The final chapter of Mel's story - of her discovering her identity - turned out to be the most difficult for Emma to write. So much - factually and emotionally - had been squeezed into those several days with her and Sam in the truck, how did one condense "fact" to "fiction?" She finally decided to follow pretty close to the truth - having Mel ride along with Bill because of the bad weather, and because she really didn't know or care where she was going. Bill kept feeding her little bits of information about her past life, she began to remember a few specific things, and finally she asked him directly if it was her that he had been pursuing. He admitted it. It was hard for Mel to take in - it had been for her! - but she agreed to go "home" with him. More and more memories came back to her as they entered country with a more familiar look. As she met with old friends, the process speeded up. Now, several months later, she was well on the way to being "herself," again.
Emma had thought she might want to do one more column, to talk more specifically about amnesia, but she found she'd said just about everything she wanted to. She closed the series with a little discussion of how amnesia manifested itself. Most forms were of much shorter duration, and not so complete in memory loss, as Mel's, but the extreme ones did occur. Usually, a major trauma was necessary to disrupt the brain so severely. Sometimes, professional intervention was necessary to bring a person back to "normal," but sometimes (as in Mel's case) just taking it slow in a calm, safe environment was enough.
On the day the last episode was published, Emma and Louise went to Coverly to talk to the high school principal. He had a copy of the newspaper with him, and said that he had read the whole series. That display of her writing talents, and Louise's advocacy, were sufficient for him to approve tutoring in lieu of 11th grade classes, with a return to school for Emma's Senior year. Louise already had made contact with a couple of potential tutors.
Everyone Emma talked to had enjoyed her stories, and had few questions. Other than Louise, no one seemed to have considered the possibility that "Mel" was Emma. She was grateful for that.
At home (still with Maud), Emma began to go through the boxes of Aunt Aurora's possessions. When she thought of Aurora Paradise, her mind pictured a cranky, demanding old woman, who had to be bribed with various alcoholic concoctions before she would supply any of the historic information Emma was seeking from her. However, she was also aware that battling with Aunt Aurora was about the only fun excitement she had alongside of her rather mundane hotel duties, her mother's austere formality, and Ree-Jane's silly, unwanted pretensions. Thinking about it now, Emma decided that she had liked Aunt Aurora quite a lot. Aurora must have felt somewhat the same, to leave her all these boxes of memories, as well as a large share of the hotel ownership.
There were a lot of treasures - jewelry and fancy gowns - some of which Emma thought probably should be in a museum. What she really needed was some information of the early years of the Paradise family in the area, and there didn't seem to be many papers. She did find one that showed Abram Paradise - her great grandfather - as a member of a group of Wheeling, West Virginia, businessmen and church people who came to Garrett County in 1881, to look for a site to establish a Chautauqua. She couldn't find anything to tell if he'd stayed around to help plan the area, or if he'd come back in 1890 to build his hotel.
There was an interesting partial "family tree" for the Paradises. Clearly, it wasn't the whole family, but it had Great grandfather Abram with at least three children: Leighton Paradise, who married Aurora Coverly (Emma had never known Aurora's maiden name. She assumed it had to do with the family that the town of Coverly was named after); George Paradise, who married Alberta Coverly (Aurora's real sister, not a sister-in-law); and Emeline Paradise, Emma's grandmother, who married Charles Graham. (Was Emma named after her grandmother? She'd never heard anybody say.) It was Leighton, Aurora's husband, who had written up the crazy will that left the hotel management to his nephew, John Graham, Emma's father. There was nothing to indicate what the family feud had been about, and Emma noticed that her "aunt" in California was not included on the family tree.
That seemed to be all she would find that might be pertinent for her upcoming meeting with the historian, so she set Aurora's treasure trove aside for the time being.
***
Emma's other task before the historian's meeting was to talk to Dr. McComb about what might be found in the Spirit Lake meadow. She decided to walk to his house, partly because it was a warm, dry morning, and partly because she didn't want to spoil it by having to listen to Delbert's taxi monologue.
When she got to Dr. McComb's door, she could smell the brownies cooking, and knew her timing was good. The doctor himself opened the door for her. She realized that, since she'd returned to town, she hadn't seen the old, silent woman who used to be there. Emma had never decided if she was a relative, or a housekeeper. Dr. McComb had always done the brownie cooking.
"Emma! Come on in. I'm just about to take brownies out of the oven." (As if she didn't know!) He put a few of the delicious-looking squares on a plate, and brought them to the table. He offered coffee, and Emma decided to have some with him.
"I just finished reading your last article," he said, as he sat across the table from her. "I don't get the paper delivered, so sometimes I don't see it for a few days after it comes out. You've always been an excellent writer, and your story is quite interesting." He got up, brought a few more brownies from the stove top, and sat back down again. "You know, when you started the articles, you said that it was probably impossible to know what amnesia was like unless you'd had it. I think that must be true. I also liked what you said about her getting home - getting back to an environment she knew - being important for her recovery. We depend a lot on what we see, but we also live in a place where there are familiar sounds - the kinds of bird songs or insect sounds we expect to hear. There are also smells. We don't think about them much unless they're really good - or really bad! - but our minds are always registering them. Even the way the wind blows - the sounds of wind in trees, or grass - these are as much a part of us as the more obvious recognitions."
"I think I'm following you."
"Well, actually, I'm just elaborating on what you wrote. Say I have amnesia right now, and I look at you - somebody I've known for years - and I haven't a clue as to who you are. That would be very confusing, to say the least. But I'm in a familiar room, the brownie smell is familiar, and the rosebush outside the kitchen window is rubbing against the glass, as it always does when it's windy. If I went out the back door, I might hear a cardinal singing, or a cicada chirping. Maybe none of this would be of immediate help to me, but the familiarity might lessen the feelings of complete loss.
"Now, say I was on a trip, and something caused me to lose my memory in the middle of the Arizona desert. I still would be as confused by not knowing who you are, but I think that the completely unfamiliar environment might cause me to go even deeper into oblivion. In any case, I think it's the coming back that may be the really important time. If I was trying to regain my memory in Arizona, I think it might be more difficult than if I was suddenly in my backyard, here. Well, that's what you were saying about her coming out of her amnesia seemed to be faster when she got close to her home.
"Well, we could probably talk about amnesia quite a while, but I suspect you had something else on your mind today?"
"I do. You remember at the Hotel Paradise, there's an area of brushy meadowland that stretches down to Spirit Lake?"
"Yes, I know where you mean."
"Okay. Well, let me start back a little farther. My family had only part ownership of the Paradise property, which included the hotel and about 10 acres of land. Due to some fight in the family, in his will my great-uncle Leighton Paradise divided up the ownership between a whole bunch of people. To settle the estate when my mother died, the hotel had to be sold.
"The buyers planned to tear down the hotel, and then divide the 10 acres into individual building lots. They haven't been able to sell even one lot, so they haven't torn down the hotel. I've been thinking about buying back the hotel - the owners might be willing to let it go at a loss, rather than holding on to it, if they can't sell lots. However, I wouldn't be able to buy the rest of the land. Jeff Kincheloe, the town historian, thought that some land preservation group might buy it, particularly if it had some interesting animals or plants on it. I knew that you would know what butterflies are there, and I thought you might know something about the other stuff."
"That is interesting. You say that you'd be able to buy back the hotel?"
"If they really wanted to get out from under it, and gave me a real good price. I inherited half of my parents' share of the property - my brother Will got the other half. But Aunt Aurora owned 50 percent, and she willed it all to me when she died. So, I'd have a pretty good start."
"And Jeff Kincheloe thinks some organization might buy the rest of the land?"
"Well, he doesn't know, but he says that a piece of wild land that large is getting pretty rare in this area, and could be especially important if there was something biologically interesting about it. Is there?"
"He's right about size being important. There's a lot better chance of having some good communities of plants and animals. I know your area, because I've chased my butterflies there over the years. The habitat is varied enough that there are quite a number of species present. I don't know what else is there. I suspect there would be a number of frogs and toads, a fair selection of birds, probably some mice or other small mammals... I don't know, probably some interesting plants - maybe not anything too unusual, but maybe some good stands of nice species.
"I'll be glad to share what I know, and also could maybe help design some simple surveys if you could get some students in there to look for other species."
"That would be great. I'll tell Jeff you'll help, if we can get this going."
Dr. McComb was going to town to do some shopping, so he gave Emma a ride. She asked to be dropped off at the courthouse, where she hoped Jeff was free to talk for a minute. He was in, but he had someone with him.
"Hi, Emma, come on in."
"No, I didn't mean to interrupt you. I just had something that we might want to talk about before our meeting on the hotel land."
"That's okay. Do you know Eloise Dawson? She's from the historical museum, and I had invited her to meet with us, already. You can say what you have to say to both of us, Emma."
"Hi Eloise. You're somebody I thought about seeing, anyway, for part of what I have to say. Jeff, I know you've seen the Devereau house, across Spirit Lake from the hotel. I don't know if either of you have been there. It's a little hard to get to, now, because things have grown up around it.
"The Devereau family lived there for a long time, but about 40 years ago, after some family tragedies, they moved out and never came back. I guess I shouldn't really say they 'moved out,' because that implies they took things with them. Actually, they just left everything in place, and sort of disappeared. There could be one sister still living, but she'd be in her high '90s, if she was. Everybody else in the family has been dead a long time. Except for a brief time about 15 years ago, when a distant relation occasionally stayed there, no one has lived there, and I don't think many people have even been there.
"I've been in a number of times over the years, but it had been quite a while, and I wondered if things had changed, at all. A few days ago, I walked in, and found everything exactly as I last saw it. The house was shut up tight, and there was no obvious sign of mouse damage, or mold, or water leaks. The downstairs is furnished, including a piano and a wind-up record player. There are a bunch of records, many of them in French. Upstairs, the mattresses have been rolled up tight, and they look undamaged. Mary-Evelyn's room - she was Elizabeth Devereau's daughter - has some pretty blue-painted furniture, and in a wardrobe are eight handmade dresses. Iris, the youngest of the Devereau sisters, made them for Mary-Evelyn about 50 years ago. They're really well-made and very lovely. They don't seem to have any damage.
"It's amazing that things are still okay after all these years, but one vandal, or just somebody carelessly leaving a door or window open, could ruin everything. I've just been wondering about who owns the property now, if they'd want to salvage anything, or if anybody else - like the historical museum - would be interested."
"Why had you been in there, before?" Eloise asked. "Did you know the family?"
"I lived all my life at the hotel just across the lake, so I knew about the house and the family, but I never knew any of them - well, except Isobel briefly, when she tried to kill me..."
"What!" Jeff and Eloise interrupted, simultaneously.
Emma laughed. "I guess I shouldn't have inserted that quite so casually. When I was twelve, I got interested in the reported drowning of Mary-Evelyn, Elizabeth's daughter. Supposedly, she drowned when she went out on the lake by herself, in a leaky rowboat. It didn't make sense to me, and I finally learned that her mother had strangled her - probably by mistake - and then the sisters had tried to cover it up by putting her in the lake. Isabel, the middle sister, came to the house when I was there. She was clearly insane, and thought I was Mary-Evelyn come back from the grave. I would have been about the same age, and I'd been trying on one of Mary-Evelyn's dresses. Anyway, Isabel tried to kill me - Mary-Eveyn - again, by forcing me into a rowboat, and then shooting at me. A local man saw what was happening, and shot her - really, just in the nick of time."
They both just stared at her.
"Well, that was a little off the subject."
They both burst out laughing. Once decorum had been reestablished, Eloise opined that the museum might like some of the Devereau property, if it was available. Jeff said he would check the county records to see who owned the property, currently.
"Who owns the property might be pertinent to our hotel discussions," Emma offered. "I don't know how much land they own - or owned - but I think it includes all the shoreline on that side of the lake. It the land was available, and the hotel land was bought back, we'd have a preserve that would pretty much encircle Spirit Lake, and make a pretty nice area. I wondered if the County might actually already own the land, because I don't think there has been anybody around to pay the taxes for many years."
"I'll see what I can find out about that, too," Jeff replied. "Making it part of a preserve of some kind sounds like a really great idea, and might get one of the conservation organizations more interested in getting involved.
"On a related subject, did you find anything in your aunt's possessions about the Paradises?"
"Not very much, yet. Aunt Aurora left all kinds of beautiful clothes and jewelry, but not much paperwork. Eloise, the museum might be interested in some of her things. They date back almost a hundred years.
"Yes, I think I'd like to look at them with you some time."
"Good. Jeff, I found a paper that showed my Great Grandfather Paradise had been part of the group who came here from Wheeling, West Virginia in 1881, to see if it was a good location for a Chautauqua-type development. He didn't build the hotel until 1890 and, so far, I don't know if he stayed around to work on the actual planning, or if he went back to Wheeling for 10 years."
"We can probably get some ideas from the Federal censuses that are done every ten years. Beginning in 1850, every member of every household was named, so we should be able to see how long the Paradise name is association with Wheeling, and who was located here. Unfortunately, the entire census for 1890 - one of the years we'd be most interested in - was completely lost or mistakenly destroyed, so there's a 20-year gap in that kind of coverage. There are other possible sources of information, however. Maybe we can fit it all together before we're through.
"Well, this has been a good lead-up to our hotel meeting. See you there, Emma."
***
Attendance at the meeting included Emma, Jeff, Eloise, members of the county planning board and chamber of commerce, and two representatives of land conservation groups. Sam sat in for part of the meeting, just to keep up on local events.
Jeff kept his presentation fairly general, as they were pretty early in the process, but he did want to pique interest in as many quarters as they could.
"Our project has three parts: Spirit Lake, itself; the old Hotel Paradise on one side of the lake; and the Devereau property on the other side - I think about 30 acres, total. The lake is a public waterway, and is managed by State and county laws and regulations. The village of Spirit Lake has been pretty quiet for a number of years, and there hasn't been much use of the lake. However, in the past it had fishing and boating, and is a wonderful wildlife watching area. With a little improvement of the access trails, and maybe eventually rebuilding of the old boat dock, it could become a popular area, again.
"The Devereau property hasn't been lived on for 30 or 40 years. Apparently, the last of the Devereaus died some years ago. There were no heirs for the property, some 40 years of back taxes were owed, and so the county reclaimed it. We don't yet have a good idea about what plants and animals might be found on the 20 acres or so, but there are some lovely woods, and it wouldn't take much work to make it a great place for general walking or nature study.
"The Hotel Paradise was built in 1890, and the hotel and the land between it and the lake has been owned by the Paradise family until just recently. Emma's family had control of the place, but the deed included half a dozen partial owners. When Emma's mother died a few years back, the hotel had to be sold to settle all the various claims. The new owners planned to tear down the hotel, and divide the land into residential plots. However, to date they haven't sold even one plot, so the hotel is still standing. We're hoping that they might cut their losses by selling the property back, possibly for less than they paid for it. Emma thinks the family could cover the costs of buying back the hotel itself, but would probably need outside funding to reclaim the 10 acres of land.
"The hotel does date back to the Chautauqua days. It's a very nice structure, but not unique in any way. I made a quick appraisal of it, and it seems in quite good condition, structurally. That would need to be verified, of course, but superficially it looks like - with a little paint and polish - the building is ready for use. Some of the ideas we've kicked around are craft or garden shows, musical presentations or stage plays, maybe a nature center to go along with the nature study on the adjoining lands. It might also serve as a youth hostel, or quarters for short term studies of the area - although those would likely require restoring some kind of food service. Anyway, those are just some of our early ideas.
"One nice thing about the location of all of this is it's only two miles from here, a short drive to attend any of the festivities that went on there. It's also a pleasant walk along the old highway, if the weather is nice, and one has the time. I think the whole project could be a great asset for the town and surrounding areas.
"Even though we're not very far along, we wanted to get you thinking about the possibilities, the pros and the cons. We can make my office kind of the clearing house for questions, comments, suggestions, whatever. We don't have a timetable, although Emma thinks starting negotiations soon with the hotel land owners would be good. They know that they're definitely losing money every day that goes by, and they might be persuaded to cut their losses in big way,"
The meeting went on for another hour or so, with lots of ideas traded. Emma felt it was a very good start.
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