inches long. And she had a baby or something in a pouch strapped to her back. Was I dreaming or is she a neighbor?'
“I saw her too, Tom, later. She was coming over the rocks, spied me, and fled instantly—before I had a chance to say anything.'
“That's Bird, not her real name,' Pix replied. 'Although come to think of it there must be quite a few adults with similar names bequeathed to them by their letting-it-all-hangout parents—I actually knew someone who named her daughter Emma Goldman Moonflower. Anyway, Bird lives with her significant other in that tiny shack you can see from your beach, directly across the water from the lobster pound. I don't think it even has indoor plumbing. They're into macrobiotics and she was probably gathering seaweed. The guy she lives with, Andy, is a rock musician and seems to spend most of his time in Camden playing with a group down there. I don't really know them, although they've been here all winter and I can't imagine how they survived in that house, especially with a baby.' Pix paused for breath. There was nothing like fresh Maine air and a gin and tonic to loosen her tongue.
“Someone you don't know? Well, I, for one, am shocked,' teased Tom. 'You're slipping, Pix.”
Pix clamped her mouth shut and returned to the paper.
“Come on, make up and read me `Police Brief,' you know it's my favorite. What kind of a week has crime had on the island?' Tom cajoled. With only one officer of the law and accordingly one police car, he hoped it hadn't been too unruly.
Pix acquiesced readily. 'Well, the kids are stealing hubcaps again. Oh, and this is really funny—I'll read it: `A pickup truck was found upside down in Lover's Lane last Tuesday evening. A search found a quantity of empty beer cans inside, but no driver. The truck, a 1967 Ford, was registered to Velma Hamilton, who reported it stolen the next day. The truck was totaled and the matter is under investigation.' “
Tom and Faith laughed. 'You mean there really is a Lover's Lane on the island?' asked Tom.
“Yes, you follow Route 17 to Sanpere Village and it's the road before the lily pond. But what could they have been doing to turn the truck upside down?”
Tom and Faith laughed harder. Faith caught her breath and said, 'Oh Pix, only you. Don't you think the truck just drove off the road? It couldn't have been stopped and flipped over no matter how frisky the couple were.'
“You never know; one time I heard—' Pix started, when she was unfortunately interrupted by the appearance of a much-disheveled Samantha lugging a squirming Benjamin. She came up the stairs to the deck and deposited him on Faith's lap before he could take flight again.
“I hope it's all right, Mrs. Fairchild, but Arlene and I want to go swimming now while the tide is right.' She motioned behind her. 'Arlene, this is Mrs. Fairchild and Reverend Fairchild.' Arlene giggled and said something in that Maine accent that Faith had not yet managed to decode.
“Of course, Samantha. We were coming to get him anyway, and after all this work you need a break. But don't tell me you actually swim in this stuff without turning into a solid block of ice.”
Arlene giggled some more, and Samantha laughed. 'This is the best time. The tide's come in over the rocks after the sun has been warming them all day, and the water isn't cold at all. You should try it.”
Faith shuddered. 'Not this lifetime.”
Samantha turned to Tom. 'How about you, Reverend?'
“You have a deal. Benjamin and I will go with you tomorrow. I don't want him to turn out like his mother. She doesn't know what she's missing.' Tom had been swimming every day since they came.
Faith looked at Tom, planned to rake him over the coals later for suggesting in front of Benjamin that she might be an inadequate role model while Papa was simply too good to be true, and answered crisply, 'Oh yes she does, thank you, and the only salt water I want to go near is in a pot waiting for a lobster or some mussels or clams.”
Benjamin had had enough lap sitting and was ready for round two, so they said good-bye and started back through the woods. They had taken the shore route with Ben once, and it took so long to tear him away from the tidal pools and shells he found that they stuck to the wooded path now and tried to keep him from wandering off into the bracken. He insisted on walking these days and howled if either of them came near him with the stroller or backpack. He seemed to have developed a logic all his own—after all, these same people had wanted him to walk, coaxing and encouraging him to take those first steps. Now he could do it and they wanted him to stop. It was a very puzzling universe.
Tom reached for Faith's hand while he watched Benjamin careen over the tree roots and pine needles in the path. 'I know you're mad, Faith, and I'd adore Benjamin to grow up just like you. But a little like me. Besides, it wouldn't kill you to go swimming. You should try my method. You jump in all at once and swim like hell for a few seconds. Your blood gets going and it's really warm.'
“Sounds like great fun, Tom,' Faith said. 'You knew I wasn't a Campfire Girl when you met me and I'm too old to change even if I wanted to, which I don't.' Faith had always been suspicious of exercise conducted outside a health club, spa, or ski resort.
She took a few deliberately limber strides. 'And I don't particularly care to have aspersions cast upon me.' Umbrage tended to embellish Faith's vocabulary.
“I know, darling, don't worry. And I won't teach Benjamin to shoot, swear, and spit. He'll have to learn them on his own.”
They looked fondly at said Benjamin for an instant before realizing he was no longer in front of them, but had abandoned the path for greater adventure and was in the act of climbing a huge rock. They lunged together. Faith might not be Gertrude Ederle, but she could run fast.
“Want wock!' Benjamin screamed. Faith sighed. Even with trusty Samantha, Tom's absence was going to be tough going. How did single parents cope? She made a mental note never to get divorced no matter how many touch football games Tom wheedled her into.
The phone was ringing as they entered the cottage. Faith picked it up. Pix was on the other end.
“Faith, fantastic news! They're going to auction off the contents of Matilda Prescott's house next Thursday. It's under ‘Special Events' and there's so much listed I can't read it all over the phone, but there were some lovely things in the house and goodness knows what was in the attic! She only died a month ago, and I thought it would take them longer to go through things. I didn't even know the will had been probated.”
It was good news. Faith loved auctions, although until she had come to New England they had been of quite a different nature and mood. Now she knew enough to bring her own chair and a thermos of coffee, and to arrive at the crack of dawn to inspect things.
She hung up and told Tom. He was crestfallen. House auctions were his favorites, and he told Faith to try to get him any old tools she saw, especially if there were box lots. You never knew what you'd turn up in one of those. He was still hoping to come across a daguerrotype of Lincoln at the bottom of one, as a friend of his parents allegedly had some years earlier.
Faith fed Benjamin and together they put him to bed, chanting
Afterward they sat on the porch again and ate steaming bowls of fish chowder. Tom was thinking how much better it was than mush, whatever that was, when Faith interrupted his train of thought just before he could speculate on what she had made for dessert.
“I'm going to miss you, Tom,' Faith said solemnly. 'This is the longest we'll have been separated since Ben was born.'
“I know, sweetheart. I'm not looking forward to it much. I'd love to stay here. Pix is right. This place really is perfect. Anyway, the time will go fast. You'll have all these exciting things to keep you busy—auctions and potluck suppers.'
“ `Exciting' is not the word we're searching for here. The last thing in the world these next couple of weeks are going to be is exciting. But that's all right with me. I'll get all those books and
It was twilight and the tide was still high. A lone
2
The sun shone steadily on the ocean, creating island mirages and turning the real ones into silver silhouettes. Faith had closed her eyes against the brilliance and would soon have to move to a shadier spot, but for the moment it was delicious to bask in the warmth, listening to the steady thumping noise of the wheel as Eric Ashley
