Page 78 of Summer Light on Nantucket

When Holly, eight years old, decided she was a mermaid and tried to swim from Steps Beach to a small sandbank twenty feet out, couldn’t make it, and lay on her back, kicking her feet and exhausted, until Blythe swam out to help her back to safety.

Bob hadn’t been there at any of those moments. Blythe had called her husband to tell him about the emergency.

“How is she?” he’d ask. Or if it was Teddy, “How is he?”

“She’s okay now,” Blythe would answer, feeling sick and lonely because she was the only adult there to hear baby Miranda’s crying, to see the softball slam straight into Teddy’s head, hitting him so hard he crumpled to the ground and Blythe had screamed. The only parent to force herself to be calm as she organized the two older children to go out with her into the blizzard to take Daphne to the doctor to extract the eraser, all the time fearing the child would suck it farther back into her complicated sinuses. The only parent—who was not that good of a swimmer—to thrash through the water out to rescue Holly, all the time cursing herself for trying to read while her children played on the beach.

Bob said, “Blythe? Hello?”

“Sorry, Bob. My brain’s a little foggy right now. When I left, Celeste was doing better, they were just keeping her under observation. I’m sure Kate told you the details. Have you spoken with your sister?”

“She turned off her phone.”

“Good. I hope she’s getting some rest.”

At the hospital, Blythe spoke with a nurse who told her Celeste could have more than one visitor at a time now. Blythe walked to Celeste’s room with Bob and Teri. Kate, looking as tired as Blythe did, hugged her brother and took him into their mother’s room.

Blythe was left standing with Teri.

“I wish I knew what to do to help,” Teri said. She had a Hermès bag hanging off her shoulder and wore a lovely linen dress and high heels.

“Just being here is a help,” Blythe said, hoping that was true.

Blythe’s phone chimed.Holly.

“I have to take this,” Blythe said, walking away from Teri.

“Mommy, how is Grandmother doing?”

“I haven’t seen her yet, darling. I’ll let you know when I get home.”

“When will that be?”

“Soon. I want to hear what the doctor says first. Your father andTeri are here. They flew down and I just picked them up at the airport and brought them here to the hospital. He and Aunt Kate are with Celeste now.”Listen to me,Blythe thought,all sweetness and light about Teri, about Celeste, about Kate.

From the background, Daphne said, “Tell Mom I’m making pancakes for us.”

“Daphne, how wonderful,” Blythe said, and she burst into tears.

Holly said to Daphne, “Mom’s crying.”

Daphne said to Holly, “Tell Mom to drink some coffee.”

Oh, her sensible daughter! Blythe laughed through her tears.

“I’ll do that. And I’ll be home soon,” she said.

—

After a while, Kate and Bob came out of Celeste’s room.

Teri hugged Kate. “You look like you’ve been hit by a truck.”

Kate managed a weak smile. “Ifeellike I’ve been hit by a truck.”

What?Blythe stood there, reality warping around her again as she realized that Teri and Kateliked each other.

“Have you been here all night?” Teri asked.

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