Eviskar Island Read Online Free Page B

tulips in Washington Park would bloom to announce the arrival of spring this far north, a seeming eternity after more than four months of chill and snow.
    Gail and Steven van Wormer had been married now for almost two years.  They’d met at the Albany Institute where she worked as deputy curator and he starred as one of its principal members and benefactors.
    The Albany Institute of History and Art, AIHA, is one of the oldest museums in the country, housing extensive collections and exhibits which document the history and culture of the upper Hudson Valley and New York State’s Capitol District.  Prominent among its fine art collections is the assemblage of Hudson River School paintings.  Many works by such luminaries as Thomas Cole and Frederic Church are on permanent display there along with examples of cast iron pieces from the once great foundries across the river in Troy, and textile goods produced in the heyday of the late 19 th and early 20 th century mills in cities along the Mohawk River.  Every schoolchild in Albany remembers when he/she first laid eyes on the two Egyptian mummies, complete with their ornate sarcophagi, that the Institute acquired in 1909.  Gail’s visit on a sixth grade field trip had sparked an interest in preservation of the past that had stayed with her.  She had poured her soul into her history/fine art studies at UGA with the goal of gaining employment at either the Albany Institute or at the New York State Museum located only a few blocks away.
    Gail’s job at the AIHA turned out to be everything she’d hoped it would be.  She loved giving tours to groups of all ages, often awakening in her charges new awareness and appreciation of the region’s cultured past.  Numerous additions were acquired of which she was given the responsibility of archiving and cataloging.  Life was grand for the not yet twenty-nine-year-old Gail when, suddenly and unexpectedly, Steven van Wormer entered her life.  A scion of Albany society, Steven was one of the Institute’s biggest benefactors.  He was a good-looking, articulate, successful orthopedic surgeon who also happened to be recently divorced.  The two of them met at a fund raiser and after a whirlwind courtship of six months, were married.  That was two years ago.
    Angela, Steven’s ex-wife, had run off to Buffalo with a roguish young man whom she had hired to paint the inside of the house.  Apparently much more than painting had gone on in the upstairs bedrooms, not to mention the den, the living room and even on the basement workbench.  One day Marcie had come home from school to an empty house save for a folder addressed to her dad.  It had contained papers from the office of a local lawyer, announcing Angela’s desire for a divorce.  Marcie was understandably hurt.  The strong feeling of abandonment resulting from her mother’s deplorable departure had brought her much closer, emotionally, to her father.  Gail was aware of the situation and had worked hard to fit in without threatening the close ties between father and daughter.  For the most part her efforts had been successful.  Gail’s love for Steven was apparent to Marcie, and the girl appreciated how happy her father was in his new marriage.
    Marcie was an extremely bright, studious tomboy of a girl who was currently experiencing the throes of adolescence.  For the most part she and Gail got along well.  They admired one another, accepting the roles they had been forced to assume.
    In the last few months Marcie had guardedly begun to open up to Gail about some of the social problems she was experiencing in school.  The soccer coach had placed her on the “C” team rather than the Junior varsity where Marcie felt she belonged, and one of her better friends was giving her the cold shoulder for some unknown reason.  But there were other issues, those relating to the physical changes associated with puberty, which Marcie refused to discuss with anyone, not even her