Chapter 5

Vanaver Mainwaring to Grace Mainwaring November 24, 1936

. . . If you visit me in Toronto, it will have to be soon. The word is that we don't have long before we go to New York and set sail for Europe. We have already been here for longer than I expected when I volunteered. It would mean so much if you could come. I think of you first thing in the morning when I wake up and last thing at night when I turn out the lights. My arms feel empty without you in them. . .

. . . Our newest volunteer is colorful even by our group's standards. Johnny Pike claims that some of the characters in L.M. Montgomery's stories of Prince Edward Island are based on members of his family. I don't know whether or not to believe him. In all fairness, my Canadian fellow volunteers tell me that his accent identifies him as coming from the region of Canada in which Prince Edward Island is located. They call it a Maritimer accent. Johnny certainly sounds very different from Will.

Johnny also claims to have seen small dragons on an island in the Dutch East Indies and an actual mermaid off the coast of Japan while serving with the Merchant Marine. Mackie Cohen was very skeptical of Johnny's stories. When he told the one about seeing the dragons, Mackie asked him if this was before or after he saw the giant ape. "Yeah, there was a giant ape," Johnny immediately shot back with an amused gleam in his eye. "Tall as a three-story building and a dozen different kinds of ugly. Take away the height and he looked exactly like you."

"At least I don't look like I belong on the wrong end of a fishing line," Mackie retorted with equal good nature. It was only then that I was able to get a word in edgewise and tell Mackie that the small dragons Johnny was talking about were probably the strange reptile W. Douglas Burden brought back specimens of from Komodo Island ten years ago. He named it the komodo dragon. Mackie sheepishly admitted that he did hear something years ago about two of them being brought to the reptile house of the London Zoo in England. Johnny conceded that maybe he was exaggerating about the ones he saw breathing fire. Since then the two of them have been the best of friends.

May Bailey to Jessie Buchanan November 25, 1936

. . . Grace has too much time on her hands even with her work at CRNB. Since she returned to New Bedford, she has cleaned Toppy's house from top to bottom twice and mine once. A couple of more days and she will be through with mine for the second time and ready to start on Toppy's again. Juanita says that Grace's visits are like having a cyclone blow through. When she isn't cleaning, she's cooking here or at Toppy's except when Toppy has Archie over for supper. Then Toppy insists on doing the cooking herself although she admits that except for one or two dishes she isn't on Grace's level as a cook.

I also wonder if Grace's interest in the news from Spain isn't becoming a little too intense. She now subscribes to and reads a bewildering variety of newspapers and magazines in her efforts to stay current and is keeping a scrapbook of the most important items. Still, if it were my husband about to walk into the middle of a civil war, I might be a little unreasonable about the matter myself.

Toppy is asking a great deal from me. For her sake and Doris' I might manage to be civil to Bob if she insists on having him at her wedding. However, I would rather be eaten alive by black flies again than speak to that home-wrecking trollop he married after divorcing Toppy.

Grace Mainwaring to Sally Henry November 30, 1936

. . . I wish I hadn't had to spend so much of my weekend in Toronto conducting business. I did spend Saturday afternoon and evening with Van. It was such a joy to be with him with no lies or illusions between us. It's a little early to say that we can rebuild our life together. However, the love is still there in the honesty with which we talked of his past and our present. Even more, it is there in all the little moments of tenderness and thoughtfulness between us that say "I love you" far more eloquently than any words can.

. . . It was a pleasure to meet Van's fellow volunteers. They were very friendly to me and every bit as colorful as he paints them in his letters. The Communists among them are hardly the crazed, bloodthirsty fanatics so often caricatured in editorial cartoons and political speeches. Of course, these are Canadian and, in Harry's case, American Communists, not Stalin's secret police. Oscar was happy to receive the letters, fresh clothes, and more pulla bread from his parents. It was very nice of his mother to let me have her pulla bread recipe. I hope she enjoys my recipe for scones.

Grace Mainwaring to Vanaver Mainwaring November 30, 1936

. . . I have the bankbooks for the separate account to reimburse your past victims on your return from Spain. If you should fail to return, and I hope with all my heart that never happens, I will follow your instructions and donate the money to the charity or charities of my choice. Enclosed are copies of the photograph I took of you with Harry, Will, Mackie, Oscar, and Johnny, one for each for you. . .

. . . I can't agree with Archie that if Max weren't running unopposed any capable opposition candidate could beat him. It's true that his decision to cancel the Bas Lake Fishing Tournament last summer over a polio scare wasn't popular with the town's merchants. It's also true that the miners weren't pleased when he called in the O.P.P. to protect the strikebreakers Mr. Bridgeman and the Silverdome Mining Company board of directors brought in behind Mother's back to quell labor unrest last summer. If she had been recovered enough from her stroke to resume active control of the business, she never would have allowed such a thing from her business colleagues.

Be that as it may, the merchants know that Max did what he thought was necessary to protect New Bedford from a polio outbreak. The miners I have talked to grudgingly accept that Max didn't approve of Mr. Bridgeman's actions any more than Mother did when she learned about them. However, when Mr. Bridgeman appealed to him for police protection for the strikebreakers, he had a duty to provide it.

The miners also haven't forgotten that it was Max's son Hub who came up with the compromise of paying part of their salaries in stock that averted violence and made it possible for them to go back to work. I wish I had been in New Bedford to see that. Hub could do a fine job of running the mine someday. I almost wish he weren't so determined to become a priest.

May Bailey to Jessie Buchanan December 2, 1936

. . . Today has been an eventful day. Max won a full term as mayor. How he is going to balance his duties as principal and teacher with the demands of public office is beyond me. He is going to need all the support that Honey can give him, not that she doesn't have plenty of responsibilities herself with her beauty parlor to run and four children to raise.

It is very good of you to want to come to Toppy's wedding. Certainly, Grace would be overjoyed to see her favorite cousin. I know it won't do the least bit of good to remind you that you are 92 years old, that the journey from Nova Scotia is long and exhausting, and that the excitement of the ceremony and reception would probably be too much for you. At least consider that it would be terribly unfair to Toppy to have to postpone her wedding so that we can all attend your funeral.

Grace informs me that Hal Lane's inquiries among the miners indicate that they would be receptive to efforts to help the Spanish Republic. Many told him that they admire his son for joining the International Brigades to fight Fascism. Archie is less optimistic about the town merchants and professionals since Max will be involved in what Grace has planned. Some may not be able to overlook their resentment at the business they lost because of his cancellation of the Bas Lake Fishing Tournament last summer. Some, like hardware merchant Phil Hamlin, are just too rigidly conservative to help Communists even if the alternative is worse. However, Archie believes he can drum up enough support in that quarter to make it worth the effort.

It was good of Grace to have Maisie over to Toppy's house to listen to records on the phonograph she brought from Van's apartment in Toronto. Apparently, it uses the new diamond tipped needles that don't ruin a record by wearing out the grooves the way steel tipped ones do. I hate to think of Grace and Maisie using such a splendid technological advance to play jazz. I don't say that all syncopated music is bad. "Solace" by Scott Joplin is exquisitely beautiful. Nonetheless, whenever music is performed in low and disreputable places you will find syncopation involved somewhere.

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