Page 153 of The Book of Summer

“Thanks for coming,” Ruby said, and gave her a squeeze. “It means everything that you’d take a furlough just to see me.”

“I had to meet little Caroline,” Mary said. “She’s even more precious than expected. Plus, I needed one more Cliff House hurrah.”

Ruby smirked, wondering when there’d ever been a hurrah with the broad to start.

“I’ll miss the old house,” Mary said.

“Miss it!” Ruby quacked. “What do you mean? You can always come back. Always! When I picture this place, I see you inside. It’s yours as much as mine.”

The skin between Mary’s brows became pinched and tight.

“But Ruby,” she said in her measured Mary tone. “P.J. is gone.”

“You’re still family though! You’re still a Young!”

“For now, though I’ll likely change my name.”

“You will?” Ruby balked. She shook her head. “I don’t give a rip. You’re still family to me.”

“Aw, Ruby.”

Mary patted her arm. The wet sock, dry dock back on the scene. Ruby gave her a hard glower in return. When it came to human connection the woman was a dang boomerang.

“Still family?” Mary said. “I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, even including when I actuallywasfamily.”

“And I think that’s the meanest thingyou’veever said!”

“Okay.” Mary sighed. “I didn’t realize… I didn’t expect you to have this vociferous of a reaction.”

“Vociferous!”

“Listen, we’ll keep in touch. I’ll swing by Cliff House whenever I can.”

“That’s all?” Ruby said. “That’s all you have to say for yourself? Our relationship, everything we’ve been through? It ends here?”

Squinting, Mary contemplated the home, eyes skimming the windows, then following the line of the privet hedge.

“I loved your brother,” she said at last. “Very much. But in the end you were the best thing about this place.”

Ruby’s crab shell began to crack.

“Kind or mean,” Ruby said. “Pick a side.”

“Lovely girl, I’ll be back,” Mary said. “If for no other reason than to see your face.”

Mary had promised to return, but whether she truly meant it, Ruby would never know. The two women would keep in regular contact over the years, but Mary would never again set foot on the white-shelled drive.

She planned to, or so she said, but it was a great trek from France, where she eventually settled after marrying a French soldier. Then there would be kids and dogs and money stretched thin, and so in France Mary stayed. Ironic, after all the comments she muttered about the continental Hattie Rutter that summer of ’41.

Before returning to Europe, Mary would make a final meddling move, an act that’d leave an indelible mark on the people who remained. Whether for good or for ill could be left to some debate. Mary believed that Sam Packard deserved to know there was a family, and so she asked Hattie Rutter to track him down one more time.

61

The Book of Summer

Evan Mayhew

May 27, 2013

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