That Camden Summer (37 page)

Lydia chimed in. "All he ever did was go away for weeks at a time and never even come home at night. "

Susan added, "He only came home when he ran out of money. Then he'd take it from her and leave again."

"So we were all really happy when my mother got divorced," Becky said, "and she has a job that we're all very proud of, too."

"She's a nurse-, and she helps people," Lydia told everyone,

"And she owns her own motorcar and she runs it herself, which most women would be afraid to do." That was Susan.

"But our mother's not afraid of anything." "Not even of you. She wouldn't have had to come here tonight to answer your questions, and

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neither would we . . . " Rebecca's glance took in her cohorts. "But we thought you should know what we do at our house."

Isobel stepped forward. "Before Mrs. Jewett came here, I was a really lonely girl who didn't have many friends or pastimes I was interested in. You all know my mother is dead, so I didn't have anyone at home after school and during the summer days either. Then I met Susan and Becky and Lydia and their mother ... and everything changed. I guess the first thing we did together was put on Hiawatha. She let us use her front porch and roll the piano right next to the front door - "

"And make any costumes we wanted Shelby DuMoss led a roundelay of remarks that fell from any child who wished to speak. Even the three Spear girls chimed in.

"And props ... gee, my mother wouldn't let us make a mess like that on our front porch!" "Then she let us put on the play for our parents."

"Only not many came."

"But we put it on at school, didn't we, Mrs. Roberson?" Becky turned to find her teacher in the crowd.

In row four, Mrs. Roberson stood up. "They certainly did, at my and Miss Werm's invitation, for the entire student body. And it was very well done indeed. If any of you thought the performance was originated and rehearsed at school, you stand corrected. It was all a product of the children's own ingenuity. Miss Werm. and I attended the performance on Mrs. Jewett's

front porch and saw immediately how the children were encouraged to take part in some very healthy activities there. Of course, we heard about them in school-, too."

Miss Werm stood up. "Not only drama, but music as well. And I believe I heard something about nature walks that she conducted."

"Oh, yeah! She took us up Mount Battie and we identified trees and collected insects and she'd recite poetry."

"At school we never liked poetry before, but when Mrs. Jewett taught us, it was about stuff we could understand."

4CIt's always fun at her house because everybody laughs there."

"And nobody tells us to be seen and not heard. "

"And there's always something to do." These remarks were made by the Spear girls.

"She taught me how to tell a tern from a gull. "

"Sometimes we'd be real hungry and she'd let us boil lobsters ourselves, right out in the yard over an open fire. "

"And I'm reading a book by Robert Louis Stevenson

"And we're probably going to make it our next play. "

"If Mrs. Jewett will let us."

Silence fell across the hall, a vast, memorable silence in which the gilding of Roberta Jewett3s reputation began. In the midst of that silence, Gabriel dropped Roberta's hand and rose calmly to his feet. Holding his floppy cap in his hand he

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looked straight at Alda Quimby and spoke in a deep, sure voice.

"And I have watched my daughter blossom into a vibrant young girl during this summer. What she told you earlier is true. She was lonely and bored until the Jewetts moved to town. Then Mrs. Jewett opened her heart and her home and took Isobel in as if she were one of her own" - he looked down at Roberta - "and for that I am eternally grateful."

Without histrionics, Gabriel resumed his seat. At the table up front, Alda Quimby was still trying to keep from looking like a jackass.

"Mr. Farley," she pursued, "there is another issue we haven't taken up, and it's a rather ... well, shall we say a delicate matter of which it appears you are a major factor. But in light of the presence of these children

On the right side of the hall Elizabeth DuMoss stood up, dressed to the nines and radiating social grace.

"I believe I know what that issue is, and if it pleases the board, I think I can shed some light on it. You all know me, and my husband, Aloysius." lie nodded. "And this is our lawyer from Bangor, Mr. Harvey. If the children have finished speaking their piece, a short private session might be in order at this time. Mr. Chairman, Mrs. Quimby, would you mind repairing to another room with us so that we can get this over with as quickly as possible?" "Of course, Mrs. DuMoss."

"I believe Mrs. Jewett and Mr. Farley should be present, too."

"Certainly, Mrs. DuMoss."

"Aloysius . . . " she invited, and as he stood, she took his arm. "Mr. Harvey." Harvey rose and followed.

When they had gathered in a classroom down the hall, and the door was closed behind them, Aloysius DuMoss introduced Mr. Daniel Harvey. Harvey, a tall-, courtly fellow with an affable mien, suggested that everyone seat themselves in the school desks. They did so, with the board members choosing the second and third rows while Roberta and her supporters folded down the front row-, which consisted of seats only_, with no writing surfaces.

Mr. Harvey stood in front of them like a teacher. He let his eyes graze over every person in the room before addressing them in a voice calculated to soothe rather than arouse.

"Members of the school board, Mrs. Jewett, Mr. Farley ... Mr. and Mrs. DuMoss have asked me to be present tonight to represent them and you, Mrs. Jewett - should the need arise - in what they hope shall be the immediate silencing of these allegations. We are speaking now of the allegations regarding licentious conduct on the part of Mrs. Jewett in which Mr. Farley has been implicated, are we not?"

The members of the school board, intimidated by the unexpected presence of a Bangor attorney, bounced gazes among themselves, then Mr. Boynton harrumphed and replied, "Yes, we are."

"Thank you, Mr. Boynton. Mrs. DuMoss has

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some information she wishes to impart on the subject. First though, the DuMosses have asked that the members of the board read and sign this confidentiality agreement to ascertain that whatever is spoken in this room shall remain confidential ad finem." Mr. Harvey produced a typewritten paper and passed it to the chairman of the board.

Mr. Boynton complained, "Mr. Harvey, this is highly irregular. This is nothing but an informal inquiry. "

"On what appear to be some highly sensitive moral issues which could damage the reputation of anyone so accused if they were to be aired in public. Mrs. DuMoss informs me that the children of a certain Mr. Spear were present in the meeting hall tonight. Since what she has to say involves him, she feels they should be protected from hearing it at all costs, either firsthand or secondhand. To that end, she has requested that each member of the board sign the confidentiality agreement which I shall notarize and which Mr. DuMoss will keep under lock and key."

"But" - Mr. Boynton glanced at the paper "you're asking us to sign a paper disallowing us to defend ourselves regarding our decision in this matter. "

"Exactly. But the decision will be the board's nonetheless, and once you've heard what Mrs. DuMoss has to say you'll understand her reasoning."

The board had never come up against such a bizarre request before. However, given Aloysius IQA.

DuMoss's largess to the school district in the past, and the future funding they'd stand to lose if they displeased him at this juncture, Mr. Boynton had little choice.

"Oh, all right. We'll sign and get on with

it. "

Mr. Harvey produced a silver pen and ink vial, dipped the nib and handed it to Mr. Boynton first. The room remained so silent that the scratching of six signatures sounded like dogs at a door.

"Thank you." With the signatures completed, Mr. Harvey capped his ink vial and slipped his pen into a leather sheath. "I shall let Mrs. DuMoss proceed."

Elizabeth rose and3 followed by her husband, ascended the podium and pulled out the chair. Mr. Harvey sat in one of the desks they'd vacated, while Aloysius DuMoss stood at his wife's shoulder as she seated herself and gathered her thoughts. Linking her fingers on the desktop, she spoke in a reserved, cultured voice.

"What I have to tell you tonight I've held inside a long time. It has been cause for great distress to me for years and years. You all know me ... you've known me all my life and realize that I have no reason to lie. What I tell you will be the truth, and my husband will vouch for it., because he's known about it for years as well.

"Since the telephone wire has come to Camden we all hear things on our party line that we wish we hadn't. There are people who spread the news they hear as if it were their God-given right to do so. I don't abide by it3

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but it's inevitable that gossips will talk, and I hear rumors like anybody else,

"I recently heard a rumor about a fistfight between Gabe Farley and Elfred Spear. Everyone in this room knows it's true that the fight took place, because we've all seen Elfred walking around looking like a bowl of Harvard beets. The night of that fight Gabe yelled something in Elfred's front yard that nobody in this room has had the courage to say, and that I believe must be said. The word was 'rape', and I know about it because it happened to me."

Aloysius gripped his wife's shoulder as she struggled to overcome a wave of emotion. Her throat worked and the knuckles on her linked hands turned white.

"When I was seventeen years old Elfred Spear raped me." Tears suddenly glittered in Elizabeth's eyes and she lost her ability to speak. Her husband dipped his head near hers and fortified her with a whispered word and the continued presence of his hand upon her shoulder. "It's all right, dear," she whispered, touching his hand. "I can do it."

She cleared her throat and continued. "The particulars aren't important, only the fact that I was an innocent virgin on my way home from an evening with my friends when I accepted a ride from a young man I thought I knew. One I trusted. The ramifications of that night have affected me the rest of my life. My marriage to Aloysius began in fear. Only his patient love has seen me through the nightmares that took years to go away. Since the Benevolent Society's attack

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on Mrs. Jewett, my nightmares have returned." Elizabeth's eyes sought and found Roberta's-,

and their kindred pasts brought the glisten of tears to both their eyes.

To the room at large, Elizabeth stated in the most ladylike tone, "I damn Elfred Spear all over again for what he did to me. I did not deserve it. I did nothing to encourage him - nothing! I was female, and for Elfred, that was enough. We all know that for Elfred that's always been enough. Yet how many of you - especially you men - laugh away his antics as if they were no more than childish pranks while the women he preys upon are sentenced to eternal silence because if they were to speak up, they would be accused, just as you've accused Mrs. Jewett. And don't say you haven't. because I was at that Benevolent Society meeting when that despicable gossip got blown up into this farce you have perpetrated on a woman whose only crime was returning to her hometown as a divorce'e.

"For that you have labeled her, and that's what this inquiry is about, isn't it?" Elizabeth let a beat of silence drill her accusation home before continuing.

"it's much easier to point a finger at a divorced woman than at a pillar of our town society, isn't it? Especially one you all do business with each day. Well, you do business with my husband, too, and I bless his loving heart for standing behind me in my wish to confront you tonight with a plea to stop persecuting Roberta Jewett. If you don't, you

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should know that our estimable fortune will be behind Mr. Harvey in defending Mrs. Jewett in whatever way is necessary. There will be newspaper reporters here, too, challenging your motives - to say nothing of your right - to bring her before this board for questioning. And in the process, Elfred Spear's wife and children will be dragged through the trail of evildoing he's left behind. I'm a mother of four. I simply don't believe children should suffer something like that. Therefore, the confidentiality agreement I've asked you to sign. Gentlemen ... and lady ... I leave you to decide where to go from here." Elizabeth added -' "Just one more thing. I have resigned my post as treasurer of the Benevolent Society because I cannot, in all good conscience, be affiliated with a group that makes a mockery of their very name. Thank you. "

Elizabeth sat back and relaxed her hands. Her husband patted her shoulder as she looked up at him. To Elizabeth's credit, she had never threatened a withdrawal of future school funding from the DuMoss coffers, nor had she stated unequivocally that Roberta Jewett had been raped. But it was evident by the mood in the room that the school board had no intention of grilling her further.

Mr. Boynton said, " If we could have a few minutes to talk this over

Five people left the room: The DuMosses and their lawyer, Roberta and Gabe. Out in the hall, when the schoolroom door closed behind them, the two women stood before each other

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in a moment of poignant silence before pitching together and hugging hard enough to wrinkle their bodices.

"How can I ever thank you3 Elizabeth? "Perhaps you already have. I've let it out at last-, and after all these years, it feels so good. I wouldn't have done that but for your own misfortune." Elizabeth pulled back and said, "I was afraid I was divulging things about you that weren)t entirely my right, but I thought that by making them sign the agreement

"Say no more. You were utterly tactful, and I wanted them to know about Elfred, too, so you spoke for both of us."

"I'll tell you one thing," Elizabeth said, putting on a more cheerful face. "Alda Quimby will pay the price for spearheading this inquiry. It'll drive her crazy that she can't tell this to every woman in that Benevolent Society."