The Ghosts of Aquinnah by Julie Flanders

made her way outside, blinking in the harsh glare of the late afternoon sun. She got into her car and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. At just 5:00, she didn’t want to go back to the Hammett House and sit there for the rest of the night. That was a recipe for going stir crazy. But, she had no desire to make a return trip to Aquinnah, either. Not tonight.
    Hannah chewed on her lip as she contemplated where to go next. Her stomach growled, reminding her that she had not eaten since the morning. Her mind wandered to her favorite restaurant on the island. But she didn’t want to go there. Or did she?
    Since she was a child, Hannah had loved going to Sandy’s Restaurant in Oak Bluffs with her parents. Located right on the harbor, the restaurant was a quick walk from the family cottage. And, as far as Hannah was concerned, Sandy’s had the best lobster rolls in the state of Massachusetts.
    Her mouth watered at the memory of the rolls, and her stomach responded with a louder growl. Hannah let out a deep breath and turned the ignition in her car. She’d been determined to avoid Oak Bluffs while on the Vineyard but, after finding the old newspaper on her bed the previous night and spending the day trying to learn about a ghost, “up island” wasn’t particularly appealing to her at the moment, either. And it wasn’t as if being away from Oak Bluffs had kept her mind off of her parents. They were everywhere she looked on the island. Maybe it was time for her to face her own ghosts.
    30 minutes later, Hannah was seated on the deck of Sandy’s watching the boats come in and out of the harbor. There was something to be said for coming to the island in the off season. The lack of traffic and the nonexistent wait for service at the restaurants was a welcome change from the bustle of the height of summer.
    Hannah smiled as the waitress set her lobster rolls in front of her and departed the table. She took a sip of iced tea and bit into one of the rolls. The taste did not disappoint.
    Starting to feel relaxed for the first time since she’d come to the island, Hannah leaned back in her chair and looked around at the town where she had spent so many of her summers. The Wesley Hotel stared back at her from its home on Lake Avenue, its huge porch mostly empty now. She knew that in a few short months the rocking chairs would all have occupants.
    If she remembered correctly, Hannah thought the hotel had first been built in 1879 when the town was still known as Vineyard Grove, before it had become Cottage City in 1880 and ultimately Oak Bluffs in 1907. She wondered if Stella Winslow had ever been there. It was unlikely, considering how long it would have taken to get across the island in those days.
    But maybe she and her family had traveled to the town to ride on the Flying Horses, a national historic landmark which had been moved from Coney Island to the town in 1884, the same year as the wreck of The City of Columbus . Hannah remembered the thrill of entering the carousel’s famous red barn and choosing a horse to ride with her father. He had always managed to grab the brass ring for her at least once.
    Hannah smiled at the memory, and wondered again if Stella Winslow had ever experienced something similar. It was hard to imagine the same horses that children rode today had once carried 19 th century islanders around the same carousel.
    The idea brought home to Hannah how little she knew about her friendly, or so she hoped, Aquinnah ghost. Did Stella and her husband have children they could have brought to the carousel? And what of the young man they had cared for after the shipwreck, Christopher Casey? Had they continued to be involved with him? Had he remained on Martha’s Vineyard?
    Hannah’s mind wandered back to the photo she had seen in the museum and she wondered why Christopher had not posed with his rescuers. Perhaps he had been too badly injured. Although from the account she had read in the Boston Globe that