Adel Of Acadia

ADEL HERZBERG LIVED in a tiny seaside village called Peggy’s Cove in Acadia.

- Hannah Hoffman

Her family, one of the founding families, had lived in the cove for the space of only two generations, but she loved her home more than anything she could name on earth.

Her father hunted massive whales that swam the cool waters of the Labrador Current. He’d wooed his bride, Rue, Adel’s mother, in a mountain town in Germany and brought her back to his home in Nova Scotia.

Each season as Adel grew in beauty, so did her love for her home. Her hair was the color of sun-bleached wood; her eyes were as green as new moss. She loved the labyrinth of the rocky shore, the rounded slope of the cliffs. Surefooted and strong, she stood on the hard granite rocks and faced the sea. She watched for white-sided dolphins, leatherback turtles, and seals. She laughed as mergansers dove beneath the foaming water to catch shrimp in their bills.

“One day, one day,” Rue said to her daughter as she braided Adel’s hair. “One day you will meet a fine man and he will take you far across the ocean to be a wife.”

“It will never be so, Mutti,” Adel answered. “What man, upon beholding our cove, could ever tear himself away from such loveliness?”

Rue just smiled the knowing smile of a happy, contented woman.

Each fall and spring, as big trawlers passed in and out of the bay in search of striped bass, Rue would say to Adel, “One day. One day, you will meet a fine man and he will take you far across the ocean to be a wife.”

Each time Adel would answer, “It will never be so, Mutti.”

In the evening, the fishermen brought their catch to shore. Afterward, they stopped at the dance hall to drink and joke. The young ones danced with pretty girls; the old ones sat outside on barrel stools and smoked sweet-smelling tobacco.