The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill (30 page)

She tried to remember the last time she'd seen him. At the funeral, of course. But had he been around after that? After noticing him so intently for so long, how had she been able to
not
notice him? Or to not notice that he was gone?

“He's not here,” she said when she returned to the front of the house.

“Should we go back to the graveyard?”

“I don't think he's there, either.”

“Well, where do you think he is?”

“Gone.”

“Gone?” Samuel asked, gripping the package close to his chest.

“Gone, vanished, kaput. He split town. Now, why do you think he would do that?” She sat down on the steps, and Samuel sat down beside her, his satchel clunking onto the front porch.

“Maybe he's like Mary Poppins and once everything is sorted, he leaves.”

Hazel thought that seemed highly unlikely, even if everything was sorted. Which it wasn't. Connie was leaving, but Maryann was still there to torment them, for one thing. And anyway, it seemed to Hazel that things always seemed to get unsorted and turned around, like the mess of thread in the bottom of her mother's unused sewing basket.

“Maybe he's a spy after all,” Hazel said. “And he's been called back to Mother Russia.”

“Hazel,” Samuel said.

“He could be a double agent.” Hazel liked that idea. “He could have been
pretending
to spy on us, but really he was
spying on them and telling us all their secrets. He's gone back to Washington to tell them everything he knows.”

“Hazel,” Samuel said again. “Can't he just be Paul Jones? Isn't that enough?”

Hazel considered that idea, and she supposed just being Paul Jones was enough for Paul Jankowski.

But not, of course, for Hazel Kaplansky, star student, holder of knowledge, solver of mysteries, and future double agent.

After World War II, the United States and other Western countries entered into what is known as the Cold War with Russia and the Eastern Bloc nations. This was not a war in the traditional sense, but rather a series of threats and military flare-ups around the world, including the Korean War, mentioned in this novel. The United States and its allies were trying to fight the spread of Communism, a form of government that is supposed to allow for equality among all people but often gets stalled with an all-powerful dictator.

Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was elected to the United States Senate in 1946, took advantage of the fear of Communism. He claimed to know of hundreds of spies who had infiltrated the American government. He made a number of unsubstantiated accusations of Communism and disloyalty against those who tried to oppose him. Because of the atmosphere of fear—fueled
in large part by McCarthy's accusations—many American leaders would not stand up to him, lest they be accused themselves.

One senator who did stand up to him was Margaret Chase Smith of Maine with her famous “Declaration of Conscience” speech in 1950. Though she never mentioned him by name, it was clear that it was McCarthy she was chastising when she said: “Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism—The right to criticize; The right to hold unpopular beliefs; The right to protest; The right of independent thought.”

Most of McCarthy's accusations focused on those working in the government, but in November 1953 McCarthy began an investigation of the General Electric plant in Schenectady, New York. He claimed that secrets about atomic weapons were being leaked from the plant. Many of those accused refused to testify: they pled the Fifth. This was not an admission of guilt but rather a form of solidarity. Many believed they were not being targeted for their political beliefs, but because they were in the union. A labor union is a group of workers who band together in order to have more power and protections from their employers. Many union workers were former Communist Party members. During World War I, Communism was not seen as the evil it came to be known as. Instead it was seen as the party that best supported workers' rights. Even though
most of the accused had left the party, they were treated as if they were still card-carrying members.

To learn about the fear of Communism in 1950s America, I spent a good deal of time reading and researching. You can find out more about that process on my website:
www.meganfrazerblakemore.com
. At one point I wrote in my notes:
Joe McCarthy
=
ultimate bully
, for indeed that's what he was. He used innuendo, half truths, and fear to build his own power. In the end, though, Senator McCarthy was discredited. In 1954, the Senate formally censured him, and now his name is synonymous with a dark period in United States history.

However, the fear of Communism lived on through the 1980s, when I was a child. I remember the certainty I felt that the United States would be bombed by Russia. Like Hazel, I longed for a safe space to hide and made plans for the inevitable emergency. The Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Unfortunately the legacy of fear and turning against our neighbors did not crumble along with the Wall.

Although the Schenectady investigations really happened, there was not anyone involved named Alice Winthrop, nor did an investigation occur in Vermont. Given the time, though, anything seems possible, even an investigation in a sleepy Vermont town. In this culture of fear, neighbors turned on neighbors. In a 1954 poll, 78 percent of Americans thought that people should report their neighbors or acquaintances to the FBI if they suspected them of Communism. In one case in
1950, a customer reported the owners of a Chinese restaurant as Communists because they were Chinese.

History does not only take place on a grand scale, at the level of nations and world leaders. It happens in big cities and small towns, in neighborhoods and houses across the world. It is, of course, happening at this very moment. And while it's nice to think that in the future, looking back, we'll be able to say we acted justly, real life—and history—is rarely so simple and straightforward.

Thank you to those who shared their memories of growing up in the 1950s: Trish Poole, Carol Pikcilingis, Paulinda Oakes, Doris Bernstein, Kathleen Donegan, Sue Murphy, Cathy Haidorfer, and Ed Blakemore.

The time and space of the 2011 Kindling Words East retreat allowed me to finish the very rough first draft of this novel, and I owe deep gratitude to the organizers as well as to all the participants.

Thank you to the team at Bloomsbury, especially to Mary Kate Castellani, an editor extraordinaire: writing a novel can be like weaving in the wind, and you make sure no threads get away.

Thank you to my agent, Sara Crowe, for always working to find the best homes for my books.

A very special thanks to the middle-school book group at
Berwick Academy (ca. 2011–2013). You guys are the best, and I talk about you wherever I go. An extra-special thanks to Mr. Knight.

Thank you to the Blakemores for letting me be a part of your family, and for helping out with the kids so I can get the work done.

Thank you to my dad, Joseph Frazer, and to Susan Tananbaum for being both my champions and my supporters. Thanks also, Dad, for sharing your stories of growing up, though most of them were too wild for this tale.

Thanks to my mom, whose publicity skills are second only to those of the Bloomsbury publicity and marketing teams. Your stories of growing up with your brothers, and your friends Peggy and Kathy, provided a foundation for this story, not to mention the lovely detail about the sausage grinders.

And finally, thank you to Nathan, Jack, and Matilda for everything, always.

Megan Frazer Blakemore
is the author of
The Water Castle
, which was listed as a
Kirkus Reviews
Best Book of the Year and as a New York Public Library Best Book for Reading and Sharing. She is also the author of the young adult novel
Secrets of Truth & Beauty
, which received a starred review in
Publishers Weekly
and was on the ALA Rainbow list. A former middle-school librarian, Megan lives in Maine with her family.

www.meganfrazerblakemore.com
@meganbfrazer

The Water Castle

Copyright © 2014 by Megan Frazer Blakemore

All rights reserved.
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

First published in the United States of America in May 2014
by Bloomsbury Children's Books
E-book edition published in May 2014
www.bloomsbury.com

Bloomsbury is a registered trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Bloomsbury Children's Books,
1385 Broadway, New York, New York 10018

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Blakemore, Megan Frazer.
The spy catchers of Maple Hill / by Megan Frazer Blakemore.
pages       cm
Summary: Hazel Kaplansky and new student Samuel Butler investigate rumors that a Russian
spy has infiltrated their small Vermont town, amidst the fervor of Cold War era McCarthyism,
but more is revealed than they could ever have imagined.
[1. Mystery and detective stories.   2. Friendship—Fiction.   3. City and town life—Vermont—Fiction.
4. Spies—Fiction.   5. Cold War—Fiction.   6. Vermont—History—20th century—Fiction.]   I. Title.
PZ7.B574Spy 2014      [Fic]—dc23      2013039857

ISBN 978-1-6196-3349-0 (e-book)

Visit
www.bloomsbury.com
to find out more about our authors and their books
You will find extracts, author interviews, author events and you
can sign up for newsletters
to be the first to hear about our latest releases and special offers.