’s daughter? Was she younger than Jack? Probably, but how much younger? Lisa knew nothing about Jacks fiancé, not even the girl’s name.


 “He said not to bring gifts,“ Dylan reminded her. “We’re working class people with a daughter to support. That brother of yours is as rich as Rockefeller.”

“I want to give him a wedding gift.” Lisa insisted. “He’s my brother. And he gave us a thousand dollars when we got married.”

“And I thanked him. We just can’t match his generosity.”

Detroit was 500 miles south, but not so far south that there would not be lots of ice and snow and cold. Lisa finished packing. Dylan gassed the car up and checked the tires. He then sipped coffee at the kitchen table.

Vonnie brought over fresh baked items, fruit and coffee from Almasy House. “Walt’ll take care of things until we get back.” she said.

“What a terrible time for a wedding,” Lisa said.

“It is not a great time in the hotel business either,” Vonnie said. She now had just two regular boarders.

“Too bad Walt can’t come with us,” Dylan said. He liked Walt and would have welcomed her company.

“She doesn’t want to go. She thinks Jack will be too fancy for her.”

“And we don’t know if Jack’s bride is ready to meet a queer.” Lisa said.

“Lisa, we are just two people who love each other.” Vonnie smiled at her sister. “Surely you don’t think of me as a queer.”

“Whatever. People say such awful things about us.”

“Some people just don’t feel good about themselves. That’s why they say mean things to others. And Jack has invited Walt and me down to his home anytime. His wife won’t object. Jack told me that.”

Dylan looked out that the snow piling up outside. “It’s a mean time to be driving anywhere,” he said. “But Dorothy won’t miss any school because of the December holidays. That’s a good thing.”

“Not if we perish in a snow storm.” Lisa said. She did want to see her brother again, but why couldn’t he come north. A trip downstate was lots of work when she had a brat and a husband to care for.

“There aren’t any new storms predicted,” Vonnie said. “This one should blow over in another hour.

“That doesn’t matter. If we have car trouble and have to walk, we’ll freeze to death.” Lisa insisted.

Dylan wasn’t worried. “I got matches, firewood, candles, and we’ll pack some extra food. We can wait it out if we need to.”

Vonnie shook her head. “It won’t be as bad as all that. I look forward to getting away for awhile. We can do some shopping in Detroit.”


 “You can do some shopping. Dylan doesn’t have any money.”

Dylan felt his face redden.

Vonnie said, “I’ll treat you and Dorothy to new dresses shoes and new hats.”

“That’ll just be more stuff to cart home,“ Lisa said. “Do you know how much room a kid takes in a car? We had to pack her clothes and toys. She’ll be whining the entire way unless we bring along that awful doll.”

“I don’t want to bring the doll; Penny’ll stay home.” Dorothy said.

‘Did you name the doll after your friend?” Vonnie asked. “Isn’t her name Penny?”

“No, I named the doll after JC Penny, the store.”

“Don’t you have a friend named Penny?”

“ Yeah, but she’s in trouble. She stole some things.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“She’s the only one who’ll play with me though. The other kids don’t like her either. She gets into trouble all the time.”

“Well, don’t you get into trouble,” Vonnie said. “We can bring the doll if you want,” And anything else. Lisa, it won’t take that much room. Dorothy and I can play word games. We’ll make new words out of the letters in street signs. Michigan has such interesting place names. Kalamazoo and Ypsilanti. See what words we can make up out of those names.”

“I’ll take care of my own kid,” Lisa said.

Vonnie sighed. Both she and Dylan had the same thought. Lisa did not care for the child.

Dylan, Lisa, Vonnie and Dorothy piled into Dylan’s old Chevrolet.

“Let’s sing some songs,” Vonnie said to her niece. “What songs do you know?”

“All of them.”

“No one can know all the songs,“” Vonnie looked perplexed. “There’s too many of them.”

Lisa explained, “She watches ‘Your Hit Parade,’ and she does know a lot of popular songs.”

“Davy Crockett,” Dorothy explained excited.

“All right then,“ Vonnie began. “Born on a mountain top in Tennessee.”

Dorothy joined in.

Lisa put her hands to her ears. “I am going to have a headache long before we get to Jack’s house.”

When they got to the Detroit area, Vonnie read off directions, but Dylan managed to get lost anyway. They stopped at a tavern, and Vonnie called Jack. When she gave him the name of the tavern, he said he knew where it was. He would come and get them.

Fifteen minutes latter, Vonnie looked up from her Coke. A beautiful woman stood in front of her. At first she didn’t recognize the woman or the two pretty young girls who stood beside her. Then Jack was standing there beaming. “I think you know my wife-to-be. This is Lucinda.”

Vonnie and Lucinda threw their arms around each other and hugged.

Lisa sat with her mouth open.

Dorothy asked, “Who is that lady?”

Jack took them all to Detroit for a meal at the Badger Club. Vonnie and Lucinda chatted like the old friends they were.

“Why didn’t you tell me, you and Jack owned Almasy House? Why all the secrecy?”

“I was afraid if anyone found out a Black lady owned it, no one would stay there.”


 “Ridiculous,” Vonnie said.

“Remember, I’m half owner too,” Jack joked. “And I am definitely not a Black lady.”

“That town is so prejudiced,” Lisa said. “They hate Blacks and Jews and queers.”

Vonnie frowned at her sister “We aren’t Jewish, honey. We aren’t anything. And I wouldn’t call anyone a queer.” Then she turned to her brother and his finance. “I wondered so many times what happened to you.”

Dylan was uneasy in the fancy restaurant. He would have preferred a hamburger and beer in that bar where they had all met up. He knew his shoes were scuffed, his hair was self-cut. He just didn’t look like he belonged here.

Dorothy squirmed in her seat. She couldn’t find anything on the menu that interested her and asked if she could have a cheeseburger and fries. The waiter said that the chef could prepare that for her.

Dylan stared at his menu. He didn’t want to open his mouth and show his crooked teeth. He was not fancy and perfect like the people around him.

Jack sensing Dylan’s hesitation ordered the largest steak the place had for Dylan. “You must be starved after that long drive,” he said.

Dylan nodded.

The two teenage girls, Starr and Carol, could not look more different. Starr had her mother’s olive complexion, dark eyes and hair. She looked like Natalie Wood. Carol was blond and blue eyed more like Sandra Dee. But both girls were poised and dressed like teenage queens in satin slacks and cashmere sweaters with mink collars.

“Do you like school?” Starr asked Dorothy.

“Yeah,” Dorothy said because she felt it was expected. Actually she hated school.

“So what do you when you aren’t in school?” Starr was trying to make conversation.

“Nothing.”

“You must do something. Ice skate? There must be lots of ice up there in the U.P. Do you ski?”

Dorothy shook her head. She felt uncomfortable with these two girls who were both prettier than anyone at her school. She wished she could take these girls to school with her and show them off. See what pretty friends I have. They were sure a lot prettier than Penny Payton. Penny wasn’t pretty at all.

But Dorothy felt better, more at ease with Penny, who her mother said was a juvenile delinquent.

“I watch tv,” Dorothy finally said. “She had to say something, and she couldn’t think of anything else that she liked to do.”

Jack gave Lisa and Dylan a nice bedroom on the east side of his home. The mint green bedspread smelt like clean cotton. A bowl of apple cinnamon fragrance sat on the dresser. “I hope you don’t mind bedding down with Dorothy.” Jack said. “If not she could stay with one of the girls.”

“We’ll be fine.“ Lisa said.

“You know where the kitchen is. Help yourselves to anything. Vonnie will be next door; Lucinda and I are down the hall.”

Lisa could hear Vonnie and Lucinda talking excitedly in the next room. The two women could not get caught up. They had so many things to tell each other.

“Is there a television?” Dorothy asked. “I don’t want to miss ‘Maverick.’”

Jack was glad to make his niece happy in anyway he could. He told her where the television set was and that she could watch anything she liked. He closed the door.

Dylan and Lisa listened to his footsteps retreat down the hallway. “I can’t believe he’s marrying her,” Lisa said.

“She seems like a nice person,” Dylan said, “They’ll be happy.” Who could help liking Lucinda who had tried so hard to make them feel comfortable in that fancy restaurant.

“She’s a Nigger. White men don’t marry Niggers.”

“Keep your voice down,” Dylan hissed. “They can hear you.”

“I don’t care who hears me. We’re leaving right now.”

“What?”

“I said we’re leaving. I won’t stay here in this Nigger’s house.”

“Lisa, we don’t have anyplace to go. I’m dead tired from driving all day, part of it in a blizzard. We can’t afford a hotel. Dorothy wants to watch ‘Maverick.’”


 “What do you care about your daughter? The kids already make fun of her at school. Think what they’ll say when they find out her aunt is a black Negro.”

“I don’t care what anyone says.”

“My brother’s lost his mind. And I won’t have anything to do with her or him.” She grabbed Dorothy by the wrist and pulled her so hard the child cried out.

“Stop it. Stop it,” Dylan said blocking the door. “You’re hurting her.”

Lisa pushed her daughter so roughly that Dorothy fell to the floor. Lisa started hitting her husband. “Let me out of here. Let me out of here.”

Someone knocked on the door. “Lisa,” Vonnie said.

Then Jack called, “What’s going on?”

Dylan tried to put his arm around Lisa and calm her down, but she slugged him. Dorothy screamed when she saw blood on her daddy’s face.

Jack tired to open the door, but he had to push. Dorothy had rolled away from the door after she fell, but Lisa tried to hold it shut. Jack pushed until he was in the room and then took his sister in his arms. He held her. “What’s the matter, Little One?” he asked. She collapsed against him for a moment and then pushed him away. “I don’t want you to marry her.”

“Hush now, baby.” Vonnie tried to comfort Lisa, who she knew she had neglected in her excitement over seeing Lucinda again.

“The Klan’s coming,” Lisa said.

“No, we’re safe. This is Detroit. The Klan doesn’t come here.”

“The Klan is everywhere.”

Dorothy crouched in a corner. She rubbed the sore places on her wrist where her mother had grabbed her. When she looked up, she saw all those elegant people. Her aunt and her uncle and those pretty teenage girls who were supposed to be twins, but who looked so opposite, and yet both were as pretty as television stars. Beside them stood their mother, who was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Then she looked at her sad faced, plain-clothed, simple parents. Why did her mother have to behave so horribly? A doctor came and gave Lisa a sedative, Vonnie explained that the long drive and the excitement were just too much for Lisa. They should have come right to the house and rested instead of going to that restaurant, wonderful as it was.

In the morning, Lisa moaned and screamed. Vonnie and Dylan held her until that same doctor, a neighbor, gave her another shot.

“The doctor shook his head as he left. “She should be institutionalized,” he said.

“She isn’t always like this,” Vonnie said. Then she caught Dylan’s eye. They both knew the truth was very different.

Lisa rested alone in the upstairs bedroom while guests came to celebrate the wedding of Lucinda Rinaldi and Jack Brianka. The couple had asked that no one bring gifts, but a few friends brought gifts ranging from new cook wear to silver tea pots. Lucinda thanked them.

“I feel empty handed,’ Vonnie whispered to her friend.

“Don’t. You know Jack and I both have far more possessions than we need.”

“Where’s the honeymoon to be?”

“Right here in Detroit. We’ve been living together for years. And everyday is a honeymoon with Jack.”

“So why didn’t you guys get married before?”

“Silly things. Jack promised my father he would never marry me. Father wanted me to be in high society. But it was never what I wanted. I wanted Jack. We deserve happiness, don’t you think?”

Vonnie was the maid of honor. Jack asked Dylan to serve as best man.”

“I don’t even have a suit,” Dylan protested.

“Good.” Jack joked. “I’ll get married in blue jeans and a shirt. More comfortable that way.”

Lucinda’s dress was ivory velvet. After the ceremony everyone applauded the beautiful couple. Dorothy stayed in the bedroom with her mother.

“They’re ashamed of us,” Lisa whispered. “They don’t want us down there.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Chapter Nineteen

The juke box played, “Come Rain or Come Shine” by Margaret Whiting. Yvonne Cheney finished putting her coins in the juke box and moved toward the bar where her coat lay draped over one of the stools.

A fresh drink awaited her. The bar tender pointed to a man at the other end of the bar. He had redneck written on his sunburned face and calloused hands. He wore dark blue work pants, work shirt and black cowboy boots. Yvonne walked up to him and handed him the drink. “Thanks, but I’m through for the night.”

“What? You aren’t even going to listen to the songs you just paid for?” The voice was high pitched for a man; a Peter Laurie voice.

“Doesn’t mean I’m going to drink while I listen.”

“Why don’t we both listen?”


 “So long as you know I’m going home alone.”

“Do you have a husband at home?”

“Maybe.” It was her turn to ask a question. “You just passing through?”

“Something like that. I have a renovation job. I’m a carpenter.”

“Tell me about it.”

“This big old spooky house. It used to be a boarding house, house of ill repute, something like that.”

“Almasy House? You have to be kidding.” She took the drink he had purchased for her. “Tell me about it.”

Before they said good night and went their separate ways, they exchanged names. “Walters. Lorretta Walters. Call me Walt.”

Vonnie realized her mistake.

“But you’re dressed like a man, and your hair is so short.”

“I’m a carpenter. They don’t hire many lady carpenters. If they think I’m Walt, I have a better chance of getting a job and keeping it.”

“Where are you staying?” Vonnie asked.

“My car. A hotel is pretty expensive.”

“Come out to my farm. I’ve got room.” “I thought you said you were going home alone.”

“I thought you might be hitting on me.”

“Who says I’m not hitting on you?”




Lisa walked through the Brandt house. It was small; she knew she wouldn’t get a mansion like the one the Rinaldis had lived in, but this house was dumpy. She wouldn’t even be able to keep a dog. It wasn’t fit for a dog house.

Dylan walked her through the house, showing her the bathroom, the utility room, the kitchen, the two bedrooms. He seemed proud of it. You would think he had built the house himself.

She thought it would be a nice house for Emil. After all it was Emil’s fault they couldn’t stay in the other house. Emil disgusted her.

“Fine,” she finally said. Then she could’t help herself. She had to add. “Anything to be away from that dirty old man.”

Dylan had his back to her. He was gazing into a closet. When she called his dad a dirty old man, he whipped around like he had been punched.

Mary rattled off the figures. She and Elsie sat at Emil’s kitchen table doing their once a month audit. The lawyer in Detroit who had set up a family trust had been told only that Emil had inherited some money and made more money by working in the mines and by investing. It was believable. After all, Emil had been one of the top mining engineers in the country.

“Are you listening, Pa?” Mary asked.

Emil was still stunned by Lisa’s accusations and his mind had wandered.

“Sure,” he pulled himself back to the present.

“What gives?” Mary asked. Elsie got up to pour a cup of coffee.

Emil sat silent. He didn’t want to talk about Lisa’s accusation.

“Dad, you have to tell us. Did something happen? Why are Dylan and Lisa moving out?”

Emil tried to change the subject. “What’s the name of that coin shop on Woodward in Detroit? You girls always do well there.”

The girls knew when he was being evasive.

“It has to do with Lisa, doesn’t it,” Mary said.

Elsie shook her head. “Dylan is such a great guy. How does he get mixed up with these losers? Elaine was bad enough.”

“Lisa is ill,” Emil cut his second oldest daughter off.

Elsie agreed. “She’s a mental case. Why did we ever let Dylan marry her?
 “Out with it, Pa.” Mary prodded. “What happened? What’s the trouble with Lisa?”

Emil wasn’t one to cry. He hadn’t cried when his wife died, but he thought about the night Lisa walked down the stairs in her slip and the accusations she made. He found his eyes wet with tears. He slowly told his daughters the story.

“You have to go back to your husband,” Vonnie told her sister. “You belong with Dylan.”

“I don’t love him. I don’t even like him.”

“You need him.”

They were sitting in Vonnie’s kitchen drinking green tea and eating snicker doodle cookies with lots of sugar and cinnamon. Vonnie had picked Lisa up early that day and driven her to the farm.

“We’ll get a divorce,” Lisa decided.

“It’s not that easy,” Vonnie insisted.

“He’s been divorced before.”

“Stop this nonsense. I’m going to drive you home. I don’t want to hear anymore about a divorce or leaving Dylan.”

“Why can’t I stay here? I stayed here before.”


 “Because, just because.” Vonnie said. She wasn’t ready to tell Lisa yet about Walt, the lady carpenter who now stayed at the farm with her.

When the phone rang, Vonnie found it a welcome interruption from Lisa’s childish whining. She reached for the phone. “Jack, great to hear from you.” Vonnie sighed. “One of us needs to talk some sense into Lisa.”

As Vonnie explained Lisa’s unhappiness, Lisa stuck out her tongue at her.

Vonnie smiled because it was such a childish gesture. Her little sister had missed some growing up.

“I’ll talk to her,” Jack promised. “First, I need to talk to you. Almasy House is being restored.”

“I know,” Vonnie said. “I met a carpenter working on the job.”

“The new owners are sparing no expense. The house should be ready in a couple of months.”

“Ready for what?”

“They’re turning it into a bed and breakfast.”

“Who would stay in that spooky old thing?” Vonnie sat down remembering the night when she and her siblings had been taken to Almasy House. She remembered the stern old lady and the room where she and Jack and Lisa had been locked. Memories of Almasy House brought her back to a sad time.

“They’re looking for someone to manage the house. I suggested you.” Jack said.

“What? Who? Who bought the house?”

“It’s s secret,” Jack said.

“I don’t like secrets. Why would they want to hire me?”

“Lucinda and I both put in a good word for you.”

“And I don’t even get to know who I’m working for?”

“The new owners prefer to remain anonymous.”


 “Well I want to know who they are. Jack, it’s not the mob? is it?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“No one wants to open those old tunnels, do they?”

“No. Vonnie, the house will be practically new. Talk to your carpenter friend. Restoring that old place is costing a lot of money.”

“But the mob isn’t who bought the house?”

“I give you my word.” he said.

Vonnie sat down heavily. “How much are they paying?”

Emil stared at his glass of wine; he swirled and purple liquid about. “I haven’t been inside those tunnels in twenty years,” he said after a moment.

“No one has.” said Jack Brianka.

Jack trusted the older man not to say anything about the visit. As an ex con, he was still bound by the terms of his parole. Of course, he visited his sisters, but no one knew about that. He settled into one of Emil’s oversized easy chairs. He felt comfortable in Emil’s house, and had gotten a warm welcome though Jack knew Lisa had been less than cooperative while living here. Lisa and Dylan had moved out of the house. But that had nothing to do with Jack’s business in Mountain Ridge or his visit to Emil.

He told Emil his client had bought Almasy House and was paying Jack to research any dangers within or underneath the house.

Emil said, “I personally made sure the tunnels that connected with the mines were closed.”

Jack looked confused. “Why connect bootlegging tunnels to the mining tunnels?

“Confusion. With those tunnels, the bootleggers could go to ground at any time. I’m sure they had escape routes.”

“Someone must have known their way around down there.”

Emil shrugged. “The tunnels are a maze. I don’t know if Rose kept maps or not, but I suspect she didn’t. It was easy to add new routes. She could hire different crews for each digging. Some tunnels led nowhere. They were just there to confuse anyone who came looking. Only a fool would explore those tunnels.”

“But you explored?”

“It was my job,” Emil admitted. “Mr. Rinaldi knew she must have been using some of his tunnels. He didn’t like it. Catching her was something else. If we found one of her tunnels, she’s say it was an old mining tunnel. Dozens of tunnels crisscrossed each other under the town. She didn’t have to admit any of them belonged to her.”

“What exactly, did you do?”


 “I knew Mr. Rinaldi’s tunnels and those of the other mine owners. We had maps.”

“Where are those maps now?”

“I don’t rightly know. They’re property of the mines and now that the mines are closed, I just don’t know what happened to the maps.” Emil had his own copies, but he decided not to admit this. “You might ask Lucinda Rinaldi what happened to her dad’s copies”

“So you explored in just the mine tunnels?”

“I didn’t say that. I explored some of Roses’s tunnels. I had notes back then. It’s been a lot of years.”

“Jeff Hollander, you remember him. He used to be a priest in this area. He died about ten or twelve years back when he fell down some stairs at Almasy House.”

Emil snorted. He knew the priest. “What about him?”

“He said he came across the bodies of murdered women down there.” “There might be bones. Treasure hunters go in there or used to go in there.”

“So you don’t think there are bodies of murdered women down there. Maybe the work of a serial killer.”

“Anything’s possible. I just never came across any bodies. I understand the sheriff sent a deputy down to look, and he didn’t find anything.” He paused. “I do remember what looked like manmade tunnel collapsed in one of Rose’s tunnels right after the priest came out with his crazy story. I didn’t think it was worth exploring what might be back there. Too dangerous. And it would be the law’s job, not mine.”

“What about treasure?” Jack asked.

“That’s the thing we want to discourage. There ain’t any treasure down there and anyone going down looking is liable to get lost and die down there.” Emil was sure he himself had taken the whole stash. There were no other stashes. He had looked. He wasn’t sure who the jewelry and old coins he had taken out would belong to, but as far as he was concerned, they were his now. He wondered if he should go back down for one last look. No, he had explored the area close to the house. That’s where Rose kept her treasure.

“Thank you for your time,“ Jack said as he gathered his brief case and prepared to leave. “Please don’t tell anyone I was here.”

“Don’t worry,” Emil said. But now he had a question. “About your sister?”

“Thank you so much for buying Lisa and Dylan that house down the way. I saw it, and it’s a great house.”

“I would have liked for them to stay here, but Lisa… Well, we didn’t get along. I’m sorry for any misunderstanding.”

Jack didn’t know the details, but he knew Lisa well enough to know that if there had been a misunderstanding, it was probably her doing. He wasn’t sure what to say and settled for, “She’s had a rough time.”

Vonnie stood on the sidewalk outside Almasy House. Painters applied fresh coats of paint; ladders rested against the side of the house. Carpenters rushed here and there. Two men carried a white washed board across the lawn. The windows were clean and unbroken. A gardener trimmed the bushes. The house was clearly getting a new look.

Perhaps the old ghosts could be chased away, and the house contain a new energy. She smiled at the thought but wasn’t sure if she believed it.

Did the new owners have an office in town? Who were these new owners?

She was unprepared for who opened the door. “Jack! What are you doing in town? Why didn’t you tell me? You could be staying at the farm.”


 “I heard you had a roommate,“ he winked at her. “I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“There’s plenty of space. And what do you know about my roommate?”

“To mind my own business and to be happy you’ve found someone.”

How much did she want to tell Jack or anyone else about Walt. There were many who would not understand the relationship, and Vonnie sure didn’t want Walt to lose her job. She must remember that if she spoke about Walt she would use the masculine pronoun.

Walt needed people to think she was a he.

“I’m here for a job interview,” Vonnie said. “Do I meet my employer?”

“You already have the job. No need for an interview. I’m just here to make sure you accept the offer.”

“What is the offer?”

“You manage Almasy House, a bed and breakfast, restaurant and bar. It’ll be the most elegant hotel in Upper Michigan, and the rival of anything in Michigan or Wisconsin. You make all hiring and firing decisions and have complete autonomy.”

“I know nothing about managing any of those things. Hotel. Restaurant. Bar.

“You’ll learn. The owners will send you to training at Northern Michigan University. Tuition, books, room and board all paid for. It’s a one-year program. When you graduate the house will be waiting for you.”

“That’s generous. Why me?”


 “I recommended you. So did Lucinda.”

“How is Lucinda? And the girls. I miss them all so much.”

“They just got back from an around the world cruise. Luxury liners are the thing now.”

“I wish you two hadn’t broken up. I could see her now and then.”

He shrugged. “We’re still friends. The break up was her idea. So what do you say?”

“What’s the salary?”

He handed her a sheet of paper with numbers written in.

“That’s more than I ever made in five years before.”

“You were a maid then; now you get to supervise maids.”

“It says here plus perks. What are those perks?”

“Free health care, and a room here in the mansion. There’s a company vehicle, that you get to drive, so you won’t need your own car.”

“I don’t need a room of my own here.”

“You get an office and a suite of rooms attached to it. You’ll be keeping some late hours, so why not have a bedroom and kitchenette here? Of course, you can always order room service, and as the boss, you get it free.”

“I want to know who I’m working for?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Jack.”

“You’d be a fool to turn this down, Vonnie. Take the offer. You can quit anytime.”

“Who owned the house before these new owners took over?” she asked.

“The city had to take it over for back taxes. You know what happened to Jeff Hollander?”

“He supposedly fell down the stairs.” She didn’t want to get into town gossip that maybe Hollander had been pushed to his death by his girlfriend, Elaine Dabb. People said he had been willing to leave the priesthood, but not to marry Elaine.

“Do you think the house’s history will affect its success. Louis Almasy committed suicide here. Jeff Hollander died violently here.” She paused. “A lot of people think Hollander was murdered. That kind of thing can spook some people away. They may not even want to eat or drink here.”

“We’ll see.”

Walt in her man’s work clothes, shirt and tool belt walked Vonnie to the door. “So that’s your brother. He’s nice.”

“Don’t go getting a crush on him,“ Vonnie teased. “He’s not your type.”

When they got outside the house, Vonnie asked, “Who are these mysterious owners?”

“I don’t know. I get my checks every week, and that’s all I care about.”

“We don’t get to know who we’re working for? That’s kind of spooky isn’t it?”

“What are they offering you?”

She handed Walt the envelope with her salary written down.

Walt whistled. “Several times what I make,” Walt said.

“There’s a whole bunch of perks. I don’t think I can refuse.”

“I’ve already got orders to fix up any set of rooms you want, and do it to your specifications.”

“You didn’t tell me.”

Walt didn’t answer.

“We’ve been so good for each other out at the farm,” Vonnie said.

“Does that mean we can’t live together anymore?”

Vonnie laughed. “Giving you up would be the deal breaker. You’re staying with me.”

“Then you aren’t taking the job?”

“It says here that I make all hiring and firing decisions. I’ll need a handyman. In this case a handy woman. I hope you want the job.”

Walt grinned. She liked the idea of staying at Almasy House with the new manager.

They heard hammers and the shuffling of workmen. They looked back at the brighter colors, and imagined the house full of new furniture. They could see inside some of the first floor rooms because the windows were bigger than they had been. It sure didn’t look as dark and forbidding as Vonnie remembered it.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Chapter Eighteen

Lisa screamed. Vonnie reached for the phone; the line was dead. “Someone must have cut the lines,” she lowered the dead phone.

Lisa whirled toward the window as another hooded figure carrying a flashlight rushed by. Lucinda put her arm around Lisa and tried to quiet her, but Lisa screamed and punched Lucinda.

“No,” Vonnie rushed to help Lucinda quiet the frightened girl.

Another rock sailed through a window.

A gruff voice came from outside. “You, Niggers, get out of there.”

“No,” Lisa cried. “They’’ll hang us if we go outside.”

“Honey, no. Just be quiet. They’ll go away.” Lucinda smoothed Lisa’s hair.

Lisa tried to push her away.

“Hush,” Vonnie told her.

Lisa whimpered and settled to the floor with the other two women holding her between them.

Moments passed. Quiet. “Maybe they went away,” Lucinda whispered.

They all heard a loud crash as a bottle with a lit rag sailed through the window nearest them. It landed at their feet.

Lucinda and Vonnie each grabbed a rug and began slapping at the flames. Lisa cowered, too scared to move. More bottles crashed through the windows.

The three women ran almost blindly to the door. It was the only place to go. They ran into the street. Their clothing was light and hardly thick enough to protect them from the cold night air. Their feet bare. They ran past hooded Klansmen who ignored them but tossed more bottles half filled with amber liquid and stuffed with rags that they had set afire.

Explosions shook the night air. The women huddled at the far side of the street.

“Lucinda, your beautiful house.” Vonnie didn’t know if she said it out loud or not. She thought of all the beautiful treasures still inside that house. Lucinda had pre packed only few things and sent them south.

The women hovered in the shadows behind the line of white sheeted men. They didn’t know what else to do. Where could they go? Lucinda’s and Vonnie’s cars were in the driveway close to the house. One of them was already burning.

Lisa stopped trembling. Then she turned to Lucinda and began pummeling her with her fists. “You brought this on us. You brought this on us.” she screamed.

Vonnie tried to pull her away. “No,” Lisa screamed. “She’s a Negro. We have to protect ourselves. She turned. She wanted to run away, but Leo Olson was there. He caught her by her wrists and held her despite her screams and kicks. “What have we got here?” he asked. “A wild animal.” He pushed her toward a deputy and ordered him to cuff her.

Lisa spent the night in jail. The charge was disturbing the peace. Leo insisted that her screams and disorderly conduct kept him from catching the hooded figures. Most townspeople knew he had probably been one of the hooded figures himself.

Lucinda called an attorney; the Mynters bailed Lisa out.

“What a disgrace,” Mary said when she got into the car with her husband Urban. “She’ll be Dylan’s wife later today.”

Urban had been amused by the story. “Give her a little credit,” he said. “She was attacked. If a bunch of hoodlums start throwing homemade bombs at me, I’m liable to start screaming myself.”

Mary smiled at her husband who had fought in Italy during the war. She knew he had seen some terrible fighting. But this was different. “Those men weren’t going to hurt her.” Mary insisted.

“We don’t know that. Lisa didn’t know that. And they burned the Rinaldi house to the ground. I don’t blame her for screaming.” Urban backed out of the highway.

“Leo should have been more interested in catching the Klansmen.”

Urban nodded agreement. “He says the house burned down when a candle overturned, and the three women were drunk.”

“Well I don’t know what happened there last night,” Mary said to herself as much as to her husband. “I don’t hold with prejudice. You know that. The Rinaldis have done more to help this town than anyone. Any time the historical society needs money, Lucinda writes a check. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Lisa Brianka gave the sheriff reason to arrest her.

Urban smiled. “Let’s go welcome the little jailbird to the family.”

Lucinda spent the night at Vonnie’s farmhouse. The two women sat together sipping coffee.

“I wish you’d change your mind and come to the wedding.”

“I’m leaving town today. Even if…if what happened last night hadn’t happened, I’m leaving.”

“I’m so sorry for the things Lisa said,” Vonnie was near tears.

“She was scared.”

“That doesn’t mean she can scream out anything she wants.”

“That poor child has been through so much. We can’t blame her for…well, anything.”

“She does the strangest things. I sometimes just don’t know. And how will Dylan cope with her. Jack and I can barely do it.” Vonnie took a few deep breaths and stared out the window. “And after last night, and your pretty house…”

“The house is nothing. I don’t know if I could have sold it. Leo might be doing me a favor by writing this off as an accident. Now I get insurance money.”

“Accident? Leo will never get my vote for sheriff. Lisa says she saw him leading the Klan the night our mother died.”

“You know she could have imagined that. She was only five years old.”

“She saw something awful, and I don’t think she makes it up.”

The two women watched the sunrise, and spoke only sparingly.

“At least I won’t have any luggage to cart with me.”

“I have so many of those beautiful dresses you gave me, Lucinda. And no place to wear them. Please take some of them back.”

“I want to go shopping tomorrow. I’ll get everything new. A new life and new clothes. And a new house.”

“You mean Jack’s house?”

“I have my own house in Detroit. I don’t know if I want Jack to take on the two babies. He would, but I won’t ask him.” She sipped coffee from an old cracked cup that Ezekiel had in the house before he married Vonnie. “I broke up with Jack.”

“They don’t look happy,” Mary whispered to Elsie.

“They’re nervous,” Elsie whispered back.

“And that awful green dress,” Alice said. “Where did she get that dress?”

“Shh,” Mary hushed her.

Lillian, Abe’s wife leaned over and whispered. “I offered to make her a nice white dress.”

“She likes the green one.”

“I understand she got it from Lucinda Rinaldi. I mean Mrs. Davies.”

“Mrs. Davies could carry off a dress like that. It just doesn’t work on Lisa. It looks like someone put a fancy dress on a corn cob doll.”

Lisa overheard the Mynter’s conversation, but decided to ignore it. She hated Dylan’s family. Let’s get this wedding over, she thought.

She didn’t want to marry Dylan, but she had no other options. She had no money and now no job; Vonnie was furious with her. She no job now that Lucinda was moving away. She had no money. She couldn’t go to Los Angeles to meet and marry Jon Hall. People thought Dylan was too good for her. She heard lots of whispers. Despite their kindness, the Mynters didn’t like her. They didn’t want Dylan marrying her.

Dylan’s first wife had been that awful Elaine who had worked at the Rinaldi House for awhile. Lisa knew what happened between Dylan and his first wife. Elaine had brought a man home from some tavern. Dylan had caught them in bed together. Elaine was evil.

She had spied and stolen documents from the Rinaldi house, and she had sold the Rinaldi family’s secret.

Elaine was despicable. But Elaine had style. Surely the Mynters didn’t want Elaine back in the family. They didn’t want Lisa in the family either.

Lisa clutched a fist full of wild flowers that one of the Mynters had collected from some vacant lot. She sat in the back of the hall and waited for Dylan.

Dylan smoked a last cigarette before his wedding. From time to time, his dad or one or more of his brothers would come out and chat briefly. Of course, they wondered what was taking him so long.

“Just enjoying the day,” he said.

“You nervous?”

“No.”

Emil put a hand on his son’s shoulder. “You can still call this thing off.”

Dylan shook his head no. “That would embarrass Lisa.”

“It might be better than spending the rest of your life with her.”

“I gotta move on with my life,” Dylan said. “Lisa’s a good person.”

“She’s mentality ill,” Emil said. “Are you sure you want to take that on?”

Dylan nodded, tossed the rest of his cigarette aside and turned to walk inside. He had promised to marry this odd, fragile girl, and that is what he would do.

Penny 1970

Mary Mynter Smith sat across from me in the Almasy House restaurant. “We knew Dylan’s marriage was going to be a disaster. We just didn’t know how to stop it. It was like watching an accident happen in slow motion.”

“Was it really all Lisa’s fault?” I asked.

“You know how crazy she is.”

“She needed someone,” I said. “She always needed someone.”

“She’s your problem now,” Mrs. Smith said. True.

1946

It didn’t take Lisa long to move into Emil’s house with Dylan. She had few possessions.

“When are we going to have a house of our own?” she asked.

“This is it,“ Dylan smiled. He was happy he could provide his bride with one of the nicest houses in town “ It’s not a mansion like the Rinaldi’s house was,” he explained. “But it is large. My dad raised ten kids in this house.”

“I was hoping we could move into something smaller. I’m tired of cleaning big houses.”

“Pa and I are pretty neat,” Dylan said. “And Mary comes in from time to time to tidy things up. She doesn’t mind helping us out.”

“I don’t want your sister doing my housework,“ Lisa said.

“Pa and I will keep up our half. Like I said, we’re neat.”

“Does your dad have to live here?”

“Lisa, it’s his house.”

“We should have a house of our own.”

“I can’t afford a house right now. And this house is wonderful. I grew up here.”

“I thought you said you bought this house.”

“I paid my dad a dollar, and he put my name on the lease. It was with the understanding he would live here with us.”

“Maybe your pa could get an apartment.”

“Lisa, this is his house. He owns it.”

“You paid him for it.”

“That dollar was a formality. I can’t ask him to leave.”

“Why not?”

“He’s my dad.”

“I don’t like him.”

Dylan worked nights to earn more money. He knew his dad would help him out, but he thought it was generous of Emil to sign the house over to him; Emil didn’t have to to do that.

Emil had bought the other kids their homes, but it had caused gossip. Where was Emil getting all this money? Anyway Lisa was so fragile; Dylan and his family all felt it would be better if she had Emil now retired to keep an eye on her while Dylan worked.

When Emil made ham and cheese sandwiches with extra mustard and potato salad, Lisa refused to help clean up the kitchen.

“I’m not cleaning up after the old man,“ she told Dylan.

So Dylan helped his pa with the clean up. Mary came over in the evenings and she did some of the cleaning too.

“Where’s that wife of yours?” she asked.

“She’s resting.”

Mary snapped a dish towel. “She doesn’t mind eating Pa’s cooking. Mine either. She just doesn’t like cleaning up.”

“She’s actually a good housekeeper,” Emil stood up for his daughter-in-law. “She has some of these downstairs rooms spic and span.”

“Doing a dish every once in awhile wouldn’t kill her,” Mary said. “The kitchen is where the real clean up work begins.”


 Emil wore an apron. “I want to do more cooking now that I’m retired. You know I make a mean meat loaf. And my mashed potatoes are next to none.”

“That doesn’t mean she can’t help in the kitchen especially doing the clean up.”

“Leave it be,“ Emil warned his daughter.

When college let out for the summer Bill and Ken, Dylan’s younger brothers had jobs at the Ford plant waiting for them. Dylan had arranged the jobs. The problem was they needed a place to stay.

“They’ll stay here, of course.” Dylan said. “It’s their home.”

“And I’m not sending them away,” Emil agreed. “What does your wife say about them staying here?”

“She doesn’t like it.” Dylan confessed. “She thought once they went to college, they would be on their own, and that when we moved in here it would be our house.”

Emil had considered confiding in Dylan about his fortune. But he had hesitated. Mary and Elsie and their spouses knew, but his other children thought he saved and invested. They had no idea how much money Emil had.

“I’ll buy you and Lisa a home,“ he said.

“Pa, I want to stay here. You need someone to take care of you.”

“I can do pretty well on my own.”

“Who’s going to do your housework?”

“Me. Look Dylan, I paid for each of your brothers to go to college, Tuition, room and board. I paid for all the weddings. You and Lisa were the only ones who didn’t have big wedding.”

“Pa, you’ve been too generous. You need to save some money for old age. I haven’t finished paying you back for the house…” He couldn’t finish the sentence. It was the house he had given Elaine in the divorce settlement. It was the price of being rid of her, but he hadn’t really wanted to be rid of her.

“I have enough for my old age. Now the Brandt house is for sale. I’ll buy it. It’s just down the street.”

Dylan told Lisa his dad was buying the Brandt house for them.

“It’s small; it’s dinky. I want to stay here.”

“This is pa’s house.”

“You paid him that dollar. He put your name on the deed. It’s our house now.”

“He wants to live out his remaining years here.”

“He can’t have that long. Dylan he’s what seventy-something.”

“He’s my dad,“ Dylan often felt anger boil up in him when Lisa made cruel remarks. He tried to be patient with her, but now she was talking about waiting for his father to die. “You didn’t mean that. Not the way it sounded.”

Lisa turned away. She pouted.

“What about Ken and Bill?” Dylan asked.

“Do I have a choice? They’re coming.”

“Would you help Pa get a couple extra bedrooms ready?”

“I guess I’m still a maid,”

Ken and Bill didn’t stay with Dylan and Emil. They rented an apartment with some college friends.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Dylan told them.

“We’re okay. We can drink all the beer we want and party until dawn. Pa would never let us do that.”

Dylan left at 10:30 for the midnight shift. Lisa left a night light on in the hall and Emil let her do this. He knew she feared the dark.

He enjoyed staying up late with a book. The latest John Byrne book had arrived from his book club, and he was half way through it. Byrnes’ Detroit private detective was as hard-boiled as any tough guy character.

Emil liked the twists and turns of Byrnes novels. As he read, the main detective character stalked a killer and the killer stalked the detective. In his imagination, he followed the detective into a dark house where the stairs creaked and shadows lingered.

Creak. The noise jolted Emil from his novel. He was often nervous at night because of the fortune in old coins and jewelry he still had locked in a room downstairs. Town gossips whispered that Emil was wealthy, so he suspected he would make a great target for a robber.

Creak. The noise came again.

Emil quietly got up and reached into his desk for his revolver.

The house was dark except for his study and the hall light upstairs. Lisa kept a second light on in the bedroom. Those lights should alert any intruder that someone was awake in the house.

Creak. The noise came from the up stairs. Someone was descending. Emil slipped out of his study and aimed the gun at the top of the stairs.

Creak.

Emil tensed with the gun in his fist. Who was up there? What did they want?

A shadow fell on the stairwell, and slowly made its way down one stair at a time.

Lisa slowly descended. She wore only a short thin slip. Her bare legs revealed most of the thigh and the nudity underneath.

She walked down the steps like a Las Vegas show girl. Her head held high like it balanced a crown. Emil let the hand that held the gun fall to his side. He breathed a sigh of relief.

That small sigh awakened Lisa. She saw him standing below her where she imagined he could look up her slip.

A look of pure hatred came over Lisa’s features.

“You filthy old man,” she spit the words out and hurried back up the stairs to her bedroom. Emil heard the lock on her bedroom door slide into place.

He poured himself a scotch and sat at his desk. What should he tell Dylan? Emil had not slept nor had he read anymore that night. He made himself a pot of coffee, and then he ignored the coffee and poured himself some more scotch.

Dylan was not surprised to see his dad waiting for him. Emil often made breakfast for his son and his wife.

“The coffee’s cold,” Emil said, “But I’ll make some more.”

“Pa, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Sit down, son. There is something I have to tell you.”

“Is Lisa all right?”

“I don’t think so.”

When Dylan walked upstairs, he found the bedroom door locked. “Lisa open up,” he called.

He waited and called her name again. Finally he heard her footsteps, and he heard the key turning in the lock. He waited a heartbeat and then opened the door. His wife wore a plain green checkered house dress from the Sears catalog.

“What happened? Pa says you had some kind of a nightmare.”

“It wasn’t a nightmare,” she said with anger.

“What happened?” he repeated.

“I don’t know. I think he drugged me.

“What? Who drugged you?”

“Your dad. He must have put something in my food last night.”

“Lisa, do you know how ridiculous that sounds?”

“I came awake on the stairs. I was wearing my slip. That’s all. Just my slip and he was staring up at me.”

“You’ve walked in your sleep before.”

“Not anymore. It’s been a long time.”

“Lisa, my dad would never do anything to hurt you.”

“That filthy old man was staring up my slip.”

“He heard you on the stairs. He thought you might be a burglar ”

“I’ll kill him if he does that again.”

Dylan wanted to slap her. Instead, he said. “We’ll move.”


 “Make him move. He’s the problem,”

“I am not kicking him out of his house. I’ll see if I can swing buying the Brandt house myself.”

“I don’t want to live there.” She folded her arms and sat down on the bed.

“We don’t have a lot of choices,” Dylan told her.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Chapter Seventeen:

Vonnie hemmed Lisa’s wedding dress. Lisa had admired the green silk gown in Lucinda’s closet and Lucinda had given Lisa the dress. Silver sequins shimmered on the bodice. Maybe Lisa should have worn a white dress for her wedding. Vonnie had offered to buy her a dress, but Lisa wanted to wear this one.

Lucinda was several inches taller than Lisa, so the green dress had to be carefully hemmed.

“Affair in Washington,” Lisa repeated the phrase. Then she giggled, “That’s where Miss. Lucinda wore this dress. To an affair in Washington. Not to be confused with the other kind of affair.”

“It certainly wasn’t that kind of an affair. Watch what you say, Silly.

“My name isn’t Silly.””

“Don’t even mention that “‘affair’ word in this house,” Vonnie warned her.

“You mean because Jack is seeing Lucinda?”

“Just button your lip.

“And he is not supposed to.” Lisa savored a secret. She would not even tell Dylan.

“I said, Button your lip,” Vonnie repeated. “It wasn’t that kind of an affair. Lucinda wore this dress to a party.”

“I know. I’m just having fun.”

Vonnie had almost finished the stitching when she noticed a few beads loose.

“I’m going to take this home with me and finish it there,” Vonnie said.

The doorbell rang.

Lucinda had told the sisters she would answer the door that day because they were busy with the dress. She swung the door open, and to her surprise over a dozen reporters stood there. “Comment on the Washington Times article,” one of them asked her. A microphone swung over, and it almost hit her in the face. Flashbulbs popped.

Lucinda’s smile disappeared. “What?”

“The Times claims you’re a Negro.”

She slammed the door. A moment later when Vonnie and Lisa hurried into the room, they found Lucinda on the floor trembling.

Lisa made Lucinda some camomile tea while Vonnie called Jack?

Enrico hurried into the room. His secretary had just called with the news of the Times article. He glanced at Vonnie. “Who is she calling?” He asked Lucinda.

“A friend,” Lucinda answered. This was not the time to get into an argument with her dad about her friendship with Jack Brianka. “He should be in his office now. I’m calling the Penobscot,“ Vonnie reported.

Enrico looked confused. “You’re calling Jack Brianka?”

“Who else is going to help us now?” Lucinda asked.

Vonnie was on hold, “He sent someone down to get a copy of the Times,“ she reported.

Lisa brought in the tea. “Should I stay?” she asked.

“Yes,” Lucinda said, but please bring in a few more cups, so you and Vonnie and dad can have tea with me.”

“There’s cookies in the kitchen,“ Lisa said as she hurried away. I made some lemon cookies.”

“Yes,” Vonnie said as Jack came back on the phone. She told her companions, “He has the paper; he’s looking through it.” Then back to Jack, “Yes.” She listened for awhile. She blinked away the tears. Then. “I want you to read the article to Mr. Rinaldi. He’s here.” Vonnie handed the phone to Mr. Rinaldi.

“Good afternoon, sir,” Jack said when his former employer came on the line.

“Just read the article,” Enrico ordered. Jack read the headline:

“The Negress Who Could Have Been First Lady”

The article continued:

When handsome Bradley Davies brought his young bride to

Washington in 1936, many political pundits thought this was a

couple headed for the White House. The Republican Senator

and the heiress Lucinda Rinaldi Davies had everything; money,

intelligence, beauty and ambition.

Her father owned one of the largest mining empires in America,

and had financed Davies’ senatorial campaigns. She attended all

the Washington parties where her beauty was legendary. The most

powerful men in the country paid attention to Lucinda Rinaldi Davies.

She possessed a dark haired beauty that many people believed was

part of an Italian heritage.

But recently documents surfaced revealing that the Rinaldi family

is really the Reynolds family, freed blacks who wandered west after

the Civil War and struck it rich at a silver mine in Nevada. The family

name changed, so they could pass as Italians. They purchased other

properties and made a second fortune in iron ore.

According to Elaine Dabb Mynter, a former maid in the Rinaldi

household, Senator Davies had been unaware of his wife’s race

at the time that he married the beautiful heiress. As soon as he

found out, he quickly divorced her.

After Jack stopped reading: he promised he would look further into the source of the newspaper article and get back to Vonnie.

“What’s to look into?” Enrico shouted. “Elaine Mynter is the source.”

“She had to have proof. Otherwise the papers would not have published…”

“Thank you,” Enrico said and handed the phone back to Vonnie.

Lucinda stared looked into the pea-green liquid of her teacup like someone reading the leaves. “How could Elaine have known?”

Enrico sighed, ”She was a snoop. I caught her going through my papers a couple of times.”

“But the kind of papers that would give away our race…” Lucinda said.

“They were in the safe and a couple of times, I left the door open.”

“Father, how could you? We can trust Vonnie and Lisa, but you knew Elaine was after your money. You knew her reputation.”

“And you hired her, Lucinda.” When he raised his voice at Lucinda, he startled all three of the women. They had never heard him raise his voice to his daughter before. They had never seen him this angry.

“I’m sorry, father. With the two girls and this big house, we needed help. I just didn’t see that she could do any harm.”

“Why should it matter?” Lisa asked.

Vonnie patted her on the arm. “It does. It just does.”

“It shouldn’t matter,” Lisa insisted. She bit her lip. She didn’t want the others to see her fear. Would it help Lucinda? She doubted it.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” Lucinda said.

“Well, it should,” her father barked at her. “Whitney will never marry you now.”

“I don’t want to marry Whitney. I didn’t want to marry Brad, and look what a disaster that turned out to be. Whitney might be different. I don’t know if he is racist or not, but I don’t love him.”

“Think about your daughters,” her father yelled at her.

“They’ll marry for love.”

“And what if either one of them loves a White man? Will he want her? Even Carol with her one hundred percent Anglo Saxon blood is tainted now.”

“Tainted? Father, is that is what you think of our race? It’s not what I think. Maybe I’m proud to be a Negro.”

“Proud that your great grandfather was a slave.”

“Better than being a slave owner,” Lisa almost whispered.

The others turned toward her, surprised that she had again spoken.

“Yes,” Lucinda said. She wanted to go over and hug her crazy maid.

“You can’t toss away your future.” Enrico said.

“Father, you probably suspected I’ve been seeing Jack Brianka in secret.”

“And in defiance of my wishes. You can still get a rich man, Lucinda. You’re beautiful. There are wealthy men who will gladly court you.”

“Father, Jack isn’t a poor man. I think you had him checked out.”

“Yes, when he refused my offer, $100,000 to never see you again. I didn’t see how he could refuse.”

“But he did. Father, he isn’t Mafia connected like some people say. He makes his money…”

“I know how he makes his money.” Enrico started to raise from the overstuffed green chair where he had been sitting. He got halfway to a sitting position and fell back down. His face turned purple; he struggled to catch his breath.

Lucinda screamed as she rushed to her father.

Vonnie jumped to her feet. “Hurry, Lisa, run and get Dr. Tracie.”

Lisa ran out the door, collided with a reporter who tried to grab her.

“What gives, little girl?”

“The White maids are deserting the Black ship,” someone laughed. Lisa collided with another reported reporter and fell to the sidewalk. Someone snapped her picture laying on the sidewalk. “Do you suppose the Niggers kicked her out?”

“What’s with the green dress, little girl?” Lisa was on her feet in seconds and running.

Vonnie didn’t realize her sister’s peril. She was busy cradling the phone. Where was the operator? There were so many calls trying to get through that she could not get an outside line.

Elaine had a new dress including shoes and a purse. Her lipstick was the same shade Katherine Hepburn wore in “Without Love.” Her story had sold for $5,000. Perhaps she could write a book, “I was a servant to a Nigger family.” She was sure it would sell millions.

She would be as popular as - well she could only think of a few fiction authors, John Byrnes, Agatha Christie, Zane Gray. Elaine was not much of a reader, but she had seen books by these authors around. The Rinaldis were readers as were those dreadful Brianka girls.

Whitney Cummings stayed at the hotel, and she knew exactly what time he came down for dinner. She tipped the waiter to seat her opposite him. She sipped an expensive wine and waited.

Dr. Tracie with Lisa right behind him had to push his way through a crowd of reporters. When he entered the house and hurried to the study, he found Vonnie weeping on the couch. Lucinda held her father in her arms, and she rocked him gently back and forth. She slowly eased him to the floor when she noticed the doctor.

Tracie checked for a pulse and listened for a heartbeat that was no longer there. “He’s dead,” the doctor said.

Lucinda already knew.

After Whitney Cummings was seated and had ordered his dinner, Elaine approached him.

“Mr. Cummings, I don’t think we have been introduced. I’m Elaine Mynter.”

“I know who you are, Mrs. Mynter.“

“It’s Miss Mynter. I’ve been divorced for several years now.”

“What can I do for you, Miss Mynter?”

“Perhaps I can join you for dinner.” She gave him her prettiest smile, and adjusted the fur wrap she wore.

“I’ll be dining alone. “ he said simply.

She had been a maid long enough to know she was being dismissed. Still she paused. There had to be way. “I thought you would want to thank me. You wouldn’t want to end up married to Lucinda Rinaldi. The tramp has a boyfriend…”

“Enough,” he said and motioned to a man at the bar who hurried over and gently took Elaine’s arm to led her away.

She sighed. There were other rich men.

A massive layoff followed the mine sale.

Rumor had it that the new owner would employ the miners in new jobs.

But the new owner disappeared. People speculated on what happened to him as they drank their coffee at the Yorkie cafe.

“He’s been dating that Lucinda Rinaldi.”

“He ain’t dating her no more.”

“He sure ain’t gonna marry a Nigger.”

“I saw him talking to that Dabb girl, Elaine. The one who was married to Emil Mynter’s son.”

“What do we do for jobs? Damn the Rinaldis.”

Whatever plans Whiney Cummings may have mentioned to the Rinaldis dissolved. Hundreds of unemployed miners applied for unemployment benefits in Mountain Ridge.

Whitney had been right about tourism. People took to the highways in record numbers; cars had more popularity than ever. But Michigan was not the usual destination. Popular highway routes missed Michigan and wound to the south.

Sure, Michigan had waterways and wild game, but other states offered more warmth and better recreational opportunities.

Cummings decided his investment was a loss. He could not continue to court that beautiful Lucinda Rinaldi, though he would have liked to. A successful white businessman could not have a Negro wife.

Chapin Pit would never have a fountain; Almasy House would not be restored.

Bitterness flared against the Rinaldis. Hate and fear ruled the city as it always did when jobs were lost.

The funeral of Enrico Rinaldi, the man who had once been the largest employer in town, was small.

Lucinda was there with her little daughters and her maids, Vonnie and Lisa; the Mynter clan came as did a strange man who pulled his cap low over his eyes, and wore what looked like a fake beard.

As usual Mary and Elsie cooked and baked and brought over as much food as their cars could carry. The Mynter sons served as pallbearers. Dylan felt honored to carry Enrico Rinaldi’s coffin, though he blinked tears from his eyes. He had liked Mr. Rinaldi.

Lucinda made plans to move to Detroit. She and Vonnie began closing down the house. Lisa’s pretty green dress was brought to the farm for more repairs.

Lisa wasn’t sure, she wanted to get married.

“Of course, you do, honey,” Vonnie told her. “Dylan will take care of you. You need someone to take care of you.”

“I guess,” Lisa said. “What’s going to happen to you?”

“I have a house, five acres is enough to put in a decent crop. Dennis will sell me a few chickens; there’s a barn for a cow or two.”

“You’re going to be a farmer,” Lisa paused. “On just five acres of land.”

“I have a widow’s pension.”

“You can’t move to Detroit with Lucinda?”

“She asked me, but Mountain Ridge is my home.”

“It’s her home too.”

“Not anymore,” Vonnie said.

Carol Ann and Starr were sent south after Enrico’s funeral. Lucinda had a friend in Detroit who would care for them until her home was ready. Not even Vonnie knew the name of that friend. A woman met Lucinda at the train station. The children cried and even screamed as they were pulled away from her. Lucinda promised to be with them soon.

Carol Ann had already lost one mother and a grandfather. Lucinda would not let her lose another one. “I’ll join you. Don’t worry. I just have to close the house.”

Vonnie opened the pantry door and sighed. “What are we going to do with all this food?”

“The Mynters brought so much to my father’s funeral. Do you think they’ll take some of it back?” Lucinda asked.

“Are you kidding. Mary and Elsie are preparing for Lisa’s wedding, and they aren’t using left overs. Dennis tells me they make regular trips to the farm.”

“Well, we have to do something with it. How about giving it to Lisa and Dylan.”

“They’re moving in with Emil. I don’t think he needs supplies. Not with his daughters cooking for him.” Vonnie sighed. “There’s a hobo camp up the road. We could get some of those men to come in and take the canned goods.”

“I don’t think hoboes use flour and baking soda.”

“But they’ll like soup. I’ll cook some things for them.”

Lucinda and Vonnie both wore black slacks and gray blouses. They were as slender as Lana Turner and Katherine Hepburn. Each had her hair tied back in bandana.”

“What about the furniture?” Vonnie asked.

“You take it.”

“I’ve got furniture.”

“Ancient furniture,” Lucinda said.

“I don’t think a velvet couch would look right in the old farmhouse.”

“Maybe you could have a sale,” Lucinda suggested.

“The farm will keep me busy enough. Where am I going to have time for a garage sale?”

“Maybe Lisa and Dylan will take some of it.”

“They’re living with his dad. At least for awhile.”

“Well, who says Emil can’t use some great furniture.”

The two women sat in silence for awhile. “I’ll make some tea,” Vonnie said.

When Vonnie went outside, she noticed that the house had been egged. Someone had tossed at least a dozen eggs at the front porch.

She walked around the side of the house. Someone had painted “NIGGER” there in bold red letters.

Lucinda followed her outside. “I thought the people in this town were my friends,” she said.

“We need to call the sheriff,” Vonnie said.

“Leo Olson?” Lucinda shook her head. “I hear he’s head of the local Klan.”

“He’s also the sheriff. We can’t let people get away with this.”

“They already have,” Lucinda said. “Come on. Let’s make lunch. We have lots of packing to do.”

“I want to clean this up,” Vonnie said.

“After we eat,” Lucinda gently tugged at her arm, and together the two women went inside.

The theater was a long single-story building. Hollywood movies came to town and played three, four, five or sometimes six evenings. The weekends had kiddie matinees starring the cowboy heroes like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.

Dylan walked Lisa over to the candy selection where she could choose her snack for during the film. Lisa always ordered the gum balls; Dylan ordered two popcorns, one for himself and one for Lisa, and two Coca Cola beverages.

Lisa saw every new picture show that came to town. Vonnie used to go with her more often. Of course, Dylan liked to take her to see the movies. But she preferred to go to the show alone. Not that she got to do so very often. Usually Dylan insisted on coming along. And both Dylan and Vonnie made a fuss if she went out alone.

A killer stalked women in the Upper Peninsula. Everyone knew that from time to time bodies showed up, and there were probably more bodies that had never been found. At least that’s what some people speculated. Dylan always warned her about going anyplace alone at night or even during the day.

They watched “Men in Her Diary” with Jon Hall and Peggie Ryan.

Lisa loved Jon Hall. She supposed some people would call it a crush. She wanted to go to Hollywood and meet him. She wanted him to fall in love with her.

Lisa didn’t love Dylan, and she didn’t want to marry him, but no one else had ever courted her. No one else had ever asked her. Was it because they believed she was crazy?

Would she keep going to movies after she got married? Would she always have to bring Dylan along? Lisa nibbled on her gum balls as the newsreel showed President Truman talking to workers in Florida.

How could she get out of this marriage?

The wedding would be small. Just family would attend. Mostly his family. Jack couldn’t attend. He had sent a nice gift of a thousand dollars.

Dylan accepted this gift. She was afraid the rest of his family would want him to refuse. Some of them, she was sure, believed Jack was a Mafia killer.

They would be living with Emil. Dylan said he purchased Emil’s house, but that Emil would stay there. Lisa didn’t want to live with the old man. He was scary like Mr. Rinaldi. People who were too smart, too pretty or too rich scared her. They were more like employers, than friends or family. She had told Dylan she didn’t want to live with Emil, but Dylan had said what a great house it was.

Dylan’s youngest brothers Ken and Bill had moved out. They were both in college now and soon they would be getting married and having families of their own. Emil had that big house, and it just made sense to everyone else that she and Dylan would move in there.

Lisa wanted to go to Hollywood instead and marry Jon Hall. She sighed when the actor came on the screen.

Penny 1970

When I walked past the museum, Mary Mynter Smith was putting her coat on.

“Penny, we miss you. We could really use the extra help.”

“Thanks.” I was ready to get away from Lisa and her problems, but I just couldn’t walk away. Mrs. Mynter and I walked toward the foyer. “Did you guys know how Jack Brianka got to be such a rich man? I mean back then when Dylan married Lisa,” I asked.

“We knew very little truth about the Briankas. We still don’t know much about them..”

“What do you want to know?” I asked.
 “You’d tell me? Penny, I know you’re friends with them.”

“No,” I corrected her. “I’m just the hired hand.”

“You’re more than that. You know it.”

I nodded. Explaining why I hung around would be difficult. I wasn’t sure myself.

“But you knew Jack wasn’t mobbed up.” “We had, of course, heard that rumor. What else could we think? He was wealthy, and he didn’t work. I suppose some people suspected his wealth had something to do with Lucinda Rinaldi.”

“But it didn’t.” I reminded her. “Sure they were…” I paused unsure how to phrase that relationship. “more than friends, but she wasn’t supporting him.”

“Even his sisters didn’t know how he made his living.”

“They knew,” I said. “He told Lisa when she was visiting him down state, and Vonnie probably knew before that.” I smiled though I wasn’t sure what the joke was. “It was a family secret.”

1946

On Lucinda’s last night in Mountain Ridge, she and Vonnie popped popcorn. Then they sat on a velvet couch in the living room. Blue shadows fell around them, so they looked like actresses on a black and white movie screen. Each woman held a steaming cup of tea. The steam rose about them giving the room an unreal quality.

“The dresses I don’t bring with me, I want you to have,” Lucinda said.

“Where would I wear fancy dresses?”

“Throw some parties out at the farm.”

“Sure, just me and the cows.”

“I understand Dennis Cheney is marrying that pretty Indian girl.”

“Dancing Bear? Dr. Tracie offered to take her into his practice. She’s an M.D. you know.” Vonnie liked the idea of an educated woman. She wished she could have gone on to college. Jack was doing okay as a consultant, despite not having graduated from college, but it would probably be harder for her, a woman with just housekeeping experience behind her, to find a professional-level job. Lucinda was talking about Danni.

“I remember getting herbs from her when she was a teenager. She sold some herbal medicine. And they worked.” Lucinda stared at her cup for awhile “She was wonderful when she helped Dr. Tracie deliver Starr.”

“She graduated at the head of her class.” Vonnie stroked the sides of her china cup. “But people probably won’t go to her,” She sipped her tea.

“Dr. Tracie’ son will be coming to town to practice. We might have three doctors. But then Old Dr. Tracie is probably anxious to retire. And Danni won’t be able to practice.”

Lucinda nodded. Both women knew how unfair racism could be. They were silent for a few minutes, as if breathing in the pain of their thoughts.

The subject had to be changed.

Lucinda said, “And Lisa is marrying a Mynter. How many of the Mynters are there?”

“Ten I think. Seven boys and three girls. I don’t know how many grandchildren Emil has. Lisa can stay busy learning all their names. Old Emil must really be getting up in age.”

“He’s been retired for a few years. My father really missed him when he left,” Lucinda said. Silence lay between the women for awhile. Then Lucinda said. “You need to keep an eye on her, Vonnie. She’s fragile..”

Vonnie knew Lucinda was talking about her sister. “She’s moving into Emil Mynter’s big house.”

They drank more camomile tea and hoped it would make them less sad. They heard the front door open and close as Lisa came back from the movies.

“Where’s Dylan?” Lucinda asked. “You should have invited him in.”

Lisa shrugged. She didn’t want Dylan in her life anymore than he needed to be. She had told him she had a headache. Really she wanted to daydream about Jon Hall for awhile. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Come, join us,” Vonnie said.

Lucinda put her tea cup aside and got up off the sofa. She opened a bottle of wine. “We have to celebrate,“ she said.

“I am going to miss you too much to celebrate your leaving,” Vonnie said. Still she went over to the liquor cabinet and took out three glasses.

“We’ll celebrate Lisa’s wedding,” Lucinda said. “Dylan’s a great guy. I would marry him myself.”

“Why don’t you?” Lisa asked innocently. Then she was embarrassed. No one knew that she didn’t really want to marry Dylan. It sounded like she was insulting Lucinda because the dark girl had just lost a suitor probably due to her race. Would Vonnie and Lucinda be angry at her? Soon the three women were on their second and third glasses of wine.

They sipped, giggled and talked. Lucinda took off her shoes and the sisters after a moment did the same.

They were quietly talking when the first rock came through the window.

A hooded figure rose out of the darkness outside.