Page 49 of Endless Summer: Stories
“Let’s go to town,” Bitsy says. “I’ve heard there’s some kind of farm truck with strawberries for sale.”
Kate nods, though she hoped to avoid Main Street. Tiger and Magee are due to arrive with the boys and they’ve opted to stay at All’s Fair because it’s closer to the ice cream shops and the movie theater. Kate knows the first thing Tiger will do is march the boys over to Congdon’s Pharmacy for breakfast at the counter, and she can’t risk having them see her. She’s not sure what’swrongwith her—it’s her beloved son and her grandchildren—and all she can say is she’s not quite ready. Tiger and Magee will bring the boys over at lunchtime to hang out at the beach and that’s fine. Kate will be able to embrace the chaos in a few hours—just not right now.
When Bitsy parks, Kate says, “You go. I’ll stay in the car.”
“You sure you don’t want to come?” Bitsy says. “The strawberries are organic. They’re from the hippie farm on Polpis Road.”
“Isn’t all produce organic?” Kate asks.
Bitsy laughs like Kate has made a joke and gets out of the car. Kate adjusts her Jackie O. sunglasses, sinks down in her seat, and closes her eyes. It’s only a weekend, she thinks. Tonight they’re having a family barbecue and tomorrow night is the clambake on the beach for the twins’ birthday. Magee called to order a cake from the Bake Shop; they’ll have champagne, and Tiger is bringing fireworks.
Kate looks up the street toward Fair. Twenty years earlier, Blair’s water broke in Buttner’s department store, and poor Jessie came running into the house, screaming her head off. Kate had been at the cutting board in the kitchen slicing cucumbers—she would put them in a bowl of tarragon vinegar and chill them in the fridge for the simplest summer salad—but when she heard Jessie yelling, “It’s happening, Mom, the babies are coming!” she snatched up the keys to the Scout and was out the door in seconds. She hadn’t anticipated Blair’s reluctance to drive over the cobblestones, but they were lucky—it was the middle of the day, and Fair Street was quiet. Kate had thrown the car in reverse and backed down Fair, a decision that became family legend.
Kate is so lost in thought—she can’t think about the twins’ birth without growing a little misty-eyed—that when Bitsy opens the car door, she startles.
“Where are the strawberries?” Kate asks, because Bitsy is empty-handed.
Bitsy gives Kate a look that can only be described as panicked. “I decided not to get any after all,” she says. “They were moldy and gnats were swarming.”
“Oh, heavens,” Kate says. “So much for organic.”
Bitsy throws the Miata in reverse and hits the gas in a way that is incompatible with the cobblestones of Main Street. Kate’s teeth rattle. “What iswrongwith you? You seem spooked. Did something happen? Did you see Tiger and the kids?”
“No,” Bitsy says. “But I’m taking you home. I think you’d better talk to Jessie after all.”
Kate sighs. She knows not to engage with Bitsy when she’s acting flighty like this. Besides, Bitsy is right; Kate can’t avoid Jessie forever. She might as well get the little talk over with so she can enjoy her weekend.
When Bitsy pulls up in front of Kate’s house, Kate leans over to kiss her friend’s cheek. “You’re the best friend I could ask for. Come tonight at six for the barbecue, and tomorrow night is the twins’ party. Please bring Helen.”
“I’ll be there,” Bitsy says. “But I can’t promise about Helen; she’s still avoiding people.”
Kate waves a hand. “Tell her she doesn’t need to be ashamed. I have a whole houseful of issues right here. She’ll fit right in!”
Bitsy drives off with a toot of the horn and Kate smiles, thinking maybe she’ll get a little sports car too. Why not?
She walks into the kitchen to find Jessie shouting into the phone. “You have got to bekiddingme!” When Jessie notices Kate, she lowers her voice and says, “Mom’s here, I’ll call you back.” She hangs up.
What now?Kate thinks. “Was that Tiger?” she asks. “He’s here?” There must be a problem at All’s Fair—mice, or maybe someone left the front door unlocked. Things haven’t been the same with that house since Bill Crimmins died.
“Yes,” Jessie says. “Guess who Tiger and Magee found sleeping in Nonny’s bedroom at All’s Fair?”
Kate shakes her head. She can’t begin to guess.
4. FREEFALLIN’
The phone next to Genevieve’s head rings and Genevieve snatches it up, thinking it’s Mouth, calling to retract all the things he’d said the night before (she knew they were too good to be true), but before Genevieve can speak, she hears her aunt Jessie pick up an extension in the big house with a groggy hello. A split second later, Genevieve hears her uncle Tiger say, “Jess, are you sitting down?” Genevieve hangs up before either of them realizes she’s on the line and falls back to sleep.
When she wakes up again, it’s quarter past ten, still a little early for her, but she bounces out of bed like a freakin’ cheerleader. The night before, while her grandmother was out with Bitsy and her aunt was taking a long walk on the beach by herself, Genevieve called the Grease Monkey garage in Central Falls—Mouth was a mechanic there and it was also where his band, Fungus, practiced—and for the first time, Genevieve didn’t have to hang up, because for the first time, Mouth himself answered instead of his wife, Danielle, who was the garage manager.
“Baby, it’s me,” Genevieve said.
She heard Mouth exhale. “Thank God you finally called,” he said. “I’ve been dying without you.”
Genevieve didn’t tell him that she’d called every day since she’d been on Nantucket—her grandmother was going tohave a babywhen she got the phone bill. Instead, she’d played it cool and said, “I was just listening to some Mudhoney and it made me think of you.”
“I told Danielle about the two of us last night,” Mouth said.
Genevieve gasped. “You did not.”
