Pink
Copyright© 2023 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 1
Pink and Mauve
Edisto Island, South Carolina. It’s a beach ... a country club and a town. It’s famous for a few things ... a gated, guarded community, former sea captain’s homes, ship owners mansions and piracy ... and Pink and Mauve.
Pink and Mauve is the largest of the early 19th century craft built homes on Captain’s Row. It has the railed ‘Widows Walk’ and ‘Cupola’ that distinguishes the type. One can reach the cupola by climbing a stairway inside the home. The home is not directly on the shore ... it’s on the bluff that begins about a half to three quarters of a mile back from the sand beach.
When the United States joined the Allies in 1941, the German U-Boats began sinking American ships just off the South Carolina coast ... sometimes on the surface in broad daylight. The district Coast Guard commandant ‘requisitioned’ the house and petitioned the War Department for paint. The Army Air Corps sent him 50 gallons of the paint used to paint P-40 aircraft sent to Africa... Desert Sand, and a few engineers to paint it. They did a job of work. Not a drop of paint was left in the barrel.
The commandant stationed an officer and a file of Guard troops there and commenced jeep patrols.
The troops were needed elsewhere ... the patrolling was taken over by aircraft ... the house abandoned.
Desert sand, as used on the P-40, has a peculiar habit of bleaching out ... to pink.
So ... when the war ended and the survivors returned ... the house was pink ... bright ... shocking ... glossy pink.
The sons dead ... the father missing, the daughters lived solitary lives...
... until some developer built a walled and gated community on the point ... not five miles from the pink house.
A car broke down in front of Pink ... the chauffeur begged a phone ... the occupant was hot, tired, thirsty and nearly starved. She begged a glass.
It was noon. Cooking was in progress.
“I’ll give you five dollars for a slice of buttered bread.”
Tired of being poor ... the bread and butter was sold ... and suddenly...
Well ... maybe not so sudden ... but eventually ... the grand daughter took over.
She trimmed the windows, facia and doors, mauve.
Pink and Mauve is the place to go if you’re retired, wealthy ... and a matriarch. P&M has a huge veranda ... something that big is NOT a porch. There is a ‘lounge’ with your name on it ... if your name happens to be Abigail, Maude or Cora or plethora of other names no longer used.
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