Page 47 of Endless Summer: Stories
Kate tiptoes past the room where Jessie is sleeping, then creeps down the stairs, where she presses the button on the Mr. Coffee and prays that neither the gurgling sound nor the smell of Folger’s dark roast will wake her daughter up. Once her coffee is brewed and she has added two Sweet’n Lows to her mug, being oh so careful not to chime her spoon against the side, Kate slips onto the sunporch and eases the glass doors closed behind her. She picks up the phone and dials Bitsy.
The phone rings six times, then Bitsy breathlessly answers. “Hel-lo?”
“Bits,” Kate says. “It’s me.”
“Hold on,” Bitsy says. “I have to pause the tape.” In the background, Kate hears the drill-sergeant voice of Jane Fonda directing the viewer to lift her leg like a dog at a fire hydrant. Kate can just picture Bitsy on all fours in her leotard and leg warmers on the carpeting in front of the TV in the family room. She does the Jane Fonda tapes every morning because she wants to lose the twenty pounds she gained when she divorced Arturo.Unlike you,Bitsy said,I hope to have a man look at me again.
When Bitsy returns to the phone, she says, “You do realize what time it is? Why are you awake?”
“I need you to come pick me up,” Kate whispers. “Now.”
“Now?” Bitsy says. “I’m not finished with my workout.”
“Yes, you are,” Kate says. “It’s an emergency. I need you to save me.”
Kate hangs up and gazes out the screen toward the beach. The sun is just high enough to make the ocean sparkle.
Kate’s house is filling up for the twins’ twentieth-birthday celebration, and although this is exactly the kind of gathering Kate and David dreamed about when they bought this house, Kate can’t help but feel… invaded. Just look at her: She’s sneaking out to avoid her own daughter!
The evening before, Jessie arrived in the foulest of moods. She was bent out of shape because Genevieve had shown up ten minutes late (that Genevieve had deigned to show up at all was a minor miracle, Kate thought. Genevieve didn’t do well with “being told what to do”). Then, when Jessie learned that Kate was going out with Bitsy to hear David Halberstam speak at the Atheneum and then to dinner at 21 Federal, she had what amounted to a toddler’s meltdown. Kate might have expected such theatrics from Kirby and, on a bad day, from Blair, but not from Jessie.
“I’m sorry I made plans, darling,” Kate said. “George and his new girlfriend aren’t getting in until late tonight, and Tiger and Magee arrive first thing tomorrow, so I didn’t anticipate having to entertain anyone this evening.”
“Because I don’t matter,” Jessie said.
“If you remember correctly, darling,” Kate said, “you were supposed to be coming with Pick. I thought the two of you would be having dinner at the Second Story like you usually do the night you arrive.”
“Pick is in Berlin, Mother.”
“I’m aware. But when we made the plans…” She waves a hand. “I don’t want to quarrel. I’m going out with Bitsy.”
“You’ve been out with Bitsy every night this summer, from what I understand!” Jessie said.
What of it?Kate thought. “If I had another ticket, I would offer it to you, darling.”
“That’s not the point!” Jessie said.
Well, then, whatisthe point?Kate thought. “I’m leaving you the car. You and Genevieve can go to the Mad Hatter if you want. Or call Bitsy’s girls. Helen is single now too, you know… such a bizarre and upsetting story. It would be good for her to get out. Maybe she’d like to go to Thirty Acres.”
“I can fend for myself, Mother.” Jessie took a breath and seemed to soften. “You and I need to have a talk, and we should do it before everyone else arrives.”
Immediately, Kate’s hackles went up. “Of course, darling.”
“Tomorrow morning?” Jessie said. “Early?”
Kate gave Jessie a thumbs-up, but she had absolutely no intention of being around for any kind of talk.
Kate quickly downs her coffee, grabs her round Jackie O. sunglasses, and goes out to wait for Bitsy on the porch.
Hurry up, Bitsy!Kate thinks.
She spies a billow of dust and sand in the distance, and a few seconds later, Bitsy’s red Miata comes to a screeching halt at Kate’s front door. Wasting no time, Kate hops in. “Go!” she says.
“I feel like we’re on the lam,” Bitsy says, cackling. “What are we running away from? I thought Jessie got in last night.”
“She did,” Kate said. “That’s the problem. She told me we needed to talk. Alone.”
“About what?” Bitsy says.
