Page 34 of 28 Summers
Everything at this moment is so sublime that Jake thinks,Freeze! I want to stay right here forever.
But of course, life doesn’t work that way. The waves fold over themselves again and again and again, and nothing can stop them.
On Sunday, it rains. It’s the first day of rain that Jake has experienced on Nantucket in four years. Mallory goes running anyway and when she comes home, she’s soaked through and her teeth are chattering. Jake wraps her up in a fluffy white bath towel and brings her a mug of the delicious coffee, light and sweet.
“Should I light a fire?” he asks. “Run you a bath?”
“I’m going to climb back into bed,” she says. “You coming?”
It’s raining too hard to drive to Great Point. They lie in bed and read—Mallory insisted he try something calledBridget Jones’s Diary(it’s not bad). When Jake has had enough of Bridget and Daniel and Mark (“It’s a reinterpretation ofPride and Prejudice,” Mallory says. “Right, I know that, obviously,” Jake says, though he hadn’t a clue), he throws the book down and spoons up against Mallory’s warm back, hooks his chin over her shoulder, breathes in the scent of her hair. When he met her, she smelled fruity, but now she smells herby, like clover and sage.
After they make love, Mallory suggests they head into town, to the Camera Shop, to rent the video ofSame Time, Next Year. They can pick up the Chinese food on the way home.
Jake’s spirits are leaden. How have they already reached the Sunday-night Chinese food and movie stage? This weekend seems to have moved at double speed. They should have gone to the Chicken Box, maybe. If they’d jammed more activities in, would it have seemed longer?
Mallory misreads his hesitation. “I can go alone if you just want to stay here.”
“No!” he says. He doesn’t want to be without her for even half an hour.
They brazenly hold hands as they walk up the stairs to the Camera Shop. The front of the store is the developing center, and there are greeting cards and picture frames for sale, and as soon as they step inside, they bump into an older gentleman whose face lights up when he sees Mallory.
“Miss Blessing!” he says. “What a pleasant surprise.”
“Dr. Major,” Mallory says. She gives the gentleman a hug and Jake tries to read her face. Who is this? Is it her actualdoctor?“This is my friend Jake McCloud. Jake, this is Dr. Major, the high-school principal.”
Handshake.Hello, nice to meet you, do you live on the island? No, I’m just visiting. Oh, from where? Washington, DC. Wonderful, enjoy, I’d better be off, Mrs. Major is eagerly waiting at home, we’ll be watchingBraveheartfor the third time, I think she’s carrying a torch for Mel Gibson, take care, bye-bye, see you Tuesday, Mallory.
Mallory heads to the back room where Jake can see video boxes lined up on the shelves; he loiters in the front room, looking at disposable cameras. He feels a hand on his arm and turns to see Dr. Major, who bows his head and says in a low voice, “Mallory is a very special young woman and she’s one hell of a teacher.” (Dr. Major wants to add,Treat her right, she deserves the best.Dr. Major has always felt protective of Mallory and this guy should know what a treasure he has.) “You’re one lucky fella.”
“Oh.” Jake swallows. “Yes, I know.”
Mallory appears a few minutes later with a cassette in a white plastic bag. “I didn’t rent it,” she says.
“You didn’t?”
“I bought it!” Mallory says. She notices the bag in his hand. “What did you get?”
As they enter the cottage, they hear the phone ringing.
Mallory says, “That’s probably Apple. I won’t answer. I can worry about school after you leave.” The machine’s message is Mallory’s voice:This is Mallory, I’m either not home or not answering! Leave a message, please, or don’t.Jake brings the disposable camera up to his eye and centers the lens on Mallory standing by the phone. He clicks. He took four pictures of her in profile driving the Blazer and she swatted at him, telling him he needed to let her properly pose. But he doesn’t want her to pose, he wants to capture her in the ordinary moments. He snaps one of her looking down at the answering machine, waiting. But whoever it is hangs up and there’s a loud dial tone.
“Good,” Mallory says. She grins at him. He clicks.
White takeout boxes, fragrant steam, soy sauce, chopsticks—then Mallory presses Play on the VCR and settles next to him on the couch and they’re back at the Sea Shadows Inn in Santa Barbara with George and Doris, who notice each other eating alone in the inn’s restaurant. They raise their glasses to each other and eventually end up sitting side by side in front of the fire. They’re talking, laughing, building the foundation for a relationship that will last one weekend per year for the rest of their lives.
“Fortune cookies!” Mallory says when the movie is over. She throws one at him. He snaps her picture.
Mallory’s fortune:Competence like yours is underrated.
“Between the sheets,” she says.
Jake’s isGo for the gold! You are set to be a champion.
“Between the sheets,” he says.
Mallory gets up. “Let’s go, champ.” She’s standing before him in her cutoffs and an Espresso Café T-shirt, her hair flattened on the side where she was lying on his chest during the movie.
What if he called Ursula and told her he wasn’t coming home? What if he quit his soul-sucking job with PharmX? What if he opts out of the lease for their new apartment on Twenty-Second and L? What if he stays here and finds a job, even if that job is playing guitar at the Brotherhood of Thieves?
