The Hathaway

Unexpected Events

About a half an hour after Ben left, Heather popped her head in my office and asked, “Got a minute?”

“For you, always,” I said, inviting her in. “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to give you an update. I’ve been in touch with one of the researchers at the state archives in Mass. They are looking for anything they can find from when we were under their jurisdiction. There might be some deeds or some sort of early census on file there. They said we should hear from them in couple of days.”

“Nice, I can’t wait.”

“I also went to the tribal archives up north to see if there was anything from the Indian’s perspective,” she continued. “I found this.” She places a folder on my desk. It’s a copy of the agreement between the Believers and the Indians which allowed them to build their meeting house.”

I reached for the folder in disbelief. “Wow! That’s more than I could have hoped for.” I opened the folder and began looking at the photocopies inside. “Have you had a chance to look through this?”

“I have,” she smiled, “It’s amazing! It’s like no other treaty I’ve ever seen. It is more of a declaration of mutual respect and admiration than anything else. It actually chronicles the relationship of the two groups from the moment the Believers arrived until just before they started construction. It seems they built quite a friendship in those first few months.”

She then reached for her phone and said, “If you think that’s good, just wait til you see this.” She scrolled through a few pictures and came to my side to show me what she had found.

At first I just saw a jumble of artifacts in a rustic looking room. When I looked closer I could make out that the central object was a large brown rectangle with images on it. “What is it?” I asked.

“A backrest for a canoe. It’s etched birch bark, as is the canoe itself.” She pointed to the edge of the picture and I could just see the front of a similarly colored canoe intruding into the frame. “But look at this!” She was jubilant as she swiped to the next picture. “It was a closer view of one of the images on the backrest, a simple drawing of a two story building set among some trees with gardens on either side of it. A group of stylized men stood to one side of the building, while a group of women stood on the other. “It’s the meeting house!”

Looking at it in silence I recognized it as being the right sort of architecture for that era, and, while there were no recognizable landmarks, the proportions of the building seemed correct to match the ruins. “But how were you able to identify this as the meeting house?”

She laughed. “That was the tricky part, but the archivist told me of an oral tradition that connected that image with a small group of English settlers who had made friends with the local Indians over two hundred years ago. Plus, she was able to translate the inscription below the picture itself.” She pointed to some markings that were totally unintelligible to me. “It roughly translates as ‘singing sisters, dancing brothers at the bay’.” She then pulled one of the copies from the file she had given me and searched it for a moment before pointing to a line near the top. “Right here, see? The same lettering as the inscription.” The treaty was written in two columns, the first in the native language, and the second in English. I saw the markings that matched the etched words on the picture, and then she drew her finger over to the English translation. “And over here ‘Our brothers who dance and our sisters who sing by the ocean’. See? This seems to be how they referred to the community of Believers.”

I didn’t know what to say. I continued looking at the picture in stunned amazement, finally managing, “This is it. This is really it.” I looked at her with gratitude, and began to tear up. “I just can’t believe it.”

“Don’t you go getting all emotional on me,” she teased.

“I’m sorry, I’m just so excited and a bit overwhelmed. The spirits of the congregation are still in residence at the ruins of their meeting house, and I have met them. Their leader has been sharing detailed visions with me, sort of like how Sylas did a couple of years ago.”

“Oh, god,” she laughed. “Don’t tell me we’re going to have to fend off another ghoul!”

“I don’t think so,” I answered, “But perhaps a shadow figure. Can you e-mail those pictures to me? I really want to show Ben.”

“You got it,” she smiled, and began punching buttons on her phone.

“Were there any other clues in the archives?” I asked.

“Isn’t that enough?!” she chuckled, giving me a dirty look over the tops of her glasses. “That’s it for concrete evidence, but the archivist told me that she though there were a few more details in some of the oral archives, the recordings of interviews with elders that were done in the sixties and seventies. She’s offered to dig out some of those tapes and give them a listen. I expect to hear back from her in a week or two.”

“Unbelievable,” I muttered. “I’m going to have to take you and Andi out to dinner for this.”

“Andi?” she looked perplexed. “Why Andi?”

“It was her idea that I should bring you on board here. I think I owe her a great debt of thanks.”

I spent the rest of the afternoon pouring over the treaty and photos she had left with me. I tried to turn my attention back to the project I had been working on, but kept being drawn into the picture. As I spent time with it I realized that one of the figures on either side were slightly taller than the others, and wore a slightly different hat or bonnet. I thought these must be the Elder and Eldress. I really couldn’t wait to show it to Ben, so I decided to leave a little early once again. Before I left I checked in with Evelyn to confirm we were still on for tonight. “Absolutely,” she enthused. “I wouldn’t miss it. Oh, and I talked to my son, he won’t be coming. I think he’s getting ready to head back to his wife in the morning, so I think he kind of appreciates having the house to himself for a while.”

The kids must have been doing their homework, because the house was unusually quiet when I arrived home. I headed straight to our apartment, but Ben was nowhere to be seen. Thinking he may be out on the property somewhere or hanging out with Helmut, I decided to check the downstairs to see if anyone knew where he was. Sylvia and Beth were preparing supper, while Jodi and Chad st at the table, engrossed in their schoolwork. Sabina and Kevin were in the rec room, and I assumed that Ash was in his bedroom doing the same. “Smells good!” I said as I walked into the kitchen. “I hope it wasn’t a problem that I invited Evelyn over.”

“You invited Evelyn?” Sylvia queried as she looked up. “Not a problem at all, but it would have been good to know.”

“Didn’t Ben tell you?”

“We haven’t seen Ben all afternoon,” Beth offered.

“Really? I thought he was coming straight home from the museum when he left me.”

“Nope, haven’t seen him,” Sylvia confirmed.

“I wonder if I should be worried,” I asked. “It’s not like him to just go off without letting anyone know. Plus, he promised to let you know we were having guests.”

“Maybe he went to meet Andrew,” Chad piped up in a teasing tone.

“Wait, how did you…? We really don’t have any privacy around here do we?”

Sylvia just shook her head and tried not to laugh. “Nope, none at all.”

I harrumphed and headed out to the carriage house to see if Helmut knew anything.

“No idea,” he shrugged as he continued unpacking boxes. “Probably off chasing a waiter or something. Ain’t you been giving him enough lately? He’s gotta go looking for it elsewhere?”

“My god! Does everyone know?”

“Remember, I can smell horny boyfriend a mile away, and that boy smells like he’s ready to cum all the time these days.”

“But he decided not to pursue Andrew. I mean it’s one thing if we talk about it and agree, but I never thought he’d go sneaking off behind my back.” The thought of him being unfaithful cut me to the core. It would destroy all the trust we had built over the last two years. I had no problem with him exploring, but I realized he was right, we needed to be in it together, even if I wasn’t present for the sex, I needed to know what was going on. Cutting me out of the picture entirely was like telling me he didn’t want me anymore. I looked at Helmut, near desperation. “What am I going to do?”

“You’re going to wait and see where he’s been,” Helmut said simply. “Maybe he is out chasing dick, who knows. But maybe something unexpected happened. Or maybe he’s planning a surprise. Don’t get yourself all worked up over nothing. You trust him, right?”

“Of course.”

“So…?”

I began to breathe again. “So, you’re right. I shouldn’t…”

Just then we heard raised voices coming from the house. Helmut and I jumped up and raced to the kitchen.

“You said what?!” Ben’s face was red as he glared at Chad. “How did you even…?”

Sylvia was alarmed and put herself between Ben and Chad. “Calm down!” she ordered, “He didn’t mean anything by it.” Chad’s eyes were big as he stared up in disbelief.

Ben had made no move toward Chad, but it was clear he was angry. He took a deep breath, then catching sight of me he softened and said, “How did they know about Andrew? That was private. They shouldn’t know everything that goes on between us.” He lowered his tone to show that he had been hurt by this and repeated, “That was personal.” Then, without a word, he turned and ran up the stairs to our apartment.

“Have you boys been spying on Ben and Joey?” By now Ash had followed the sounds of raised voices to the kitchen and Sylvia looked at all three of them in turn. “Alright. You three, follow me. Helmut I could use you as well. She nodded her head towards the stairs and was clearly taking them all to her office for a serious talk.

As Helmut joined them he leaned over to me and said, “I think someone needs you upstairs.”