| With Berle's help, Jeff got a job in a Portland bank and moved to the Sebago Lake home in April. Libra stayed behind with Taylor and her 17year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Lalania, to sell the Branford house.
Finally, on Sept. 1, Libra and Taylor joined Jeff on Cliff Island, leaving Lalania with a family in Branford to complete her senior year there.
Shortly after their arrival, the island threw a party at the Community Hall to welcome them.
They had done it. They had made the move most people pine for. They had dramatically changed their lives. But at what cost? What is the price of such impertinence?
A simple life
The house is white, simple, six rooms, one bath. It sits on 2 acres, includes two outbuildings, some fruit trees, stunning ocean views and an old Dodge Omni with no muffler. They are renting with an option to buy and figure to pay about $120,000.
Their household income now is $38,000. But Libra is hoping to get some computer work from her former employer, the Dushkin Publishing Group in Guilford. "Actually, we are better off financially now than we were in Connecticut," Jeff says.
They get up at 5 a.m., and Jeff is either driven or drives himself to the ferry landing a mile away in time to make the 6:15 to Portland. He returns on the 5:45 p.m. and is back home before 7:30.
"It's a long day," Jeff says, "but I was commuting between Branford and Norwich back in Connecticut. Compared to 1-95, this is a joy. I'm not white-knuckling it. I can read or do some work. On Friday nights, we have happy hour."
Libra sees Jeff off and then gets Taylor ready for school, which begins at 8:15. Sometimes they ride their bikes the half-mile, sometimes he goes by himself and sometimes she drives him. Libra is then free until noon, when Taylor comes home for lunch.
"He's doing much better here," Libra says. "He's down to one dose of medication a day, and I hope to eventually wean him off that. We are hoping the calmer lifestyle will help him."
The school is one room, cluttered, cozy. The six students, who range from Column 2
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kindergarten to fifth grade, sit at desks arranged in a rectangle. A small library occupies one corner, and against the back wall sit four computers with Internet access.
The teacher is Earl MacVane, who grew up on the island and attended the school, as did his three grown children, who were his pupils. "The only problem with teaching your own children was that they would raise their hand at the dinner table," MacVane says.
According to Sue Rieth, "Earl 'MacVane is the only man on the island called Mister. "We do it out of respect for the children."
Cheryl Crowley, David Crowley's wife, and a 1980 graduate of Trumbull (Conn.) High School, is the full-time teacher's aide. Once a week, a third teacher comes over from the mainland to work with two students who have been identified as talented and gifted.
On Fridays, school gets out at 11 a.m. so families can take the noon ferry to Portland. Libra uses this time to do the weekly grocery shopping, which at some point she hopes to do by computer.
Each island homeowner is alloted a free parking space near the ferry, and the Cusacks keep a car there for off-island use.
"I love my Friday afternoons in Portland," Libra says. "That's all I need."
Weekends are for household chores, hiking, family time. They have a television but only get network channels and PBS. There is no cable, and they do not want to get a satellite dish. They say they don't miss it.
Entertainment such as going to a movie or dinner is out. That would require staying over in Portland because there is no late ferry.
There is no calling Domino's. "When you do have pizza here, you cherish it," Jeff says.
Sometimes they socialize with the couple next door, Penny Hayne and Shawn O'Reilly. Shawn was born and raised on the island and is a lobsterman. Penny, who has three young daughters, works as sternman on the lobster boat in summer and tends bar a few days a week in Portland during the winter.
Jeff and Libra both believe they are adjusting to the slower rhythm.
"I called a friend in a music store back in Connecticut to order some strings for my guitar recently, and he said to me, "Jeff,
Column 3
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you sound so different, so calm. You're talking really slow."
Another thing they are getting used to is life under glass.
"Everyone always knows where everyone else is," Jeff says. "When you meet people, the first thing they tell you is where they just saw your wife or kid. Everyone also knows everyone else's business, which doesn't bother me because I have nothing to hide."
"People here are private," Libra says, "but then they can't wait to get to the store and talk to Sue. I think it just helps fill the day."
Jeff says he is delighted with how things are working out and can't foresee himself leaving.
Libra says she is definitely committed for the next five years but worries about how Taylor will fair when he has to go off island to school.
Another factor is winter. What happens when reality sets in, novelty fades, inconvenience turns to hardship, solitude to desolation?
"Wait until winter, Wait until winter. That's all I keep hearing," Jeff says. "Winter is winter. Sure, it will be colder. Sure, it may snow more. But last winter was pretty horrible in Connecticut, too."
"I think a lot of it depends on your attitude," Libra says. "I grew up on the ocean. My father was a lobsterman. My mother and three sisters live on Block Island. I used to be close to nature, and I'm getting back to that now."
Hayne, who grew up in Portland and has weathered two winters on the island, is one of those who has tried to warn them.
"I've lived in Maine all my life," she says. "I figured it would not be hard for me here. But it was. Sometimes I would hear them test the siren on Saturdays, and I would tell my kids, uh-oh, someone must have escaped.
"The first year is the hardest. I've learned not to fight it. You have to accept the fact that your are not going to get to the store. You have to accept that people may say some things about you that are not true because they are bored."
David Crowley is also skeptical: "It will be interesting to talk to Jeff and Libra in the spring," he says. "No one can truly know what winter is like here until they experience it. This place is definitely not for everyone."
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