Compared to the bikinis I’m used to seeing in the Hamptons, this one could double as a nun’s habit. I nodded and smiled anyway.
“Sorry, Lydia, you’ll have to wear my old one.”
Now I’m dressed in a dark blue one-piece halter top with bottoms that come down over my hips.
“Billy, don’t!” Mary shrieks as the short, slim boy pulls her up against his chest. She pushes at him and he falls backward, splashing into the shallow water. It must be cold, frigid even, in early June.
“She’s such a floozy,” Jinx says affectionately. Jinx, short for Virginia, is tall and dark-haired, with large brown eyes. She lies facedown on a blanket to my right, staring out at the water.
The beach is practically deserted. There are a group of boys swimming not far from us and two young mothers letting their babies play in the sand up near the dunes, but other than that, it’s empty. I’ve never seen a Montauk beach so bare in the summer.
“You’re just jealous,” Susie says from her other side.
“Mary’s a doll, but she’s khaki-wacky.” Jinx grins. “Everyone knows it.”
“Khaki-wacky?” I ask. I lean back with my elbows in the sand and look up into the hazy gray sky. I’m still jittery from sneaking around Dean’s house, and I’m dreading what it will be like to break into the officers’ barracks. But there’s something comforting about hanging out on the beach with Mary’s friends and doing normal stuff for a change.
“She’s never met a soldier she doesn’t like. Here, give me one of those.” Jinx leans over to Susie and grabs a cigarette out of the pack next to her. Mick strikes a match and reaches over to light it. He’s of average height, with curly brown hair and a long, narrow face.
“Mary’s not fast.” Susie sticks a cigarette into her own mouth. She offers one to me, but I shake my head.
“Of course not.” Jinx’s voice is rough and filled with smoke. “She’ll settle down soon. I’m surprised she hasn’t already run off with one of those soldiers.”
I look at her, surprised. “But she’s only seventeen!”
“Everything happens faster in wartime.” Jinx points her cigarette in the direction of Susie and Mick. “Am I right, kids?”
“Oh, you’re right,” Mick says. He smirks down at his fiancée. Susie blushes.
“What about you, Lydia?” Jinx asks. “Have you got a beau somewhere?”
An image of Wes standing on the beach flashes through my head. I push it far, far away. “Nope. Do you?”
She shakes her head, cigarette dangling precariously out of her mouth.
“How long have you two been together?” I turn to Susie and Mick, curious. Most of the couples at my school break up every other month, but these two are clearly in it for the long haul.
“Forever.” Susie beams.
“It feels like forever,” Mick mumbles under his breath.
“Hey!” Susie lightly taps him on his bare stomach and he laughs. She’s like a different person when Mick is around—the shy girl I saw yesterday has disappeared. I watch the way they lean into each other and a sharp pang of jealousy shoots through my chest. Now is not the time to start thinking about boyfriends—I have enough going on to deal with—but I can’t help wishing I had someone in my life who made me better just by being there.
“Mick enlisted a few weeks ago,” Susie says. “But we’re going to write each other letters every day when he leaves.”
“When are you leaving?” I ask Mick.
“Shipping out in a little over a month. Don’t know where I’ll be stationed yet.”
“What about Billy?” I glance toward the water, where Billy holds Mary around the waist and spins her into the air. In the distance I see the fishing boats, men throwing nets out into deep water. “Is he enlisting?”
“He got drafted. Army. We ship out at the same time.” Mick grabs another cigarette, lighting the end. I stare at the slight boy in the water, wondering if he’ll make it through the last remaining year of this war. He seems so young, splashing with Mary in the waves.
“What are your plans, then?” Jinx turns to me. Her pale skin is already starting to burn even though the sun isn’t bright.
“What do you mean?” A light breeze stirs my hair and I smell the ocean, salty and fresh over the sharp, tingly scent of tobacco.
“Well, you don’t have a beau, so you’re not getting married anytime soon. Are you going to work in a factory? To enlist with the nurses like Mary?”
Now I need to have a life plan for the ’40s? How will I ever be able to keep all of the lies straight? I decide to answer honestly for once. “I guess I haven’t really thought about it.”
Jinx puts her cigarette out in the sand. “Mary said you were a riveter. We’re always looking for people up at the Watchcase factory in Sag Harbor. I could put in a word for you.”
“You work there? What about school?”
“The war effort needed me more. I’m on the line, munitions. Lots of us girls are up there.”
“My mother started working there after we lost my brother Davy.” Susie stares out into the waves. “He was shot down in France two years ago.” Mick puts his hand on her back.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
She shrugs and smiles, though it doesn’t quite reach her eyes.
Jinx gives her a sympathetic look, then turns to me. “Imagine, all us women working the line like the men used to!” She shakes her head and laughs a little.
“How crazy,” I say drily, thinking of everything that hasn’t happened yet in history. Feminist movements and social change. How bizarre it is to know so much more about the world than the people around me. But then I think of Billy getting drafted before high school is over, of Susie’s brother dying in another country. It seems like everyone I’ve met
