I don't think there would be a single person on Claver's Landing who cannot remember spending some time with Miz Ermadine Budz as a kid. For most of us, Miz Ermadine has always been around and some folk tend to think that there is every likelihood that she will be around a lot longer still. Like forever. And that would be fine with most folks I know.

When Mr McKeltey said he'd like me to do this story I went on over to the Twyckwick Bibliothèque and tried to find Aureola Raulin. Since she came back after college graduation Aureola seems to have basically disappeared within the rooms of the Bibliothèque and it took a while to find her. Andy Toflan reports that Aureola has not been sighted once in the Twyckwick Diner. Now that's strange. Back in the day when all the kids used to hang out in the Diner after school Andy's older brother was sweet on Aureola and I think everyone sort of expected them to eventually get married or something. Come to think of it, I haven't seen Andy's brother for a while so I guess he has gone across the way, as most kids do when they want to see more of the world.

Not Aureola though. She came back right quick after college and got a job at the Bibliothèque. It took some sifting but one rainy afternoon I came across Aureola shelving books down in the basement archives. No phones allowed or even intercoms in the Bibliothèque in case you are wondering. I'm not sure they even have computers but they sure have a lot of books and paraphernalia.

OK, so Aureola agrees to help me find out about Miz Ermadine. And we go way back, to the time when the island was first settled. It looks like the Budz family came here right after the Clavers settled up on the hill overlooking town. The Budz had a little house just down the hill at the back of the "Big House", as everyone calls it. Aureola said that one time Miz Ermadine told her she used to go play in the grounds of the Big House when she was little. We found the official record for both houses and not much else.

What we do know is that the original "Big House" and home to the Claver family burned down around 1870. It was a while after that that work began on the current house and we found mention of Julien Claver bringing workers across the way to work on the project. By the time the original Chronicle had started up there still doesn't appear to be much in the way of print records. We found boxes and boxes of stuff tucked away in a corner of the basement and I told Aureola someone should get that all documented and available for searching and she just looked at me.

So, I go back to Mr McKeltey and tell him what we found and he just smiled and said it was OK and that the history of the place will take a while if it is to be done properly. And then he said I should just talk to some of the locals like the newspaper folk used to in the old days. And he also said, "And don't forget to have some conversations with Miz Ermadine herself, you know." So, I figured we can do that, and since Mr McKeltey said we can just add to Miz Ermadine's story like we add to the story of the island and the Big House I guess that will be all cool.