Page 28 of An Island Summer
“Oooh, I like that. What else do you think we could keep?”
“I have to keep as much as possible because I’m on a budget,” she said. “What if we got a white slip cover for the sofa?”
Tess wrinkled her nose. “A slip cover on leather? We might slide onto the floor every time we sit on it.” She chuckled.
Meghan nodded in agreement as Chloe the barista walked past them saying hello, her arms filled with memorabilia. “I can’t afford a new couch, though,” she said quietly. She didn’t want to blame the fact that she couldn’t afford a new sofa on her life’s choices, but the thought did float into her mind. Her job barely made her enough money to live on, and she didn’t even enjoy it. Tess, who lived on the same amount, never seemed to worry, but it was because she was doing something she loved.
“What if we just dressed it up with cream throws and pillows?” Tess offered.
“That’s a great idea,” Meghan said, distracted by Chloe who was beside them, shuffling things along the side table that held all the love stories, setting down new artifacts. “What’s new for the collection?” Meghan asked.
“Come have a look,” the woman replied.
Glad for the distraction, Meghan abandoned the list, and she and Tess took their coffees with them, peering down at the new items. There was a postcard from someone in the navy, telling his love that he’d be home soon. Another new piece was a locket that was open with black-and-white pictures of a young man in a suit on one side and a woman on the other. “These are so wonderful,” Meghan said.
Chloe removed the glass box from atop the old journal page they’d seen last time, to replace it with a pair of lace gloves and a wedding photo. “We got these at an estate sale. Aren’t they lovely?” she said.
As she carefully set the journal paper down onto the table, Meghan noticed it was actually a few sheets, stacked together.
“Do you mind if I look at the other pages?” Meghan asked, nearing them.
The woman looked around the empty shop. “Go ahead,” Chloe replied, “just be careful with them. They’re brittle.”
Meghan set her coffee down at their table and then returned to the journal pages, picking up another of the entries with Tess next to her.
How did I get myself into this mess? I’m torn between two lives—the one I know I want and the one that I can’t live without. Either way, I’ve lost. There’s something pulling me toward the former, some force of nature that I cannot explain, rendering me heartbroken but also liberated…
Meghan gently leafed through the papers, looking for who the book pages may have belonged to, but there was nothing. Just the feminine, loopy handwriting and dates.
“A life she wanted and a life she couldn’t live without—sounds like quite a choice,” Meghan said to Tess. She flipped it over, looking for answers on the back, but the next entry was about something else.
“I wonder what those choices were,” Tess said.
Meghan took in the script again. “I’m dying to know myself. I guess we’ll have to come get a coffee every day so we can read the rest and find out,” she teased.
“You should keep these from under the glass, so people can read the back sides,” Tess suggested. “They’re incredibly moving.”
“We worry about handling the pages over time,” Chloe told them. “But I agree. I read through them. They’re definitely captivating.”
“It seems awfully private to have on display,” Meghan thought aloud. “These were the inner feelings of this woman. I wonder what she’d think, knowing that strangers were reading her thoughts.”
The barista stared at them, clearly considering this.
“You have a point. I can’t imagine if I’d kept a diary and it got into the hands of the public. Good grief,” Tess said, returning to the table and picking up her mug of coffee.
“One of the entries I read was a happy one,” the barista said. “It mentioned inviting her best friend from childhood and her best friend’s husband to a party. She was so excited that she’d found the perfect birthday gift for her best friend. That’s love of a different kind…” She sat down on the stool behind the counter. “Maybe I’ll keep that page on display since it’s less invasive.”
“That’s a good idea,” Meghan said.
Tess put her palms on the table, leaning in toward Meghan. “Right! Back to decorating.”
Getting a head start before their day off tomorrow, Meghan stood next to the gallon cans of taupe paint she and Tess had bought on the way home, assessing the interior of the cottage. As she stood there in the purple and orange evening light, she worked to process the mixture of sadness and hope that fought for space within her.
“Let’s begin in the bedroom,” she said, not wanting to disturb Pappy’s living area just yet. “We can clean out the furniture and the closet in Pappy’s room first.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Meghan and Tess spent the next three hours unloading the room, removing the window treatments, and filling in nail holes. The only thing left was the bed that they’d pulled to the center, and the swirling dust in the air around them. Charlie jumped up on the bed while Meghan opened the windows to let the briny night air filter in.
