Camino Ghosts

From Camino Island, the team — Mercer, Thomas, Lovely, and Diane — flew to Washington, D.C. It was Lovely’s first flight and the preparation for it had taken weeks. She sat between Diane and Mercer, kept her eyes closed most of the way, and seemed to be in a trance. She declined food and drink and said little.

The event was hosted by Politics & Prose, a long-standing independent bookstore in the area, and it was held at the historic Howard Theatre. Marlo Wagner had cracked the whip, ginned up interest in the event and the book, and a long list of African American groups bought tickets. The theater was sold out. Marlo and Diane presented a short video as an overview of the project on Dark Isle. Lovely spoke and read and once again stole the show. Mercer had a good night in front of a rowdy crowd.

The following day, she and Lovely were interviewed by The Washington Post, whose Book World had raved about The Passage. Its legendary editor, Jonathan Yardley, stepped out of retirement to do the interview and the three had a delightful time.

From Washington, Mercer and Thomas took the train to Philadelphia. Diane managed to get Lovely home to Santa Rosa, where, once back on her porch with a glass of sugary iced tea, she declared that she would never again set foot on an airplane. It was obvious to Diane and Miss Naomi, though, that Lovely rather liked being onstage.

4

Dr. Sargent could not attend the book event at the Howard Theatre, though he had been invited and asked to introduce Diane and Marlo. He had his hands full of bones on Dark Isle. By late June, their second dig was well underway.

During the first one a month earlier, the team had recovered thirty-eight graves. With each find, they carefully lifted out whatever they found, usually bones and sections of the decomposed wooden caskets. The remains of each were cleaned, photographed, indexed, and placed into a small metal coffin that was then sealed tight. The grave was dug deeper, wider, and longer until it was four feet by two and exactly fifty inches deep. The metal coffin was then lowered and buried.

As always, it was hard, tedious work, and by late June the Florida heat was pushing ninety-five degrees. The team had set up camp near the cemetery, on a patch of land that had been cleared by bulldozers, and some of them preferred to cook and sleep in the wild. The panthers often made the nights interesting, but no one was injured. Indeed, halfway through the second dig, no one had yet to actually see one. The pontoon boat arrived each morning with water and supplies, and it returned late in the day to collect those who needed a hot shower and some air-conditioning. Each team member had the option of sleeping in a hotel in Santa Rosa, and as the days wore on, more and more left the island at night.

On two occasions, Diane escorted Lovely to the island to check on things. The temporary pier made their arrival much easier. The gravel drive through the woods seemed like a luxury. They rode in a John Deere Gator driven by a student at Howard, who was thrilled to finally meet Lovely.

The cemetery was changing dramatically. The overgrown vegetation and brush were gone, the entire area had been cleared. Rows of string and yellow tape marked the graves that had been found but not yet unburied. Small, neat mounds of dirt were piled beside other graves. Most of the working area was covered by large canopies to shield against the sun. Lovely sat in the shade, sipped cold water, and chatted with the archaeologists and students, who were in awe of her. The bleached bones they were touching and handling so carefully belonged to her ancestors.

Everyone wanted a photo with Lovely.

During the second visit, as they were on the pontoon boat and headed back to Santa Rosa, Lovely asked Diane, “Can I be buried with my people, here on Dark Isle?”

“Well, the state of Florida doesn’t really care. It allows a person to be buried on private property. However, Camino County passed an ordinance years ago requiring all burials to be in registered cemeteries.”

“How do you know so much?”

“I’ve read too many old newspapers.”

5

The Passage debuted at #4 on the nonfiction bestseller list, prompting Viking to push the print button for another 25,000 copies. Mercer’s book tour took her to New York, Boston, New Haven, Syracuse, Buffalo, then back down to Baltimore, and Philadelphia again. At each stop she did as many print interviews as her PR team could schedule, went to as many bookstores as humanly possible, and even managed some radio and local television. The third week after publication, the book moved up to #2.