I couldn't help overhearing, she said. Did you say Thomas Blackwell? Ethan nodded, surprised. Yes, from Riverdale. Did you know him?
No, not personally. She glanced at the letter in Ethan's hand. But everyone who lived around Riverdale in those days knew of Thomas Blackwell. He owned a steel mill that employed half the county. He disappeared in 197.
Just vanished one day. Disappeared? Noah perked up, his interest doubling like a mystery. Mrs. Simmons smiled at the boy.
Yes, quite the mystery. There were rumors, of course, financial troubles, foul play, even that he'd run off with another man's wife. But nothing was ever proven. She turned back to Ethan. The Blackwell mansion was quite something in its day.
Victorian built in 1886 by the original Blackwell who founded the mill. And now it's ours. Noah looked between the adults, barely containing his excitement. It seems so, Ethan said, still processing. But why would this Thomas Blackwell leave his home to someone he never met?
Mrs. Simmons studied him for a long moment. Thomas Blackwell disappeared in 197, but he knew that someday you would come to Riverdale. He's been waiting for you. The statement hung in the air, cryptic and unsettling.
Before Ethan could ask what she meant, she turned and walked back to her apartment, leaving father and son staring after her. Two days later, they headed east toward Indiana in Ethan's aging pickup truck. Noah had packed his few possessions in a duffel bag, his prized baseball glove riding in his lap. Ethan had terminated their month-to-month lease, put their furniture in storage, and loaded his tools in the truck bed. 6 months of job hunting in Chicago had yielded nothing but disappointment.
Even if the mansion proved uninhabitable, a change of scenery might do them both good. The metropolitan sprawl gradually gave way to corn fields and small towns, the landscape opening up under a vast Midwest sky. Noah had his face pressed to the passenger window, watching barns and silos drift past like monuments to a simpler time. "Did you know," Noah said, reading from a guide book he'd borrowed from the library, that Riverdale used to be famous for its steel. "It says here, they made the girders for some of Chicago's biggest buildings in the 1960s. " Is that right?
Ethan glanced at his son, impressed by his research. Your grandfather would have known about that. He always said Midwest Steel built America. The book says the mill closed in 1979 and the town lost half its population. Noah flipped the page.
That's sad. That happened to a lot of manufacturing towns, Ethan said. When the factories close, the people have to follow the work like we're doing now. Noah asked, his voice smaller. Ethan reached over and squeezed his son's shoulder.