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.

Your ‘girl’ grandchildren are Buffy, Muffy, Tiffany or Taylor.

Your ‘boy’ grandchildren are ‘Trey’ or ‘Quad.’ They have other names ... on their birth certificates ... even they are unaware of their official names ... and they are after your money.

You KNOW they can’t stand you ... your fustiness, your morality or your miserliness. They keep coming ... birthdays, Mother’s Day and Christmas. Your friends titter and smirk at their antics and you do the same about their children.

You tolerate them because they’re ALL out of your will ... except Joan ... a distant relation ... nobody knows her ... she knows none of the rest of your relation. Joan isn’t aware of you at all ... she lives in Alaska.

Such fun!

Pink and Mauve is your place of refuge. Miss Hastings put up a sign:

“You must be this old to enter.”

Miss Hastings is the owner. The Edisto P&M is closed during the traditional hurricane season ... May 15th to November 30th. Miss Hastings’ Pink and Mauve Annex is open during those days ... in Pentwater Michigan ... well ... when she’s not cruising the Caribbean on her 48 foot (14.6 meter) special order Waquiez Kronos ... she gets lonely for her customers.

So ... never more than three weeks in the islands. It is well known that her Pink and Mauve staff goes with her ... as crew.

Miss Hastings (courtesy title ... she is married.) was the sole survivor of a pirate. (Umh ... well ... ship owner and captain ... pretty much the same thing.).

Her ancestors were successful wreckers and objected violently when the government, in 1863 built and stationed the first lightship on his favorite shoal. The first government lightship was wood and burned one dark and stormy night.

There was a war on.

There is the distinct possibility that the Northern Grand Army of the Republic did the deed.

The victorious government ... being typical ... took three years to investigate the burning ... and built again. This time they used iron screw pilings and erected a house. THAT lighthouse suffered an explosion ... someone was playing with matches during a tropical ‘disturbance.’ Re-erected the veranda was damaged with the very next ‘disturbance.’ The lighthouse was abandoned.