All night, wind howls around our house. I give up the charade of sleeping and pull out my library book. I’m in the final pages of Meredith Hall‘s memoir about growing up in New Hampshire, Without a Map, and I’m in no rush to end her story, close the cover, and return the book.
At my feet, my little cat lies awake, thinking cat thoughts, in a cat circadian rhythm of his own. The Ides of March howl in fiercely. All day, the wet snowstorm has swirled around us. My wet boots lie beneath the wood stove. Our house banked in by white and the ash bucket melting dirtily into the path where I’ve left to cool, its embers to burn out and die.
Somewhere in those hours before dawn, I shake flat the wood stove’s embers with the ash shovel and lay one, two, more pieces of wood on the flickering coals. In the dark house, the little cat follows me downstairs, curious about breakfast but not insistent.
I think of what I’ve read that day, about a stone house built nearby in the 1800s from a single boulder. A curious endeavor. Take this stone, cut it into pieces, and make a home. In the darkness, the wind rakes over our house, hurls over my snow-submerged garden plot, and whirls over the town cemetery.
“The past lies beneath the surface, intransigent truth. Remembered or not, what we say and do remains, always.”
— Meredith Hall
Stony Soil Vermont 
Parallel universes. I too am building a stone house….if you can call it that (12′ x 12′). It is essentially a playhouse where a Rev War reenactor can hang out and do some hearth cooking. But rather than cutting it from a single boulder, I’ve got 50 tons of limestone and creek rock to work. Now 67, I’ve realized this could be my last hurrah, the last big project. At 150.bs soaking wet, I never could have moved some of these rocks that go probably 250-300 lbs (Limestone ~170 lbs/cu. ft.) so I’ve been welding up tools to lift and place them in the fireplace and walls. I tell myself I can have this done before Thanksgiving….we’ll see. I may find myself between a rock and a hard place.
Well, I have to say, this is one of the most interesting things to come my written way in a while. Wishing you luck!
Thank goodness for our wood stoves and fireplaces. And cats.
I know!!
So atmospheric and lovely.
Thank you!!!
I remember reading that excellent book some years ago, and being very affected by it. What did you think of it?
Last year I read her latest novel Beneficience: A Novel. It’s a quiet sort of book, and the story & characters stayed with me for a long, long time after I finished…
I read Beneficence, too. I found Meredith Hall by chance, but I’m an immense fan. I really loved the final section of Without a Map. So happy to hear you’ve read her, too!