novels
The First Novel - "The Gilded Cage"
Chapter One
Richmond Maine
As Eugene backed out onto Water Street he stopped as he got to the edge of the driveway before backing onto the road. He sat looking at the large yellow house that had been his and Miriam’s home for the past three years. It sure had served them well, he thought. That was about to change - yeah, big change. He and Miriam had a serious talk a couple of weeks ago, and that was when it became evident this was really going to happen. They both agreed it was time - that this really was the best for the both of them.
He sat for a minute watching. The door was open to the two story garage, and through it he could see Miriam, with welder’s helmet down over the front of her face, sparks flying wildly as she brazed her latest sculpture.
He continued to back onto the road and started off toward Portland. He was going to stop over at his Dad’s. He knew it would be difficult to explain what was happening to his father. But he had an interview in Prince Frederick, Maryland, on Tuesday with the Calvert County Public School system. And if he was offered a job, Eugene had already decided he would definitely take it. It was time to move forward. Miriam had pretty much made her decision. And he understood.
For him on the plus side it would mean he would be living near his best friend - Richard Pratt - and his wonderful wife - Wendy - and of course their two super kids, Jason and Emily. God he loved those two kids. He was Uncle Gene to them. But he had not seen them for what seemed such a long time. It was over last Christmas vacation when they were visiting from Maryland where they had moved. Hard to believe but it was over two years ago that Richard had accepted the engineering job at Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant.
Eugene missed them a lot, especially lately as he and Miriam were doing so little together. She had become extremely busy with her art work. But then, in all honesty, he and Miriam were not really a couple. That was something his Dad just did not understand.
The two of them had met her senior year at the University of Maine in Orono, and while she was graduating in Art Education and he was finishing up his Master’s in Math in Education, neither of them really knew where they would be the next year. And fortuitously it happened they both had interviewed with the Richmond, Maine, public school officials when they came to campus. Both he and Miriam were offered teaching jobs at Richmond Middle School, which they immediately accepted. And that was when they began talking about what that could mean.
They did not exactly date. Instead they had become close friends, both alike in the sense that they were comfortable being close without all the baggage of an emotional attachment. And when the interviews led to job offers, they both agreed - why not go together - find a place to live and just go from there. So they drove from Orono to Richmond to see what the town was like.
They had been driving slowly through the town of Richmond when they passed the huge yellow house on the main street. There was a small “For Rent” sign in the front yard and. They pulled into the driveway. It was a large two story farm type house that telescoped out into the large garage. They knocked on the door and met Mr. and Mrs. Frazier who owned the house, and who, like many of the town’s residents, were last generation owners who wanted to get out and move to Florida. This was Maine which, while fairly near the coast, still had really cold Winters.
And at first it was a truly great relationship, each taking turns cooking and then the dishes, and whatever other household cleaning needed to be done. And they agreed to keep separate bedrooms, just to not complicate matters. Neither felt pressure from the other, they truly were just really good friends. Eugene had developed a growing interest in the computer labs at school, and was spending more and more time learning the ins and outs on how to use them. Miriam had taken over the large garage and began doing large metal sculpture pieces. That was when Tom Watson had come into the picture.
Eugene remembered this like it was yesterday - the vividness of that first encounter stuck in his mind. He had been cleaning the last of the leaves in the front yard last Spring when he had been interrupted.
“Excuse me,” the unfamiliar voice said, startling Eugene. “What is she doing?”
Eugene looked up and did a double take, even more startled. It was like looking at a young Abe Lincoln.
“You mean her?” Eugene said, pointing to Miriam who was welding inside the open garage.
“Yes. Is she an artist?”
“Oh that’s Miriam. She teaches art at the middle school.” He extended his hand. “Hi. I’m Eugene Benoit.”
The stranger shook his hand. "Tom Watson. Could you introduce me? I'm a painter and I always like to meet other artists"
"Sure."
Eugene had walked Tom up to the garage and introduced him to Miriam, and from that point on the friendship became the main social event for both he and Miriam.
As they all became closer Miriam’s art began to flourish. And as Miriam became aware of Tom’s notoriety and reputation in the art community, she took his advice more seriously and put a lot of trust into his judgment. He knew people who knew people. Tom had taken her under his wing and promoted her work. This led up to the point when he organized the successful art show of her sculptures at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. People from Connecticut, Boston, and even New York had purchased her work.
Tom had recently bought a large farm outside of town, and was trying to escape the fame of being a world renowned artist. He had wanted a quiet place to work, and had enough money to afford this lifestyle. Some of his best friends, fellow artists from New York and Boston had moved to the farm with him. It became an artists’ commune where they grew their own food and were free to live their lives and pursue their art.
Eugene and Miriam visited there often, especially on weekends, and soon Tom posed the idea that she, or she and Eugene, move out there too. But that posed a dilemma as he and Miriam had a great place to live in the town. They could actually walk to work, and they loved the antiquity and quaintness of Richmond. The town itself had been one of the reasons three years before that they both accepted the teaching jobs at Richmond Middle School.
But the reality of what would become their future began to come more and more into focus. Eugene felt estranged about the prospect of moving out to Dresden to the farm - it was over 20 miles from the farm to his school. But he knew Miriam really wanted to do that - she seriously wanted to take that chance and work on becoming her own artist - not just an art teacher. And that pretty much made the decision to contact his best friend in Maryland, make the phone calls, get the interview set, and now drive down to Maryland. But he knew he needed to stop in Portland and talk with his Dad. He knew it would upset him but he knew that this was the right decision.
It was not really a revelation nor even a stark eye opening type awareness. No, for Eugene he sensed it more like a gnawing inside that felt like a churning in the stomach like something was just a little bit wrong. And they weren’t even speaking about this at all. But he sensed Miriam was feeling this same way also. He could tell just by the way she was lately - more distant, more quiet, less sharing and quite frankly spending more and more time in the garage of their huge house working on her art projects.
But Eugene sensed lately the gulf was growing between the two of them. This focus on her art work seemed lately what she really wanted to do. She would come home from her teaching art in middle school, would barely say hello and whisk off to the garage and dive into the latest sculpture she was working on. Most times she would not even come back inside in time for dinner.
Eugene knew Miriam was an exceptionally talented artist ever since they had first met. And he often wondered what she saw in him - they were so different. He was a math and computer teacher while she was an art teacher but also made these incredible metal sculptures. She was actually selling quite a few of them and was actually becoming fairly well known.
While the two were fortunate to both be full time teachers in the small village of Richmond, Maine, Eugene had begun to pick up feelers from others at the school that there may be changes coming as student enrollment was declining. And he was the last hired. And now with Miriam pretty much having decided to move to the farm with Tom, Eugene had set up the interview next week with the Calvert County Board of Education. But first he needed to talk with his Dad.
Chapter One
The Phone Call
The ringing phone startled Carl. He put his plate on the hassock, muted the TV and went to answer the phone. He thought, who the heck could it be; he never got phone calls.
“Hello?”
“Hey Pops.”
“Hey Eugene. Good to hear from you . How are you?”
“Great Pops. I just wanted to know what you got going on - I wanted to stop by.”
“Oh, good. When you coming over?”
“Spring break is coming up next week and I thought I would drive down Friday and spend the night.”
“Great . Going to spend some time?”
“Well, just overnight, Dad. I got some things going on that I want to talk to you about.”
“Well, uh okay . What’s up?”
“Let’s talk in person - get your opinion. You know - stuff like that.”
“Uh, okay. Is everything okay? Is Miriam okay?”
“Yeah - we’ll talk - things are fine - just things I want to talk to you about, Dad. Okay?”
“Sure, sure. How about I make a reservation at O’Malley’s and we can go get lobster - on me of course?”
“That sounds great Dad. Well I will see you on Friday, about 5:00, okay?”
“See you then - bye.”
Carl hung up and went back and sat down. He turned the TV off mute, but turned the volume down. This was so unlike Eugene, he thought. And the same - or worse - for Carole, for that matter. He never heard from his children. Eugene was busy teaching in Richmond, and Carole, she did work at that nursing home and raising her two little ones, married to Harold, in the small town outside of Augusta. Hallowell, that was it. He’d only been there a few times. And they never visited But that was another story.
Carl stared blankly at the TV. The phone call brought back much that he had lately put out of his mind. It had been easier that way to go from one day to another, but now he found himself rethinking those times with his family. Some were faded, a few were vivid - but most were vague, weak memories. Hearing from Eugene got him thinking about how confusing these moving sets of remembrances from the past had become - from the days of the children playing, tossing the youngsters through the legs, the laughter and joy, the amazement in their wide eyes, and the overpowering sense of how life could never be the same if that incredibly beautiful smile he remembered was not something he would see every day, how to him life would seemingly end if he was not able to see that. Boy, he thought, that was a long time ago, and things sure are different now.
He turned off the television and walked to the front windows.
Time was kind to no one, Carl felt. He was becoming more aware of it as each day passed. While it was true that he was alone now, he felt grateful that he still had his work. He found himself working longer now too, as it helped to give meaning to the days as they went by. Immersed in the business of his job as office manager at Multigraphics, there was a lot of activity and work to do, making him feel needed. Eugene had been after him to retire, and though he was old enough, and had the years in, he didn’t want to, and felt that he just couldn’t . He didn’t want to spend any more time alone in the house that was so flooded with family memories.
And yet he hardly ever heard from his children. Yes, Eugene and Carole both had lives and families, and were very busy with all that entailed, but it hurt just a little that neither of them called, not even once a week - or even two weeks - just to talk or find out how he was doing.
Carl looked out at the very familiar view of the front yard. There were no children playing now, the swing just hung motionless from the great oak, but in his mind he could still see Eugene and Carole playing there - she taunting him about getting off the swing, taking turns and hogging everything, and then finally going behind and pushing him off. Eugene would always just quietly walk away. He and Carole really did not get along well - still did not. And standing there in the deafening quiet, Carl sensed again the pangs of being alone. That was why he had continued to work. He didn’t need to, financially he was well enough off, but he just could not stand being alone day after day in this house - too many memories.
So little had changed in the house since Agnes died. Television had become a source of dulling numbness that helped get him sleepier and sleepier until it was really bedtime. And the busyness of work kept these memories and feelings from creeping back in. Most days he stayed at the job an hour or more later than he had to.
And while Carl never heard from his children, and he really had thought he might since their Mother passed, he knew they were busy with their lives. He knew. But they had called, a few times at first, but lately less and less. Both his kids seemed very busy in their lives. Now he felt really alone. Not just the quiet of the house but the building quiet of the memories.
And lately he had been remembering a lot more - rethinking all that had happened over these past years, especially sensing the isolation with Agnes gone. It had been over just over two years, yet it seemed like just yesterday, as if she would come around the corner from the kitchen at any moment to ask what he wanted for dinner. So many nights he would sense that, but of course she would not, and dinner would be his to make. He had lost a lot of weight since her passing.
And now Eugene had called, hadn’t said a whole lot, wanted to talk over something. He would be here Friday for the night. They would talk. Well, Carl thought, at least I still have my work. Thank God for Multigraphics. My God, he thought, I have two grown kids and I don’t know them - hell they don’t know of themselves - I am so alone with my life now - all I have is my work to make the days make sense. Meals, nights - they get tough. Tired of this sludge of life. Yep, he thought, at least they still need me at work. And he trudged upstairs in the overwhelming quiet to go to bed. He thought it would definitely be interesting to see Eugene again - he wondered what the big mystery was.
There is a lot more!!!