“She wouldn’t,” the fisherman said, “unless she don’t want to drink. No drinking in that place. ” He shook his head. “That’s exactly where you go if you leave a program early but don’t want to be drinking and drugging anymore. I’ve known a bunch of guys to go there. I even stayed there once.”
It was raining so hard when I left that water coming down bounced off pavement back up toward the loud, liquid sky. I was soaked to my knees, hungry, cold, and with no place left to go, as was true of many people who came to the Seaman’s Institute.
It looked like a small brick church with a menu out front written with chalk on a chalkboard and a banner that said everyone is welcome. I stepped inside and saw men sitting at a counter drinking coffee while others were at tables in a plain dining room across from the front door. Eyes turned to me with mild curiosity, and the faces reflected years of cruel weather and drink. A waitress who looked no older than Lucy asked if I would like a meal.
“I’m looking for Father Ogren,” I said.
“I’ve not seen him lately, but you can check the library or the chapel.”
I climbed stairs and entered a small chapel that was empty save for saints painted in frescoes on plaster walls. It was a lovely chapel with needlepoint cushions in nautical designs and a floor of varying colors of marble inlaid with shapes of shells. I stood very still looking around at Saint Mark holding a mast while Saint Anthony of Padua blessed the creatures of the sea. Saint Andrew carried nets, and words from the Bible were painted along the top of the wall. For he make the storm to cease so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they are at rest and so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
I dipped my hand into a large shell filled with holy water and blessed myself. Praying a while before the altar, I placed a gift in a small straw basket. I left a bill for Lucy and me and a quarter for Emily. Beyond the door I heard cheery voices and whistling of residents on the stairs. Rain on the roof sounded like drum rolls on a mattress and beyond opaque windows gulls cried.
“Good afternoon,” a quiet voice behind me said.
I turned around to find Father Ogren, dressed in black.
“Good afternoon. Father,” I said.
“You must have had a long walk in the rain.” His eyes were kind, his face very gentle.
“I am looking for my niece. Father, and am in despair.”
I did not have to talk about Lucy long. In fact, I’d scarcely described her before I could tell the priest knew who she was, and my heart seemed to open like a rose.
“God is merciful and good,” he said with a smile.
“He led you here as he leads others here who have been lost at sea. He led your niece here days ago. I believe she’s in the library. I put her to work there cataloging books and doing other odds and ends. She’s very smart and has a marvelous idea about our computerizing everything.”
I found her at a refectory table in a dim room of dark paneling and shopworn books. Her back was to me as she worked out a program on paper without benefit of a computer, the way fine musicians compose their symphonies in silence. I thought she looked thinner. Father Ogren patted my arm as he left, and he quietly shut the door.
“Lucy,” I said. She turned and looked at me in astonishment.
“Aunt Kay? My God,” she said in the hushed tone of libraries.
“What are you doing here? How did you know?” Her cheeks were flushed, a scar on her forehead bright red.
I pulled up a chair and took one of her hands in both of mine.
“Please come home with me.” Lucy continued to stare at me as if I had been dead.
“Your name has been cleared.”
“Completely?”
“Completely.”
“You got me my big gun.”