August 17 - 3.40 PM – Normal School in Gorham

The campus of the Gorham Normal School is located in Gorham, at ten minutes driving distance from Portland. The urban village known as Gorham Village or simply "the Village," encompasses a number of smaller, unincorporated villages and hamlets with distinct historical identities.

It's a sunny day. Many students and students are in the tree-lined courtyard. Some are sitting on a bench, isolated with a book. Other are gathered in small groups to chat.

The principal structures of the campus, the Corthell Hall is a big three-story redbrick building in gothic-style. The Corthell Hall houses the classrooms, the library, the auditorium and the drawing rooms for musicales, receptions and exhibits. Opposite to the Corthell Hall, is an open lawn traversed by walks. Beyond it, are the dormitories and athletic facilities, a large, double-winged four-story building of a modified Italian Romanesque style with walls of light-red bricks, trimmed with limestone.

The library has access to hundreds of book titles, archives, records as well as hometown newspapers and magazines. Professors are assigned oversight of the collections, as a common practice for small colleges. Books are neatly lined up, row after row, in high and low shelves, with their spines facing outward. Sections are arranged in alphabetical order. There are comfortable leather armchairs, tables for quiet study and coarse cheap carpet on the floor. . Hushed atmosphere of muffled stillness reigns. A librarian stands at help desk.

The two investigators find some are photos on a book, about coastal landscapes in Maine. One picture was taken at Kenneth's beach, in Greyton, a coastal town of Maine, located close to the border with Canada.

The pictures shows a lighthouse. This is the same landscape of Timothy´s drawings. The lighthouse is located where the Bay of fundy begins, a place known for its huge tidal variations.

The librarian remembers about Alyssa, but has never been close to her. However, he can give some important informations.

"Alyssa had a boyfriend whose name was Jason Carson. He was a janitor here, but he's not working in Gorham any more. He's back to his hometown, somewher up north, close to Canada. There´s still a person here who was close to Alyssa. She can tall you more than I can for sure. Her name is Elisabeth White, a former Alyssa´s classmate. She works here to help the professors. She should be somewhere around or in the dorms."

The investigators find Elizabeth White in the dorms. Her room includes a bed, a small desk and a chair. Elizabeth White is a young woman, with blond curly hair and blue eyes. She wears a simple cotton dress, thick black cotton stockings, and low heel Oxfords. Her mind is deeply concentrated in reading a book. When the investigators find her, she raises the head from the book and reveals her innocent face of sublime and natural beauty.

When they ask about Alyssa her yes become sad. Her voice is soft, as her appearance could suggest.

"She studied here... we were friends. Then she graduated and moved to Portland. She kept coming here every now and then, to use the library. Then, suddently, I knew about her death. Are you relatives of her?"

The girl aswers, while her mind suffers when calling back a sad story

"Jason Carson was the janitor of the campus, and he used to do a little bit of everything. He could repair almost anything. Meanwhile, she frequented the library. She wanted to enroll as a student at some point. He had come from Greyton, a small town of the northern Maine coast. Jason was a big timer, Alyssa was a flapper. They got engaged. But at some point, he told her they had to break up and he could not explain her why. Then, Alyssa met Gilbert and got married."

Elisabeth take the investigators in her room to show them a picture of Alyssa and Carson. The two are smiling, they are in front of a lighthouse. Alyssa is a beautiful girl, with wavy brown hair, big and lively eyes and a spontaneous and sincere smile. Carson is a handsome boy too, with blond hair being shaken by strong wind in this picture. He´s hugging her affectionately. The landscape behind them looks like the same in Timothy's drawings.

Behind, there´s something written
"Thank you for these unforgettable days, yours Jason"

"She had this picture taken seven years ago, when she went to meet Jason in Greyton, a couple of months after he went to his hometown. When Alyssa came back from Greyton, she told me they had broke up definitely. She left this picture with me, she did not want to keep it at her home. Maybe she was afraid Gilbert could find it."

Elisabeth sighs with sadness

"I do feel something happened during that stay in Greyton. One year ago, Jason came here to the campus to meet Alyssa, a few days before she committed suicide, they were in the courtyard, I saw them from afar, Jason was showing her something, looked like a newspaper page, but could be something else. He was yelling at her, he seemed worried and scared about something. Alyssa took the page and ran away crying. Jason headed back to the train station, and I have not seen either of them since that day. So that´s Alyssa and Jason story... I think their love was for some reason impossible and they never menaged to forget each other."

Elisabeth replies:

"They´ve know each other since Alyssa was a student, that was ten years ago actually. Most of the time they´ve been together was here in Gorham. Seven years ago, Jason took her to Greyton. He wanted her to visit his home town together with him. They were supposed to stay there just for a few weeks, in summer time. But something happened.. they broke up... Jason wrote a letter to the school saying he would not go back to Gorhan. I thought of a family trouble... or maybe he didn´t want to work in the same place were Alyssa was still studying. Alyssa has always avoided details about what happened. I respected her reservness. I guessed she still loved him. Anyway, when she returned to Gorham she met Gilbert, graduated and got married. I haven´t heard about Jason until the day he came here for a quick visit, three years ago, when Alyssa committed suicide..."