Home Is the Place by Ann M. Martin

Author:Ann M. Martin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2014-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

The morning rolled on, the house quiet except for the sounds of Georgia’s mother as she tidied the kitchen, made coffee, checked her email, spoke on the phone. Georgia read through the first journal, fascinated. How quickly Nell’s plans had come apart, as quickly as if they had been a glass that had shattered. In the weeks that followed, her family had tried to console her, but Nell couldn’t let go of her plans for the wedding, the house in Barnegat Point, the babies.

Ralph could still come back, she confided in the journal. He’s listed as missing in action. Missing.

But months had gone by and finally a year had passed since Edward had delivered the terrible news to Nell.

As Georgia read the story of Nell’s life she was aware of how much time went by between some entries. A month or more, and then Nell would write in a burst, long entries every single day. On the one-year anniversary of the news of Ralph’s disappearance, Nell wrote simply: A year has passed. An entire year. I walk into town and nothing has changed. The shop is the same, the streets are the same. Home is the same.

Still, everything has changed. Ralph’s family is gone.

(Georgia didn’t know where they had gone or when they had left. Nell hadn’t written about it.)

Then came an entry that caught Georgia’s eye. It was dated August 17th, 1919, and in it Georgia found the first reference to Luther Nichols.

“Nell’s husband,” Georgia murmured. “Great-Grandma Abby’s father.”

They had met at an ice-cream social. (Georgia had to stop reading the journal, get out her laptop, and find out what an ice-cream social was. It turned out to be a gathering, probably held at a church, the purpose of which mainly seemed to be socializing over ice cream, which seemed like an enormously good idea to Georgia.)

He told me he’s just moved here from Connecticut. He wanted to know my name and brought me ice cream and asked Father if he could call on me sometime. Mother is pleased.

The courtship seemed to progress rather quickly, Georgia thought. Luther was building a cottage for her in Lewisport. That seemed to mean a lot to Nell. And to her parents.

He’s making the furniture, too. All of it with his own hands. Father is impressed.

But there was also a hint, if not of trouble exactly, then of a sense that things were not quite right: He doesn’t like Faye. That much is clear. (Faye, Georgia knew, was Nell’s best friend from school.) He doesn’t want to spend time with her, and doesn’t want me to see her either. He seems to want me for himself. I try to feel flattered, but the effect is of smothering.

A mere two months later, Luther asked Nell’s father for her hand in marriage. When he agreed, Luther proposed to Nell. She accepted and he gave her a plain silver band.

Nothing fancy. We must save our money. I don’t understand, though. As soon as the ring was on my finger, he said I’m to leave my position at the shop.

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