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Marion drove carefully towards the roads that would take her north to Maine. The maps gave her confidence, but she knew it would be at least a three-day trip, and she was grateful for it. This trip would take her well away from her in-laws, who had tried to prevent her leaving. Since they had left earlier than planned, she hoped to have a couple days lead before they sent anyone after her. She didn’t know why they felt they could interfere, and she was more angry than scared. That busybody social worker had fully believed her mother-in-law’s claim that she would be harming the children by taking them into the nether regions of Maine. As far as Marion was concerned, it was none of their business. She knew they felt obligated to look out for Brian’s children, but she felt she was a better parent to them than they had been to Brian or his brother, Jeff, and she knew what was best for her own children.
Barbara knew this wasn’t a pleasure trip, but she couldn’t help but be excited as the wind whipped past her face. Eventually, the wind caused windburn on her face, and her cheeks were soon rosy red and chapped. She was glad for the gloves, the hat, and the layers of shirts she had worn because it was cold on the water. She had a marine map, which showed the land as almost blank and had all sorts of lines showing longitude and latitude as well as reefs, underwater shelfs, and other nautical things that she didn’t quite understand. She was enjoying the challenge and used the first of the gas cans when she ran out of gas before finding a place to refuel the boat. So far, nothing had gone wrong, and she could only hope that the boat would withstand the long trek up the coast. The owner had been enthusiastic about it, but as she looked at the chewed seats, she had to wonder how well he had taken care of the boat. At one time, it had been a beautiful boat, but now, it needed a good cleaning. Barbara longed to clean and shine her up. but that would have to wait until they got everything going on the island. Meanwhile, she could buff and polish the area around the steering wheel, and she did just that as she drove along. Seeing other boats, she waved and began following when several headed inland. She was hoping to find somewhere to gas up. She filled the tank as well as the one gas can she had used before heading out again. She repeated that same thing several times during the day, topping off the tank before stopping for the night in a little town that had rooms for rent above a noisy, little pub that served excellent fish. She wasn’t bothered by the fisherman, who ate alongside her and drank hearty drafts of locally made beer, but just in case, she locked her door and tilted a chair against the door handle before getting out of her many layers of clothes and taking a hot bath in the discolored tub. The heat of the water made her sleepy, and she quickly got ready for bed. She worried about Marion and the children but knew her partner was equally worried about her. There was no way for them to contact each other, so they both had to hope for the best until they arrived safely at their destination in Franklin.
Marion hadn’t expected the trip to go smoothly, not while pulling a trailer and having three children along. She was also worrying about Barbara...out there on the ocean, anything could happen. They’d discussed it many times in the weeks preceding the move and decided there wasn’t anything they could do if they were to remain independent and make their dreams come true. Their families’ responses had proven they felt they had the right to control them. No one knew, or so they thought, what they really meant to each other, and they didn’t want to be pressured to remarry. There were several single men available in the village and in Boston that either of the women could have taken up with and eventually married, but neither of them was interested. No one would understand that, so it was best they pursue their own dreams.
Marion got a flat tire on the trailer about three hours out of Boston, but Barbara had put a spare tire on the front of the trailer just in case of such an incident. With the help of the two eight-year-old boys, who felt they knew more because of their maleness, it took longer for Marion to change the tire on the heavy trailer than it should have. Still, she maintained her patience with the boys, proving that a woman could do as much as a man, and she had the flat patched at the next gas station when she stopped to fill the tank in the truck.
They each used the filthy gas station bathroom because Marion warned them they weren’t going to stop again until they needed gas. The children ate sandwiches at midday from the basket Marion had packed as she continued to slowly make her way north on roads that had seen better days. Hopefully, now that the boys were back from the war, many of these backwoods’ roads would be fixed. In the days before interstates even existed, many towns and counties only haphazardly maintained their many dirt roads. Someday, Eisenhower, who was impressed by the German roads and infrastructure, would implement such plans across the United States; however, this was well before that time, and Marion cursed under her breath repeatedly as she hit bumps or potholes in the roads on her way north. She wished she could have taken the ferry again, but the weight of the trailer and truck wouldn’t have been allowed on board.
There was the flying ferry, but again, the weight of the trailer would have cost them far too much. Those kinds of luxuries would cater to the very people they hoped to attract when they were up and operational on their island. She thought about that and really didn’t have any idea how to appeal to those people. She was pleased that Barbara liked the book she had given her about marketing their business and hoped she would handle that part of the business for them. Her mind didn’t work that way, and she had a few moments of panic thinking about it. Instead, she was concentrating on the other side of their business, building the very cabins they would make money on. She hoped she had gathered enough know-how from her reading to do a decent job. She didn’t want to do it haphazardly and have them ultimately fail. All their money was in this dream, and while it frightened her at times, it also excited her.
The children loved the novelty of sleeping in a hotel, and although the rooms were only reasonably nice and they had to share two twin beds, they managed. She bought fruit, bread, and meat at the market to make their lunch for the following day before getting back on the road. The children were getting antsy with all the time spent in the car. Their noses were pressed against the windows watching the endless sea of trees going by, and they left finger and nose prints behind as evidence. Several times, Marion had to back up when she got onto the wrong road or was given wrong directions. It led to a frustratingly long day as she headed deeper into the wilds of Maine. She knew they would have a second night at a hotel with the children—they had planned for that—but she hoped they would meet up in Franklin on the third day. She feared she wasn’t going to make it with all the dips and curves and backwoods roads she was driving on, so she was grateful when she finally hit Route 24, which started in Brunswick and should take her northward to Calais. When she saw the turnoff for Moosehead Lake, she didn’t take it. She knew that would have taken her too far inland. She continued along the coast, stopping that second night in a small, seaside village whose name she couldn’t remember. They didn’t have a place where families could eat together, so she left the boys guarding their sister in the small room she had rented for the night while she went to get them hot meals from one of the local bars that served food.