Page 5 of Golden Girl
TheMcQuaidreview had beenglowing. Vivi had legions of loyal readers, but she’d never quite captured the interest of the serious reviewers. TheMcQuaidreviews of her past books had been decidedly mediocre. They had called her first novel,The Dune Daughters,“three hundred pages of word salad,” and because Vivi wasn’t used to anyone (aside from the ruthless people at the Bread Loaf Conference) criticizing her writing, the review had come as an icy shock. She’d thought it was difficult enough getting a bookpublished,but that was just the beginning. Bringing her book out into the world was like setting her heart on a platter and allowing the public to poke, prod, scrutinize, or—worst of all—ignore it.
Well, Vivian Howe was word salad no more!
Her firstMcQuaidstarred review on her thirteenth try!
AndGreat Morning USA! National television coverage had eluded Vivi until now. Vivi wished her mother were still alive. Her mother had adoredGreat Morning USAand would have invited half of Parma, Ohio, over to watch.
Every indicator pointed to this book beingthe big one.Apparently, all Vivi had to do for this unprecedented attention…was write about the one thing she’d sworn to herself she’d keep secret.
Vivi snuffed this thought out just as Carson noticed her sitting at the bar and broke into a genuine smile.
Ha!Vivi thought.Caught her by surprise.
“Mama!” Carson said. “What can I get you?”
As Vivi jogs down Kingsley Road, she assures herself, as she does every morning, that her kids are fine. They’refine!Willa has a good job at the Nantucket Historical Association, and her husband, Rip, just inherited a summer cottage at the entrance of Smith’s Point. Willa and Rip’s life has become a dream—they now own a house in townandone at the beach. More important, Willa is pregnant again. Can Vivi let herself feel optimistic about this? Yes. Willa will be fine! The baby will be fine!
Carson will be a huge success at the Oystercatcher; she’s on her way to becoming a Nantucket celebrity. She’ll make money, garner attention, meet people, and take the next step: food and beverage director at a hotel or club. Or maybe she’ll even start her own restaurant. Carson will be fine!
What about Leo? (He must have been the one who drank the tequila, Vivi thinks, but why? That was so unlike him.) When Leo was little, he was as sweet as dessert, but with every year that passed, he grew into more of a mystery to Vivi. He got good grades and played varsity football and lacrosse, he was well liked at school—but is he happy? Vivi can’t quite say.Still waters run deepis the phrase that comes to mind when she thinks about her son. Who knows what’s really going on in that mind of his, that heart? Leo’s best friend is Cruz DeSantis. As far as Vivi’s concerned, Cruz is family; he has his own place at the dining table, he knows where everything goes when he unloads the dishwasher, and Vivi has been listed as one of Cruz’s emergency contacts since the kids were in kindergarten. All these years, Leo and Cruz have been inseparable—Frick and freaking Frack,Vivi calls them. When the boys got to high school, they discovered girls. Cruz started dating Jasmine Kelly in tenth grade, and in eleventh grade, Leo succumbed to the charms of Marissa Lopresti, who had been in hot pursuit of him since middle school.
Marissa is abeautifulgirl—but like a bird or insect with brightly colored markings, she’s dangerous. Vivi once overheard Marissa ridiculing one of her classmates’ social media posts (“Look at Lindsay in this pic, she’s such a cow, she needs to lose a hundred pounds and she should get a nose job while she’s at it”), and Leo, to his credit, told her to ease up or go home. Marissa has no close girlfriends other than her older sister, Alexis—and for this reason, Marissa resents Leo’s friendship with Cruz. She throws a tantrum any time Leo and Cruz have plans to hang out—go to breakfast, golf, sit in Leo’s room and play Fortnite—and more than once, Marissa has invented family drama (a fight with her mother) or a health crisis (a supposed meningitis scare) to reclaim Leo’s attention. It has been agonizing for Vivi to watch.
Vivi can only hope that Leo will break up with Marissa before he leaves for college in Boulder. He’ll find another girlfriend; anyone would be an improvement.
Leo will be fine!
Another text comes in to her phone.Oh, please,she thinks,not Dennis.
No; the text is from Carson.Sorry about the pan, Mama, and the tequila wasn’t me. I love you.
The tension in Vivi’s neck and jaw releases. Her kids are fine.
The song changes to opening guitar chords that seize Vivi’s attention. It’s “Stone in Love,” by Journey. Vivi almost trips over her own shoes. She stops and stares at her phone’s screen. What isthissong doing on the Nine-Pound Hammer playlist? Did Carson add it? But Carsonhatesclassic rock; she calls it “music from beyond the grave.”
Vivi is spooked. This song brings back such intense memories of high school that she feels if she turns her head, she’ll see Brett Caspian standing in the middle of Kingsley Road. She nearly pushes the skip button, but she does love the song, despite her complicated history with it, and it’s been so long since she’s heard it. When she starts running again, she sings along,Burning love comes once in a lifetime!
Her eyes are closed and by the time she realizes something is wrong, it’s too late—Vivi’s neck snaps; her heart feels like a stick of dynamite exploding. Vivi is airborne, she’sflying—until her head slams against the ground. Her leg. Something is wrong with her leg.
A tinny, faraway voice sings,Golden girl, I’ll keep you forever.
Then the music stops. The dark turns to a velvety black. The quiet becomes silence.
The Chief
Nantucket chief of police Ed Kapenash is on his way to work when he hears the call for an ambulance over the scanner. A woman’s been found unresponsive near the Madaket bike path.
By the time he gets to the station, he has the low-down: A driver turning onto Kingsley Road from the Madaket Road noticed a woman lying on the ground. The driver pulled over and called 911. The woman’s body was twisted and she was bleeding from the mouth and had a gash on her leg. The driver said he felt a faint pulse, but when the ambulance got her to Nantucket Cottage Hospital, she was pronounced dead.
Ed, sitting at his desk, bows his head. It’s not even the summer solstice and they already have what sounds like a hit-and-run on their hands.
“Are you ready for the details you don’t want to hear?” Sergeant Dixon asks. Dixon always seems to be the one who delivers the bad news.
“Yes,” the Chief says, meaning no.
“The deceased is Vivian Howe, the writer. You know her, right?”
Right,Ed thinks. Andrea reads each new book of hers the day it comes out. He’s learned that on the second Tuesday in July, he shouldn’t say so much as a word to his wife. She reads those novels—all of which are set on Nantucket and have plots about one scandal or another (as if the poor island didn’t have enough troubles without making more up!)—straight through the day and into the night. She hates to be interrupted.
