Story by Gwen Thompson and Frank Bishop

“‘If you need anything, just press zero and call me, any time,’ I said to our two new guests at the Pomegranate Inn in Portland’s West End historic district.

“Okay, Miss Zero.'”

Nobel prizewinning author Toni Morrison and her sister laughed as they checked in. “She and her sister teased me and called me ‘Miss Zero’ all that fall weekend,” says proprietress Isabelle Smiles, who has owned the inn since 1988.

“They obviously were having a good time together and enjoyed the second-floor front room, the one with birds hand-painted on the walls by Heidi Gerquist.” For breakfast, they chose from delights available to all guests at the inn, from “apple pancakes to poached eggs florentine, french toast with raspberries. She did tell me ‘I’ll be writing a new book,’ so it’s really exciting to think that she was here with Paradise in her head…”

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