Part Twenty-One

It was a gray morning, misty, cloudy, not a trace of the friendly orange-and-pink glow that Peggy had come to enjoy on her morning walks to the 5:20 ferry. Yesterday had been the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. She had gone to Raoul's house, finally, to see his garden and hear his Merry Pranksters Renaissance Band, which consisted of Raoul on alto recorder, his friend Ted on lute, a white-haired woman named Xena on viola da gamba, and Xena's granddaughter, Laura, on bass recorder. Many of Raoul's flowers were in bloom and he took great delight in discussing each one.



The evening was a success; the band played wonderful music and Xena sang bawdy medieval tunes. Peggy stayed up too late, had too much wine, and was now groggy as she boarded the ferry and found her way to her usual seat.

Raoul was already there, trying to read his newspaper, with an annoyed look on his face. Across from him was Kelly Flinn, the "town crier," as Raoul had taken to calling him. Kelly had an opinion on anything and everything and was always willing to share it with his fellow passengers on the ferry. With Kelly was Ferdinand, the drummer.

"I don't know how they expect this coastal task force to get anything done," Kelly said.

"My thoughts exactly," said Raoul. "Committees are by nature inefficient."

"Raoul, a dialogue is needed," said Peggy, pouring her tea from her Thermos. "How else can people's opinions be heard?"

Raoul raised his eyebrows. "Now there's a thought. Maybe some opinions shouldn't be heard."

"Now you're being childish," said Peggy.

"I'm being realistic," he said.

"Decisions can't be made in a vacuum," said Kelly. "That's the point I was leading up to. The task force is going to be marginalized by powerful people who don't want to change the status quo. They are going to make sure that any recommendations made by the task force are stashed away in a file cabinet somewhere, especially the ones they don't agree with. And do you know why?"

"I suppose you're going to tell us," said Raoul.

"It's because there's a lot of money at stake," Kelly said. Ferdinand nodded his head in agreement. "Who in this state is going to stand up to real estate developers who want to build condos and hotels on every patch of desirable land they can find? It brings in tax revenue."

"He's right, you know," said Peggy. "We don't stand a chance of being heard."

"You folks are paranoid," said Raoul. "If the task force makes recommendations that aren't followed then it will be for a good reason, like we've trampled on the rights on property owners. Let's face it, our whole society is built on the idea of private ownership of property. And if you don't think that's a good idea, then consider the alternative, which is public ownership. Now that's a recipe for disaster."

"I just don't get how someone with your range of interests can be so cold and negative," said Peggy.

"What you are describing as cold and negative is what I call reality," said Raoul.

"With property rights come responsibilities," said Kelly.

"Bingo," said Peggy.

"Oh, brother, now you guys are singing from the same page of music," said Raoul.

Ferdinand perked up. "Speaking of music, what's that?"

A burst of plucking string music suddenly filled the air, coming from just down the aisle.

Raoul gasped. Peggy looked at him. "What is it?"

"A zither," he said. "Oh, my. It's been years."


Click zither to listen to
Anton Karas playing "Danube Dream."

They listened. The music was calming, it made Peggy forget about politics and property rights. Then she looked at Raoul and noticed that a change had come over him. He suddenly seemed sad, and older. There were wrinkles in his face that she had not noticed before. He looked out of the window, either listening to the music or lost in some thought, she couldn't tell which.

"What is it?" Peggy said again, softly.

"It reminds me of The Third Man. It was Priscilla's favorite movie. The entire soundtrack was played on the zither by Anton Karas. We watched it so many times together. I can't hear a zither being played without thinking of that, without thinking of her."

Peggy placed her hand on his arm. "I know exactly how you feel. I know that feeling of recalling a moment that you had with someone and it seems so unreal that the person is gone. The moment might have seemed like an eternity at the time, but it was really so fleeting, so instantaneous."

He looked at her and smiled. "I'm very glad to have you with me right now."

"And I'm glad to be here."