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“Do you think”—Lilly adjusts her bifocals—“there's much demand for such a place?”

“When I used to work over at that Wal-Mart in Ashland…” Sam revs her machine. “I can't tell you how many young things I saw with bellies sticking three feet out. Babies havin' babies—there's a need—I sure can tell you that.” On she sews.

“God forbid we teach birth control,” Howard adds on his way from the back.

“I don't want to run it,” I add. “Just make sure it's out there, that there's this
place
.”

“Can't imagine the government would want anything to do with it,” Ruby says, “so it would have to be funded. One must have money to have a proper home and wouldn't you need midwife people about as well?”

“Marsha's daughter!” Lilly yells. Rocky leaps off my table and then the room falls silent. “She's a nurse and is looking for a job up here.”

“Hmmm.” I put down my shears and head to the phone.

 

Several weeks have snuck by, and boy, are things moving! I will never get over the fact that when you point your mind in a new direction, you better get ready—'cause, girl (as only Sam can say), ain't no moss under that Eve's feet, no sir. None.

“Do you honestly think”—Ruby passes me a steaming platter of roasted vegetables—“that Alice Anne is capable of putting this together? She seems a child herself.”

“Hey”—I raise my eyebrows high—“she was in downtown Detroit working in an inner-city emergency room. She can handle pregnant teenagers.”

“I hadn't realized. Marsha must be simply
thrilled
to have her daughter back.”

“They're living together in that tiny place Marsha rents in LaPointe. I can tell it's getting old so Alice Anne is really jumping into this idea.”

“Eve Moss.” Ruby lifts her goblet. “To our new adventure.”

We clink and sip. “Now all we have to do is come up with a house, some staff, and of course—money.”

“You are looking at a professional fund-raiser, darling.” Ruby holds her head a bit higher. “Truth-be-told, Howard and I have been exploring that Internet and are compiling a list to go over with you. I also have engaged the services of a realtor friend of Lilly's and Sam's ringing everyone she can think of to get some starter cash.”

My mouth drops—it really is open wide. “I don't know what…” I stammer.

“Eve, darling.” Ruby's voice is full of emotion—strength, too. “Sometimes all you have to do is ask for help. These people—our people—this lot we've surrounded ourselves with—we need this.”

“You will never stop surprising me.”

“I most certainly hope not. Now let's finish with supper and crack open that fresh box of B.T. McElrath chocolates.”

“Where'd you get them from?”

“You think you're the only one ordering things from the Internet? You've
so
much to learn, dear.”

“No kidding.”

M
y God, time is just flying off the wall—literally. Seems only days ago Sam yanked Mr. February off the calendar, and let me tell you, we were all sorry to see him go. But now that March is here, the ice has almost melted and so the duck will be put back to use. Boy, am I grateful. The Windsled is a necessary way to get over and back when the ice is iffy, but it's expensive as hell and I can't hear for a good hour after riding in the thing.

We four ladies are up in the loft. We've just finished our belly dancing and Lilly is having us do a couple of yoga moves to round things off. We regroup over by the huge picture-window-with-a-view. Normally we'd light up, but we're all trying our darndest to at least smoke
less
. Lilly has quit completely and so she's become the smoking Nazi.

Lilly unwinds her silvery silk scarf and then fidgets with her long sarong skirt. “I have something that's been”—Lilly hesitates, looks toward the floor—“I…”

“Spit it out, darling.” Ruby taps Lilly's elbow. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, it's just that,” Lilly straightens, puts her glasses way up into her towering hairdo and looks at us all, “I was in my basement…looking for the bolts of fabrics for Helen's wedding dress, I knew I had some beautiful material to show her down there
somewhere
and,” Lilly starts to cry.

We all gather closer. She's always so strong, and honestly, I don't know all that much about her. Only that she lives alone in a rambling old house over in Bayfield and that she can sew together
anything
. She's the main reason we agreed to make Helen's wedding dress in the first place.

Lilly gathers herself up.

“I need your help. You see…since my husband, Lud, passed on all those years ago, well, I've been
collecting
things. Lots and lots and LOTS of things and…”

“We all
collect
things, darling,” Ruby the dish-junkie quickly says. “Nothing in the
world
wrong with that.” She shoots me a “don't you dare” look.

Lilly holds up her hand. “No—I don't get
rid
of anything, nothing.”

“There's nothing wrong with that, girl,” Sam adds. “Hmm, I been picking you up since we all started working here, and you know, you are always ready to run out that back door of yours. Have found that a bit
curious
.”

“I don't know
what
to do,” Lilly whispers. “It's terribly mortifying, the way I live. I've tried and tried to stop bringing things home—my weakness is garage sales and they're about to start up over in Bayfield. I can't resist them.” She snivels.

“Just how
full
is your house?” I ask, thinking this can't be
that
bad. Can it?

“I haven't seen my living room in
years
, or the dining room or…” Lilly's strong shoulders slouch and suddenly she looks so defeated. “It's so pathetic, Lordie.” Her lisp seems so limp today.

“Well, shit!” I say with a nice helping of gusto, tossing my pink scarf onto the coffee table. “It's early spring and that means time to clear things out for summer! I for one am willing to dig in. We'll clear your place out in no time flat. What do you say?” Sam and Ruby agree.

Lilly's face lights up. “I don't know
what
to say, I'm so darn embarrassed.”

“You just get out of town when them sales start up, girl,” Sam adds. “Come over to my place in Ashland instead, and I'll show you how to work a blow torch. That should take your mind off things just fine.” Lilly sighs.

“Oh boy,” I comment, dry as paper. “That
does
sound fun.”

 

With spring slowly waking up the woods around the cottage, I begin to notice small bits of green peeking out from the melting snow, and boy, is that a welcome sight. I'm down at the boathouse early the next morning after Lilly's confession. I've searched the Web for this type of thing and apparently it's not that unusual, but since none of us have ever been inside her home, we have no idea
what
to expect.

Taking a sip of coffee, I sit back and ponder. Since I'm sitting out on the balcony overlooking the lake, I can see on and on and it's so calming. The sun is warming up things, birds have begun to return; I'm happy simply to be alive. What a winter, not horrible, just long. But keeping busy with the apron business and now that we've been working out three times a week, I've lost
and
kept off a nice amount of weight. (Nice here means I've more to drop.) I'll never be slim, but this feels just right.

I try to smoke only half a cigarette now and only three a day. We'll see how this goes, but I seem to have more energy, too. Ruby's doing the same, but I think she cheats. Rocky's curled up in my lap, I've got on my cozy parka, and for the first time since November, I'm getting too warm for it.

The screen door bangs. Ruby buzzes around the corner and sits down in the deck chair next to me. She plops rhinestone sunglasses on; a lavender turtleneck peeks out the collar of her puffy white coat. Grinning, I notice her sleek leather gloves; yes, they're lavender, too. Surprised?

“Give me that vile thing,” she orders and takes a deep puff. “You and Rocky hogging all this sunshine?”

“Just thinking.”

“I like the name you've come up with for the home—Toad Hollow. Perfect and
not
what one would expect either. Like—
Eve's Home for Pregnant Unwed Teenage Mothers
or
Helen's House of Sanctuary
or…what did Lilly suggest? Oh yes,
Eve's Ark
. Good heavens.”

“With the money the crew pooled together and the generous loan from my dad, we just barely qualified to buy that house in Bayfield. Damn—the mortgage is a killer—but you know what?”

“Yes, darling, I do.” Ruby blows a perfect ring then reaches up and swirls it away. “We're going to find a way to pay it—all of it.”

“This spring, we'll kick off the Bayfield Ducky Derby, thanks to you and that helpful lady in Aspen. Howard said they've been doing it there for a while and can give us some pointers. Thank you, Internet! Then we'll jump into the Lake Superior Lighthouse Scavenger Hunt after that; well, I've not gotten that far yet…but…”

“We'll come up with something, darling—perhaps Rocky—you know—we could offer a pet-paw-painting auction as well. Maybe at the Apple Festival in October.”

“That's a great idea!”

“True, so true. Now, about our present situation, we need to gather the troops and get over to Lilly's—poor dear.”

“Since we're not sewing today, the boys headed over to Al's Place for breakfast and are planning on asking Bonnie, Marsha and Alice Anne to help when they can. I'm going to call Charlie and…who else do you think?”

“Let's see, the crew makes six, plus the gals at the restaurant and Charlie; actually, I think that's a
perfect
lot. Sam's bringing over an enormous truck from JJ's garage, and oh, I know, we need to ring the local churches, see if there's donation places or such.”

“Let's really make sure,” I say, “that Lilly wants to move all this stuff along. I mean, I don't want to gang up on her or make her uncomfortable—at all. This has been hard enough on her, telling us and all. God—it forever amazes me how what people present to the world oftentimes is just a speck of what's
truly
them.”

“Don't you think, darling, most all of us have certain things we keep to ourselves? This—what—torment, that's giving Lilly such a dreadful time, well, she's reaching out and that—that's everything.”

“I do—I do, and her thing is filling up her house. Makes you wonder what she's missing. I sure think the world of her…and that hairdo of hers…”

“Perhaps we could revive the hive?”

I shoot her a look and she smiles. We think our thoughts as the sound of the lake waves takes us away.

“I
still
can't believe Helen's mother has agreed to meet me and she's even fine with having the wedding here—funny how things change.”

“And thank
God
they do,” she adds, taking a final puff and snubbing it out. “Shall we join the boys at Al's after we ring Charlie?”

“Great idea.” I lift Rocky up onto my shoulder and we head toward the cottage.

 

“Was wondering when I'd hear from you again.” Charlie's deep voice is so, well,
deep
.

“Heard you were back from visiting your grandkids,” I comment into the yellow kitchen phone. “Did you have a good time with them?”

“You know, I love my family like crazy, but”—he chuckles—“I let them know that this would be the last winter I'd spend away from home. I missed my peace and quiet up here, not to mention my friends. At least it's quiet before we get attacked by all the tourists and summer people come June.”

“This will be my first experience and from what I've heard…”

“You'll be a happy woman you two have that duck—the ferry gets so crammed with folks—everywhere there's lines for this and lines for that—but…they bring something everyone here needs—”

“
Money
,” we say at the same time.

“You have any special plans today?” I ask and picture him over there among all those birdhouses, his fedora hat just so.

“Not especially—what you got in mind, young lady?”

 

Ruby is directing me as I back the duck out for its first spring run. Since Sam worked on the motor over the winter, this baby purrs. Ruby hits the big green button to close the huge barn door and then clambers up the ladder, thumping down beside me.

“So lovely to be back on board,” she comments, checking her perfect lipsticked lips in the lighted visor mirror Sam added. “I've missed the duck
terribly
, haven't you?”

“No kidding. “I push in a CD and soon Queen Latifah belts out “Mercy Mercy Mercy” over the duck's speakers, which really is quickly getting us in the mood. I head the duck down the long driveway.

When we come to the gate, I slow in order to let a sleek black car jet by. I look over toward Ruby and she shrugs. Some people are in such a hurry. I turn left, hit the gas and off we go!

Even though it's sunny as hell out, I still have the heater on high due to the morning chill, but the combination is wonderful. Ruby has on the scarf I gave her for Christmas; it flutters backward in the breeze and makes me smile. We both decided to dress more “work-oriented,” which means Ruby looks like she's about to board a Learjet.

She's decked out in a deep red outfit, a matching headband and jingly bracelets. My feet are cozy in my trusty green Keds, and I'm happy to say it's back to wearing these faded-perfectly, pinstriped bib overalls topped with a soft pink sweater. Truly a spring fashion first. Someone on this island has to set the standards and we never leave the cottage without lipstick. My hair is still a little damp, so it's being held up with several red wooden cocktail stirrers we found down in the secret speakeasy. Coming to Charlie's driveway, I make a right and head down the curvy lane.

Ruby turns the Queen down a notch and says, “I'll never get over Charlie's collection. Slow down a bit, darling, would you?”

“Look at that one.” I point to a white, triple-decker bird-house; its three gables topped with miniature flags are flapping in the breeze. “All these mini-mansions waiting for spring residents.” How could you choose?

The duck dips down a slope and I follow the curve in the drive up and around, parking in front of his pink trailer. Its silvery chrome decorations flash the sun back; I push my enormous sunglasses up this oily nose of mine for a closer look. Charlie's handsome face peeks out the round porthole window in the front door and he waves.

Seconds later he's heading toward the idling duck, his signature fedora hat sitting rakishly over one eye, his long, long gray braided ponytail swaying across his broad back as he comes over—and of course, there's a coffee-stained mug forever attached to one of his hands. I've never seen him without one.

“Morning, ladies.” Charlie pushes up his hat, revealing those twinkling gray-blue eyes. “Permission to come aboard?”

“Granted,” Ruby and I say together and giggle.

He scales up the ladder and clumps down the aisle. We give him a friendly hug; he pecks us on the cheek and then thumps into the seat behind me.

“So glad to have you back, darling,” Ruby gushes. “We're not exactly sure just
what
awaits us at Lilly's, but I think it could be serious.”

“Only too glad to help. It will be great to catch up on the goings-on out here; sure did miss it.”

I back up a bit and then head the duck down his drive, while Ruby fills Charlie in on her version of the winter's adventures. I turn up the Queen a touch and head to LaPointe.

Sure hope that Lilly's place isn't
too
full. The only specific information I could find about this particular “obsession” is that usually it seems to err more on the side of
garbage
and I certainly can't imagine her being anything but clean as hell. Never,
ever
has she come to the boathouse, or the cottage, for that matter, in anything but her standard trench coat, cozy housedress or slacks and attractive, but subtle, top. Trailing a hint of good old White Shoulders perfume, mixed with Aqua Net, of course.

“Look who's back!” Bonnie sidles over from behind the bar and gives us all warm hugs. “Since it's obviously not too busy,” Bonnie gestures to the only table that's occupied—the boys—they wave. “Marsha and I are closing for the day and we'll just come with you all. Alice Anne mentioned she'd try and join us later.”