MELVILLE AND ZEE MET for coffee at Jaho. He told her that he was having the boat picked up and was going to try to get it back in the water.
“That’s a great idea,” Zee said.
“It’s something,” he said. “Maybe we can take it out together sometime.”
“I’d like that,” she said.
He paused for a moment, then asked the same question he always asked: “How’s Finch?”
Zee wished she had a better answer to give him. “About the same,” she said.
“You look a little tired,” he said.
“I’m fine.”
“I think you need some more help.”
“I’m handling things,” she said.
“There’s a lot to handle.”
“He thought I was Maureen this morning,” she said. “He thinks that a lot.”
Melville considered. “It’s an honest mistake,” he said. “You look like your mother.”
“Not that much, I don’t,” she said.
“So what are you doing for you?”
She wanted to tell him about Hawk but thought better of it. She already knew what he would say. It was too soon.
“Enough,” she said.
“Name one thing.”
“I play skee ball.” She smiled.
He laughed. “God, that brings back a memory.”
In the summers when Melville had first lived with them, Zee had a habit of disappearing. Melville often hunted her down at the Willows playing skee ball. Sometimes, if it wasn’t too late and Finch wasn’t worried about her, Melville would play.
“I’ve developed the perfect bank shot,” she said.
He looked at her.
“I’m really all right,” she said again. “Good, in fact.”
MELVILLE DIDN’T WANT TO INTERFERE, but he was worried about Zee. He thought this was all too much for her. She wasn’t herself. He was worried about Finch, too, if the truth be known. He still spoke with Jessina once in a while, still paid her weekly salary, though Zee had told him not to. It was the least he could do, he said. Meaning it was something.
He wanted to stop by the shop to talk to Mickey about it. He was aware that Mickey hadn’t forgiven him for Maureen, probably would never forgive him for breaking up her marriage, but it didn’t matter. This was about Finch, and it was about Zee, and some things were more important.
He walked down Derby Wharf, past the rigging shed, looking up at the Friendship as he went by. He remembered when they were building her, had donated money for it, in fact. He’d been there the day that lightning had struck the main mast, and they’d had to raise more money to replace it. She was an amazing ship, if you thought about it, though he found he couldn’t think about it without thinking about Maureen and the story she’d been writing when she died.
Seeing Mickey was like looking at Maureen. Their eyes were the same. But as soon as Mickey spoke, the illusion shattered.
“Hi, Melville. What can I do you for?”
It was an old New England expression, but the twist was implicit.
“Funny,” Melville said.
“I want to talk to you about your niece,” Melville said. “I’m worried about her.”
Mickey listened without interrupting to insert his usual sarcasm. In the end he promised to help out. To take Finch out once in a while, just to give Zee some relief.
“You were friends once,” Melville said by way of justifying his request. He knew it was a mistake as soon as he said it. Mickey had already agreed.
“Age-old rule,” Mickey said. “Stop selling when you get to yes.”
“Thank you,” Melville said. He started toward the door.
“Hey,” Mickey said, calling him back.
“What?” Melville said.
“I may never like you,” Mickey said. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate what you do for my niece.”
32
TODAY ANN WAS READING lace. She’d been doing this more and more in the last few years, ever since her friend Towner Whitney had given her all of her late Aunt Eva’s pieces. Ann thought of the lace as another reader might think of a crystal ball, something that you gazed into to help you see images. She’d done two readings before lunch and was now turning and crumpling a piece of black antique lace in an effort to gain more perspective about her regular customer, the one who wanted so badly to get married.
What she got was more of the same, a bad relationship that was getting worse by the moment. Ann thought it was time to tell the girl everything, and she was just trying to find the words when an image began to form in the lace. It looked like a vine, and it was moving. Ann watched as the vine turned to feathers and one of the longer feathers turned into a woman’s neck. Ann realized that what she was looking at was a swan. And then she saw something in the lace that she’d never seen before, but something she’d heard her friend Eva describe from her own lace reading. The swan began to move, and it turned to a man, and she recognized Melville.
The hopeful bride looked strangely at Ann, who had been staring, trancelike, into the lace for a very long time. The breeze from the ocean cooled the room, breaking the spell. Ann turned toward the open door in time to see Melville walking away from Mickey’s shop and across the parking lot toward town.
She excused herself, hurried to the door, and called to him. He turned around. She could see that he was upset. He waved to her, but he didn’t stop.
33
ZEE PAID JESSINA TO stay until morning. Her son was on an overnight at Children’s Island Camp, and she was free.
They took Hawk’s boat to Clark Landing in Marblehead and walked over to the Barnacle for dinner. She could see Children’s Island from here and thought about Jessina’s son, who had helped her clean out some of Finch’s things just the week before.
They sat on the porch and watched as dogs played on the patch of beach below. They skipped dessert in favor of getting ice cream on the way back. After dinner they walked up to Fort Sewall and sat on a bench looking out to sea. All of the border islands were visible from here: Children’s, the Miseries, and Baker’s Island with its lighthouse off to the north. In the middle distance, she could see Yellow Dog Island, the shelter for abused women and children. Zee thought about May Whitney, who ran the shelter, and the great work she was doing out there. Zee wished that she had been able to do as much for Lilly.
But she didn’t want to think about Lilly tonight, didn’t want the thought to come between them. Instead she concentrated on the beautiful view. It was Race Week in Marblehead, and sailors from all over the world had come to compete. A long line of spinnakered J/24s moved along the horizon.
“Mickey says you could make your way across the ocean just by looking at the stars.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that.” Hawk laughed. “The Park Service is running a class in celestial
