I can hardly remember the early days anymore, those first weeks after moving here, when I wondered if I’d made a terrible mistake, agreeing to this whole situation. Moving into a money pit of a house. Giving up the city for this place. Chestnut Hill, NY, where every day feels like Wednesday.
But if Wednesday is going to be anything like this past Wednesday, I am all for it. That’s the day I pulled out of Farrell’s at 1:00 p.m. with a trunk full of groceries and spotted Sam through the window of the Parlor. I parked at the bank, snuck up behind him at the bar, where he was doing the crossword puzzle and nursing a seltzer with lime. We enjoyed a quiet lunch, the fish sandwich for him, a Mediterranean sampler for me. The whole thing was so marvelously relaxed, nothing like the stress of the city, where I would never think of ordering a twenty-dollar lunch entree, not worrying about a thing in the world. Until I lied to Sam again.
Not for the first time, he asked if I had given any more thought to my long-term plans, and while he did his best to keep any judgment from his voice, I could sense the underlying message. Are you ever going to do something useful with your days? I hate feeling stupid, and so I lied. “Funny you should ask,” I said. “I just so happened to accept a volunteer position today. I was planning on telling you at happy hour.”
Tour guide at the Chestnut Hill Historical Society, I said, all smiles. I’d been thinking about volunteering for some time （somewhat true）， and, on a whim, went to the organization’s website （less true, but not out of the question）。 I saw the volunteer posting and decided to apply （patently false）。
Sam was polite enough not to point out what we both know is true: I am exceedingly overqualified for this （fake） volunteer opportunity. But we agreed it was something to do, and to be honest, I’ve been enjoying the image of myself leading a busload of old biddies from Boston up and down Main Street, pointing out all the shops under new management, necessary amenities for the recent settlers from the city. Mid-century floor lamps. Farmhouse dining tables. Eighteen-dollar hamburgers that don’t have the decency to come with a side of fries.
And while lying to Sam is a terrible habit, there are worse things for me than getting into the shower and out of the house two hours a day, three times a week （that’s my schedule, subject to change）。 I’ve made a list of the cultural destinations I plan to visit on the hours I need to be out of the house, making the most of this lie, starting right now, at three o’clock on a lovely Wednesday afternoon, my first day on the “job”： the Chestnut Hill Historical Society. It is, after all, only fitting that I start here, and my spirits are high when I pull into the parking lot in front of the little white house. Built in 1798, it houses a collection of pieces from when Chestnut Hill was a thriving center of brick manufacturing, a display of artifacts from the Civil War, and a permanent exhibit on the Lawrences, the town’s founding family.
I park beside the only other car in the lot, a dark-brown Buick, and climb the three rickety steps. The bald man behind the desk looks genuinely surprised to see me. “Help you?”
“Yes, I’m here to view the permanent exhibit.” I hold up the paper I’d printed from the website. “The Lawrences: Chestnut Hill’s Founding Family.” I can’t resist leaning forward to offer a bit of advice. “This title? You might want to suggest something a little more inspired.”
“Second floor,” he says, blank-faced. “Elevator’s broken, use the stairs.”
“Thank you.” I take the stairs two at a time, excited to learn more about this family whose house I occupy—chemical magnates, building a fortune off polluting the earth, their efforts memorialized here on the second floor: thirty-two foam-core panels that could use a good dusting.
I start at the beginning. James Michael Lawrence, made his money in oil before turning to chemicals.
Philip, big patron of the arts.
Martin, invested in newspapers, and his wife Celeste.
I feel like I know them all intimately, having worked my way through most of Agatha Lawrence’s papers. James’s bout with scarlet fever. Martin’s nagging colitis. Philip’s work to bring prohibition to Green County.
Of course, it’s Agatha who intrigues me the most.
People here think they knew her: the single sixty-seven-year-old woman who died alone; the poor spinster up on the hill. But that wasn’t her at all. In fact, she may be the most interesting woman I’ve ever come across. Yesterday, in between patients, I found her journals, and the portrait that is emerging is truly fascinating. She was brazenly independent and smart, part of the first class of women admitted to Princeton in 1969. After leaving for college, she rarely spoke to the others in her family, all of them staunch conservatives. A textile designer, she traveled the world, most of the time alone. Her work was exhibited in galleries in New York and London, and she was living with a woman in San Francisco when she got news her father had died. She knew this day was coming, that she’d become the sole heir of the Lawrence estate, and she returned to Chestnut Hill, to the family house, where she surprised everyone by selling the company and using most of the proceeds to buy large swaths of land that she put into a trust, making amends for her family’s role as the worst polluter in New York State for several decades.