It was generally assumed that Minnie Eldridge was in her early seventies, and that she had somehow convinced the authorities in Washington that she was well under compulsory retirement age. She was small and frail-looking, but deceptively strong, able to hustle packages and cartons nearly as quickly as the two young men who worked in the post office with her. She never spoke about her past or her private life. The only common knowledge about her was that she had been born on Nantucket Island and had left sometime soon after World War I. She had been in Amity for as long as anyone living could remember, and she considered herself not only a native, but also the resident expert on the history of the town. She needed no prodding at all to embark on a discourse about Amity’s eponym, a seventeenth-century woman named Amity Hopewell who had been convicted of witchcraft, and she took pleasure in reciting the list of major events in the town’s past: the landing of some British troops during the Revolution in an ill-fated attempt to outflank a Colonial force (the Britons lost their way and wandered aimlessly back and forth across Long Island); the fire in 1823 that destroyed every building except the town’s only church; the wreck of a rumrunning ship in 1921 (the ship was eventually refloated, but by then all the cargo off-loaded to make the ship lighter had vanished); the hurricane of 1938, and the widely reported (though never fully ascertained) landing of three German spies on the Scotch Road beach in 1942.
Ellen and Minnie made each other nervous. Ellen sensed that Minnie didn’t like her, and she was right. Minnie felt uneasy with Ellen because she couldn’t catalogue her. Ellen was neither summer folk nor winter folk. She hadn’t earned her year-round mailbox, she had married it.
Minnie was alone in the post office, sorting mail, when Ellen arrived.
“Morning, Minnie,” Ellen said.
Minnie looked up at the clock over the counter and said, “Afternoon.”
“Could I have a roll of eights, please?” Ellen put a five-dollar bill and three ones on the counter.
Minnie pushed a few more letters into boxes, set down her bundle, and walked to the counter. She gave Ellen a roll of stamps and dropped the bills into a drawer. “What’s Martin think he’s going to do about that shark?” she said.
“I don’t know. I guess they’ll try to catch it.”
“Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Book of Job,” said Minnie. “No mortal man’s going to catch that fish.”
“Why do you say that?”
“We’re not meant to catch it, that’s why. We’re being readied.”
“For what?”
“We’ll know when the time comes.”
“I see.” Ellen put the stamps in her purse. “Well, maybe you’re right. Thanks, Minnie.” She turned and walked toward the door.
“There’ll be no mistaking it,” Minnie said to Ellen’s back.
Ellen walked to Main Street and turned right, past a boutique and an antique shop. She stopped at Amity Hardware and went inside. There was no immediate response to the tinkle of the bell that the door struck as she opened it. She waited for a few seconds, then called, “Albert?”
She walked to the back of the store, to an open door that led to the basement. She heard two men talking below.
“I’ll be right up,” called the voice of Albert Morris. “Here’s a whole box of them,” Morris said to the other man. “Look through and see if you find what you want.”
Morris came to the bottom of the stairs and started up — slowly and deliberately, one step at a time, holding on to the banister. He was in his early sixties, and he had had a heart attack two years earlier.
“Cleats,” he said when he reached the top of the stairs.
“What?” said Ellen.
“Cleats. Fella wants cleats for a boat. Size he’s looking for, he must be the captain of a battleship. Anyway, what can I do for you?”
“The rubber nozzle in my kitchen sink is all cracked. You know, the kind with the switch for spraying. I want to get a new one.”
“No problem. They’re up this way.” Morris led Ellen to a cabinet in the middle of the store. “This what you had in mind?” He held up a rubber nozzle.
“Perfect.”
“Eighty cents. Charge or cash?”
“I’ll pay you for it. I don’t want you to have to write up a slip just for eighty cents.”
“Written ’em a lot smaller ’n that,” said Morris. “I could tell you stories that’d set your ears to ringing.”
They walked across the narrow store to the cash register, and as he rang up the sale on the register, Morris said, “Lots of people upset about this shark thing.”
“I know. You can’t blame them.”
“They think the beaches oughta be opened up again.”
“Well, I…”
“You ask me, I think they’re full of — pardon the expression — bull. I think Martin’s doing right.”
“I’m glad to know that, Albert.”
“Maybe this new fella can help us out.”
“Who’s that?”
“This fish expert from up Massachusetts.”
“Oh yes. I heard he was in town.”
“He’s right here.”
Ellen looked around and saw no one. “What do you mean?”
“Down cellar. He’s the one wants the cleats.”
Just then, Ellen heard footsteps on the stairs. She turned and saw Hooper coming through the door, and she suddenly felt a surge of girlish nervousness, as if she were seeing a beau she hadn’t seen in years. The man was a stranger, yet there was something familiar about him.
“I found them,” said Hooper, holding up two large stainless-steel cleats. He walked over to the counter, smiled politely at Ellen, and said to Morris, “These’ll do fine.” He put the cleats on the counter and handed Morris a twenty-dollar bill.
Ellen looked at Hooper, trying to define her reminiscence. She hoped Albert Morris would introduce them, but he seemed to have no intention of doing so. “Excuse me,” she said to Hooper, “but I have to ask you something.”
Hooper looked at her and smiled again — a pleasant, friendly smile that softened the sharpness of his features and made his light blue eyes shine. “Sure,” he said. “Ask away.”
“You aren’t by any chance related to David Hooper, are you?”
“He’s my older brother. Do you know David?”
“Yes,” said Ellen. “Or rather, I used to. I went out with him a long time ago. I’m Ellen Brody. I used to be Ellen Shepherd. Back then, I mean.”
“Oh sure. I remember you.”
“You don’t.”
“I do. No kidding. I’ll prove it to you. Let me see… You wore your hair shorter then, sort of a pageboy. You always wore a charm bracelet. I remember that because it had a big charm that looked like the Eiffel Tower. And you always used to sing that song — what was it called? — ‘ShiBoom,’ or something like that. Right?”
Ellen laughed. “My heavens, you have quite a memory. I’d forgotten that song.”
“It’s screwy the things that impress kids. You went out with David for what — two years?”
“Two summers,” Ellen said. “They were fun. I hadn’t thought about them much in the past few years.”
“Do you remember me?”
“Vaguely. I’m not sure. I remember David had a younger brother. You must have been about nine or ten then.”
“About that; David’s ten years older than I am. Another thing I remember: Everybody called me Matt. I thought it sounded grown-up. But you called me Matthew. You said it sounded more dignified. I was probably in love with you.”
