Section I,Next Section

Part 1

Story description: Thea Moore, school teacher and avid Jane Austen fan, purchases a mysterious piece of scrimshaw during a class trip to Mystic Seaport, Connecticut. Based on Jane Austen's "Letters" and Persuasion

Chawton. Monday, December 16, 1817.

he could postpone her letter writing no longer. Regardless of ill health, which kept her from walking out with her nieces as much as she would wish, she knew what was due to her oldest nephew on the occasion of his leaving Winchester. Miss Jane Austen resolved not to go a day longer without having sent him her congratulations. She sat down with her writing desk and began. "My dear Edward."

She smiled as she thought of the eager young man whom she was now addressing with the term "esquire". James Edward had, like her other nephews and nieces, continued to be a source of joy and pride for the two aunts and grandmother living at Chawton Cottage. He had even taken up his aunt's little habit of scribbling stories on paper, sending them to her for criticism and approval. "Aunt Jane" had pondered "dear Edward's" latest post the evening before, reading it out to her mother and sister.

He seemed to share her love for the Navy. His story featured a ship's captain as the hero, a match to the novel that she had finished earlier in the year. His style, however, did not match her own. Her own quiet stories set in country villages bore little resemblance to his adventure filled epics, where the hero invariably chased danger around the world and back.

"Aunt Jane" was not quite sure how to respond to Edward's latest. To own the truth, she felt that it was a little too implausible. The hero defied death frequently, too frequently for her tastes. He fell from alookout perch to the deck without so much as a bruise. He swam in shark infested waters and survived a duel at twenty paces. Such feats were hardly human! Could she say that to Edward? She thought not.

She pondered her difficulty, turning her eyes towards the mantel where she and her sister displayed several of their treasures. Her brother Francis had just sent them a very attractive etching made on a whalebone corset busk. It was of his ship and had been carved by one of his men. Both sisters had deemed it too attractive to actually use for its actual purpose of supporting their frames and had chosen to hang it above the fireplace instead. Their mother had declared such a thing to be quite scandalous and was sure that they were about to be censured by the entire village for their lack of delicacy. Jane, however, felt too old to care about what others thought.

It was a lovely piece, if small. the delicate lines of the ship drawn faithfully by someone who had learned patience by enduring many tedious months at sea. Looking at it, she could hardly imagine that a man could have drawn it. The small canvas seemed to require a woman's touch. Surely there were no women on Frank's ship!

Her own style of writing seemed to match that of the diminutive ivory bit. She considered it further and then wrote to her nephew; "What should I do with your strong, manly, spirited Sketches, full of Variety and Glow? How could I possibly join them on to the little bit (two inches wide) of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush, as produces little effect after much labor?"

Mystic, Connecticut. May 27, 1998

Thea Moore slumped on a wooden bench and wondered if there was really any point in her wandering around the museum's gift shop. In her current state of mental and physical exhaustion, she was sure to knock over some expensive and fragile object just by brushing past a display. She was not known for her grace, in spite of all the ballet classes endured during childhood.

She looked over at the distant village green, and attempted to make out the figures of her students as they raced around, happily playing a game of tag. "Good," she thought, "Let them run out all of their energy so they'll sleep on the drive home." She saw the other chaperones sitting on the steps of the gazebo in the center, talking with one another. Thea frowned and hoped that they were still able to keep a watchful eye on the children. It would be far too easy for one of her fifth graders to leave the group, wandering away with or without the encouragement of some rotten and dangerous pedophile.

Thea closed her eyes and attempted to put that frightening thought out of her mind, but it would not be banished. As their homeroom teacher, she knew that she was ultimately responsible for the health and safety of these 42 students on their first overnight trip away from their parents. It was not a charge that she took lightly. She did not even sleep the night before, choosing to sit in the hotel hallway, keys to each of her student's rooms firmly in hand. She padded noiselessly through their hotel rooms during the early hours of the morning, insuring that the television sets had been turned off, the air conditioners had been turned down, and that they were all still there! Thea realized that her need to be vigilant bordered on the obsessive, but she preferred to err on the side of safety.

That afternoon however, the other teacher on the trip firmly insisted that she take some time away from the group. "You've been in charge for thirty-six hours straight," Daphne Slocum had commented. "Go to the gift shop by yourself. I'll take care of them."

She forced Thea to walk away from the group and was now taking a rest in front of the gift shop. Her eyes half closed, she considered pulling out her book and reading a chapter instead of going inside. She had packed her favorite book in her duffel bag: Persuasion by Jane Austen. It had been her companion during her vigil the night before and a general comfort through her first two years as a teacher. She couldn't even begin to count how many times she had re-read the novel in the last two years.

In fact, it was Thea's interest in Persuasion that led her to suggest Mystic Seaport as a destination for the annual fifth grade overnight. Mystic Seaport was a re-creation of a nineteenth century whaling village, complete with it's own whaling vessel, the Charles W. Morgan. Persuasion was a nineteenth century novel that featured a naval captain and the woman he had left on shore. The comparison was obvious to Thea, even though she realized that the time periods were somewhat different. The Seaport did not disappoint her, however. For Thea, visiting the living museum was as close as she could get to walking through Lyme with Anne Elliot or standing on the deck of a ship with Captain Wentworth. Thea shook her head with some disgust as she realized that she had probably enjoyed visiting the exhibits more than her students. They had even yawned their way through the druggist's shop, complete with jars of blood-sucking eels. Perhaps there would have been more interest if they had been allowed to test the healing properties of such eels on their own arms. Thea sighed at the thought.

She took another look over at the class, now running mindlessly around the village green. They seemed be enjoying themselves more than they had done all day. "We might as well have stayed at home and played on our own playground," Thea felt like growling as she watched them cavort on the grass.

Thea closed her eyes. She had to stop watching her class for a few minutes. She felt herself losing patience with them and she knew that she would need to keep her cool for the four hour bus trip back to New Jersey. Without opening her eyes, she stood up and turned towards the gift shop. At least there, she would be unable to glance over at them.

The gift shop was larger than she had imagined and seemed to have a huge selection of books and nautical memorabilia. A person could actually buy a ship's figurehead as well as aged looking charts encapsulated in mylar. Thea wondered about the authenticity of both as she studied them. She knew that paper could be made to look like yellowed parchment by staining it with wet teabags. She had just taught that method to her students in social studies that year.

Thea moved away from the wall of charts and knocked into a display of wind chimes, setting them all off at once. The display clanged noisily. Thea froze and felt everyone in the shop turn towards her. She looked at their shocked faces, a sheepish grin beginning to play on her face. "Yes, I'm a clutz," she felt like shouting at them. "Go back to your purchases, nothing more to see here." She walked swiftly away from the chimes and began to study a display case filled with pieces of scrimshaw as if her life depended on it. Thea did not brush off embarrassment quickly.

"Do you see anything you like, dear?" a grandmotherly lady with white hair approached her from the other side of the display case. "I'd be happy to pull out something for you."

Thea looked up in surprise, "Oh! No, I'm just looking," she admitted quickly.

"There are some really lovely pieces in here," the white-haired lady continued. "Do you know anything about scrimshaw?"

Thea was in familiar territory. She had been showing pictures of the ivory and whalebone etchings to her students for the last month. She had even had her students attempt to create their own pieces of scrimshaw, using white foam board instead of sperm whale teeth or baleen. "Yes, a little," she said.

"These," the lady indicated the top shelf, "are corset busks. A sailor might send one home to his sweetheart so that she might remember him and keep him close to her heart."

Thea looked over the selection of yellowing stays, each approximately two inches wide.

"Hard to believe that we used to wear such things," the white haired woman continued fondly.

Thea smiled and wondered if the lady had ever worn whalebone in her corset when she was young.

"I believe that this one is my favorite," said the lady as she pulled one out of the display case. She held it out for Thea to admire. Thea gasped as the light caught the dark lines of a ship. She could hardly believe that the etching could be so delicate. She held out her hand as if to touch it.

The white-haired lady placed it in her hand, seemingly unafraid of Thea's proven graceless behavior. Thea cradled it in her palm and stroked it lightly with her index finger. "Is it real?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," said the white-haired lady. "It could just be a reproduction. The price seems to indicate that."

Thea turned it over and saw that the price was $50.00, which she assumed was reasonable for a good reproduction.

"But there is something about it that makes me feel as if it were much older." the woman finished.

Thea looked down at the object and had to agree. She could almost imagine some sailor carving the likeness of his ship for the woman that he loved. The artist seemed to have an intimate knowlege of the vessel, something that she wondered if a modern imitator would be able to recreate. "It's lovely."

"It's also affordable," the woman prompted.

Barely affordable on a teacher's salary! Thea was not an impulse buyer, but there was something bewitching about the etching. She tried to think of a way to rationalize the purchase of it. She started by reminding herself that she never spent money on art treasures. She ended by reminding herself that she could use it as an example during next year's lesson on scrimshaw.

"I'll take it!" she whispered to the white-haired lady.

Thea found herself pulling out the box that contained her treasure several times on the bus ride home. She found herself admiring the fine lines of the the rigging and the rough texture of the sea. At one point, she realized that she must have memorized every thin crevice that had been made on it. She held it up to the sunlight. She rubbed it lightly with her finger as the others on the bus slept.

Then she discovered a new gouge, running horizontally across the picture. It was a thin line that did not bisect the ship itself, but did meet it at both sides. When she held it up to the light, it almost looked as if it were a bit of land on a horizon. She recalled that the picture did not have a horizon line when she purchased it.

Thea was sickened by the thought that she had made the gash herself through handling it too much. She placed it gently back in the box and resolved not to look at it until she was safely back in her apartment. Perhaps the lack of sleep was making her see things. Land on the horizon doesn't just appear out of nowhere!

Part 2

Tenafly, New Jersey. May 27, 1998

"This not not optional, Thea," Daphne Slocum chided, attempting to convince Thea to go out for a drink with her, "This is a tradition that you must buy into."

Thea grimaced and wondered about the faculty tradition of going out for a drink after successfully completed overnight class trips. "Can't we break with tradition this year?" Thea asked skeptically, watching their last fifth grader depart with his parents. "I'm really tired. I'll probably fall asleep on you."

"No," Daphne said with a strong degree of finality. "We need to relax after being with students for forty-eight hours straight."

"I'm relaxed," Thea lied.

Daphne leveled a look of disbelief at her, raised eyebrow included. She seemed to know Thea very well, better than Thea realized. It was obvious to her that Thea was not relaxed.

"All I really need is a nice shower," Thea hedged weakly.

"What if I told you that I'd take a refusal personally?" Daphne asked.

Thea sighed and felt trapped. "One drink?" she asked. Daphne smiled. She knew that she had won. "Sure, one little drink."

Thea grimaced again and gave into Daphne Slocum's demands. She stowed her bags into the back of Daphne's hatchback. Going out for one little drink was the last thing that Thea really wished to do that night. She wanted to go home, unpack, turn on the air conditioner, and fall into a blissful and uninterrupted sleep. She was not a heavy drinker and alcohol always seemed to bring out her sillier side. Thea knew that she could not be trusted to control her tounge. She wondered if that was what Daphne had expected would happen.

Thea looked over at Daphne as they rounded the corner and drove to a "sweet little" Mexican restaurant that was not too far away from the school. Daphne Slocum was one of the more talkative members of the faculty. She also seemed to know everyone and everything. Some might even call her a busybody.

"This restaurant has the best sangria!" Daphne enthused, pulling into the parking lot. "Or maybe you're a margarita kind of person."

Thea wondered if she could get away with drinking a diet coke and eating a few chips.

"My husband and I used to go here all the time," Daphne revealed, turning off the engine and opening her door.

Thea looked over at her, somewhat surprised. She didn't know that Daphne was married.

Daphne caught her look. She jumped out of the car and locked the door. "My husband died three years ago," she said to Thea, over the roof of the car.

"I'm sorry," Thea responded, "I didn't know."

"No," Daphne agreed, "You didn't know."

The two turned towards the restaurant and walked in. Once inside, Daphne made a decision to head for the bar section instead of the restaurant. She chose a small table along one wall, shaded by a sickly potted palm. The waitress arrived and Daphne ordered a pitcher of sangria and a basket of chips.

After the order had been taken, Daphne turned back to Thea. She appraised her somewhat critically. "You didn't know." Daphne repeated.

"No," Thea shook her head and felt somewhat guilty for not being aware of such an important piece of information.

Daphne smiled sadly. "Thea, how long have you been working at this school?"

Thea felt her defenses rise.

"I'll answer for you," Daphne added, "Two years next September."

Thea nodded her head.

"And we hardly know anything about one another."

Thea opened her mouth as if to say something to contradict this. Daphne raised her hand to stop her from attempting it.

She lowered her hand. "No, that's not true. I have actually learned a great deal about you in the last two years, in spite of your attempt to keep to yourself."

Thea looked at her, eyes widening.

Daphne went on, "Let me tell you what I know and you can tell me where I'm wrong." she breathed and launched into her description. "You've been working in Tenafly for two years, this is your first teaching position. You were hired straight out of graduate school. You are well versed in the latest educational paradigms, know how to use technology, and pride yourself on your creativity. You spend a great deal of time in your classroom, agonizing over student essays and short answer test questions. Your bulletin boards are always original. You even cut out your own letters instead of buying them at the store. You feel a real responsibility towards your students and make more parent phone calls than anyone else at the school. You're committed, responsible, and loving."

Thea felt her face grow hot, in spite of the fact that Daphne might not mean her speech as a compliment.

Daphne reached her hand over the table towards Thea. "And you're within three years of becoming completely burned out," she added softly.

Thea looked away.

"These last two days have convinced me of it," Daphne said, taking the sangria pitcher from the waitress and pouring out a glass. "You wouldn't even take a shower this morning! Thea, what did you think was going to happen in the fifteen minutes you might have taken for yourself?"

Thea didn't know how to respond. Embarrassed, she took a sip of sangria.

Daphne drank from her glass as well. "I don't mean to criticize, but I am worried for you."

"I can take care of myself," Thea objected.

"Can you?" Daphne asked, disbelieving. "You aren't doing a good job of it currently."

Thea sat back, shocked.

"You worry about your students, you worry about their parents, but you don't worry about yourself."

Thea took another sip.

"What are you planning on doing this summer?" Daphne seemed to change the subject.

"I've been thinking about doing the day camp at school," Thea admitted, "and planning my literature units for the fall."

Daphne shook her head, "No time off from school, then?" she accused.

Thea reached for her glass of sangria again.

Daphne seemed to try another tack. "What does your boyfriend have to say about this?"

"What boyfriend?" Thea asked.

"You aren't seeing anyone right now?" Daphne asked, not surprised.

"No," Thea said, dully.

"I don't understand that either," Daphne said, "Here you are, a brilliant, beautiful young woman. Why aren't you out there having the time of your life?"

"I don't know." Thea said and realized that her glass of sangria was empty. Daphne refilled it.

"I think that you do know," Daphne prodded. "You hurt."

"I hurt?" Thea asked.

"There's someone out there who hurt you so bad that you're afraid to try again." Daphne summed up.

Thea felt a hard chunk of ice roll down her throat. She spit a wine sodden slice of lemon back into her glass.

"You've never been able to get over him," Daphne furthered.

Thea swirled the sangria in her glass and refused to look at Daphne.

"But you need to get over him. Either that or go back to him. This emotional limbo is not good."

"I don't understand where this is coming from," Thea said. "You've already said that you hardly know anything about me!"

"But I am right, aren't I?" Daphne said.

"No," Thea lied.

Daphne shook her head and was not convinced. Thea took another drink.

"I know what's in your bag," Daphne revealed.

"What?" Thea said, "What's in my bag?" She remembered the piece of scrimshaw that she had purchased at Mystic Seaport. She had not shown it to the students or the other chaperones. Could Daphne be referring to that?

"Your book," Daphne said.

"What about my book?"

"Persuasion," The word rolled off Daphne's tounge lovingly. "Persuasion by Jane Austen."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Thea asked.

Daphne shook her head and looked down at the table. "I must have read it twenty-four times after the death of my husband. It's very comforting to see someone's life work out well in the end, especially when your own is nowhere near perfection."

"I don't understand," Thea said.

Daphne sighed and seemed to decide against explaining further. "Maybe I don't know you as well as I think I do."

"Maybe you don't," Thea finished off her glass and crunched ice.

"But, for your sake, consider what I said about teacher burnout. You need to take the summer off."

"Do I?" Thea continued to crunch.

"Yes," Thea said, "In fact, I think that you need to get away from here. You need an enforced vacation. Go away. Go down the shore, go to the Hamptons, Long Beach Island, Montauk, wherever."

"You want me to go to the beach?" Thea said skeptically.

"I want you to get away from teaching. Do something else this summer, write a novel or paint a picture. Don't plan a literature unit and babysit." Daphne poured the rest of the pitcher in Thea's glass. "You'll thank me in the fall."

Part 3

Waking up the next morning, Thea could not recall when she went to bed the night before. That had to be percieved as a very bad sign. She looked around her bedroom and realized that she must have so tired that she hadn't even bothered to pull down the shades. She was also fully dressed.

She raised herself up and felt her head explode. "Ahhhh!" she gasped and fell back down on the bed, temples pounding. "Sangria," she mumbled to herself and remembered last night. She had allowed Daphne Slocum to order another pitcher of wine.

"Daphne!" The name rolled off of Thea's tounge like an epithet. Thea hoped that Daphne was experiencing as painful a headache as her own that morning, but knew that this was probably not the case. Daphne had not drunk nearly as much as Thea the night before.

Thea tried to remember what they had discussed over drinks, but drew a blank. She remembered something about teacher burnout and needing to take a trip to the beach. Daphne had said something about perceiving that she had been hurt and that she needed to get over it. Daphne had mentioned Persuasion and the fact that Thea had kept a copy of the novel in her bag. Thea could remember nothing after that. What had they talked about while they were drinking that second pitcher of sangria?

Thea closed her eyes, "Please don't let me have told her about Drew," she prayed fervently and felt a familiar pin prick at the center of her heart. It was the same pain she experienced every time something made her recall her former boyfriend Andrew Carroll. Remembering him actually happened with great frequency; for even though she hadn't heard from him since he moved out of her life four years ago, she had heard of him very often. In fact, she couldn't seem to open up a magazine or watch television without hearing him called the up-and-coming film director who's meteoric rise to the top of his profession had everyone in the entertainment industry making comparisons to Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino. It was true that he had yet to be nominated for an Academy Award, but everyone seemed to be confident that he would eventually achieve this goal.

Thea could say that she knew him when he was still a struggling film maker, barely out of school and with no significant prospects for work. Their light flirtation and casual dating had quickly turned into something much more serious very quickly, shocking her family and his own. Thea remembered the odd sense of connection that had come over her on their first date. She hadn't been nervous around him. There was an ease to their conversation that she had never experienced with any other man. It was almost as if they had met before and were simply building upon past history.

After three months, Drew had decided to move out to Los Angeles in order to accept a job as an assistant director for a low-budget, independent film. It was a project that Drew felt had great potential, if not a large amount of money. He asked Thea to move out with him. She quickly said yes.

Her parents had talked her out of that initial rash decision, employing every persuasive argument available. While they liked Drew well enough, he was young and inexperienced. It would take him a great deal of time to become established in a field that was not known for its stability. Drew would most likely have to go on unemployment after this film shoot or sponge off Thea. They could not bear to see their intelligent daughter being reduced to supporting an unemployed filmmaker.

Thea remembered trying to convince her parents of his genius and the fact that he was a hard worker. She was sure that he would find another job after this shoot. She also said that she wouldn't mind supporting him during lean times. She was a hard worker herself.

Thea's resolve wavered when her parents reminded her of the fact that she would be more of a liability to him than a helper. While she had just completed her bachelor's degree, she had chosen to major in 19th Century English literature, not a very marketable base of knowlege in today's society. She could dissect the poems of Wordsworth and Coleridge with great enjoyment and ease, but companies were not looking for such skills.

Thea had not thought about this. Her parents chose that moment to ask her what she intended to do now that she had graduated from school. Surprisingly, Thea had not given enough thought to this either.

It was then that her parents pulled out their own proposal. They were willing to fund graduate school for Thea if she were willing to stay in New Jersey. They reasoned that she could always move out to Los Angeles after completing her master's degree, if she were still in love with Andrew at that time.

Andrew did not take this change in plans well. To him, it seemed like a vote of no confidence. Did Thea not believe in his talent and ability? Worse than that, it appeared as if she didn't love him enough to struggle through the difficulties of starting out in life by his side. Thea shuddered when she remembered his anger and hurt. He left for Hollywood the next day.

She had tried to forget him as he must have forgotten her by now, but had never been successful. There continued to be something about him that resonated with her even after their four year separation. None of the men that she had dated in the interim had ever been able to replace him in her thoughts.

Trying to forget had become a full-time job for Thea, especially after Drew had begun to achieve some notoriety. Thea still remembered the first time she had seen his name on the wide screen of the local movie theater. She recalled the mixture of pride and sadness that the viewing of his name had summoned from within. She hadn't been able to watch the movie, her emotions became too intense. She remembered walking back up the theater aisle attempting to swallow the hard lump in her throat. She bought the video of it half a year later and still had not brought herself to watch it.

Teaching had brought some sense of balance back to Thea's life. Concern for her students filled up the places in her thoughts where she used to dwell on Andrew, the success of his career, and her own regrets. Thea had felt at peace when teaching, but it was a hard won peace. That equilibrium now seemed threatened by Daphne Slocum and the fact that Thea might have told her too much. Daphne was not the type of person to keep something like this to herself.

"Busybody," Thea growled at the thought of Daphne scheming to get her drunk in order to learn all of Thea's secrets. But had she told her? She would definitely know on Monday.

Thea stood up from the bed and walked to the bathroom, her head throbblings gathering momentum. She had to put a stop to her headache at once and tore open the medicine cabinet in a desperate search for aspirin. Finding the bottle empty, she slammed it into the wastebasket and decided to take a shower instead.

Thea turned on the water and took off last night's clothes, discarding them in a heap behind the bathroom door. She jumped into the shower before the water became warm, enjoying the cool water against her forehead. "Ahhh," she said, finding some relief.

Thea reached over for the bottle of shampoo and realized that it was missing as was her conditioner and her favorite bottle of shower gel. All that remained on the ledge where she kept her bath products was a razor. "Huh?" Thea muttered, momentarily confused by the absence until she remembered that they were still packed into her overnight bag. She had meant to take a shower with them the morning before but couldn't drag herself away from student watching for that long.

Thea stepped out of the shower, pulled a towel around herself, and went out into the hall in search of the bag, dripping all the way. She found it in the hall, where she must have left it the night before. She took it back into the bathroom with her and unzipped it. Laying on top was the white paper box that contained her scrimshaw corset stay.

"Oh!" Thea said, remembering her purchase and the strange gouge that had appeared in it on the way back home. She sat down on the toilet and lifted out the box. Slowly, and with great care, she opened the lid.

There was no mistaking the fact that the gouge that had appeared as a horizon line had become darker and wider. Above that, there was now another line, curved as if defining the top of a hill. But the most astounding thing about the bit of ivory was placed on the left, just in front of the prow of the ship. It was a series of small cross hatchings clustered together. A few of the hatch marks located above the horizon line formed rectanges and squares. Others were placed directly upon it, as if describing a pier or a dock jutting out from the edge of a shore. It looked just like a port.

The ship seemed to be coming into a harbor.

Thea felt her arms grow weak and she put the box down on the edge of the tub before she could drop it. A rush of nausea came over her and she knew at once that she would have to remove herself from the toilet seat.

Thea knelt on the floor and threw up.

Part 4

Thea limped into her classroom on Monday, more worn out than rested after a weekend spent staring fixedly at the slowly evolving scrimshaw corset stay in the hopes that it might change in front of her. To Thea's frustration, it never did.

Thea's acquaintance with magical objects was limited to what was written in children's fantasy novels. Nothing in the stories of C.S. Lewis or Edward Eager prepared her for the unexplainable item she had purchased on Friday. Her entire weekend was spent watching it and attempting to make sense of it. Thea had not been able to draw any conclusions. While the enigmatic little piece of work didn't seem inlcined to change as she watched it, it would add a line or redraw an angle if left hidden in its box for an hour. The old saying, 'a watched pot never boils' definitely held true in this case. Nothing present in the etching itself gave away its purpose either. Thea had examined it closely with a magnifying glass but could not make out any distinguishing characteristics such as a name written on the prow or a unique figurehead.

Thea firmly believed, however, in the fact that such things did not occur haphazardly. Magic almost always had a purpose behind it and it was Thea's job to figure out that purpose.

She wondered what would happen once the ship reached port. Would the picture shift focus from ship to the town? Would she find herself wandering through the distant port city, staring into shop windows like a native? Would the scrimshaw start to include human figures?

She thought about what it might be like to meet those people and began to consider the fact that the piece of ivory might serve as a portal to the past. Would she eventually find herself transported into that world? Perhaps the piece would bring someone from the past to her. Would she wake up one morning to find a sailor standing in her room? The possibilities were endless and all exciting to Thea, who secretly longed to be taken away from her calm, uneventful life even as she was frightened by the prospect of the same.

Thea brought the bit of ivory with her to school that morning, fearful that a magical moment might occur while she was away from it. She had also thought of photographing it with the school's Polaroid camera occasionally, so that she could keep a running record of the changes it underwent. She kept it carefully hidden in her handbag, however, and vowed only to pull it out when her students were out of the room. Her first opportunity was the lunch hour. She placed the opened box on her desk and stared at it.

She couldn't tell whether the picture had changed since breakfast. The port city did not appear to be larger. Thea snapped her Polaroid and laid the undeveloped image on her desk to dry. Daphne Slocum walked in through Thea's open door just as she had finished. "You look terrible!" she commented, not tactfully. "What did you do this weekend?"

Thea quickly opened her top drawer and slid the scrimshaw and the Polaroid into it. She was not pleased to see her after having spent the other part of her weekend worrying about exactly what she had told Daphne during her sangria-induced stupor.

"I didn't get much sleep," she mumbled, shutting the drawer quickly. "I also drank too much on Friday."

"I guess we did," Daphne pondered as she pulled over a chair from the nearest student desk and placed a large packet of papers in front of Thea. Thea examined them. They appeared to be printouts from web pages, all focusing on the island of Nantucket. Thea looked at Daphne in confusion. Why was she giving her information about Nantucket?

"I think that your idea of visiting your sister on Nantucket this summer is wonderful, even if one of your reasons for going is to help with a newborn." Daphne explained cheerfully.

It was then that Thea realized that she must have told Daphne about her older sister Diana's invitation to stay with her at her summer home on the island of Nantucket. Diana and her new husband David were expecting their first child to arrive in June and had planned on spending the rest of the summer vacationing at their cottage next to the shore. Thea was not sure if she wanted to go. She and her sister were not very close.

"This might be a good opportunity to become closer to your sister," Daphne enthused.

Thea winced and wondered if Daphne could read minds. She must have told her about that as well.

"Diana sounds like a lovely person," Daphne went on, "Maybe a little too self-absorbed. That's hardly surprising when you consider that she's the older daughter."

Thea looked down at the printouts on her desk in embarrassment. She could not believe that she had shared her differences with her sister with someone who was practically a stranger. Her parents had taught them that you never discuss family business with outsiders. Frustrated by her candor, she began to rifle through the pages. Daphne had been thorough in her research. The websites that she had visited contained a wealth of pictures and information on the tiny island whose name meant "far away" in Algonquin.

"You'll have to take your bicycle with you," Daphne commented. "There are tons of bicycle trails all around the island. She took up the sheaf of papers herself and located the trail map printout. "See. Look at all these trails! They could keep you busy for months!"

She placed the stack of papers back in front of Thea and smiled. "Do you know where your sister's cottage happens to be?" she asked.

"No," Thea negatived. "I've never been there. It is really Diana's father-in-law's cottage. David, her husband, spent most of his summer vacations there as a child."

Daphne nodded approvingly and Thea realized that she had, once again, disclosed personal information to Daphne. Daphne seemed to be well trained in the art of harmless interrogation, starting out slow with a perfectly innocent topic, then changing the subject when the individual seemed ready to divulge all. Thea felt herself grow more guarded, something that Daphne must have sensed. She drew back a little.

"If you do go, you'll have to leave a penny there for me, I've never been either." said and went on to explain the local tradition of leaving a penny on the island as a promise to return. The thought sounded very whimsical to Thea, who appreciated old traditions, just as long as they didn't involve drinking heavily.

Thea flipped through the pages of the website and came upon a piece of paper filled with scrimshaw images. Daphne, looking over at the page that caught Thea's interest, remarked about it. "I'm sure that you know about the the role that Nantucket played in the history of whaling in America, after all the research you did with your students."

"I guess that I had forgotten," Thea whispered, looking down at the images and had extended the invitation to Nantucket just before she had discovered the evolving picture on the whalebone at Mystic Seaport? Were there such things as coincidence when it came to magical objects? Was she being led there? The questions resonated in Thea's mind as she studied the paper on her desk.

Daphne watched her, puzzled. "Thea?" she finally asked. "Are you okay?"

Thea looked up and tried to shake off her trance. "Just fine," she replied, "a little tired." She started to flip through the pages again as if to prove her fitness. She reached over for another sip of her soda as she rifled through the other pages from the Nantucket websites. The images and information on them barely registered, until she came to a page that had a picture of Drew imprinted on it. Thea coughed loudly and felt the soda go up her nose. What was a picture of Andrew Carroll doing on the Nantucket website?

"Did you know that he has his own website?" Daphne asked. "I guess that this is what is done when you become a famous director. I printed it out for you as well."

Thea's eyes widened and she began to feel sick again. "Did I tell you about him on Friday?" she asked weakly.

"Yes!" Daphne almost laughed, "Don't you remember?"

"No," Thea felt herself grow hot. "No, I don't remember."

"I guess that was because you were too drunk!" Daphne laughed in earnest this time.

"I guess." Thea bit her lip.

"Don't worry, Thea!" Daphne chided. "You didn't tell me anything truly incriminating. Just that you and he dated before he moved to Los Angeles to become a famous director and you went to graduate school to become a school teacher. There's nothing harmful in that!"

Thea sighed loudly. "Nothing harmful," she echoed.

Daphne went further, "He's filming a movie in Ireland right now. It is going to be called "The Pirate Queen" and it is about Anne Bonney. Have you heard of her?"

Thea shook her head.

"She's not well-known, but she raided ships around the Americas in the 1720s. She was actually born a noblewoman in Ireland but left her family for the high seas. Doesn't that sound like it would make an interesting movie?"

Thea didn't know how to respond.

Daphne took Andrew Carroll's website in her hands and found a picture at the end to show to Thea. "Crystal Sloane is starring in it!" she said in a voice that betrayed her excitement for the well-known, very attractive young star who was, at 22, already being compared to Uma Thurman and Gwyneth Paltrow. Thea looked down at a picture of the beautiful blond actress standing next to Andrew Carroll's tall handsome figure. He had his arm around her somewhat possessively. Thea felt the pace of her heart begin to quicken as she took a long and careful look. It looked as if they were a couple.

"I'm afraid that they are dating," Daphne seemed to read her thoughts again. She said this quietly, as if realizing that it was something to be mourned. Thea didn't know how to respond and wished that Daphne wasn't watching her so closely.

Thea looked up and attempted to compose her face into something that resembled cheerfulness, not easily accomplished. She felt the familiar lump form in her throat and had to swallow to force it down. She was only moderately successful at appearing unconcerned.

"This information on Nantucket is wonderful," Thea said, attempting to sound enthusiastic. "I'm so glad that you thought of it. I think that I will take my sister up on her invitation to visit this summer." She plastered on a saccharine smile and tried beaming it at Daphne.

Daphne smiled back and looked less than convinced. "I'm so glad." she said, "and, Thea --" she took Thea's hand over the desk. "Stop waiting for him to come back."

"Stop waiting?" Thea mumbled, pulling her hand away at the same time, "I don't know what you mean."

"Don't continue to play the Anne Elliot waiting for her Captain Wentworth to return." Daphne looked straight into Thea's eyes. "This story isn't going to end that way. You need to move on."

Thea swallowed again.

Part 5

Author's Note: ...Okay... this is a partial revision, but mainly an add-on...I thought that it might be important to explain how Thea and Drew met BEFORE she actually got to Nantucket. Part 5 now explains that and Part 6 starts with eight paragraphs that have been posted before (as part 5) and goes on from there...Does that make sense?

Montclair, New Jersey. June 6, 1994

Thea linked arms with the best man and followed her newly married sister Diana down the church aisle, taking care to raise the hem of her sapphire blue dress so that she wouldn't trip on the stairs. Thea had a habit of tripping on stairs. She looked up and noticed that the members of the congregation were grinning broadly at the bride and the groom as they made their way past. To the cheerful friends and guests filling the church, the ceremony had seemed to go off without a hitch. Thea rolled her eyes and thought that they might not be smiling so widely if they knew how volitile the bride had become in the hour before the wedding. Diana had always been high-strung, but the stress of her wedding seemed to darken her mood further. Thea grimaced as she remembered their conversation back in the dressing room.

"I wrote 'Thea Moore and guest' on the invitation because I expected you to bring someone!" Diana had exploded, glaring at Thea's reflection in the mirror.

"But I don't have a boyfriend," Thea had protested weakly, holding onto her bouquet of flowers and watching her older sister Diana regard her reflection in the mirror.

"Couldn't you have found someone for my wedding?" Diana asked, adjusting the slant of her veil. "I can't tell you how demeaning it is to have my maid-of-honor going stag to the most important event of my life!"

"Now Diana," their mother had interrupted and attempted to make peace. "Thea would have brought someone if she could. She's been very busy this year and didn't have time for a relationship."

"It wouldn't have had to be a relationship," Diana seethed, "Don't you know any men?" She looked back at her younger sister with some disgust.

"I know plenty of men!" Thea countered.

"Then why didn't you bring one?" Diana wailed.

Thea had turned away from her sister and considered leaving the room while she had one of her trademark irrational fits. It seemed that Diana's fits were gaining in frequency and they rarely had anything to do with reason. They hardly ever had anything to do with the point she was arguing either. Diana may have really been unhappy about the lopsidedness of the cake or the wilty altar flowers. Since both the florist and the baker had already left before she had a chance to express her disappointment with them, Diana had nothing else to do but to vent her anger towards her little sister for not bringing a date.

She was sure that Diana would either calm down in a moment or become hysterical about something completely different. Thea sighed and began to look forward to the moment when Diana and David, her husband-to-be, left for their two month trip around Europe.

"Oh, it's alright, Thea!" Diana huffed from the mirror. "I'm sure that David can ask the best man to dance with you once so that you won't spend the evening completely alone."

Later, walking down the aisle after her sister, Thea recalled that conversation and had wished that she could have told Diana that she didn't mind spending the evening completely alone. But she had been pretty sure that such a comment would have disturbed the peace even further so she had quietly gone back to her sister and helped her fluff out her veil, all the time wondering if David, her brother-in-law-to-be, knew what he was getting himself into.

Thea and the best man reached the back of the church and found themselves being marshalled into a receiving line by the mother-of-the-groom. She looked up at him and tried to remember his name. She thought that it started with a "D".

"I saw you roll your eyes," he leaned down and whispered conspiratorily.

"What?" she asked, startled.

"When we went down the aisle," he clarified, "You looked at Diana and David and then rolled your eyes."

Thea felt her face go hot.

"Don't worry, I don't think that anyone else noticed." he smiled.

"Why did you notice?" she rebuked.

"Good question," he said and pretended to ponder it. "I suppose it is because I was not looking at the bride."

"And everyone else was?"

"Diana makes a lovely bride."

"Yes," Thea agreed faintly, looking down the receiving line towards her sister. Diana was smiling cheerfully up at her new husband David.

"But I think that you will be glad to get rid of her, won't you?" the best man commented.

"What?"

He wasn't able to respond any further for at that moment the first group of well-wishers had made their way out of the line and had to be greeted. Thea shook hands with David's relatives and was hugged and kissed by her own.

She watched the best man out of the corner of her eye, trying to figure out how he had discovered that she would be glad to be rid of her sister and what he might do with that information. She had to admit that he was interesting-looking, but not necessarily handsome. His features seemed to be too strong for that description. She looked at his profile and considered his overly long nose. She also noticed that he happened to be very tall and well-built. His dark hair was thick and curly. Surprisingly, he wore it long and gathered into a very neat pony tail. "A man with long hair!," she thought and wondered if he generally kept it pulled back or if it that style was reserved for formal occasions.

Eventually the church emptied and the guests found their cars and began to drive over to the reception hall. Thea rode with the bride and groom in the limosuine, the better to help her sister and her dress in and out of the car.

Once at the reception hall, she found her way to the head table where Diana had seated next to the long-haired best man. "Hello Thea," he smiled at her and pulled out her chair, as if to assist her into it. Thea felt awkward about accepting his gesture. It was odd to see such manners in today's society. Stranger still to see such manners in a man with long hair! She wondered if this was another convention adopted for the occasion. Did wearing a tux make a man want to be more chivalrous? Was there something about the long satin dress that she was wearing that called out to his sense of propriety? She had no idea, but realized that she would either have to accept his offer of help or make a scene by refusing it. Thea wasn't in the habit of accepting help from anyone, but was forced to make an exception. She thanked him softly as she sat down in her chair and began to place her napkin on her lap. She realized again that she couldn't remember his name.

"You don't know my name, do you?" She looked up to see him eying her slyly.

She cringed. Had she been that obvious?

"I've seen that look before." he went on, "the, 'I-know-that-we-were-introduced-an-hour-ago-but-I-have-a-short-attention-span' look." He smiled, "It's Andrew, but my friends all call me Drew."

"I'm --" she began.

"I remember, you're Thea, Diana's younger sister who will be very glad when this entire day is over and Diana has been sent to Europe." he finished for her.

Thea was affronted by his candor. The day had already been frustrating already without him reminding her that she rolled her eyes at the bride and groom on her way down the aisle. It was very embarrassing to be caught in such an act. "That's right," she lashed out, "And you are David's friend who seems to have a nasty little habit of noticing people and their facial expressions when they DON'T think that they are being watched."

"People hardly ever display their actual emotions when they know their being observed," Drew replied calmly, "So, yes, I do find it more interesting to watch the people NOT at the center of attention."

Thea didn't know what to say to such a philosophy.

"Take, for instance, your sister. She's over there smiling like an idiot," he gestured towards Diana and David, sitting at the center of the head table. "Why? Because she knows that she is on display. And, as a bride, it is her duty to appear happy." he shook his head. "But what is she really feeling? We may never know."

"What good would it do to know what she is really feeling?" Thea asked. She wasn't sure if she liked where this conversation was leading.

"Perhaps none," he admitted, "But it would be the truth."

She could find no argument to that. "So do you practice amateur psychology often or do you consider yourself more of a trained professional?" she asked petulantly.

"Oh! no, I'm not a psychologist or in training to be one," he negatived lightly. "I went to film school."

"Oh," Thea said evenly, trying to keep any surprise or disgust to herself. Film school? Oh, for heavens sake! She could think of no other type of education less useful. A degree from film school and a fifty cents would buy you a cup of coffee.

"Go ahead, say it," he implored and smiled knowingly.

"Say what?" Thea asked.

"What everyone says," he pressed. "Oh! So you're going to live with your parents!" he mimicked in a high voice.

"I wasn't going to say that!"

"But you were thinking it," he raised his eyebrows.

"No!" she hissed and glanced around the room, as if searching for someone to help her out of this difficult situation. Fortunately, the wait staff seemed to be bringing the salad plates at that moment. The head table was to be served first. Thea pulled out a roll from the bread basket and began buttering as if her life depended on it.

"Would you hand me one of those," Drew claimed her attention again. She passed him the entire basket silently.

"Ah, I see that I've offended you," he said.

"I just don't see what right you have to assume you know what I'm thinking!" she whispered feelingly.

"Is there any harm in it?" he probed. "How else do people get to know one another?"

Thea felt a strong need to roll her eyes again, but kept herself in check. "Why in the world would you want to get to know me?" She asked. "We most likely will not see each other again."

"But Diana is your sister and David is my best friend. It is quite probable that we might meet frequently."

"As you have already pointed out, I do not get along well with my sister. And, as you know, they are going to be living in the Boston area after their honeymoon. I, on the other hand, live in New Jersey."

"With your parents?" he teased.

"That is none of your business!" she seethed and dropped her roll she had been buttering onto the table. The butter made a greasy stain on the tablecloth. She huffed in frustration, picked up the roll and deposited it on her bread plate. He handed her another one.

"Yes, I currently do live with my parents." she admitted. "That's what most people do after college and before they find a job."

"Would it be too impertinent to ask what you majored in?"

"English literature," she said, feeling somewhat nettled. A waiter placed a salad plate in front of her at that moment and she attacked it with a diligence bordering on frenzy. She knew that eating quickly would not make the banquet go any faster, but it might help calm her down. She couldn't imagine a more difficult dinner partner.

Drew seemed to sense this and turned to his salad as well. Thea wondered if they could spend the rest of the meal in not-so-companionable silence.

"So what do you plan to do with yourself now that you've graduated?" he said, not taking his eyes of his own salad plate.

"I'm not sure," Thea admitted, attempting to keep her tone light and refusing to look into his eyes. She picked up her water glass and decided to turn the subject of the conversation around to him, "What is it that you are planning to do?"

"Win an Academy Award," he responded quickly.

Thea found herself coughing up her sip of water. He must be joking!

"Ah, I see that you're surprised,"

Thea didn't bother to refrain from rolling her eyes, "It's not every day that you meet Oscar material," she said sarcastically.

"Why shouldn't I be Oscar material? Why shouldn't you be Oscar material? What is to keep anyone in this room from winning an Oscar?" His voice was even. Thea wasn't sure if he really meant what he said or not. Was it possible that he was that conceited? Or was it just being self-assured? Perhaps he was just trying to get a rise out out her.

"How about the law of averages?" she asked testily, looking up at him.

"How about believing that you have talent?" he countered, looking back down at her.

He had the most extraordinary eyes. They were a deep blue, uncommon in men with very dark hair. Thea found herself staring into his eyes, shocked by their color and brilliance.

Eventually, she found herself focusing less on the appearance of his eyes and more on their expression. Thea considered herself to be a good judge of character and believed that she could gauge a person's sincerity at fifteen paces. Andrew seemed to be telling her the truth. He felt that he had talent and didn't care who knew it. She didn't know what to say to such confidence.

Thea turned away from him. "Then you must be a very lucky man," she whispered.

"Today," he paused, "I feel lucky."

She could still feel his eyes upon her. It made her afraid to look up at him again, or anywhere for that matter. She kept her focus on her plate.

Dinner progressed more solemnly after that. It was almost as if his sharing of such a strongly held belief at the beginning of a conversation left nothing to build towards. Thea didn't know what to say to him and, with the exception of his asking for the salt and pepper service, he said nothing to her.

This depressed Thea in a way that she could not understand. Certainly not speaking to him was easier than having to defend herself during a conversation. And that was how he made her feel, as if she needed to defend herself. She felt as obvious as an open target when he had looked down at her. But there was something else there, as well. Something almost pleasant. She was halfway through her tarragon chicken with wild rice pilaf when she realized what it was.

She hadn't found it difficult to defend herself. She hadn't found it difficult to express herself with him.

Thea was a remarkably shy person, especially in social situations and, while she wasn't a stutterer, she had a great deal of trouble finding the words to explain her thoughts. She found her mouth frequently locking during any attempt by another person to draw her out. Of course, this was a way in which she was completely different from her sister, the out-going Diana.

But just a few moments ago, her conversation had been quite fluid. It had been angry and even petulant, but at least it had been delivered!

She dropped her fork in surprise. It clattered against the side of her plate. Andrew stopped in mid bite.

"Don't you care for tarragon?" he asked.

She looked up at him and forced herself to keep her gaze steady. His left eyebrow was cocked, waiting.

"No, I love tarragon," she said, sounding strangely mystified, even to herself.

"So do I," he smiled and Thea noticed that his eyes took on an added brilliance when pleased. She smiled back at him, somewhat tentatively, but with a flush of happiness coming from deep within.

Part 6

Hyannis, Mass. June 12, 1998

Thea found herself on a car ferry from Hyannis to Nantucket the day after the end of school. She had made excellent time, nearly speeding down the interstate that led from New Jersey to Massachusetts, and hardly even stopping for gas. She had never been so eager to begin a vacation as she was on that year. It was as if every mile that she burned was taking her further away from a past that she had decided to forget and closer to a resolution that she was determined to fulfill. She was finally going to forget Andrew Carroll and get on with the rest of her life.

She believed herself to be well on her way to achieving this goal. Daphne Slocum's printout of his fan website had served as the necessary catalyst. It forced her to realize that she really had been waiting for him to come back and that she could no longer delude herself. That was never going to happen. She had to face that fact and give him up in order to start living her own life again. She wasn't Anne Elliot and he certainly was no Captain Wentworth.

Of course, giving him up was not as easily accomplished as she could have wished. In fact, on the day that Daphne presented her with the incontroverible proof that Drew had formed another relationship, Thea did something that she had never done before: she lied about being sick and took the rest of the day off. She chose not to even care about the fact that one of her students was having his school birthday party on that day and that his mother was bringing in a very large sheet cake to mark the occasion. She marched herself into the principal's office, and asked her to find someone to take over for the rest of the day. She didn't even offer an apology for doing so, which convinced the principal that Thea was actually very sick. Thea was well known for being too self-effacing.

Thea had driven home that day with the website sitting on her lap and she had looked at it during all of the red lights. When she arrived at her apartment, she was so mad that she immediately pulled out her video copy of his first film and smashed it with the heel of her shoe. It did not matter that she had never even seen the movie, it had to go.

Her next act was to put the picture of Drew and Crystal Sloane on a dartboard. Well, Thea didn't really own a dart board, so she had to to make do with her bulletin board and very sharp pencils for darts. She enjoyed heaving them into the cork over and over again until their faces had been pecked fully away.

Her radio-blaring drive to Hyannis that morning had been equally cathartic. The early morning sunshine had put her into the proper state of mind for embarking on a long journey and, as she drove fast through the light traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike, Thea felt her confidence swell to proportions never achieved before. This was going to be her summer, the summer that she had never allowed herself. She would ignore her inhibitions, forget about being careful and controlled, and seek only what was enjoyable. This summer was going to be different. This summer she was going to be different.

Thea felt like jumping up and down with abandon as the ferry pulled out of its slip and began steaming across the water towards Nantucket, but wondered what the ferrymen might think of such behavior. Instead, she leaned back on the hood of her car and watched the clouds float by in the amazingly blue sky. The heat of the still warm car hood felt good through her light sweater, comforting and relaxing. Thea sighed and felt herself drift off.

Thea woke up when she felt the ferry change speed. It took her a second to realize that they were probably arriving in Nantucket and that the passengers on the ferry would soon be returning to their cars. She stretched slowly and sat up. She rubbed her eyes and gazed at the approaching port. What she saw made her gasp audibly.

She recognized Nantucket Harbor from her piece of scrimshaw.

"Miss? Miss? We're docking. You need to return to your car!"

Thea jerked her head towards the voice and saw one of the ferry men looking at her dissaprovingly.

"We're on a tight schedule. We've got this film crew and all their equipment trucks to get off the boat. You have to be ready to move your car as soon as we dock!"

Thea nodded and scrambled off of her car hood without a word. She looked back and noticed the long string of panel trucks and RVs that had lined up behind her. Each one seemed to have a teamster leaning beside it dressed in white t-shirts with the initials I.A.T.S.E emblazoned on them. They hardly registered in Thea's mind. She was still too shocked by the view in front of her to make any sense of who was behind. Sitting behind the wheel of her car, she reached into the backseat and pulled her overnight back towards her. She had packed the piece of scrimshaw into it along with the Polaroid camera she had borrowed from school and a photo album. She had started collecting pictures of the ivory piece in the album, writing the date and time on each. The progression of images showed beyond a doubt that the etching had slowly changed scene. The ship on the corset busk was almost ready to dock in the harbor; a harbor that matched Nantucket's quaint little town in every respect.

And now Thea's ferry was getting ready to dock there as well! A bolt of excitement and apprehension ran up her spine. The scrimshaw piece had been leading her to Nantucket! She was certain of that now. But why? And what would happen next?

Thea watched as the boat nudged into the slip and slowed down in order to bump up against the dock. The ferry men threw the boat's steel cables over the pier's bulkheads, tethering it firmly to the shore. They pulled open the metal gate and motioned for Thea to drive off.

She started her car quickly and threw it into gear, hardly able to attend to the traffic patterns painted on the road. Her heart continued to beat rapidly with anticipation. She clutched the scrimshaw piece in her left hand and attempted to shift and steer with her right. The trucks behind her honked as she drove slowly, attempting to figure what to do next. She checked to see if the piece had changed now that she had pulled into the harbor.

The picture had not evolved further. Not a line had altered. She slowed down in surprise. There had to be a change, she thought in frustration. Didn't there?

The truck behind her honked again and Thea decided to pull over and let the film crew past. She steered onto the berm of the road, threw the car into neutral, and pulled up the parking break. With both hands she held the scrimshaw piece and tried to percieve a change.

"None?" she nearly shouted at it. "How could that be?" She looked at the buildings of Nantucket, unfamiliar yet very familiar. She had been watching them grow larger over the last two weeks. It was unnerving to see her etching realized three dimensionally. It was almost as if a portrait had come to life and began speaking. It made the fact that nothing seemed to have changed on the piece of ivory particularly irritating. She felt as if she had discovered the answer to a mystery only to be told that the answer was just another clue.

Thea felt like screaming and couldn't imagine what she should do next. The maddening little piece of work continued to tantalize and frustrate, revealing itself in minute changes or not at all. It added up to hardly anything! Now that she knew that the harbor was Nantucket, she expected the purpose to be made clear.

Her confidence shook. It did have a purpose, didn't it?

Thea smacked the steering wheel in disappointment. The freedom and new-found potential with which she had started the day had been dulled dramatically. It was almost as if the daylight was already darkening even with the sun still high overhead. She sighed heavily and reached over for the box. She placed the scrimshaw back into it with greater care than she had felt possible. She was angry at it. There was nothing left to do but be patient and wait for further changes. Thea was not necessarily a patient person.

She fumbled through her overnight bag and located the directions to her sister's house. Diana had dictated them to her the night before and Thea hoped that she had transcribed them correctly. More to the point, she hoped that her sister had explained them correctly. Diana was not known for her directional abilities. She relied on strange landmarks like blue houses with white shutters and green mailboxes rather than actual street names and house numbers.

Thea was not in the mood to get lost on Nantucket.

"There you are!" Diana called pleasantly as Thea drove up and parked her car in the front of the cottage. It had been easier to find her sister's house than she had thought possible. While it was on the other side of the island, it was located just off of a major road. It was nearly impossible to have made a wrong turn. It had actually been a pleasant trip, and Thea had managed to calm herself down after the shock of realizing that Nantucket's harbor matched the one on her scrimshaw piece. She had even managed to talk herself back into her resolution of having a wonderful summer in spite of the maddeningly cryptic mystery surrounding the corset stay. First on her agenda was an attempt to become closer to her sister Diana, especially now that a nephew had been added to their family. Little David had been born less than a week ago.

"I was just going to get Little David and show him off to the neighbors!" Diana came over to the car. "But now I'll have to show him off to his Aunt Thea first!" she trilled and wrapped her arms around her sister.

Thea was somewhat surprised at Diana's enthusiastic welcome. Diana had never been very demonstrative towards her before. Perhaps this was what motherhood did to people. Thea smiled and hugged her back. "I can't wait to see him," she enthused. "Where is he?"

"He was napping in the house with the au pair." Diana explained and began to help Thea with her bags. "Did I tell you that I had hired a 'mother's helper'? She's from South Dakota, if you believe that! Just away from her father's cattle ranch for the summer."

Diana nattered on as she escorted Thea into the house and dropped the bags in the living room.

"I didn't know that you were hiring someone!" Thea said and wondered if she should feel affronted. "I thought that I was supposed to help you."

"You are!" Diana said as she ushered her down the hall towards the nursery. "But I didn't want to make you my slave this summer. Believe me, there's plenty of work to go around. Besides, having Amy stay with Little David will give us more time to be together." She opened the door to the nursery and tiptoed in.

"Thea's smile widened, amazed at this change in her sister. She followed her inside quietly. A young girl with long blond hair sat in the rocker, a book in her lap. She assumed that this must be Amy.

By this time, Diana was bending over the bassinet, reaching in to pick up Little David.

"Here he is," Diana said, not bothering to mask the pride in her voice. She brought the bundle over to Thea.

"Oh!" Thea cooed, overcome. "He's so little."

He was little, two dark eyes within a scrunched up face peeked up at her. Thea couldn't help but smile idiotically down at him.

"I'll let you hold him in a bit. But I did promise to bring him over to the neighbors after his nap. Why don't you come with me?"

Thea nodded and walked back out of the room after her, taking care to hold the front door open for her and Little David.

"David is over there right now." Diana began, "The neighbors have had their cottage for as long as David's family. In fact, David used to play with their son every summer. Their son just arrived on the island as well, so he and David have been catching up."

Diana crossed over to the other yard, using a break in the hedge. "The son is making a movie here, if you can believe that!" Diana called over her shoulder to Thea as she mounted the stepped and rapped once on the front door.

"A movie?" Thea said, stopping in the drive, beginning to become wary.

"Yes, he's some big time director in Hollywood. I'm sure that you've heard of him -- Andrew Carroll?" Diana asked as she waited for someone to open up the door.

Thea paled and could go no farther.

"Actually, I think that you must have met him at our wedding." Diana went on, "He was David's best man. Do you remember him, Thea?"

"I --" Thea began, not sure what to say. She felt the urge to flee back to her car.

"Come up to the porch!" Diana admonished, "What's wrong?"

Thea gulped and mounted the stairsteps. As she did so, he front door swung open. Andrew stood in the doorway.

"Drew!" Diana turned towards the door. "Here's Little David up from his nap." she held the bundle up for inspection.

Andrew didn't look down at the baby. His eyes seemed to have been drawn to Thea who was still standing on the stairs. He was staring fixedly at her, somewhat perplexed. Thea watched his brow furrow.

"I believe that you have met my sister, Thea." Diana noticed the object of his stare.

"Is that Thea?" he said softly.

Thea stared back at him, still too surprised to move from the stairs. She had watched as his eyes widened when Diana said her name. It was almost as if he hadn't recognized her at first. His expression gave the appearance of a person looking upon a familiar face, but not being able to recall the name of its owner.

Could it be that he hadn't recognized her?

Thea would have known him anywhere, not only from having obliterated his face on that website printout three weeks before. He had changed, though. His hair was now not long enough to be kept back in a band. The mass of unruly curls that she had remembered were cropped close and brushed tidily away from his forehead. She wondered if that was what made him seem older and more settled. She looked away quickly, remembering his blue eyes and not wanting to find herself caught up in their brilliance.

"Yes!" Diana affirmed, "My sister Thea! She's visiting this summer to help with the baby!" At this, she held the baby up once again for his inspection. As if on cue, Little David gurgled charmingly.

Thea heard Drew turning his attention towards the baby. "David Junior!" he responded cheerfully. "He's adorable, nothing like his father." He called this comment back into the house for David Senior's benefit.

The jibe hit its mark. "I heard that!" David said as he joined Drew at the door and helped his wife inside. She disappeared into the room, leaving Thea outside with David and Drew.

"Thea!" said David walking over to her and enveloping her into brotherly hug. "Good to see you," he whispered into her ear. "I guess that Diana's directions worked this time!"

Thea was glad to have something to say, "They did." she nodded, fixing her eyes on her brother-in-law as if her life depended on it. She couldn't bear to see if Drew was still looking at her.

"Come into the house," David suggested, putting his arm on her shoulder. "What do you think of Little David?"

Thea walked onto the porch and past Drew, still standing at the door. She felt herself cling to her brother-in-law as if he were a life preserver. "He's a little angel!" she breathed to Little David's father.

"We'll be glad to have his Aunt Thea around this summer!" David replied, smiling. "But let me introduce you to the neighbors."

Thea's attention was quickly claimed by Andrew's parents, Helen and Frank Carroll. Both were quite tanned and healthy looking. They looked almost too young to have a son of Andrew's age. She shook hands with Frank and attempted to smile sweetly at Helen, who had already claimed the opportunity to hold the baby. She was busy fussing over his little bootied feet and tiny fingernails, appropriately enthralled with her neighbor's son. "He's perfect, Diana." Helen purred, "You must be so proud."

"I think that he looks a bit like David when he was an infant," said Frank, looking at the baby in his wife's arms. "You were that small when your parents started coming out to Nantucket." he remarked to David Senior

"I can't imagine him that small," Diana exclaimed and put her arm around her husband's waist.

Thea watched the two couples interact around the baby with an intensity borne of the fact that she knew Drew was standing in the same room. While she couldn't turn around to find him, she sensed that he was still standing at the door.

"It seems like it was just yesterday that you and Drew were this small," Helen shook her head fondly and looked around to find her son. "Drew, why are you still standing by the door?" she scolded, "Come over here and look at the baby!"

Thea heard his footsteps as he crossed the room. She willed herself to remain calm and continued to look down at Baby David. Baby David, sensing that he had an audience, began smiling and spitting up. The entire circle of adults laughed along with him. Thea silently thanked God that her nephew had turned out to be so diverting.

"I'll bet he's photogenic," Helen complimented, "Drew, don't you think that Little David is photogenic?" she looked over her shoulder to where her son was standing behind her.

"Aren't all babies?" Drew drawled.

"You should know," Helen responded and looked over at Thea. "Perhaps you don't know that my son works in Hollywood now. He's a film director!"

Thea looked back at her and smiled weakly.

"He's shooting a film on Nantucket right now," she exclaimed proudly.

"I thought that he was shooting it in Ireland," Thea replied and immediately wished that she hadn't. She bit her lip and glanced at him quickly, just to see if Andrew had noticed.

He had. He cocked one eyebrow and looked at her quizzically. It was a very familiar expression and Thea could read in it a great deal surprise and amusement. He seemed somewhat pleased that she knew of his upcoming film. It embarrassed Thea enormously to have him assume that she had continued to follow his career after they had broken up. "I was shooting in Ireland," he responded to her evenly. "But there are certain scenes that need to be shot on a tall ship. The production company arranged to have one meet us here after their summer regatta in Long Island."

"That's 'The Pirate Queen' isn't it, son?" Frank asked.

"Yes, that's the working title." he affirmed.

"Oh! That sounds so interesting Drew!" Diana sounded impressed. "A real movie shoot! Can we come and visit?"

"If you'd like," Drew said.

"Who's starring in it?" Diana continued.

"Crystal Sloane," Drew admitted calmly.

Diana gasped, "I just love her!"

"My boy's dating her right now," Frank interjected.

Thea looked up at Drew in time to see him roll his eyes. He didn't seem to appreciate his father's pride in his love life.

"I would love to meet her!" Diana could hardly keep her enthusiasm from spilling over.

"You are going to bring her to the party tomorrow, aren't you, Drew?" his mother asked.

"I was planning on it," he responded and looked again at Thea. She noticed that there was a hardness in his eyes that had never seen before. It was as if he was quietly reminding her that he had every right to move on with his life.

Continued in Next Section