Nantucket Sextant

By Mary Keating

A sextant is an astronomical instrument used for measuring angular distances of celestial bodies to determine latitude and longitude. Nantucket sits at latitude 41° 17’ 0. 46” N; longitude 70° 5’ 58.06” W.  

  

On Nantucket thousands of bodies are spinning in the same latitude/longitude as they prepare for the Christmas Stroll now in its fifth decade! 

  

Molly, a retired nurse, gives herself the gift of the Christmas Stroll after living alone since her husband, John, died of colon cancer. 

  

Weezie gives herself the gift of the Christmas Stroll after her best childhood friend, Maggie, dies unexpectedly.  

  

Andrea, a Quaker living on Nantucket, works at her shop Yarn Pastures. Andrea inherited the shop after the recent death of her Mother. 

  

Can grief be washed away by the tides of this beautiful island? What blessings or heartaches does the island of Nantucket hold for Andrea, Weezie, and Molly?   

  

Nantucket whalers used their sextants to navigate their way home under the stars. Andrea, Weezie and Molly find themselves without a sextant to guide them. Under the celestial skies of December they must see into their own hearts from every angle until the Christmas Stroll ends and maybe hope and Nantucket remain.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Release date: Mar 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9781977273321

Mary Keating

Mary Keating first visited Nantucket when she was fifteen. She has written five books, including her childhood memoir, It’s A Girl; the fictional story The Chanticleer Girls set on Nantucket; the summer story Chautauqua After Hours; and a memoir for her father, Into My Father’s Room.      Mary Keating is originally from northwestern Pennsylvania while enjoying dual Irish citizenship. 

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Nantucket Sextant

All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2024 Mary Keating

v3.0

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.

This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

To those who inspired

Annie Dillard, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce

And

to my favorite island

Nantucket

Write as if you were dying…

what would you begin writing if you knew you would die soon?

Annie Dillard

Table of Contents

Introduction

Molly: Nurse

Weezie: Nickname for Mary Louise

Andrea: Quaker Woman

Introduction

The Quakers first put their faith in the Holy Spirit, not God or in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit was the spirit of Truth.

It is 1702 and a visiting minister is coming to Nantucket. Mary Coffin Starbuck will hold the meeting in her home, known as Parliament House. The preacher is a Quaker. A soft wind of change is blowing toward Nantucket and many Quakers have visited over the last twenty years. Almost everyone has been to a Meeting. They all know it begins with a period of silence. The quiet ripples outward through the windows to the crowd standing in the yard. After a few minutes the shifting in their seats calms down. The preacher suggests that the world could be a much better place. His main listener is Mary Coffin Starbuck. She is moved to tears. Mary Coffin Starbuck is the island’s chief creditor in her store and few items leave or arrive on the island without passing through her hands. When she weeps the congregation sobs. They are moved to tears by the minister’s eloquent words and vision.

The Friends, without the ‘fire and brimstone’ of Puritan beliefs in England and Massachusetts become the main religion on Nantucket. They believe in peace, honesty, and love. This, says Mary Coffin Starbuck, is the overwhelming Truth.

When a French writer, Crevecoeur visited Nantucket in the eighteenth century he couldn’t believe the non-violence he saw. In his journal, he wrote: The Friends compose two-thirds of the magistracy of the island …..In all this apparatus of the law, its coercive powers are seldom wanted or required. No man has lost his life here judicially since the foundations of the town, no gibbets loaded with guilty citizens offer themselves to your view, no soldiers are appointed to bayonet their compatriots into servile compliance. How?

And what struck Crevecoeur even more was how the women handled the business of the place: To this dexterity in managing their husband’s business whilst he is absent the Nantucket wives united a great deal of industry…The men cheerfully give their consent to every transaction that has happened during their absence and all is joy and peace. However, the absence of men disposes the women to go to each other’s homes which consists of a social chat, a cup of tea, and ever hearty supper. As inebriation is unknown, and music and dancing are held in abhorrence, they could never fill all the vacant hours of their lives without the repast of the table.

Tonight, in the twenty-first century, darkness comes early to Nantucket. No one seems to mind because everyone’s thoughts anticipate the Christmas Stroll. It is Nantucket’s fifth decade of the stroll and the most festive time of the year, second only to summer, so the ferries are making extra crossings. Nantucket has an air of excitement and wonder under the dark December skies filled with beautiful bright constellations.

Molly: Nurse

It wasn’t that she was an islander at all. She had only spent a few summers there in her youth and made a few vacation trips with her Mother over the years; the last one she remembers vividly because her Mother had Alzheimer’s. Now she was packing to return. Not that her life could ever be permanently on Nantucket as it was far far too expensive to even rent a home. Even the affordable sweet inns of the 20th century had been renovated and brought into the 21st century with prices increasing.

Nantucket had come full circle with its wealth. The Quakers were rich and the present-day homeowners were very rich. The difference being the Quakers did not flaunt their millions like Nantucket homeowners did now. All of this came up in Molly’s mind but she didn’t care tonight. She was going to venture out from her known self and arrive on the far-away island in the Atlantic because nowhere else would feel more comforting. She was sure of it.

Just nine months ago she managed to do the dumbest thing in her life. She had felt dizzy her shoulder ached and her heart was throbbing. None of her medical conditions