Eileen Maley

No Fixed Address Eileen Maley

One day in 1971 Eileen quit her plum job and booked passage to Australia. Her marriage had shattered, her life was a shambles, and her best friend had moved to Hong Kong. Eileen hoped to keep moving counter-clockwise, to see Asia, the Middle East, Africa, all of it. Then the luckiest thing happened: she met Timothy, a restless American who also longed to see the world. Moreover, Tim told people that their meeting was "like at first sight." The two had limited finances but were intent of stretching every dime to see all they could. They slept in grungy hovels, ate questionable food, and arrived home in 1974 a lot grimier, a little wiser and somewhat alien. En route they encountered good people, malevolent snakes, a plane crash, standing all day and all night on a train through the Nubian desert, fomenting revolution in Ethiopia, a beggars' restaurant in Calcutta, a midnight police raid in Jordan, a war, and a few skin-of-your-teeth near misses. When she arrived at her parents' Eileen was not warmly received. She was accused of degenerating into primal low-life and was ordered out. She fled to Tim who was on Martha's Vineyard where he had spent childhood summers. They liked it here, they stayed, worked, bought an old house, fixed it up and were welcomed into the arms of the island community. Finally, it felt like home. Eileen doesn't want to go anywhere at all any more ever.