Page 118 of The Summer We Started Over

“A few steps more,” Barrett replied.

The cool ocean washed against their shoulders. Eddie held the urn out in front of them. Barrett took the lid off and held it while Eddie shook the ashes into the water.

“Goodbye, Dove,” Eddie said.

“We’ll see you in ninety years,” Barrett said.

“Say hello to Stearns for us,” Eddie said.

The sisters stood together as the sea surged against them and around them, touching them with the waters of all the oceans, carrying fish and shelled creatures and pebbles smoothed by millions of years of tumbling. Carrying the salt of tears, the whispers of secrets, the sweetness of dreams.

Carrying Dove’s ashes.

Carrying Dove.

—

In September, when most of the summer people were gone, Dinah signed the contracts on her new house. She and Bill invited his family to come for a celebration.

Barrett and Eddie drove Bobby up the hill to the cliff overlooking Nantucket Sound.

Dinah and Bill were at the door, waiting for them to arrive. The house was large, with many high windows showing the blue waters and the ferries, sailboats, and yachts coming in and out of the harbor.

“Bobby,” Bill said. “Come with me. I want to show you your room.”

“He has his own room?” Eddie asked.

“Can we come see it, too?” Barrett asked.

Bobby took Bill’s hand. Dinah and the sisters followed them up thestairs and into a large bright room with a captain’s bed and sailboat wallpaper and a toy box that looked like a treasure chest, overflowing with toys. Best of all, in front of the windows overlooking the sound, a small, shiny brass telescope stood.

Bill knelt and showed his grandson how to use the telescope. “You’ll get used to it,” he promised. “You’ll be able to watch boats coming into harbor and going out again. You’ll be able to watch the birds flying and maybe you’ll even spot a whale.”

“Mommy told me she’d be in the clouds,” Bobby said, looking hopeful and very serious.

Dinah knelt next to Bobby. “Do you understand that when your mommy floats past you in the clouds, she won’t look like herself?”

Bobby nodded. “She said she might look like a pillow or a soccer ball or a bird. But she said I would know it was her. And she would know it was me.”

“Your mommy is very wise,” Dinah told him.

“Can I look in the toy box now?” Bobby asked.

“Of course.”

—

The next morning, after breakfast, Eddie said, “Bobby, you’re about to burst out of your shirt, and you need new clothes for preschool.”

Bobby announced, “I want a T-shirt with a shark on it!”

“And that’s what you shall have!” She was kneeling in front of the little boy, trying to fix a strap on his sandal. “But we’ll get you some underwear and socks and pajamas, too. And we’ll check out beds and sheets for your new room.”

From the first floor, Barrett called up the stairs. “Are you guys ready?”

“Put on your backpack,” Eddie told Bobby. “Yeah, we’re on our way,” Eddie yelled at Barrett.

“I don’t want to be late,” Barrett reminded them.

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