Page 54 of The Book of Summer

“Perhaps,” Mother said. “But I would hate for my fiendish son to waste the poor girl’s time. She must have a line of suitors a mile long.”

“She does. But is anyone more dashing than Tops?”

“Philip Junior,” Mary offered as she kept her eyes glued to the Red Cross float and its six-foot-tall papier-mâchéhypodermic needle.

“P.J. is darling,” Mother said unconvincingly. “Well, I’m anxious to watch the two of you cream the Coffin sisters at four, sharp.” She wiggled her brows. “Those girls don’t stand a chance.”

“What about you, love?” Daddy said, and gave Mother a soft pinch to her side. “Surely you can bring home a trophy or two, just like the old days.”

“Oh please. My tennis is rustier than the weather vane on our roof.”

“No, I was thinking along the lines of… let me see… By Jove, I have it!” Daddy snapped his fingers. “The rolling-pin-throwing contest. I’ve seen you exhibit great skill in that department. The other night, when I came home late from work, for example.”

“Malarkey,” Mother said, giggling as she squirmed away from him. “Ibrandishedthe rolling pin. I didn’t throw it. You interrupted my baking.”

“Likely story.”

“Who could blame me? You tinker in that factory fourteen hours at a go. I barely know what you look like in the daylight. How is it that we’ve had so many kids? Better check with the milkman!”

Mary turned around, her mouth fallen in horror.

“Mother Young!” she yipped. “I’ve never heard such a crude remark!”

“Because you married the boring one,” Ruby said.

As both of Ruby’s parents laughed, Mary took several very deliberate steps away from them.

When Ruby turned to look at Daddy, she noticed Mother clinging to his arm as tears puddled.

“Ma?” Ruby said, tentatively. “Are you all right?”

“I’ve never been better. This island. My family. Cliff House. It makes me full, finally and at last.”

Ruby flinched. Her mother’s mind had drifted to Walter, as it so often did. The second son had been Sarah’s favorite. He was kind and handsome and whip-smart. Walter committed but one error in life, a first mistake that would also be his last. Late one night, with too much hooch diluting his blood, Walter Young drove a carful of girls into a tree a quarter mile from the Dartmouth campus. The girls survived but Walter did not.

It’d been five years and the family hardly talked about the middle brother anymore. But Ruby still saw Walter, every once in a while, lingering between her parents. Usually, though, his ghost stayed in Boston. No one brought thoughts of him into summer.

“Nantucket is the best,” Ruby said, aspiring to keep her mother’s spirits high. “I can’t imagine life without Cliff House.”

Mother smiled, though her eyes continued to tear.

“It’s everything I dreamed of when I asked your father to build it.” Mother’s tears were streams now, the puddles moved on. “And you know what? It keeps getting better. Because next year we’ll stand in this very spot, together. And the year after we’ll stand again. Soon there will be babies in our home and at this parade, clutching American flags in their chubby precious hands.”

Mother sighed and Daddy wrapped one arm around her.

“Sometimes I think the world is so scary and hopeless,” Mother said. “And getting worse by the day. But when our family is together in Sconset, it makes me believe that in the end, everything will turn out precisely as it should.”

***

“Well, here they are. Everyone please put your hands together for the Ladies’ Doubles Champions of the Nantucket Yacht Club.”

Topper clapped wildly and took a deep bow. He kissed Ruby’s hand, followed by Hattie’s, then whipped out his Rolleiflex. As Topper set his camera down, Ruby saw his eyes dawdle on Hattie, as well they should. She was a one-hundred-percent-certified knockout in a silk ivory dress with ruffles cascading toward the floor.

“Champs,” Hattie said with a grin. Her nose was slightly sunburned. “That’s us. But, shhhh, don’t tell the rag mags. We don’t want to get mobbed by the press or our hordes of adoring fans.”

“Your secret’s safe with me.”

Topper flung the camera over his shoulder and placed a hand over his heart.

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