Windows To The World

The Definition of Wind

Ellen Block

Abigail Harker who is a transplant from New England can’t believe how hot it is in North Carolina in the very beginnings of July. The fourth of July is just around the corner and Abigail has pulled her head out of the sand just long enough to see that the tourists have arrived. She preferred the peace and quiet and had never experienced the transformation of Chapel Isle, a barrier island off the North Carolina coast, from a peaceful backwater to a little city of rampaging maniacal people looking for peace and quiet but wreaking havoc everywhere. At least that is how Abby sees it now that her favorite parking spot is gone.

In The Language of Sand Abigail’s story begins to unfold as she rents a lonely caretaker’s cottage attached to the island's now defunct lighthouse. Her landlord is a con artist liar when it comes to describing her properties and when Abigail tries simplifies her life, become Abby and attempts to find her new feet after she was struck by tragedy she must contend with living in a dilapidated dump. The hard work of making it habitable and coming to know the island’s year-round residents pulls Abby from day to day as she does encounter a little murder and mayhem in her path as well.

Abby was once a lexicographer. She loved words, their derivations, their subtle variations of meaning and the weight each word carries. She has left that part of her life behind as well but during times of stress still finds it comforting to conjugate Latin verbs. Order, logic and reason were always her guideposts.  She used to kid her husband who was a mathematician that it was his brain that was so attractive to her.

But summer and heat and tourists are an entirely new experience. A recurring theme for those accustomed to the influx are the small groups of divers that come every summer looking for buried treasure. It was known that these barrier islands were home to many pirates of the past. The shoals off the coast of Chapel Isle is exceedingly treacherous and many a ship had gone down taking with it it’s cargo bound either for the new world or old.

Abby realizes it takes more than a few months of living in this lovely but lonely place off-season to be accepted as one of the locals. She is slowly fed clues as to what is expected of her if she wants true friendship.  She looks to the future but often dreams her way back to her past.

Another little fact that her landlord forgot to mention is that the treasure hunters are pretty sure that they might get the clues they need about buried caches of gold and silver from hiding places in the lighthouse, and perhaps from the caretaker cottage itself. So she is subject to possible break-ins and more.

All Abby really knows is that you can’t see a breeze, but you know it is there, it is hard to put into words how it makes you feel. She has to come to terms of where she is in her path back to life. Should she stay here or should she go?

I was drawn to these book at first by the simple elegant titles, then the summery covers, but it was the excellent quality of the writing that kept me.  The story has it's sad moments but they are spoken with out pathos or melodrama, yet they do reach the reader deeply. It is because nothing here is sensationalized and any hand wringing is not required. What is required is some peaceful , quiet moments to yourself to savor these books and take a little mental trip to the barrier islands of North Carolina, while you are on your staycation on veranda beach.