Recluse Island

Chapter 45

March 2014

Books were not exactly in abundance in the Clinkirk Compound. After all their main priority as residents of the compound was to work not partake in pleasurable activities whatever those may be.

Yet even so when Agatha Chappey was ten years old, she came across a book in the Smithy Shop that would forever change her life. It was called Mary Poppins. Most who read the novel focused on the adventures the children had and the excitement of having such an interesting and unique person in their household but for Agatha what grabbed her attention was the position, a nanny.

Agatha knew even then she wasn't a very pretty girl, with unruly red hair, unusual dark green eyes, pale translucent skin, and a pudgy tummy as her father called it. As a result, growing up Agatha never tried to entice herself to men or attract any attention to herself. She had already decided she was doomed to remain alone. The only glitch was she desperately wanted children. So, having read Mary Poppins, Agatha decided the only way to achieve this was to obtain a role in child rearing. These positions were admittedly scarce in the Clinkirk Compound except for the Sunshine House, so Agatha set her sights on one day becoming matron of the orphanage. She subtly ingratiates herself to Loretta Wagner so when she stepped down from the position Agatha would be the obvious choice. And in 1963 Agatha got her wish.

            Now fifty years later Agatha knew she had made the right decision and except for Leonard Gunbrundt she had few regrets. But she didn't like to often dwell on that lost opportunity.

            As the month had just changed to March, Agatha had announced at the beginning of the week she would be holding a meeting for the Sunshine House residents before the workday started, this was usually around 6 a.m. and would be conducted in the parlor which was really a fancy word for the small room one entered after stepping foot into the Sunshine House and which branched off to the boys' and girls' quarters.

During these meetings Agatha would go over any changes in the compound, any infractions that need to be addressed and confirm her "children," are spending their seibolds appropriately. As matron of the house, it is her responsibility to ensure her charges are fed, clothed and in compliance with all compound regulations.

            When Agatha arrived in the parlor on the morning in question, she found it crowded with the orphans of the Clinkirk Compound. Some were slumped on couches and sleeping on the floor while others were curled up in armchairs. Millie Harper's head was resting on Nelson Niles shoulder while her newest resident Taryn Wittenburg sat on Millie's other side looking far more alert than was usually the case at these meetings.

            The room could fit about twenty people, incidentally this is also where TSH (the Sunshine House) residents liked to come at the end of the workday to relax and unwind. Stretching out on the burgundy couches or curling up in an armchair. The room was painted seaweed green while the carpeting was a rich hazelnut.

            Agatha loved being the matron of the house. It gave her a purpose and sense of fulfillment. Something she had never achieved working in the Loom before taking over for the previous matron. Matrons were replaced either upon their death or when they had reached the age of seventy.

            Agatha carried a clipboard in one hand upon which was the list she had devised of topics that needed to be discussed. She stood in front of the large fireplace above which was a portrait of the first matron of the Sunshine House Maxine Larson. Maxine was the only matron to have lived in Stormy Shore before her appointment. At the time the portrait was taken, she had been running the house for twenty years, she looked to be in her early sixties and wore an elaborate violet gown with lace along her cuffs and collar while her auburn hair was trussed up into a complicated bun encircled with twisting braids. Agatha had always admired her, to give up her life above ground to have something she was never going to get in Stormy Shore - children to call her own. It was the same reason Agatha applied for the position though in her case the Clinkirk Compound had always been her home.