Page 55 of Summer of '69
Thursday evening, when Exalta goes to bridge at the Anglers’ Club, Jessie sneaks back into her bedroom. The air is chilled, the high single bed is made with crisp white linens, and the burgundy velvet box is on the triangular table. The sight of the velvet box is as gruesome to Jessie as a severed hand.
She experiences a glimmer of hope as she pries the box open; for one second, she imagines that she can change the past, that a week ago, she did not abscond with the necklace out of anger but left it right where it was.
The box is empty. Jessie’s stomach lurches.
She thinks about taking the box. Will Nonny notice its absence? Will taking the box lessen the chances of Exalta suggesting, on some future special occasion, that Jessie wear the necklace?
Maybe Jessie should takeallthe jewelry from the triangular table. She can leave the boxes open and askew, make it look as if they’ve been robbed.
Yes! Jessie thinks. This would solve everything. And it’s not too far-fetched. They leave the doors unlocked night and day; anyone could just come in and walk off with the jewels.
But there is rarely, if ever, a time when the house is completely unoccupied, especially now that Blair is here. And somehow Jessie knows that if she stages a burglary, the person who will be blamed is Pick.
Blair, Jessie thinks. She will confide in Blair and ask her advice. Blair seems pretty miserable; she could probably use a distraction. Maybe, just maybe, Blair will give Jessie the money to replace the necklace. She can go down to S. J. Patten on Main Street, describe the necklace, and commission a new one.
Jessie leaves the burgundy box where it is and heads down the hall to her room, which is now Blair’s room. The door is closed, so Blair is inside and not downstairs in front of the television, thank goodness. It’s impossible to tear her away fromThe Flying Nun.
When Jessie knocks, Blair utters a froggy “Come in.”
The air conditioner is humming and Blair has the drapes closed against the sun, which is still fairly bright even at seven in the evening. Blair is wearing the yellow dress that is starting to come apart at the seams. When she sees Jessie, she offers a smile and heaves herself up to sitting. Her hair is messy; she wears no makeup, not even lipstick; and her girth is so shocking, she looks as if she’s harboring an entire family under her dress.
“Hey,” Blair says.
“Hey,” Jessie says. She closes the door and sits on the bed next to Blair. “I have a problem.”
“Boy troubles?” Blair asks.
Jessie shakes her head as she thinks of being crammed into the buttery with Pick and how he basicallyaskedto kiss her and what a missed opportunity that was. Yet this concern is pale and distant compared to the hot red urgency of the missing necklace.
“Is it…did you get your…”
“No,” Jessie says. She thinks back to her last evening in Brookline—Leslie announcing that she had officially entered puberty, Doris clutching her belly against imaginary cramps—and she marvels that she had ever been so innocent. She takes a deep breath. “Nonny gave me a necklace for my birthday. It was a gold knot with a tiny diamond in the center on a gold chain. I guess Gramps gave it to her for their first wedding anniversary.”
“Wow,” Blair says. “And she gave it to you…tohave?Like,permanently?”
Jessie’s eyes fill with tears. “She did. It was supposed to be a special-occasion necklace.”
“I should think so,” Blair says.
“But she was keeping it for me in her room. And last Thursday night when Mom and I went to the Mad Hatter, I put it on…without asking Nonny, I mean. She was at bridge, so I couldn’t ask her…”
“Yeah?” Blair says warily.
“And I lost it!” Jessie says. “It must have fallen off my neck. I’ve looked everywhere in this house, I retraced my steps through town, I checked to make sure it wasn’t caught inside my dress. It’sgone,Blair.”
Blair falls back against her pillows with her fingers laced across her belly. “Jessie,” she says.
“I know!” Jessie cries. “You don’t have to make me feel bad about it because I already feel rotten and you don’t have to tell me I’m irresponsible with nice things because that much is obvious.”
“Oh, Jessie,” Blair says. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s priceless,” Jessie says, wiping a hand under her nose. “Gramps gave it to her in 1919. It lasted fifty years and then I had it for one night and now it’s gone.”
“I take it you haven’t told Nonny,” Blair says.
“I can’t tell Nonny,” Jessie says. “I just can’t.”
“She’s going to find out sooner or later, though. You know that, right?”
