The needles paused, and then resumed.
“There’s nothing for Patsy around here,” her mother said at last. “She’s been biding her time, you know. She’s not like you, Pru. She needs to be excited by life.”
“Whereas I need to have the crap bored out of me by life?”
“You just have a different tolerance. Patsy will follow her heart, wherever it takes her. I don’t think it’s my place to tell her where that is.”
“Unfortunately, Annali has to follow Patsy’s heart, too.”
“It’s a good heart, Pru. I don’t think we have to worry. I barely knew your father when I married him.”
Although she’d heard that before, it was impossible to visualize. She thought of her mother, sitting up in bed in her flannel Lanz of Salzburg nightgown, and found it hard to believe she’d ever been impulsive. It must have been just that one time, that one wild instinct that drove her to marry Leonard after knowing him only three weeks. Then she settled down to her life of making dinners and vacuuming the carpets and going to the basement of the First Christian Missionary Alliance to play Senior Scrabble.
Pru had the strange feeling that her mother was playing online Scrabble now—as well as knitting—while they talked. Sometimes her voice would fade out, or it would take her a moment too long to answer. Was she quietly typing in a word, so Pru wouldn’t hear?
“You’ll be sad if they move here, won’t you?” Pru said.
The needles stopped again, and there was a long pause. “Oh my goodness, yes,” Nadine said, at last. “I most certainly will. I certainly, certainly will.”
AFTER SHE HUNG UP WITH HER MOTHER, PRU CALLED her home phone. That was another good thing about being self-employed: You could actually pretend that your obsessive checking in with all means of communications was work related. She’d managed to restrict herself to checking her messages only twice a day, which, considering, was rather valiant.
That was how she thought of herself now, self-employed. She just wasn’t earning anything, that was all. But she was on the verge of locking up a couple of jobs Kate had steered her way. She now truly needed the money, and would be glad to have something to do with her days. She needed to get away from the Korner, where she was spending too much time. Some days, it was the only human contact she had.
No messages. She wondered how far into the realm of getting weird on John she’d already wandered. Was there any return? Could they go back to their easy friendship? Or was she doomed to this no-man’s land forever?
No-man’s land. She liked that. She’d have to tell McKay, when she saw him again.
THE NEXT MORNING, SHE AWOKE TO THE SOUNDS OF Annali shrieking and laughing in the kitchen. She came out of the bedroom to see Annali trundling through the house, followed closely by a small, pudgy yellow puppy.
The puppy kept jumping up on Annali and licking her face, to her great delight. “Look what Jacob brought me!” she yelled, when she saw Pru.
Jacob seemed somewhat abashed at himself, but pleased nonetheless. Pru could see that Patsy was pleased, too. All Pru could think of was, How are you going to get it home? And who was going to walk him during the day—Nadine, with her bad hip? Well, it wasn’t her concern. She poured coffee for herself and sat down, bending to pet the puppy when it came wriggling over for a sniff.
Jacob wanted to rent bikes for everyone. For him, Patsy, and Annali, he rented a tandem with a child’s seat on the back, and a red bike for Pru, upright and retro in design but with thirty speeds. Annali insisted on bringing the puppy along, but it kept getting its leash tangled in the pedals of the tandem, so they ended up pushing the bikes along as the puppy wriggled and bit them on the ankles. Their little group seemed to be the main attraction in town. People keep stopping to coo and pet the puppy, whom Annali had named Jenny. Jacob seemed to love the attention almost as much as the puppy did. “She wanted a dog,” he said to everyone. “Am I going to tell her no?”
Patsy squeezed her arm and said, “This is perfect. Everyone I love best in one place. Perfect.” Her wildly happy aspect had returned. There was no sign of her previous anxiety. Patsy was having a good day. It was as if the dog had signaled something to her, something irrevocable.
By the end of the day, Jenny had nipped Annali on the nose at least twice, attacked the new furniture, and dragged a rotting shellfish carcass halfway up the beach stairs. Annali wanted to take the dog to bed with her, but Patsy explained that it must sleep in its crate until it was trained. When Jacob kissed her good night, Annali said, “I love my dog. Good night, Daddy.”
Hearing this, Pru looked up from the sink. Patsy was watching Jacob closely, a combination of amusement and worry on her face. Jacob said, mildly, “Good night, kiddo.” But as soon as Annali and Patsy disappeared into the bedroom, he rose and went outside to stand at the railing.
Pru lay down on the couch and began reading a biography of Toussaint L’Ouverture that John had given her. He said L’Ouverture was even more fascinating than Churchill, and up against even greater odds, and what was she doing reading about dead white European males, anyway? After Patsy finished putting Annali down, she went to find Jacob outside. Presently, Pru could hear their voices coming in through the window. She heard Patsy say something laughingly, but then Jacob said, in a somber voice, “I think it’s a bad idea.” Pru put down her book.
“Why?” Patsy’s voice sounded teasing, but there was a note of anxiety, too. “Did it scare you?”
“It’s just
