Anna's Story: In Pursuit of the Mysterious Missing Day

By Jeffery L Thompson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Engineer, artist, educator, and former race car driver, Jeffery Thompson resides with family in Portland, Oregon in the St Johns Neighborhood. In Pursuit of the Missing Day is the first historical novel in the Scientific Light and Illustration series. Jeffery shares his lifelong passion for engineering and art through worksho

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishing Futures
• Release date: Mar 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9780825307447

Book preview

1

ANNA

Anna Schilling was the most unusual of ladies in any year, including the current one, but extraordinarily singular in 1529. She lived in the city of Danzig, Royal Prussia (now Gdansk, Poland). In addition to being exceptionally beautiful, she was also well schooled and possessing a towering intellect.

Heinrich (Henry) Kruger, a wealthy Dutch expatriate merchant trader, living in Danzig, wanted desperately to have a son who would carry on the family business, but instead, he got Anna, born in 1490. While appearing to be delighted with a healthy child, he must have also thought: Gott im Himmel (German for God in Heaven), another dowry to finance.

Within a half dozen years, it was glaringly obvious that Anna was more than somewhat precocious at everything, numbers especially. Henry was entirely delighted to humor and encourage her interests, including a birthday gift of a Chinese abacus along with study notes from an Italian abacus school. Ever since Fibonacci and his interesting numbers, circa 1300, and the building of the great dome in Florence by Brunelleschi (1420 to 1436), abacus schools sprouted up all over Italy, particularly in the major trading cities, e.g., Venice, a regular trading destination for the Kruger merchants.

Anna Schilling

Henry Kruger was one of Danzig's first merchants to adopt the new Indian numerals (often called Arabic because of the route they took to Europe), and the infallible calculating machine – the abacus – for all his accounting work.

Kruger vacillated wildly in his feelings as he watched Anna racing towards adolescence and marriage – he hoped. There were many days when Henry opined that if only Anna had been a male, a phenomenally successful career would be all but an absolute certainty. As an early teenager, Anna was infinitely better than the best adult male bookkeeper in all the Kruger operations.

She had trailed around after Henry as he went about his work since she could walk on her own. Following her father meant numerous visits to Danzig's docks where Anna quickly picked up the dialogue which swirled about them as father and daughter forged their way through the crowded streets. In Polish, Dutch, German, Italian, Greek, and Russian, Anna could switch from high-born lady to dock worker in midsentence.

Possessed with a sharp wit and a rapier tongue, Anna stood down to no man when she knew she was correct; in weights, measures, and money exchange, Henry marveled as it seemed she was always right. Not once did he ever find an error in her meticulously penned columns of numbers. With her fingers flying around on her favorite abacus, she could calculate sums, differences (subtraction), products, and ratios faster than one could say the numbers, much less attempt even starting to perform any calculation. Only half in jest, Henry thought that if he could not find a suitable husband for Anna, he could send her off to be cloistered in an abacus school: better that than a nunnery.

Now at nearly forty, Anna mused on how she had ended up in a wagon being bumped, thumped, and tossed about on her way towards Spain, a two-month journey from Danzig. Roads such as those between cities and villages in Europe of 1528 were, for the most part, nothing but ruts in the dirt. Impassable mud sinkholes in wet weather and choking dust bins when it was dry.

What, Anna conjectured, did she think she could find in Spain? How can an entire day simply disappear before the watchful glare of professional ships’ officers paid to attend daily observation? In 1519 Magellan undertook a secret mission for the Spanish crown: find a westerly route to the spice islands and claim the islands not in clutches of Portugal to be the property of Spain. Five ships with a company of 265 hearty men set out from Seville on 10 August 1519 to sail westward to the spice islands. On 7 September 1522, a mere eighteen survivors that looked more like half ambulatory skeletons than living men made landfall with a single vessel barely able to stay afloat, arriving at Seville from the east: they had circumnavigated the globe.

A tangle of intrigue, deceit, half-truths, and complete lies required almost half as long to sort out as the voyage itself had taken. One of the surviving captains had led a failed mutiny hardly an entire month after departure. One of the five ships did abandon the project and turned back as the tiny fleet finally made it around the southern tip of South America. Magellan himself had died (27 April 1521) in a senseless fight with locals in an archipelago of islands now known as the Philippines.

However, two of the surviving ships’ officers had kept meticulous journals, writing an account every day of the three years without fail. The real story of the events was slowly pieced together in the courts: except for one. Everyone on shore in Spain announced the date of return as 7 September 1522; the ship’s officers and their journals said it was 6 September 1522. An entire day had simply

Reviews for Anna's Story

[jepeters333 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fiona Campbell is a newcomer to tiny Ephraim, Wisconsin. Populated with artists and summer tourists, Ephraim has just enough going on to satisfy her city tastes. But she is fascinated and repelled by the furthest tip of Door County peninsula, Washington Island, utterly removed from the hubbub of modern life. Fiona's visits there leave her refreshed in spirit, but convinced that only lunatics and hermits could survive a winter in its frigid isolation. In a moment of weakness, Fiona is goaded into accepting a dare that she cannot survive the winter on the island in a decrepit, old house.Armed with some very fine single malt scotch and a copy of Meditationsby Marcus Aurelius, Fiona sets out to win the dare, and discovers that small town life is not nearly as dull as she had foreseen. Abandoning the things she has always thought important, she encounters the vicious politics of small town life, a ruthless neighbor, persistent animals, a haunted ferry captain, and the peculiar spiritual renewal of life north of the tension line."

[laurabrook_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A nice, easy, contemporary Wisconsin story that was a breath of fresh air for me. Having lived in Wisconsin my whole life, it was a nice change of pace to read something about somewhere I'd been, and that wasn't all murder-y or filled with jerks. While it may not be a nail-biter in terms of needing to get back to the story to see what happens, it reminds me of more old-fashioned books I've read and loved, in that the whole point is to live life on a manageable scale and to have real human connections and challenges. It seemed very real to me in a way that a lot of other, more-hyped, books aren't. I look forward to going to Door County again, and I'll bring this book with me. A wonderful book by one of my new must-buy authors!

[nancyno5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A sweet, easy read by debut author, J.F. Riordan and set in Door County Wisconsin and its offshore island, Washington Island. The protagonist, Fiona, has just purchased a home in this sparsely populated area. What ensues is Fiona attempting to adjust to small town life and its quirks.There are enough secondary characters to prevent the story from becoming boring. The sub-plot of Fiona's friend Elisabeth and her unconventional courtship by Roger the coffee shop owner, allows the author to divert the focus of the story off of Fiona. This strategy allows for further development of characters in subseqent sequels.While characters are not deeply portrayed they are enjoyable. In the novel it is sometimes implied that Fiona is a bit flighty but I never sensed that quality in her. Overall I liked her and felt her frustration in her battle against a bitter neighbor and small town gossip. With prose that was clear and light, Ephraim, Wisconsin and Washington Island came to life. Humor was provided by Robert the 'talking' goat.Nothing deep here and more questions are left unsanswered but a good read nonetheless.

[bettewhitley · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

North of the Tension Line's protagonist, Fiona Campbell, makes a wager with a friend that she can live for a year in the cold and isolated community on Washington Island. As a newcomer, she is welcomed by some in small town society, tolerated by others and despised by her nearest neighbor. The narrative moves at a leisurely pace, and there are a few truly quirky characters. Fiona's old and new friends sustain her through some trying times, not the least of which are negotiating severe weather conditions and caring for an odd pet which she has received as a gift. Most of the characters are likable, but not all are entirely believable.North of the Tension Line falls short of the "great read" category, but is an interesting premise, and not a bad way to spend a couple of afternoons.

[lorimarie_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book. Just read the other reviews and I can't really believe that a few of the readers hated it! Maybe it's the story line that I found so interesting and when I read a book I like to escape into the characters and places. I think the author did a great job of introducing us to all the characters and I found something to like in most of them. I think the descriptions of the landscapes in the story were excellent and made me (winter hater) want to visit Washington Island in winter! I'd love to read more from this author and I'd love this to become a series!

[journeygirl_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as part of LT's Early Reviewer program...and I loved it. North of the Tension Line took me a few chapters to become deeply engrossed, but this lyrical novel set in Wisconsin is a beautiful novel. Fiona takes a dare and moves to a rural island, discovering both a deep peace and facing challenges of making her way in a small, insular community. Fiona and her close friend, Elizabeth, are introspective characters, and some of that threw me off a bit...they are a bit too mature and self-knowing for women in their early 30s, yet they still kept me interested. North of the Tension Line is not a fast-paced, light hearted, beach road, but is a wonderful novel to enjoy and savor.

[aliciaclark23 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I was excited to receive this book because I live in Wisconsin and have been to Door County so obviously the setting intrigued me. I was sorely disappointed once I started reading though. I only made it to page 159. I wanted to stop before that, but I really wanted to give it a good effort since I needed to write a review. However, my time is worth a lot and I did not want to waste anymore of it on this book. I realize it is an early copy and sometimes those contain typos but this one had more errors just in those first 159 pages than any other advanced copy I have seen. That in itself was off putting and then there was the writing...it was not good. The premise of the story is decent and the setting is interesting, but the writing is some of the worst I have read in awhile and the conversations between characters were awful. Also the characters were not even likeable. You know it is a bad book when you don't care at all what happens to the characters. It is not often that I do not make it through a whole book and I like many different genres, but this one was not worth finishing much less recommending.

[thosgpetri · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My wife and I vacationed on Washington Island a few of years ago and the story rang true to our short experience on the island. The island is as she describes island the landmarks are surely recognizable. The characters are well developed, but by the end of the book a few issues are still unresolved. The publisher promised a series would come of this book so I guess the issues are not so much unresolved as delayed. OK, something to look forward to. One quibble from our brief stay on the island, the author says no bookstore on the island! There were two, in 2005, one was a gift shop that claimed bookstore status which we didn't stop at. The was a real if small bookstore where I found several books on Joyce's "Ulysses". Ordered for locals who left for Bloom's Day before the books came in the owner was happy to give us a great discount on the books we bought to get the Joyces out of inventory. Then again that might explain why no bookstore--too bad.

[willowone_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was given a copy of this book for purpose of review.Fiona Campbell writes for a living and has moved around a bit during her life. She is used to city life but now finds herself wanting a more relaxed and simple lifestyle. She moved to Ephraim, Wisconsin because she found that she could still have some semblance of "the city" and all it offers but not actually live in a big city. She and her best friend Elizabeth love to take the ferry to Washington Island where life is even more relaxed and seemingly still in a bygone era. When a house in the middle of town comes up for sale the conversation surrounding it, turns into her friends joking that she could never live by herself on Washington Island. Instead of taking it in stride she becomes angry and makes a rash decision to purchase the house and show them that she is made of more than they think she is. Life on Washington Island presents many new and not always pleasant experiences. Through weather, pets, neighbors and gossip Fiona's life will never be the same.The beginning of this book seemed to take a while getting started. I felt the general storyline was good but, I didn't always find interest in how the author got there. I found myself questioning why some characters acted the way they did or said certain things that they did and it left me wishing for more background information from the author. I also felt that in many places the words used by the author were contrived and out of place. The climax was a bit underwhelming, but interesting enough to keep reading and the conclusion wrapped some story-lines up but seemed to fall flat or completely disregard other key parts of the story.

[mchwest · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Awesome, awesome. I loved the setting, small island, with some really quirky characters. Brave Fiona to live on the island by herself through a harsh winter. The detail from landscape to coffee house, food and art made for an escaping read and you don't want to put the book down.

[mbsam_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Terrific book - I read it in one day. Could not put it down.Fiona is challenged to stay the winter on Washington Island in Wisconsin, and takes the challenge. She buys a house, endears herself to some of the islanders and annoys others, acquires a goat, and finds love. I highly recommend this book!