Pike's Folly (30 page)

7

By 1760, development around the Great Swamp had increased to
the point where few people could afford more than half a dozen
acres for their crops and livestock. On the site where a Benny's
Home and Auto Store now stands in South County—Summer
Special, Goodyear Tires, Free Alignment—the shanties and cabins
and homesteads were already crowding one another, as the duplex
condos and public housing projects would later crowd the streets
of Peace Dale, Kingston and Wakefield. A great change, something epochal and large scale, was imminent. In another fifteen
years, Americans would unite to fight their British overlords
and declare their belief in their own sovereignty and the equality
of all men. The age of European imperialism was coming to
an end.

By the time Sander Reese was old enough to take charge of the
family business, it had become something of an anomaly in southern New England. His mother had left him with a considerable fortune and the means to sustain it, but Sander had no intention of
following in her footsteps. Recognizing the changes taking place in
the colonies, he sought to make his own contribution. How could
a people who believed in brotherhood and equality condone the
actions of the Reese family? In the name of democracy, a lasting
change was in order. From now on, the Reeses would devote themselves to public charity rather than their own hideous, selfish pursuits. This was meet and right. This was American.

In the meantime, the problem of what to do with the slaves still
on the property remained. Setting them free would've been unfair,
as most of them lacked the skills to survive on their own. The
quickest solution was to put an end to the poor girls' lives and make
a fresh start from there.

And so on a stormy day in 1760, the thirty-seven Native American girls whom the Reeses had abducted, exploited and robbed of
their innocence were rounded up and summarily executed. Following this carnage, a hole was dug in the middle of the stone pen, and
the bodies were dumped into it. Sander didn't participate in the
killing himself but watched from a vantage of a hundred feet away.
His only counsel was an old soldier named Burt, who was sympathetic to the cause against England. Sander later described the
scene in his unpublished autobiography:

“You did the right thing, sir,” Burt said to me. “It's a bad day, sure, but necessary. Only good times from now on, yea?”

I nodded but couldn't share Burt's enthusiasm. Damn this confounded chill, I thought, and tightened my great-coat around my shoulders.

When a young cadet came by to report on the progress, I told him, “You make sure that hole is well filled, do you hear?”

The boy clicked his heels and scampered to do my bidding. Once he was safely away, I said to Burt, “As soon as we're through here, I want a carriage waiting for me at the main house. I don't wish to spend another night in this place.”

“Where are we going, then, sir?”

I stared at the soldier, thinking him mad. “Where else, man? To Providence!”

Endnote

On September 28, 2004, Nonesuch Records released
Brian
Wilson Presents Smile,
a newly recorded version of the Beach Boys' “teenage symphony to God.”

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my family, both new members and old, and Gary Fisketjon, my amazing editor. Thanks as well to Richard Abate, Susan Aylward, Regis Behe, Nayon Cho, Claudia Cross, Wieland Freund, Joshua Furst, Evan Gaffney, Gina Gionfriddo, Gordon Haber, Victoria Häggblom, Gabriel Haman, Edward Kastenmeier, Kate Lee, Matt Lee, John Malicsi, Adam Mansbach, Joseph McElroy, Peter Mendelsund, Dean and Marianne Metropoulos, Joe Michaels, Sheila O'Shea, Chuck Palahniuk, David Plante, Peter and Susan Straub, Alex Suczek, Virginia Tan, Liz Van Hoose and Curtis White.

 

MIKE HEPPNER

Pike's Folly

Mike Heppner lives in Watertown, Massachusetts.

ALSO BY MIKE HEPPNER

The Egg Code

FIRST VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES EDITION, APRIL 2007

Copyright © 2006 by Mike Heppner

Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks and Vintage Contemporaries is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

 

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:
Heppner, Mike, 1972–
Pike's folly / Mike Heppner.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Eccentrics and eccentricities—Fiction. 2. Wilderness areas—Fiction.
3. New Hampshire—Fiction. 4. Millionaires—Fiction. 5. Rhode Island—Fiction.
6. Land tenure—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3608.E67P55 2006
813'.6—dc22
2005044589

 

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eISBN: 978-0-307-42725-0

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