Chapter 10: The Library

Elyse wakes again, she’s spent the whole night in and out of sleep having all sorts of dreams about kids and scary places and a woman who seemed to be safe and kind. Each time she wakes up it was still dark and time seems to be creeping by so slowly.

At one point around 3:32am Elyse got out of bed and tiptoes out of her room. She goes over to the windows that overlook the orchard and the woods. She wonders what it was like for Lizzie and Sam and if they were scared. Did they know someone was looking for them? Did they make it to Arthur Thomas Wexley?

The woods were dark, but everything held the light of the moon that hung high in the sky. The soft blues coming from the trees showing their layers was something Elyse wishes she could have a photograph of. Why can’t pictures show the subtleness of the evening light? The reflection in the pond amplifies the light on the rest of the property and on the dam Elyse can see deer walking across, probably to take a drink at the shallow end. Three of the deer are clear, but often there are more. They move in a relaxed away, together, finding good things to eat and hopefully staying out of Mom’s garden. It’s magical this time of night. She wonders if Lizzie and Sam felt the same way or if they were scared? Boston is far away from Illinois and if they are in an orphanage, they might be cold and lonely, as orphanages are often depicted on television. And from what Elyse saw, that didn’t look like a fun place to be.

Elyse hears a stirring from her parents room. Her mother is a light sleeper and gets up frequently in the night. Elyse freezes and listens.

After a minute of silence, Elyse takes one more look at the deer who are drinking from the pond and tiptoes back to her room. She gets into the bed and finds the warm spot under the covers and digs in a bit getting her blanket just right, her toes just barely peeking out of the bottom. After a minute or two, finally drifts off to a sound sleep.

-

The next morning, Elyse wakes to her mother moving around in the kitchen. She can smell the coffee and toast and reaches up to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She’s a little groggy after a night of rough sleep, but at least she made it through. Today is library day and Elyse can’t wait.

After getting up and getting dressed, Elyse looks around her room and double checks her library bag, even though she checked it before bed last night. All her books are accounted for and she’s ready.

When she gets to the kitchen, her mom is humming and has NPR on turned low.

‘Good morning, Sunshine. I’m making some food to take to Grandma Dot this morning. We will go to the library after lunch.’

Elyse sits at the breakfast bar as Ann pours her cereal and moves around the kitchen. The mixer is going drowning out the sound of the radio and Elyse can only guess she’s making cookies for Grandma Dot.

After breakfast, Elyse is given a list of chores to busy her during the morning. She chooses to begin her list picking red raspberries since they are in the shade this early in the day.

After a very full morning of chores, getting lunch ready for dad, and cleaning up after lunch, Elyse’s mother finally starts moving toward leaving the house. Elyse knows how to keep everything progressing towards the door, the only thing that could potentially interrupt is..

*ring*

Now, if and eight year old girl swore, this would be the moment. Elyse’s belly drops as Ann beelines for the ringing telephone. Elyse holds her breath as the first words coming out of her mother’s mouth are going to tell her whether they are leaving or not.

‘He’s already gone back to work for the day,’ she said flatly staring straight ahead. “Mm-hm. Bye.’

Hallelujah! Elyse cheers inside, while looking patient for her mother.

‘They think they can just call and he will run right over,’ Ann starts to vent to Elyse. She goes over and grabs the containers of food, puts them in a woven picnic basket and heads for the door. Elyse helps with the door, but already knows this is only the first step to leaving the house. They’re not actually gone yet, but it’s a good step.

Once they’re outside, Ann tells Elyse they’re taking the old truck. Elyse climbs in the passenger side and situates her bag. Ann pushes the picnic basket up next to Elyse on the seat. Ann looks around the truck cab without getting in. ‘I’ll be right back,’ she says.

Elyse smiles and doesn’t say anything, but once Ann is a few feet away, she sighs. Every time. Big cup of tea, keys to the church, drop something else off. There are at least two more trips inside the house Ann has to make before they can leave. Elyse just waits patiently and quietly in the car. Make no fuss and it wont take as long. Fuss at her and she will surely cancel going or leave me at home.

Elyse has already been sitting in the hot truck for about then minutes when Ann finally walks up with a box of veggies and holding a very large plastic cup between her teeth. She sets the veggies in the bed, and takes the cup into her hands.

‘Mommy, I can hold your tea for you,’ Elyse offers hoping she will accept. The truck doesn’t have cup holders and Ann regularly spills.

‘No, that’s ok. I’ll just hold it in my lap,’ Ann says getting into the truck and hugging the very full cup between her thighs.

Elyse looks straight ahead and takes a deep breath. This will be another delay.

Ann starts the truck and begins to make her way down the gravel lane, jerking the shifter. They don’t make it halfway before Ann hits a part of the lane and the cup tips towards her pink polyester shorts, soaking her and the seat.

‘Oh shit!’ Ann exclaims! Elyse doesn’t even look over. Ann takes the car to the end of the lane, halfway standing as she tries to drive and maneuver the clutch as a puddle of tea quickly gets absorbed by the woven vinyl seat and all that is left is a little pile of ice.

They get back to the house, and Ann brushes the ice onto the driveway and runs inside. ‘I’ll be just a minute!’ Elyse reaches into her bag and pulls out a book as she waits. She’s already read this book a few times, but maybe reading it again will pass the time.

Elyse hears the phone ring from inside the house. She sighs to herself and then proceeds to pull out her other book wishing she had the chapter book she was actually reading with her.

Twenty minutes later, Ann finally emerges from the house with a new pair of short on and two thick towels. She stacks them on the driver’s seat, sits on top of them and starts the truck. Elyse is silently thanking God that she forgot to refill her tea.

They make their way down the driveway and turn onto the country road. The drive to town is a sweet one with fun landmarks on the way. The roads twist and turn and Elyse always likes to look for different things. Sometimes the neighbors cows are close to the road, protected by a fence, but it’s always nice to see them. She looks for the horses in the pasture. Crossing over the little creek and seeing how high the water is. The whole ride to town in the few short miles is full of farm and timber and pretty views.

Once they get into town, they drive past the people with the chicken coops and the church, they make their way down the very short Main Street until they pass the gas station to the library. The library is a small building that stands alone. The front is well manicured with shrubs and benches. Inside the space is divided into two rooms. As you walk into the foyer, there is the industrial metal desk that the librarian rarely sits at. To the left is the doorway to the adult section and to the right, there are bins for returned books as you make your way to the kids section. Bookshelves line the walls and are full and there are a few freestanding racks in the middle, but the majority of the books are along the wall. Elyse drops her books into the return bin and walks in. The librarian, Virginia, is a round older lady who is nice enough, but not terribly helpful. They are the only ones in the library at the moment, which is Elyse’s favorite time to be there. Some of the kids treat the library like a playground and it can be distracting.

Ann beelines over to chat of the librarian for a few minutes until she can slip out and leave Elyse for a time. Before too long she hears her mother say, ‘I’ll be back in a little bit, if you need me, I’ll be at Dot’s.’

‘No problem,’ says Virginia. ‘Elyse is never any trouble. We’ll be fine.’ She waves at Ann, but she’s already out the door.

‘So,’ Virginia turns in her chair toward Elyse. ‘What are we looking for this week?’

‘I’m still working my way through Plum Creek, but I also wanted to get the next Nancy Drew.’

‘Which one did you finish last?’ Virginia inquires.

‘The Sign of the Twisted Candles,’ Elyse stated. ‘Number nine.’

‘Ah, ok. Let’s find you number ten.’ Virginia and Elyse found Password to Larkspur Lane pretty quickly and Elyse held the book as she continued to look around. She grabbed a couple other things and looked at the clock hanging on the wall. Virginia was on the phone talking to someone Elyse could tell she knew. She walked over and put the stack of books on the table next to the desk, Virginia nodded at her and Elyse pointed at the Adult section. Virginia nodded again.

Elyse often went to the adult section of the library. The other books were intriguing and Elyse especially liked to look through the old yearbooks from when they still had a school in town. The school closed a couple years ago and consolidated with Dearing, so Elyse never got to go there as a student. Luke went for a couple years and Elyse would go with her mom. She was there the day the Challenger exploded because her and Ann went to watch it with Luke’s class. To Elyse, the school was magic with all the stairs and the gym. Outside it was three stories of brick with a bell tower at the top. The playground had the tallest metal slide which terrified and intrigued Elyse.

Elyse’s dad went to school there and often she would find him or his siblings in the year books, along with other people from church.

Today, Elyse wasn’t looking for the yearbooks. She was looking for something older, she just didn’t know what.

The adult section held all the older books, back in the corners, the fluorescent lights were often out or flickering. There was a dehumidifier plugged in to help with the moisture and the hum was a welcoming sound when all the other kids came in.

Similar to the kids section, the outer walls were lined with bookshelves, but in the adult section, there were many more standing shelves. It made the entire room feel darker and rarely did anyone spend time in here, even the adults would take their books into the other room with the soft chairs and better light. Above all the shelves, between the windows, were framed maps of the area and today, those caught her attention.

Elyse took found a stool and started at the side of the room closest to the front door. She got as close to the map as she could get and started to take in what she saw. This map was of the township. She only knows that because her dad volunteers for it in various ways. Elyse doesn’t understand exactly what that means, but she knows that she lives in the Ellsville Township. This map is dated1894.     

Elyse stands on the stool on her tip toes to get a better view of the map. She can see where Ellsville is, but there are other landmarks.

‘That’s the first township map for Ellsville,’ Virginia says from behind causing Elyse to jump. ‘Oh sorry dear, didn’t mean to scare ya.’

‘It’s ok,’ Elyse feels like she got caught looking at something she shouldn’t. ‘I think this is a neat map, but it’s hard to see.’

‘Yeah, ok.’ Virginia says and she walks back to the closet by the bathrooms. She disappears behind the door for a moment and comes back out with a small step ladder. ‘I’ll get it down for you so you can see it better, but do me a favor and just this map for today, ok?’

Elyse nods, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ Virginia isn’t usually so helpful and Elyse doesn’t want to do anything to make her change her mind.

Virginia opens the ladder as Elyse pulls her stool away from the wall. ‘Fortunately, this one is light. Let me hand it to you, dear.’ Virginia hands down the framed map and while it wasn’t very heavy, it was pretty wide and tall and Elyse had to put her head against it to balance it’s width in her arms. Virginia slowly makes her way off the ladder and sees Elyse struggling a bit, ‘Here, let me.’ She takes it from Elyse who is grateful to let it go.

Virginia sets the frame on the floor and leans it against the end of a bookshelf. ‘I’ll leave the ladder there for now, but no playin on it.’

‘Thank you ma’am,’ Elyse says as she sits down on the floor in front of the map to study it.

With the frame leaned back, it now catches more of the light making it easier for Elyse to read the writing. She can tell the dashed lines are train tracks and follows the ones that go through Ellsville and how they veer off to Dearing. These are the ones she can hear at night with her bedroom window open. Pike River is marked, but looks farther away from town than it is now. There are little markings, scattered and it takes her a few minutes to realize they are schools. One that is marked has been converted into a house out in the country. Her mother always mentions how it used to be a school when they drive by. She also remembers another house that was a school and finds it on the map. There are different cemeteries listed, some she knows and some she…

Then she sees it. Southwest of her house, close to the river, there is a marking. Blackberry Cem. Cemetery, Elyse thinks. Those stones in the woods are a cemetery. But there isn’t any indication of any other structure, just the cemetery.

Elyse continues to study the map just in case anything else pops out to her. She knows from her Nancy Drew books that even the smallest detail can be helpful. So she tries to memorize as many things as she can. Fortunately much of it is easy, there are many places still around today-even if they’re not in the best of shape.

After a little while, Virginia got curious and came back in to find Elyse still sitting there studying the map. “Miss Virginia? This map says there is a cemetery close to my house. Do you know anything about that?”

‘Show me where you mean, dear.’ Virginia walks up behind Elyse and leans over her enough that she can smell the cigarette smoke lingering on her clothes.

Elyse points to Blackberry Cemetery and looks up at Virginia in time to see her face change in expression-much like George’s did at lunch. ‘Oh, that old cemetery isn’t there anymore. Don’t let it scare you.’

‘I’m not scared, but I thought there was an orphanage over there. Was there a cemetery too?’ Elyse looks up as Virginia’s eyes widen down at her.

Virginia’s face transitions from surprise to an overly sweet smile like the ones the old ladies use at church. Elyse already knows what’s coming. ‘Elyse dear, I don’t know where you hear such things. Let’s put this old map away and go into the other room, your mother will be back soon, I hope.’

Virginia reaches under Elyse’s armpits and lifts her to her feet, holding her shoulders she guides her back to the kids section by the Nancy Drews. Elyse had already picked out her books to take home, but she feels like she’s pushing the envelope on the orphanage and knows from experience, if the adults don’t want the kids to know something, they will make sure they don’t know it.

Elyse looks up at the clock and estimates her mom to be back in about twenty minutes or so, so she goes over to some of the shorter books and starts to read through them. She comes across a joke book and that entertains her until Ann arrives back at the library.

‘All set?’ Ann asks as she walks in. She doesn’t even wait for Elyse to reply, ‘Get your things its time to go. How was she?’ Ann turns toward Virginia.

‘She’s always easy to have around. Today she was interested in a map.’ Elyse’s stomach starts to turn.

‘Oh?’ Ann says, not really paying attention.

‘Yes, the old township map with Blackberry Cemetery on it.’ Virginia is clearly tattling on Elyse.

Ann pauses for a moment, ‘Oh.’ She looks at Elyse who is looking back at her trying to convey innocence in her eyes.

‘It was a neat map mommy. All the one room school houses were on it, like in the Little House books.’

‘That sounds neat! Could you find our house on there?’ Ann is trying to decide how far this goes.

‘I think so,’ Elyse makes a big shrug of her shoulders and tries to look a little dumb. Ann smiles at her and nods, then turns towards Virginia and says under her breath, ‘She’s eight.’ As she holds her hand parallel to the floor making a gesture to drop it.

As Ann and Elyse get in the car and drive home, Elyse is looking at the town with different eyes. She sees the cemetery that was marked on the map in town, but before she can focus too much of her time on what she sees, Ann begins asking about the books she got and telling her all about Grandma Dot. It’s not a very long drive home, so Ann is still talking by the time they get home.

Elyse can tell, this isn’t the time to ask her mom any more questions. It’s time to go back to the letters and see what the rest of them say.