The Schooner Bay Home for Invalid and Indigent Seamen
"Fires"
Chapter 5: Fire in the House
The summer continued on pleasantly. Peter kept Charlie gently exercising and pretty soon had him climbing stairs and walking through the sand of the beach. Dr. Everly was very happy with his progress and pleased with Peter's initiative in devising such a beneficial training program. When the calendar turned to August, Charlie and Peter were allowed to return to their bedroom upstairs in Gull Cottage and (much to the benefit of Nate's sleep), Amy and Red re-occupied Wren Cottage.
After eventually hearing Nate's reports of the young couple's nighttime activities, Mrs. Muir sat down with Amy. Before their marriage, both she and Red had had many discussions about family planning not only with the Home's Matron, but with Agnes Whitman, and Martha as well as Nate and Sock having "men's talk" discussions with Red. Carolyn repeated those talks again, reminding the younger woman that it had been agreed that she and Red would do their best to not have any children. Not only had the Home's Board of Trustees been very clear that this would change the whole character of the Schooner Bay Home for Invalid and Indigent Seamen, but there had been sincere concern both about the couple's ability to care for a child and the potential for that child to also have intellectual disabilities.
Carolyn and Amy sat down in her office to review the family planning lessons. Carolyn thought that on the one hand Amy had the mind of a grade-school child and her decision-making wasn't mature enough to be responsible for a child of her own, yet on the other hand, the younger woman was one of the most loving and gentle people she had ever known. She sighed, thinking that while Amy was the perfect aunt, she probably wouldn't be able to be a very safe mother. She was surprised that Amy, in her own way, agreed with her.
"Of course Red and I do everything you explained to us. I love Red, and I love babies, but I know that babies need a lot of attention. I think Red deserves all my attention and," giggling a bit now, "I deserve all of his. 'Sides, Red is on the older side. We want to spend as much time as we have together. You know, someday, he will get sick and die. I have to be ready to care for him then. I mean when he gets sick. When he's dead, he won't need anyone to look after him! A child would make that hard. I know I have to make smart choices in life. That's what adults have to do. So, no babies for us."
It was an amazing discussion, thought Carolyn. She had to give Amy credit for her understanding of the situation, and the ability to understand what the future would likely hold.
As the weeks progressed, Captain Gregg gently let his presence be known to the rest of the Home's inhabitants. Nate was a great help to him with that task, assuring the other men that they were not hallucinating and that this really was the spirit of the man who had designed and built Gull Cottage. Sock and Sam, the "intellectuals" of the group questioned and debated the veracity of what they were seeing, but eventually had to admit that they could find no way to disprove Daniel Gregg's presence. Joe Costa, coming from a simple Portuguese and religious fishing family background was very frightened by the concept of a spirit walking amongst them. He nailed a large crucifix above his bed, filled the air with incense (which irritated his roommate Sam's lungs) and splashed holy water in all the rooms of the Cottage. The Captain watched his precautions with amusement. As a member of the Spectral Fraternity, he knew better than anyone in the Home of the existence of demons, devils, angels, and saints. He also knew that spirits and all of those other incorporeal beings had reasons for their being. He didn't claim to know all of those reasons, but he did know that Joe's actions wouldn't change his status. Higher authorities had willed it so. Eventually, after patient days of quiet whispered words, Joe stopped his attempts at removing the ghost from the premises. In time, he began to accept Captain Gregg's role as protector of the house and all those who resided on its grounds.
The last two to be approached were Charlie and Peter. The one thing that Daniel wanted to avoid was to cause any strain to the sick man, so he made himself known to Peter first and together they began to introduce the idea of a spirit inhabiting the premises to Charlie. Surprisingly, Charlie accepted the presence of Captain Gregg easily.
"Oh, I'd had a sense of you being around right from the beginning," he explained when the Gull Cottage specter finally made himself visible.
"How so? No man may see or hear me unless I wish it!"
"Eh, well, it was something about the portrait. I remember my father's mother would sometimes know things before they happened. One time she dreamt that a friend of hers that she hadn't seen in many years had died. The next day she got a letter telling her that it had happened exactly the way she dreamed it. I think I've got some of that. I always felt like you were around when I was standing in front of your picture."
"Remarkable!" pronounced Captain Gregg, almost irritably.
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As the summer season progressed and work continued on the restoration of Schooner Bay's waterfront, Carolyn realized how much things were in constant flux in Gull Cottage as well. Looking back at the events of June and July, it seemed like she had very little time to herself and almost no time to exchange more than a few words at all with Daniel. Normally, she was quite content to carry out her responsibilities on an unending schedule. Most of the time she did not have burdensome or physically exhausting challenges and her relationships with the men of the home, Martha and most of the Home's trustees was as much social as formal. In the past year, Gull Cottage had become a family home to them all. Certainly, her work was infinitely more pleasant, sanitary, and satisfying than her time as a Civil War nurse. Change was the way of life, wasn't it? So what was fueling that small nugget of discontent growing in her chest?
After a few days of rising humidity, the afternoon had finally brought thunderstorms to the region. When the sky had turned greenish around 3pm, Sock pronounced that the storms would be heavy, but intermittent until supper time or later. The other men agreed, and his prediction had been spot on. Some of the men sat on the porch to watch the display of lightning ripping through the sky and Sock and Sam took a pair of chairs to the verandah off of the master cabin and passed a spyglass back and forth, watching a water-spout form far out past the harbor.
In her office/bedroom, Carolyn sighed as she lit the oil lamp on her desk. She had been assessing her medical supplies, tinctures, and tonics so that she could prepare the coming month's order for the approval of the Board of Trustees. She'd been working on it since the lunch dishes had been cleaned and put away, but interruptions kept pulling her attention away from her task. Not that she begrudged anyone, especially "her" men any of her time. It was just frustrating to have to start her count over and over. The close and humid air of the house had given her a headache, and now the loudly booming thunder was setting her nerves on edge. Sometimes it was so loud that she would jump, and the ink from her steel pen would spray droplets onto the sheet she was writing on. She knew that this was a nature-made storm, but she couldn't help wondering if the Captain could make it just a little less violent.
"For you, dear lady, I would do anything if it were in my power. Alas, it is not," he announced as her materialized by her desk. "Since the storm is not of my own making, and is quite large and strong, any effect I might have would be infinitesimal."
Carolyn smiled ruefully. "Well, I appreciate the thought, nevertheless. But when did you become a mind-reader?"
"Ha! There is nothing supernatural in knowing how you think after observing you for the last eighteen months. Especially when it comes to weather phenomenon, my dear, your first thought is always that I am the responsible party! Come now, admit it. I'm right, aren't I? Hmm?"
She laughed a little, which made her headache a bit worse. She put her hand to her head and rubbed it while she closed her eyes. Daniel stood and moved behind her, putting his large, strong hands on her shoulders where he began to massage and knead.
"Your muscles are as tight as a mid-shipman's lines on his first schooner!" His thumbs moved up and down the side of her neck as he began to feel her relax. She sighed, enjoying the strength of his fingers releasing the tension that she had been storing deep inside of her. "Now, listen to Dr. Gregg, my dear. You need some time to yourself…away from demanding humans….but preferably with me by your side."
"Then I wouldn't be by myself, would I?" she asked him, laughing.
"Alright then. With just one soul to give you the attention you need. You need to think of other things than your duties here. You need a little quiet and a little rest. As your physician of the moment, I prescribe 24 hours alone with me. And I know of a little cabin, tucked away in a grove of fir trees not very far from here. It's in fine condition, clean and tidy and it is but a short walk to a small and very private bay on the other side of the promontory. All it needs are some sheets and blankets for the bed and some food." He leaned close to her right ear, and she somehow felt his breath on her neck. "Do say 'yes', please. I promise you a night and a day with nothing to worry you. That's a lovely prescription, isn't it?"
Less than a week later, Carolyn found herself sitting in front of a fire in a lovely little cabin. No one had ever encountered it before, and it was perfectly clean. Carolyn wondered if the Captain had created it just for her, and whether it would disappear by next afternoon when she would return to Gull Cottage. Her thoughts were interrupted when Daniel, sitting behind her on the wood floor, gathered her deeper into his arms and offered her a morsel of chocolate.
"Chocolate for supper?" she asked playfully.
"No. Chocolate as a promise of something even sweeter, my love," he replied. He leaned in closer, and the sweeter thing was his deep kiss.
The End