Next to the logo stamped in the sand, you can read the words: “Using your past mistakes to build a better future.”
Somebody's vague mission statement.
“In another week,” the doctor says, “that company will pay a fortune to erase its name from this island.”
What you don't understand you can make mean anything.
The tractor drags the roller, printing its message again and again until the waves wash it away.
The doctor says, “When an airliner crashes, all the airlines pay to cancel their newspaper and television advertisements. Did you know that? None of them want to risk any association with that kind of disaster.” He says, “In another week, there won't be a corporate sign on this island. They'll pay anything it takes to buy their names back.”
The doctor folds Misty's dead hands in her lap. Embalming her. He says, “Now rest. Paulette will be up soon for your dinner order.”
Just for the record, he goes to her night table and picks up the bottle of capsules. As he leaves, he slips the bottle into the side pocket of his suit jacket and doesn't mention it. “Another week,” he says, “and the entire world will fear this place—but they'll leave us alone.” Going out, he doesn't lock the door.
In her previous life, Peter and Misty, they'd sublet a place in New York when Grace called to say Harrow was dead. Peter's father was dead and his mother was alone in their big house on Birch Street. Four stories tall with its mountain range of roofs, its towers and bay windows. And Peter said they had to go take care of her. To settle Harrow's estate. Peter was the executor of the will. Just for a few months, he said. Then Misty was pregnant.
They kept telling each other New York was still the plan. Then they were parents.
Just for the record, Misty couldn't complain. There was a little window of time, the first few years after Tabbi was born, when Misty could curl on the bed with her and not want anything else in the world. Having Tabbi made Misty part of something, of the Wilmot clan, of the island. Misty felt complete and more peaceful than she'd ever thought possible. The waves on the beach outside the bedroom window, the quiet streets, the island was far enough removed from the world that you stopped wanting. You stopped needing. Worrying. Wishing. Always expecting something more.
She quit painting and smoking dope.
She didn't need to accomplish or become or escape. Just being here was enough.
The quiet rituals of washing the dishes or folding clothes. Peter would come home, and they'd sit on the porch with Grace. They'd read to Tabbi until her bedtime. They'd creak in the old wicker furniture, the moths swarming the porch light. Deep inside the house, a clock would strike the hour. From the woods beyond the village, they might hear an owl.
Across the water, the mainland towns were crowded, plastered with signs selling city products. People ate cheap food in the streets and dropped litter on the beach. The reason the island never hurt is—there was nothing there to do. There were no rooms to rent. No hotel. No summer houses. No parties. You couldn't buy food because there was no restaurant. Nobody sold hand-painted seashells with “Waytansea Island” written on them in gold script. The beaches were rocky on the ocean side . . . muddy with oyster flats on the side that faced the mainland.
About that time, the village council started work to reopen the closed hotel. It was crazy, using the last bit of everyone's trust money, all the island families chipping in to rebuild the burned-out, crumbling old ruin that rose on the hillside above the harbor. Wasting the last of their resources to attract reams of tourists. Dooming their next generation to waiting tables, cleaning rooms, painting souvenir crap on seashells.
It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness.
We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.
Curled on the quilt, a part of every person for generations, Misty could put her arms around her daughter. Misty could hold her baby, her body cupped around Tabbi, as if she were still inside. Still part of Misty. Immortal.
The sour milk smell of Tabbi, of her breath. The sweet smell of baby powder, almost powdered sugar. Misty's nose tucked against the warm skin of her baby's neck.
Inside those years, they had no reason to hurry. They were young. Their world was clean. It was church on Sunday. It was reading books, soaking in the bathtub. Picking wild berries and making jelly at night, when the white kitchen was cool with a breeze, the windows up. They always knew the phase of the moon, but seldom the day of the week.
Just for that little window of years, Misty could see how her life wasn't an end. She was a means to the future.
They'd stand Tabbi against the front doorframe. Against all the forgotten names still there. Those children, now dead. They'd mark her height with a felt-tipped pen.
Tabbi, age four.
Tabbi, age eight.
Just for the record, the weather today is slightly maudlin.
Here, sitting at the dormer window of her attic room in the Waytansea Hotel, the island is spread out under her, filthy with strangers and messages. Billboards and neon. Logos. Trademarks.
The bed where Misty curled around Tabbi, trying to keep her inside. Angel Delaporte sleeps there now. Some crazy man. A stalker. In her room, in her bed, under the window with the hiss
