Page 45 of The Women of Oak Ridge

DAD SETTLED IN to stay at the hospital with Aunt Mae but said there was no need for me to hang out with them all day.

“She’ll probably nap on and off,” he said. “There isn’t anything pressing to keep you here if you have other things to do. I brought my briefcase to keep me busy. Why don’t you go on to the library? Didn’t you say you had more research to do?”

We’d talked about my dissertation earlier.

Aunt Mae’s reticence to revisit bygone days when Oak Ridge was a secret city had only reinforced my desire to dig into the issues people dealt with after the war ended.

Things like guilt, shame, and the need to keep secrets, all centered around their very unique situation of working on the Manhattan Project.

But while I would like to spend more time at the library, it didn’t feel right, especially with Aunt Mae still recovering from her injuries.

However, I was certain I could find chores back at the house to occupy my time and prepare for Aunt Mae’s homecoming.

“I’ll make some phone calls while I’m here,” Dad said. “I need to find out what happened to Mae’s car and look into any charges she could face as a result of the accident.”

I made him promise to call if Aunt Mae took a turn for the worse, kissed him goodbye, and drove to the grocery store.

Once I returned to the house, I made chicken and vegetable soup and left it on the stove to simmer.

If all went as planned, Aunt Mae would come home tomorrow, and I wanted everything ready.

With the windows open, letting in a warm summer breeze, and the radio in the kitchen tuned to music from the fifties, I had to admit the little house felt cozy.

I could see why Aunt Mae wouldn’t want to uproot her life.

I’d just finished cleaning the bathroom and had moved on to the living room when a knock sounded. Peggy ran to the front entry, barking and dancing a jig. Georgeanne stood on the porch when I opened the door. She held a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers from her yard.

“I saw your car in the driveway,” she said. “How is Mae?”

I invited her inside. “She’s better. Dad is at the hospital with her, so I came back to do some cleaning.”

She handed the flowers to me. “I was going to take these to the hospital, but then that’s one more thing you’d have to carry home. Figured I’d just bring them over now.”

“They’re lovely. Let me find a vase to put them in.”

While I dug around in kitchen cabinets for something to put the flowers in, Georgeanne trailed me.

“I’m sure Harris is beside himself with worry over his sister.” She settled in a chair at the table. “I fell last fall and bruised some ribs. You’d think the world had come to an end the way my kids acted. My daughter came and stayed with me and wouldn’t let me do anything.”

I found a Mason jar, filled it with water and the flowers, and set it on the table.

“I’m sure Dad only wants what’s best for Aunt Mae.

Unfortunately, her failing eyesight is a serious issue we can’t ignore.

” I dropped into the other chair. “She’s already had two car accidents.

I know she doesn’t want to leave Oak Ridge, but what will she do if she can’t drive?

Can’t take care of things? There are a lot of unknowns right now. ”

Georgeanne patted my hand. “You and your family love Mae. I know you’ll make the right decisions. You will all be in my prayers.”

We chatted a little longer, then Georgeanne returned home.

I finished straightening and dusting the living room, then poked my head into Aunt Mae’s bedroom.

Everything was neat and tidy. Clean sheets always felt good after an illness, so I set about stripping the bed.

I opened her closet and was immediately met with the odor of mothballs.

A set of sheets sat on a shelf above where clothes hung.

As I reached for them, I noticed the end of a metal box sticking out behind a folded blanket.

It gave me pause, probably because everything about Aunt Mae’s life was shrouded in mystery.

Of course, there wasn’t anything strange about a box in a closet.

I had boxes in the closet of my apartment in Boston.

I moved the blanket to give a clear view of it. I was surprised to find the box had a padlock on it. What was so important that Aunt Mae kept it under lock and key?

I glanced at her bedside table. Could the key be in the drawer?

Guilt immediately washed over me.

Snooping wasn’t cool. Even when I was a kid and my sisters begged me to help them find where Mom and Dad hid our Christmas presents, I refused.

I closed the closet door. I wouldn’t want someone rummaging through my private things. Whatever Aunt Mae had in the box in her own closet wasn’t any of my business.

It was late afternoon when more visitors arrived. I greeted Velvet and Roonie and invited them in. They each had a dish in their hands.

“We brought Roonie’s famous tuna casserole and a peach cobbler,” Velvet said.

“Much better than hospital cafeteria food,” Roonie added with a chuckle.

They deposited the items in the kitchen, then we settled in the living room.

“We stopped by to see Mae before we came here,” Velvet explained. “She was sleeping, but Harris said she’d been awake earlier and ate some lunch.”

“It sounds like she’ll be able to come home tomorrow,” Roonie added.

I nodded. “I’ve been trying to get things ready for her.”

Velvet glanced at Roonie, an odd expression on her face, then back to me.

“Laurel, we wanted to talk to you before Mae comes home. Roonie remembered something about our time in Oak Ridge during the war. Something involving Mae. He’d never shared it with me until yesterday. I must admit, I was surprised by it.”

I met Roonie’s serious gaze. “Roonie? What did you remember?”

He heaved a sigh. “I’m not one to spread gossip. Don’t listen to it, either. That’s why I never told Velvet about seein’ Mae with a fella out near the S-50 plant site.”

“S-50?”

“It was one of the plants where they enriched uranium. It sat next to the Clinch River. With S-50 being so far away from Townsite, only folks with business out that way were around. That’s why I remember seein’ Mae.

I knew she wasn’t s’posed to be there.” He squinted, as though going back to the 1940s in his mind.

“I worked on the railroad crew at S-50 for a time. One of my jobs was to help off-load building supplies and equipment from all those railroad cars they brought in. Tons of coal, too. It was backbreaking work, I tell ya.” He paused.

“One day I saw this Army sedan go past. A fella was driving and had a girl with yellow hair with him. I started seein’ them on a regular basis.

They’d go on past the plant and disappear around the bend.

” He shrugged. “Figure they were goin’ down to the river to do what young lovers do. ”

Could the woman have been Sissy, I wondered? “But you said you saw Aunt Mae too.”

“I did. Same sedan, same fella, but this time the gal in the passenger seat was Mae. They passed right by me, and I could see her face plain as day in the window, lookin’ way up to the smokestacks on one of the buildings.

You see, I worked the railroad crew at K-25 too, and I’d seen Mae from time to time, going from one building to another.

She was always on her bike. Then one day not long after I saw her with that fella, I found out she was a friend of Vel’s. ”

“Roonie has a wonderful memory for faces and names,” Velvet said. “Me, I can’t remember someone’s name two seconds after meeting them.”

I tried to understand what Roonie was telling me, but I didn’t see why this was troubling. “You said Aunt Mae wasn’t supposed to be where you saw her. Was it against the rules?”

He gave a slow nod. “Sure was. If someone didn’t have the right colors on their ID badge, they weren’t permitted to be in certain areas. They’d find themselves in a heap o’ trouble.”

“Why do you think Aunt Mae was at S-50 with him if she wasn’t allowed to be there?”

Roonie looked uncomfortable, almost embarrassed, before he answered. “They didn’t stop at the plant. They kept on goin’ around the bend, down to the river, same as he’d done with the gal with yellow hair.”

His meaning widened my eyes. “Oh.”

“Now, now,” Velvet said, glancing between Roonie and myself.

“We don’t know why Mae was with him or what they were doin’.

I’d seen her with this same fella. He’d give her a ride in his car after work sometimes so she wouldn’t have to take the bus.

From what I observed, they didn’t seem like a couple in love.

In fact, I got the impression she didn’t much care for him.

She never smiled when she was with him.”

“I wouldn’t have brought it up at all,” Roonie said, “but Velvet told me about Mae gettin’ worked up at the hospital when the nurse came in and reminded me that Mae’s roommate, Sissy, had been a yellow-haired gal that went missing.

” He gave a shrug. “I don’t know if any of this has any meaning or significance, but we figured it best to tell you anyway. I know you want to help your aunt.”

I sighed. “Thank you. I don’t know what any of it means either.”

The couple left a short time later. I put the casserole in the refrigerator, along with the soup I’d made.

I wasn’t sure if Dad would be home for dinner tonight, but we’d enjoy the yummy dishes the rest of the week.

Once things were tidy, I let Peggy outside and sat on the porch steps while she wandered the yard.

Roonie’s story about Aunt Mae stirred up more questions.