THE SANCTUARY (18 page)

Sixteen

CAROLINA GIRLS FOREVER AND THE SANCTUARY

L
ydia’s great-great-grandfather won the island in a card game. The family kept five acres of the island for themselves, which included a house, a patch of maritime forest, and a couple of beachfront acres on the south side. The rest of the island belonged to the Gullah and nature. The house was an old hunting lodge complete with stables and kennels. It dated back to colonial days when plantation owners had elaborate hunting parties on the island. But the construction was solid, and the property was still in good shape. The only change that had been made besides a bright red metal roof (guaranteed to be hurricane proof) had been some renovations about a decade or so ago that included removing the kennels and incorporating the stables into the lodge as an addition. This was achieved by removing the wall and adding French doors that opened onto a covered breezeway to the stables. The stables had been converted into a comfortable entertainment area, which was especially appealing when there was a storm or it was too cold to sit on the porch.

As Lydia sat in the former stable area looking over at Liz, who had dozed off while reading, she couldn’t help getting a bit maudlin. Lydia hated the reason that finally brought them back to the island. She knew all too well that life wasn’t fair, but she had lost so much already that she felt that fate couldn’t be so cruel as to take Liz, too. It couldn’t happen after they’d just renewed their friendship. At least she hoped not.

Lydia and Liz settled into a routine. Early in the morning, they took short walks on the beach and collected seashells, competing with each another to find the best ones. This was after Liz’s early morning encounters with the herons. The least nature-loving of the CGFs, Liz had developed a fascination with the Great Blue Herons that inhabited the island. Shortly after sunrise, they left their nests and took to the sky. They soared gracefully over the marshlands, disappearing from time to time as they dived and lunged looking for food or a place to rest. Liz couldn’t get enough of watching them.

“Did you know that they’re one of the few species in nature that equally share responsibility for their offspring? It’s usually just the female that takes care of the young. Sometimes they even have to hide the young to keep the fathers from eating them,” she said.

“Nice,” Lydia remarked.

“See how that bird keeps flying away from that bush and then coming back? It’s mating season. The male heron collects all the items for the nest and then the female uses those items to make the nests. She’ll typically lay three to seven bluish-colored eggs. The male and female then take turns incubating the eggs. They turn them every one to two hours to make sure that the eggs stay evenly warm. They do this ritual for twenty-five to twenty-nine days. Once hatched, the male and female both take care of the young until they are old enough to survive on their own. Too bad more species aren’t like the Great Blue Heron,” Liz commented.

“That is remarkable. When did you get to be such an expert on herons?” Lydia asked.

“I read an article a long time ago in
Lowcountry Companion
and found it so interesting, but now that I’m seeing it up close, it’s captivating,” Liz said. “It’s very unusual for them to build a nest on the ground. They have to feel really safe not to go to a tree.”

“I’d say a nearly deserted island is about as safe as it gets,” Lydia commented. “Ugghh! What’s it doing?”

“The adults catch food, such as fish and small birds, rodents, and reptiles, in their bills and then shove the food down the baby bird’s throat to make sure it eats. Just like the rest of the world, only the strongest of the litter will survive. The mama and papa want to make sure they have the best chance of survival,” Liz explained.

After Lydia witnessed the male heron scooping up a tiny field mouse and force feeding it to one of his babies, she had screamed and nearly scared the birds away. After that, Liz had staunchly refused any company and that suited Lydia just fine.

“During a trek through the Amazon Rainforest, I witnessed a lizard eating a nest of eggs. When I mentioned how sad that was to my guide, he shrugged and said, “It’s just nature. That’s the way things are,” Liz said. “That’s what we must all remember. That’s the way it is.
It’s just nature.
”

Most mornings Lydia sat on the porch enjoying a cup of coffee until Liz reappeared from her Great Blue Heron outing yelling, “I’ve already found a good one, Liddie!” and Lydia would race down to the beach to join her. It wasn’t hard to find “a good one” since high tide delivered hundreds of beautiful shells onto the beach daily.

They studied an old book they found in a trunk to help them identify all the shells. They worked puzzles, listened to beach music, and watched the sun set while the tide rolled in. Lydia made delicious meals, such as crab soup and marinated shrimp, which Liz cooed over appropriately, but didn’t eat much. She often fell asleep right after lunch and slept ’til late afternoon. But she rallied whenever Julia or Sonya showed up. They couldn’t stay all the time, but they arranged to share long weekends every week.

“Ferry’s here,” Liz called to Lydia. She loved hearing its horn blast, announcing its arrival. The ferry came twice a day, once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. It was a private ferry since the state didn’t provide ferry service. A long-term grant had been procured many years ago to pay for the boat to transport Gullah back and forth to the mainland, but guests, such as the CGFs, and guests of the Nature Conservancy could also buy tickets. Lydia had granted permission to the Nature Conservancy to bring tour groups to the island for day trips on the condition that they help maintain it and stay far away from the other side of the island where the Gullah resided.

“That means that Jules and Sonya will be here soon,” Lydia said, handing Liz a glass of iced tea.

“Guess who’s here?” Julia asked as she entered the room. She had the biggest smile on her face that Liz had ever seen.

Liz stood up from the wicker rocker and hugged her. “We’ve been waiting for you and Sonya. Lydia made something special for dinner!”

“Well, I hope she made extra. I’ve brought you a special surprise all the way from New York City. I would like to present one of the top graduates of Tabor Academy. Ta-da!” she said as she stepped aside to reveal Grace standing behind her. Sonya brought up the rear.

“Grace! What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be on your graduation trip,” Liz said.

“I am. I want to be here. We were just going to the beach, and this is way better. We have a private beach and most of a tropical island all to ourselves. It’s going to be so much fun!” Grace promised. “And guess what? Julia has my graduation ceremony on disc in its entirety. Even though you were able to watch it live streaming, she knew you were bummed that you couldn’t be there. She thought you would want to have it as a keepsake that you can watch any time you want.”

Liz turned to Julia. “I can’t believe you did that. Way to go!”

Liz had wanted desperately to attend, but they knew that it was just too far away and too hard a trip. But she was determined to go. They had finally talked her out of it by telling her that it would almost be the same as being there since it was being streamed online live. And Liz had watched and cried like a baby when Grace triumphantly held her diploma up to the camera.

Julia went in her place and promised to take lots of photos and notes so that she could describe everything in great detail. But when Julia got there, she found out that the school would be selling commemorative DVDs of the ceremony. She signed up for a copy and arranged to pick up the DVD the following day before they caught their flight.

“Not to worry, she took a
ton
of photos, too!” Sonya said, holding up a big scrapbook. “They organized them for you during the flight home.”

“And there will be hundreds posted all over social media and the school’s website,” Julia assured her.

Liz smiled. Her daughter was
here
. More importantly, Grace wanted to be
here.

Even though she had already seen the ceremony live via Internet streaming, Liz watched the DVD and studied the scrapbook at length. She finally put it away when Lydia called them for dinner. After dinner, they retired to the stable annex. It was their favorite part of the old house and where they spent the most time when they weren’t on the front porch. Liz and Grace had iced tea, Sonya had herbal tea, and Lydia and Julia sipped frozen margaritas. They all enjoyed benne wafers.

“You know, it’s funny, but even when I can’t stand the thought of eating anything else, I always have an appetite for benne wafers—and hushpuppies. Poor Lydia must be so sick of them. She has served them with every meal just to make sure that I’ll eat something!” Liz said.

“I know, those items are staples in your Carolina Kits but how did the Carolina Kits get started?” Grace asked, nibbling on a benne wafer.

“Liz! Of course!” echoed Lydia, Sonya, and Julia.

“Liz put together the first Carolina Kit for Julia. Her mother had died, and we all went home to Georgetown for the funeral. Liz assembled this care package, which she called a Carolina Kit. She wanted to do something to make Julia feel better, so she got thinking about what she could possibly do that would help Julia. Since one of our favorite things to do was to eat and we grew up on Lowcountry cuisine, she said it was a no-brainer. She showed up with this pink lunchbox with “CK” painted on it and topped with gold glitter, which came off all over my car seats. I kept finding tiny specks of glitter on my upholstery until I sold that car!” Sonya said with a laugh.

“Actually, I was the last to meet Liz, and I wasn’t sure what to make of her. By the time I moved to Georgetown, Liz had been shipped off to boarding school. Then her parents moved to Atlanta when her father got a job transfer, so I didn’t meet her until the following summer here on the island. I had no idea how boy crazy your mom was until freshman year at USC. I will never forget that day. Liz had signed up as a volunteer for the drama department in order to meet some boy. She didn’t care at all about the production but the lengths she went to just to date this guy was phenomenal,” Sonya explained.

“And you talk about me being boy crazy!” Grace accused.

“Like mother, like daughter. Anyway, Lydia had auditioned for a role, so I had come with her to the theatre to wait for the audition results when Liz came bounding up and started hugging Lydia and me so hard we couldn’t breathe. We knew she was going to be at USC, but we hadn’t seen her yet. She had been too busy settling into her new apartment (and apparently chasing this boy) that we hadn’t connected yet. We made a plan to get together in a couple of days. Sure enough, two days later there’s a knock on our door. I opened the door, and Liz flashed me this sweet pouty smile as she put down the cake container she had been holding on the counter in our dorm.”

“I was so excited. There was Liz, and she had brought cake. I was in heaven,” Jules remembered. “I told her that I hoped it was a chocolate cake.”

“Not only does it have chocolate, but also Coca-Cola,” Liz said. “This is supposed to be a top secret family recipe, but I think every family in Atlanta worth its salt knows how to bake one of these cakes.”

“Why would anyone put cola in a cake?” Lydia asked.

“Atlanta is the home of Coca-Cola, so we’ve found a lot of ingenious things to do with it. And believe me, it makes it moist and delicious,” Liz said as she lifted the lid off the cake and underneath was a spectacular sight. A whipped, fluffy frosting surrounded a cake that was at least one foot tall. “I should warn you, just the sight of this baby can cause serious weight gain. It’s made with sugar, oil, eggs, butter, marshmallows, cocoa, buttermilk, powdered sugar, pecans…well, let’s just say everything but the kitchen sink.”