Finding Eliza (6 page)

After finishing his education, he returned home to marry his high school sweetheart, Anne Varney. Both were children of farmers who shared the same dream of an easier future than their past. They longed for a life that wasn’t covered with red dirt and dust from the fields. Almost immediately he joined the staff of the local high school, and the newlyweds had the home that they had always wanted.

In 1934, their lives changed.

Although Alston loved teaching in the classroom, his main love was working with wood. Sharing this practical yet artistic craft with his students became his focus. Within two years, Alston became known throughout the community for his skill with both the wood and the students in his classroom. His younger sister often teased him that as hard as he tried, he was still covered in the dust that he had tried to escape from the family farm. Alston knew that the main reason she liked to tease him was because he would react and respond, so he always obliged.

His favorite time of the day was when Eliza would stop by his shop to visit. Many times they would leave the school together after classes finished for the day. Although there was a six-year age difference between them, spending this time together every day kept them close as siblings. Many times Eliza would spend her weekends in town with her brother and his wife. Alston and Anne counted the time they spent with her a blessing. They each dreamed of a time when perhaps Eliza would move to town to start her own family, keeping them all together.

Lately Eliza hadn’t been stopping by her brother’s classroom after school. He had noticed changes in her behavior. She no longer wanted to spend free afternoons walking through town shops with her sister-in-law. They didn’t know why things had shifted in her personality and behavior, and they weren’t enjoying the changes.

Today, Alston decided to wander the halls of Everett Springs High School in search of his absentee sibling. The school was quieting down as students made their way towards home. Alston walked through the main hallway hearing nothing but the sounds of his own shoes. He peered around doors and into classrooms to see if his sister was sitting in discussion with another instructor. Unfortunately, he found no signs of where she may have been.

“The library
,”
Alston whispered.

Eliza was an avid reader. Although, they couldn't afford many books, his parents stressed the importance of reading. They saved advertisements, labels from seed bags, or newspaper articles for their children to read after school. Each turned into a story at bedtime or around the dinner table. They created games that encouraged their wild imaginations and creativity. Alston considered his mother a master storyteller, not unlike P.L. Travers. His mother had little faith in her talent. She didn't believe that a woman in the Deep South could have a career writing children’s stories in the 1930s. She also believed in conforming to the expectations of society, and she taught her children to do so as well. They could bend the bonds of status and class, but they couldn’t break them without feeling the sting of being different. Some changes needed to come only with the passage of time.

The talent of Mrs. James showed in the minds and imaginations of her children, especially Eliza. During on one their afternoon walks, Eliza shared her dream was to leave Everett Springs. She wanted to ride a train to New York where she was sure she could be an author. She fancied herself the American Dorothy L. Sayers or Agatha Christie. While Alston and Anne wanted her to have dreams of living in Everett Springs, Eliza had dreams of being bigger than her home town. She wanted to move to a bigger city in a new part of the country where she couldn’t be limited by small towns and small minds. She had dreams of the life that she saw in newsreels and picture shows. Eliza James wanted to be cosmopolitan.

Alston reached the school library and opened the door with great care and respect. Although he was a teacher, he was still one of the youngest members on staff. It was difficult for him to remember that he was no longer a student bound to the rules of his childhood. In contrast, he was a teacher who could now help determine and enforce those rules. This time his quiet entry worked to his advantage allowing him to see what may have otherwise stayed hidden.

Peering around the heavy wooden door into the dark-filled library, Alston reeled back in shock. Hidden between two shelves of books was his youngest sister, Eliza, and she wasn’t alone.

He couldn’t see his sister's face, but he recognized her clothing immediately. After a summer's afternoon with a Harper's Bazaar, Eliza became convinced that she had to own a dress just like Bette Davis modeled on the cover. It would be her first step toward creating a style like career women in the Big Apple. By selling eggs and baked goods in town, their mother saved the money to buy the fabric needed to make her daughter's dream come true. The straight skirt with a pleated bottom teased Alston as he stood there unable to find the words to shout out to his sister. He tried to adjust his eyes to the low light to see who accompanied her but the angle and location of the bookcase prevented it. The young man’s face may have been hidden, but Alston saw one important detail. Two dark-skinned hands wrapped around his sister’s waist.

Alston started toward the couple. At the same time, the doors to the library flung open creating a loud racket. Two of the school’s football players entered laughing. The distraction caused Alston to turn his attention toward the door and away from his sister. By the time he looked again at the library’s stacks he realized he had been too late. The voices of the players caught Eliza’s attention, too.

His sister and her companion were gone.

Chapter Six

After reading the diary’s opening entry, Lizzie needed to read more. She flipped through the diary's pages looking for an answer to the problem that plagued her great-grandfather. Patience wasn’t her strong suit, and there was no use in pretending she had it now.

“Lizzie, darlin’, you need to go through this diary one entry at a time. Don’t go looking too far ahead. If you search for an answer before you even know the story you'll cause the truth to become lost,” Gertrude cautioned.

“Gran, what’s going on here? I didn’t even know that your father had a sister much less that she was somehow attached to a scandal in the family.”

“Daddy did have a younger sister. It tortured him to talk about her, so we didn’t much. Her name was Eliza, just like you.”

“Whoa. Wait just a second,” said Lizzie as she stood in surprise, causing the chair to wobble behind her. Raising her hands in the air, she took a step back from the table. “What do you mean her name was Eliza? Was I named after your aunt? No one thought I might want to know this before now?”

“We don’t need you getting all riled up, sister.” Blue slid out a chair and patted its back as encouragement for Lizzie to take a seat. “Do your Gran’s old heart good and sit down.” It may have sounded like a request, but Lizzie knew it was the only polite order she was going to get from Blue if she continued to pace the room.

“We all knew about it, dear. We were just waiting until your grandmother thought the time was right,” whispered Abi. “Sweetheart, just listen to her for a minute before you get all twisted into knots.”

Gertrude crossed her hands in her lap and took in a calming breath before starting the conversation over. “My father always spoke of his sister with such adoration. He loved her. She was his baby sister. It was his responsibility to protect her, and he took that charge to heart. Growing up I knew that she had an accident at a young age, but I wasn’t sure exactly what it was or when it had occurred. It was painful for him to discuss because he felt as if he was responsible. The only way he knew how to cope was to keep it locked up, so we didn’t talk about her often. It just opened too many wounds, I suppose. I always had the feeling that whatever happened was something that we didn’t need to dwell on so I didn’t push. It wasn’t until years later that I learned her story.”

Emotions of the past began to crawl cross Gertrude's face. Her life-long friends reached for her. Abi leaned in for a hug as Blue reached for Gertrude's hand. Claud whispered prayers under her breath much to Blue’s irritation.

“I don’t know much about her outside of the diary, but he did tell me of her beauty and grace. Her full name was Eliza Gertrude James. I am the bearer of her middle name. When you were born, you were such a beautiful baby that her name just came to mind. You held the beauty that my father talked about when he thought of his sister. Your parents loved it, so Eliza you became. It’s a name that connects us to each other as well as to the past.”

Gertrude watched Lizzie’s face as she took it all in. Her big green eyes were even larger than normal as she soaked in the conversation. It was only when Lizzie dropped her eyes to look at the diary that she knew it was time to continue talking about its secrets.

“You look like you have some questions,” Gertrude said. “Where do you want to start?”

Lizzie wasn’t sure how to answer her grandmother. Thoughts raced through her head as she sat looking at the diary. All she expected from this evening was a boring night at church to appease her grandmother. One small collection of dusty paper had changed everything. Lizzie knew that conversations of the past could be painful. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to open another wound over a woman she didn't even know existed until a few moments earlier.

“I just discovered that my namesake is a mysterious aunt that we don't discuss. I have a lot of questions. What did she do? Why was your father so concerned with her dating a boy that he cut her out of his life like that?”

“It was a little more complicated than that. It was a different time. People saw things differently then. You’ll have to read the diary to understand.”

Lizzie rubbed her temples. Her life had always felt like it had a shadow over it. People always looked at her like she was different. She always assumed it was her pain over her parents' death that made them uncomfortable. Now she wondered if there was something else complicating matters. What kind of scandal did her great aunt cause? Immediately she felt like blaming Eliza Gertrude James, bearer of both beauty and shame.

“I only wanted to come to the meeting for a few hours to make you happy, Gran. I had no idea a family scandal was waiting on me.”

Blue took control of the conversation. “Listen here. You need to take a breath before you blow a gasket. That won’t be something pretty, and I don’t feel like putting you together tonight. It’s been a long day, and I don’t have the energy.” She rose to get a snack tray that was still sitting on the dessert table. “Lemon square?”

Claud broke from her prayers as the tray came within inches of her nose. “How on earth can you be thinking of sweets during a conversation like this, Blue?”

“Easy. They’re here. I’m staring at them. What’s not to understand?” Blue popped a small yellow confection into her mouth and returned to her chair with a flourish and a wink at Claud. She took her role as the grounding force of the group seriously, even if it did come out of her mouth in a mixture of bluntness and comedy.

“Honestly, Blue,” Abi said. “The diary holds all the answers, honey. It’s a heavy story, but it isn’t your story. It just might teach you a thing or two. The past tends to do that if you let it.”

“I’m sure it’s interesting, but I don’t see what I can learn from a dusty book written by a man I didn’t know in an era I didn’t live. I don’t see how it’s connected,” Lizzie said.

“Sometimes you struggle with making peace over the events of your past.” Gertrude paused. “I - no, we - thought it would be helpful for you to see how others dealt with difficulty in their lives. Sometimes the past is painful, but other times it can bring perspective. I want you to see how my father and his family dealt with difficult times in the hopes that it helps you deal with yours.”

“That is part of why we are drawn to study our family history,” Claud added. “It helps us put what we’re dealing with today into perspective.”

“In some cases, the strength of our ancestors helps us move past something that’s holding us down,” said Abi.

“Or, in the case of my aunt, their struggles teach us how to let go before our troubles destroy us.”

Lizzie looked at the diary once again. Picking it up, she flipped through the pages being careful not to damage the aging book. Words flashed through in pieces as she moved through the time line of events left behind by her great-grandfather. Curious, she started to linger over an entry partway through the diary.

Her grandmother interrupted her focus by placing a hand on top of the text, limiting Lizzie from going further. She couldn’t help but notice how gently her grandmother’s hand rested on the diary. For a moment, it reminded Lizzie of the gentleness with which she raised Lizzie. It wasn’t a figure of speech when Lizzie talked of her grandmother ruling with an iron fist of grace. It was all true. Her grandmother could both take control and induce calm all at the same time. She was doing it again now.

“Gran, I thought you wanted me to read the diary to learn the great family secret that is lost in its pages. You keep giving me these teasers of information but then stop me short. That can’t possibly be playing by the rules.”

“I’m making the rules, and the first is to take it one page at a time. You have to read it in order. Understand that my father and his sister lived in a different time. The experiences that they had were guided by the rules of society, and those rules varied from the ones that steady us today. It’s dark, so you need to prepare yourself. It will be hard, but it will be worth it. Knowing how these events affected our family will help you as you face your own demons, just like Abi and Claud said. Just remember that we’re all with you every step of the way.”