A Spell on the Water

Copyright

Copyright © by John Patrick Lambert 2011 All rights reserved This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher. Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2014 2013 2012 2011 4 3 2 1 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cole, Marjorie Kowalski. A spell on the water / Marjorie Kowalski Cole. p. cm. — (Sweetwater fiction) ISBN 978-0-472-03463-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-47202756 -9 (ebk.) 1. Life change events—Fiction. 2. Widows—Fiction. 3. Country life—Michigan—Fiction. 4. Mother and child—Fiction. 5. Fatherless families—Fiction. I. Title. PS3603.O429S64 2011 813'.6—dc22 2011007257 This book is dedicated to my sisters and my brother, marie, martha karen, henry paul, & louise, fellow travelers and none better, with incredible memories and all my love. Menelaus harangued them to get organized— time to ride home on the sea’s broad back, he said. —The Odyssey, Book III, translated by Robert Fitzgerald  For sometimes, when the world is not our home Nor have we any home elsewhere, but all Things look to leave us naked, hungry, cold, We suddenly may seem in paradise Again, in ignorance and emptiness Blessed beyond all that we thought to know: Then on sweet waters echoes the loon’s cry. —Howard Nemerov, “The Loon’s Cry”  Sometimes you don’t really decide, you just move forward, and that is what I did—moved forward blindly and mindlessly into a new and unknown life. —Katherine Graham, A Personal History ...