It was almost time for Owen and Leslie Ford's family to leave the island. Owen had his itinerary planned out for Floyd Collins' next cave exploration. The Fords had their tickets booked for the ferry train and the ferry. Leslie planned for Kenneth and Persis to resume school in Toronto.
Leslie had the House of Dreams almost completely packed. She had a rare night to herself. Kenneth and Persis played after dinner with the Ingleside kids. Then they confessed to being tired and they both fell asleep early.
Leslie watched the summer sun set outside the picture window at the House of Dreams. Four Winds, Prince Edward Island was her home. She missed it when she was in Toronto, or Winnipeg, or Montreal, or Vancouver, or Boston, or New York, or any other of the places that Owen had taken her in his writing career. Still, she had so many memories here. She couldn't decide if the good memories outweighed the bad. Her parents and her beloved little brother Kenneth had lived here. They had also died here. She had so many painful memories of her marriage to Dick Moore. She had many more painful memories of her life with the man that she later believed to be Dick Moore.
She had fallen in love with Owen Ford here in Four Winds. Leslie couldn't decide whether her good memories of her life with Owen outweighed the bad memories.
Owen was a good man. Leslie knew this beyond a doubt.
Owen was a tender lover. On their first night together, Owen took the physical side of their relationship slow. He told her to let him know immediately if he caused her pain. Owen asked her throughout their night together how she felt. Owen told her that he didn't want to do anything that would bring back memories of Dick Moore's abuse towards her. Owen concentrated on Leslie's physical pleasure before his own. Leslie had never imaged that such bliss existed. Owen kept her warm when she woke up naked in his arms the next morning. He called her his angel. He asked her how she felt. Then, he once again rubbed the little nub between her legs until she moaned his name.
When Leslie was sick in her pregnancies with Kenneth and Persis, Owen held her hand and brought her ginger tea and crackers.
Owen worked himself into despondency trying to make a decent living as a writer in order to give her and the children a good life. And therein lay the problem.
When The Life-Book of Captain Jim was published, critics all over Canada and the states declared that it would be the Great Canadian Novel. And maybe The Life-Book was indeed the Great Canadian Novel. Maybe literature students at Redmond University would read it and analyze it a century from now. But the Great Canadian Novel only paid the bills for so long. Owen and Leslie Ford didn't live like railroad barons, but they did live like a famous successful author and his wife expected to live. They educated their kids in the same fashion.
Owen also spent part of the royalty money on the education of a son that he had fathered when he was nineteen years old, before he met and married Leslie.
And then there was Owen's drinking.
When Owen Ford asked Leslie Moore to marry him, she told him all about the Dick Moore's nights out at the tavern and the way that Dick bruised her after these nights. Owen didn't exactly promise Leslie that he would never touch alcohol again. However, he promised that he wouldn't drink to excess in a way reminiscent of Dick Moore.
But then Owen wrote several stories after The Life-Book that his publisher refused to publish. Owen started writing several novels that he abandoned after only a few chapters.
Meanwhile, the balance of money earned from The Life-Book dwindled.
As Owen faced his future life as a washed-up has-been, he hit the bottle hard more and more frequently. Owen and Leslie fought about his drinking. Once again, Owen didn't exactly promise to never drink again. However, Owen promised that he wouldn't let Leslie or the kids see him drunk. Leslie told him that this wasn't good enough.
So, Owen proceeded to drink "in secret."
On the night of Kenneth's accident, Owen had neglected Kenneth because Owen was sitting here, in this very parlor of the House of Dreams, drinking.
Leslie knew that Gilbert knew this because Gilbert flat out asked Owen that night how much Owen had to drink.
And now it was getting late on a summer night shortly before the Fords were to leave Four Winds for their trip back to Toronto. Owen had gone into Lowbridge to tie up some business. He still wasn't home.
Leslie considered the taverns in Lowbridge to be rather classy for taverns. Not like the trashy hovels where Dick Moore used to drink in Mowbray Narrows. Still, they were taverns and men got drunk there. Was Owen getting drunk in one of the Lowbridge taverns at this very moment?
What if Owen's night of drinking resulted in a head injury just like the one that Dick Moore's cousin George suffered? After the years that Leslie had lost to Dick and to the brain damaged man that she believed to be Dick, she now lost the rest of her years caring for a brain damaged Owen?
The front door at the House of Dreams opened.
"Leslie, you're still up. I didn't expect you to be up," Owen slurred. He struggled to walk upright.
"Owen, you promised!" Leslie said
"I didn't drink too much," Owen said.
Leslie said, "I can barely understand you! That's how off you are right now. And you can barely walk! I don't believe this. How did you even get home?"
Owen said, "Dr. Blythe saw me crossing the street in Lowbridge, and he gave me a ride home."
Leslie said, "A shame that you didn't have to walk home. Anne's going to hear about this."
Owen said, "Anne! Anne Blythe! She's my next book. I mean, Anne Shirley. Anne Shirley's my next book!"
Owen slurred the word "Shirley," tried again, and slurred it again.
Leslie said, "What are you talking about, Owen?"
Owen said, "Sent it off to the publisher this afternoon?"
Leslie said, "What did you send off to the publisher, Owen?"
Owen said, "My book about Anne! I changed the name, of course. That's what I've been working on all summer until the cave. A book based off Anne Blythe's diary. – 'Cuse me! – Anne Shirley's diary. Hic!"
"Owen, what the hell?"
Owen laughed. Then he said, "Who's Roy?"
Leslie said, "What?"
Owen said, "Roy! She really fell for some guy named Roy. Got in a lot of trouble with him. She was a bad girl! That Anne!"
Leslie said, "You're kidding, right, Owen."
Owen said, "I changed all the names when I wrote my book."
Leslie said, "Did Anne give you her diary?"
Owen said, "Of course not! I took it last fall. When I went to her house. Grabbed it off the shelf when the doctor came home."
