The Last Cottage - Chapter 17

  

Maggie and Hamilton are on their first post retirement trip in Maine, and while taking a drive in the country, Maggie notices a very old road sign at an abandoned road that they decide to explore the next day.  I hope you will enjoy this excerpt.  Thanks for stopping by and remember to enjoy your day!

Chapter 17

They drove straight through Pine Grove without stopping, wanting to get to Long Way, as they felt it wasn’t going to be just a dead end road. They were glad there was little to no traffic on the main road, as they didn’t want anyone to see them pull onto the abandoned road and maybe even follow them. 

“Do you think we might have passed the road?” Maggie asked. “I don’t remember driving this far before.  It seemed like it was a few minutes outside of town, and we have been driving for about ten minutes now.”

 “You might be right, but let’s give it a few more miles. We weren’t paying attention to how long we were driving when you spotted that street sign, so we are just guessing as to the location,” Hamilton replied. “I have to admit, this is fun,” he exclaimed. “I'm going to be disappointed if we don’t find anything at all. Even if it’s only some old foundations, that will tell us a little more about that road sign. There wouldn't be a sign if there wasn’t anything down that way.”

Maggie agreed as she continued to look for the road, while Hamilton was able to drive below the speed limit, since there was no one behind him. Sure enough, about a half mile later, they saw the sign. 

“Well, here we go!” Hamilton said excitedly.

“Don’t think I'm being silly, but I brought my travel journal with me and want to take notes on what we find. If there is nothing, then obviously we will know not to come back, but if there is a lot to see, we might not be able to check it all out today. I don’t want to forget anything, including any landmarks we might want to remember,” Maggie explained.

“Not silly at all. I think it’s a good idea. I hope there is something here that will require some notes. It feels like my first archeology exploration,” Hamilton said, Maggie seeing the little boy in Hamilton’s eyes.  “It’s kind of ironic that I just read that article about these villages where small homes or cottages were built during World War II, and Maine was one of the states listed.  But that article did say that most of the buildings were abandoned and later taken down, so even if this is one of those areas, I doubt anything would be left. I have to think they simply forgot about the road signs,” he went on.

“But I found it odd that the Edwards didn’t seem to want to talk about it. I would feel proud to have been a part of helping these families have a comfortable place to stay while waiting for their soldiers to come home, even though obviously not everyone did. Still, it’s such a lovely thought that the people of these communities would want to do this for those families not wanting to live on the bases,” Maggie added.  “We should find out if the rest of the town is hush-hush about this, or maybe we did just imagine their reluctance.”

“No, I felt they didn’t want to discuss it, and since we both noticed it, I have to think they didn’t want to talk about it. The mystery grows even before we have found anything,” Hamilton said.

As they turned on to the road, Maggie took a quick picture of the Long Way sign and noticed a few hundred feet in that the road was in pretty bad shape, but still drivable.  It had been paved, but there was a lot of overgrowth and potholes, so it was slow driving.  The trees along the road were thick and made it feel like it was almost dusk, rather than mid morning. A few hundred yards in, Maggie spotted what looked like another sign  lying on the side of the road. It was partially sticking out on the road with some twigs and branches spread across the one side, but it was clear this was the same type of sign.  Hamilton stopped the car so Maggie could take a look.

 “Okay, someone had a good sense of humor with these signs.  It says This Way,” she laughed. “I would love to keep this sign, but I don’t think we should even touch anything or move it. I'll take a picture though. This is getting really interesting!”

Hamilton had gotten out of the car to take a look around. “There is another road here too, but for now I think we should stay on the main road and explore any side roads after we see where this one ends. It is looking more and more like there was definitely something here, as otherwise what other purpose could there be for these signs?  Hard to tell how far this side road goes, but I bet we will find more of these signs.”

 “I'm thinking the same thing,” Maggie replied. “I'm still going to keep an eye on the side of this road to see if there are any further side roads or signs. There has got be quite the story about this area. I hope we can find some people in town who know more about all of this and willing to talk about it. I can't imagine why they would want to keep mum. I would have been proud to have been a part of this reaching out and helping these military families.”

They came across two more side roads with the signs still lying on the ground, one called That Way and the second one Short Way.  There was one more side road on the left, but they couldn't find a sign to go with it.  Even though they were driving slowly so as not to miss anything, it felt like they had ridden for a long time. Hamilton had noted the odometer when they pulled onto the road, and so far they had gone about half a mile.  Finally they saw what looked like a clearing ahead, as they could see the sun shining through the trees.  The road curved somewhat to the right and left, looking like they had come upon a cul-de-sac, with a grove of trees in the middle.  

Hamilton drove to the right and at first only saw a lot more trees along the way, making it seem as if they were driving through a tunnel, since the trees were so thick and tall. Maggie was taking some pictures, even though there wasn’t much to see besides the trees. As they continued around the road, all of a sudden they spotted it—a small run-down cottage! They looked at each other with huge grins on their faces and said out loud, at the exact same time: “JACKPOT!”