Page 19 of The Summer We Started Over

No sign of Dove or men or beer cans. Barrett waited for an hour.

That evening, when Stearns returned home, Barrett met him at the door.

“Have you heard about Dove?” she asked.

“Yeah, I heard.” Stearns brushed by her, took the steps two at a time, and slammed the bathroom door shut. A minute later, they heard the shower running. Barrett called Eddie.

“Why hasn’t she called us?” Barrett asked Eddie. “How can she live without us?”

Eddie was thoughtful. “You’ve seen the news. Dove’s life has beentornadoed. Her dad’s going to prison, they’ve lost their house, Dove must be traumatized. She’ll get in touch with us when she’s ready.”

Their lives rolled on, school, friends, homework, TV, TikTok. Summer. Eddie entered her freshman year at Smith. When Stearns was fifteen, he was hired for the weekends and evenings by a computer shop. Fall came. Christmas came. A new year came.

Spring came. One early April day as Barrett was leaving school, Curt Waterman, who thought he was Kurt Cobain, drove slowly past the school in his convertible. Dove was sitting in the passenger seat.Barrett raced over. She would have thrown herself in front of the car if necessary.

“Dove!”

Dove looked terrible. Her skin was gray, she had circles under her eyes, and she’d lost so much weight she was skeletal.

The convertible top was down. Barrett threw herself over the car door and hugged Dove.

Dove froze. “Hi, Bare.”

“Dove, where have you been?” Barrett demanded.

“It doesn’t matter,” Dove said.

“Bye, girly,” Curt said, and peeled off, back onto the road.

“DOVE!” Barrett yelled.

Dove didn’t look back.

That night, Barrett sat at the table with their father, mother, and Stearns. If Sabrina hadn’t bothered to cook a meal, at least she was eating with them. The family lived on pizza and tacos, but Barrett was glad to have the four of them together. Having their brother at the table was almost miraculous.

“What have you been up to, kids?” their father asked.

Barrett said, “Oh, Dad, I saw Dove today. She doesn’t even look like the same person. She looked terrible.”

“Where was she?” her father asked.

“In a car with Curt Waterman. He drove by the school with Dove in the front seat, as if he was showing off a trophy.” Barrett paused. “She smelled like she’d showered in Scotch.”

Their mother sighed. “I’ve heard that she’s…developed a serious drinking problem. Poor girl.”

Barrett needed Eddie with her. “We have todosomething.”

Their father shook his head. “I don’t know what we can do. Her parents don’t respond to my calls or texts.”

Sabrina sighed. “I always thought that family wasn’t as perfect as you children thought they were.”

—

Summer arrived. Eddie came home and the sisters worked for a children’s camp in Vermont. Two guys were counselors there, too. Kit and Peter. During the long hot, bright days, while they hiked up the mountain, or did art projects in the great barn on a rainy day, Eddie and Barrett knew they were transitioning into adulthood, birds flying out of the nest, leaving home. This was the last time they would feel like children, running joyfully with the little kids, past the flower garden and the vegetable garden and into the clear, cold stream bubbling down the mountain. They watched the children carefully and taught them about frogs and mushrooms, five different types of knots, how to make slime.

They didn’t hear from Dove, and they never saw Stearns, although he texted from Troy to ask how they were.

Barrett started at UMass Amherst. Her grades weren’t great, but she didn’t really care. She let herself be carried along by life’s tide.

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