Authors: Susan Minot
O
n the north side of Three O’Clock Island were beaches of smooth stones where they used to walk at sunset. On the south side the beaches were shorter flanked by shale rock spotted with pumpkin-colored lichen. The sharp outcroppings grew steeper and more jagged as they moved east to the tip where a cliff jutted out like the prow of a ship. Except for Lost Man’s Island which lay like a low slug along the horizon there was nothing between the tip and the Atlantic beyond. At high tide people sometimes jumped into the water. It was called the Plunge.
Ann did not go with them there, but she heard the story so many times their night grew more vivid than her own. She had never described her own night to anyone. She told the fact of it to Lila but not its story. So when Gigi went running back up the grass to Buddy at the truck it was where later Ann went too.
The truck bumped deeply turning onto the grass Promontory road. Buddy drove. Gail Slater beside him held his beer. Ralph
Eastman next to her called out warnings. In the back was Gigi flung against Oliver Granger who’d abandoned Lily who rode back to town with the Cutlers, also Vernon Tobin leaning concerned toward Kingie, and Lizzie Tull passing a whiskey bottle to Carl’s friend Monty. Branches would have been scraping the sides and rocks scraping the bottom of the truck. Ralph offered to take the wheel when the truck fishtailed and Buddy said he could drive it blindfolded and switched off the headlights to prove it.
The sky went brighter in the darkness and everyone stared dazzled. Fat stars were clustered in the trees like diamonds. The headlights came back on and lit up a crooked apple tree beside ghostly tall grass and the truck swayed to a stop on the soft field. The engine went off and the night was silent.
They spilled out of the truck, their eyes not adjusted to the dark. They made their way to the shore and followed one another along the narrow path and the night began to take its effect. On one side were sharp branches and dark woods and on the other a thin screen of birch gripping the cliffside and the sound of water lapping below. Oliver Granger turned now and then to take Gigi’s hand though her step was more adept than his—she’d been scrambling along this path all her life—and Lizzie hung close to Volentine Montgomery. The only thing I can see is your hair, she said, and when he turned around her face shot forward cobra-like and she kissed him and hurried past laughing. Ralph held a branch for Gail stepping by. Careful, he said. Buddy stumbled over the tree roots. Everyone grabbed onto someone else, moving through the darkness, each after something.
Kingie held Vernon’s hand as he led her slowly forward. How steep was the drop to the right? Her eyes were beginning to see. Vernon told her about the man who lived on the Promontory. He howls at the moon, he said.
They came to the narrow outcropping which led to the Plunge and everyone ducked under a fallen tree and came out on the grassy island. Gigi and Oliver dangled their legs over the sheer face and Kingie came onto the prow brushing twigs from her face and brushing
at her dress. Then she looked around. Vernon, she said, gazing at the sky. You didn’t say it was like this, and she swiveled to her knees. Gail asked Buddy for a cigarette though she never smoked and when he lit the match her face was glowing with adoration.
Gigi stood up. I’m going in.
Ann Lord traveled along the window and down the frame and the curtain swelled out in a deep lung breath. A tablecloth blew up and there were bare legs under the table and she was wearing white underpants. Then she was on her knees
these yours?
Then she remembered stepping inside a door in the dark and being shoved back into the corner where the hinge was and having her skirt jerked up and the suddenness of it taking her breath away and the panting in her ear … but who had that been? She remembered her cheeks burning but not which man it was.
Me too, said Gail Slater, and she stepped to the edge. She and Gigi were the same height and their silhouettes would have looked like male and female versions of the same figure, Gigi curved in a waisted dress, Gail with long pants and short hair. Gail undid Gigi’s zipper and a hush fell over everyone.
Later Lizzie said that Gigi wasn’t drunk really, but just the way she got, loose and running at a high pitch and maybe more intense with this being Lila’s wedding night, but a way they’d seen before with an air of disaster about her as if she didn’t care if she threw herself away. Ollie Granger was encouraging her mood. Buddy faced the other way, determined to ignore her, swigging his beer.
Gigi slipped off her dress. She was wearing a sort of corset underneath which showed up light against her dark arms. Gail pulled her shirt over her head and stepped out of her pants. Everyone watched them in their underwear looking down. The water swished below. At the same time they removed what they had left on.
There’s a rock down there, Buddy said gruffly.
I know. I know where it is. Gigi’s voice rose with excitement.
Let’s go, Gail said. She took Gigi’s hand and they screamed and leapt and disappeared. There was a hollow splash. Everyone stood up, some more steadily than others, and peered over the edge. Splashing and gasping rose from the dull black water below.
How is it? Freezing! It’s great!
Ollie was already out of his jacket and loosening his tie. Naked he jumped blindly into the air.
Here I come!
He smacked the water like a fist.
O.K. Ralph Eastman said, O.K. and taking off everything but his boxers pinched his nose and flew into the night.
Monty heard a small tree snap behind him and turned to see Buddy thrashing through the bushes off the bluff. He pointed him out to Lizzie. He’s just going to get sick, she said.
The dark figures came up over the crest dripping and grabbed their clothes. Gail looked around holding her shirt to her chest. Where’s Buddy? Her voice was fresh and expectant.
He’s doing a Buddy, Lizzie said.
He left?
When they got back to the truck there was no Buddy. They began calling, lone cries in the orchard. Gigi stood on the truck. Buddy! She laughed, Answer me right now! They knew he might have started to walk home or gone down to the beach to wait and watch the sun rise. One night he had slept under a tarpaulin at WhyKnot boatyard and walked into the kitchen while everyone was having breakfast. So the cries were not insistent.
They loitered in the field for a while and began to show signs of fatigue. It was time to go. Vernon thought they should go and so did Ollie Granger. Only Gail Slater pacing at a distance from the truck, peering into the woods, was not ready to leave.
Teddy came into the living room after being up with her. His arms were folded decisively across his chest. I think she should go to the hospital.
Constance was picking shriveled petals out of a bouquet of freesia. She hated it at the hospital.
Teddy sat on an armrest. No one sat in normal places anymore. She is not in good shape, he said.
No, Constance said. She’s got cancer. Constance who usually took care with her clothes was wearing the same pants and shirt she’d had on for three days.
Margie lay sprawled on the floor, her head leaning back against a Turkish hassock, her expression uncertain. An air of uncertainty had pretty much taken over the house.
She’s just so bad … said Teddy. His arms dropped to his sides.
That breathing, Margie said.
You mean the rattling, Constance said.
So awful.
What do you think exactly hurts her? Nina said, coming in. She carried a large bottle of Evian which she drank from in deep swigs.
Everything, Teddy said.
But is it, I don’t know, a stabbing pain or nausea or like a migraine?
Jesus, Nina, Constance said.
Probably all of that alternating, Margie said. Plus more.
Weird we don’t dare ask her, Nina said. It’s not as if she’s not thinking about it.
She probably tries not to think about it. Constance piled the brown petals in one palm.
Nausea is the worst, Nina said.
They’re all pretty bad. Teddy stared at the floor. It’s hard to watch.
Imagine how it is for her, Nina said.
That’s what I mean.
Constance crushed her handful of brown petals and left the room to throw them away. Margie glanced up and saw Teddy’s shoulders shaking in little downward shrugs and watched Nina walk over to him and put her hand on his back. It’s O.K., she said. Behind them the afternoon light lit up the ivy. It’s O.K.
Teddy turned his face to her, his eyes brimming. Is it? he said sharply. I don’t think so, I don’t think it’s O.K. at all.
Nina’s hand sprang back as if she’d touched a hot iron. His expression suddenly changed—he didn’t mean it. He tried to take back her hand but she’d turned and moved away out of his reach.
They began to climb back into the truck. Ralph Eastman slipped unquestioned into the driver’s seat and everyone else took the same places like children at assigned desks.
Gail was the last to step up on the running board. So we’re just going to leave him? she said, and she pulled shut the door.
Ralph started the engine and flicked on the lights and waited for everyone to settle down in the back, frowning through the cab window. He wasn’t going to drive with anyone standing up. He pressed the brakes, lighting up the grass behind them red, and started to back up. The field was full of lumps and the truck tilted and there were squeals as everyone was thrown more against each other. Ralph cranked the wheel and drove forward a little then backed up again this time over a steeper bump making them all laugh. Gigi swung up to the driver’s window with Ollie holding her waist to tease Ralph and after passing over one mound the truck suddenly gunned back jolting everyone and the front wheels humped up and Gigi was laughing, banging on the side door and Ralph, irritated, kept looking back over his shoulder to steer.
Gail screamed.
It was not a playful scream and everyone in the back went silent. Gail’s arm came chopping down onto Ralph and the truck jerked to a stop and her door flew open and she ran forward stumbling over the grass lit up behind by the headlights.
It’s Buddy, she cried.
No one understood. They sat up in the back and saw Gail pounce onto the ground. Then they saw the white shirt of the figure in the grass. Her face turned back furious at the blinding headlights. She screamed back to the truck. If she’d had time to think Gail Slater would not have said what she did. Gail Slater was a
quiet person, the sort of person who did the dishes without being asked and took the seat no one else wanted, who did not judge others, a person who would not have deliberately given Ralph Eastman less reasons for happiness in his life, and therefore would not have said what she could not afterwards take back, a cry in a moment of shock. Ralph opened the door to come help and Gail Slater screamed at him, Look what you did!
Panic swept through the back of the truck and everyone scrambled up and ran toward Gail and the unmoving figure on the ground. Buddy lay on his back with his head bent unnaturally to the side and his glasses crumpled near his ear. Lizzie said she noticed one eye partly open and Vernon said he saw it too, an eye picking up the headlight’s beam.
Don’t move him, Oliver Granger said. He might have broken his back.
Gigi lowered herself as if drawn to the ground by a magnet. Buddy, she said. Bud. Her wet hair fell on his shoulder.
What are we going to do? Lizzie said impatiently.
Gail lifted her hand into the light and they saw dark blood on it.
Move back.
It’s his head. His ear’s bleeding.
We should get a doctor before we move him.
Harris. Someone should get Harris.
Ralph took off his jacket and he and Gail lay the jacket over Buddy’s chest.
The Thornes’, Gail said.
I don’t think they’re here.
They’ve got a phone.
Buddy, Gigi whispered. Buddy. She started to cry.
Come on, Gail said.
This is bad, Lizzie said. This is really bad.
We should not move him, Oliver said.
I’m going to the Thornes’, Vernon said. He touched Kingie’s shoulder. I’ll be right back. He ran up the road and disappeared in the dark.
Gail was crouched by his head. He’s still breathing.
Of course he’s still breathing, snapped Gigi.
He was under the car, Ralph said softly. How could we not’ve seen him?
It can’t be good for him in this wet grass.
He shouldn’t be moved.
Lizzie turned to Oliver. Would you like to say that a fifth time?
Do you think his neck is broken?
God.
How far is the Thornes’?
I think the wheel ran over his head, Gail said.
Buddy, can you hear me? Gigi said. Buddy. She put her ear to his mouth and waited. Then she looked up at everyone around her lit with shadows and found no help there and went back close to him, weeping. You’re going to be alright, she said. Buddy. We’re all here and you’re going to be alright.
A rope dropped out of the sky. She held onto it and was pulled up into the clouds. She arrived at a car dealership. It was deserted with no salesman on the lot. She wandered back to the garage which was like her father’s leather factory and way in the back found the entrance to a cave. She walked into it and in the middle of a long dark passageway came upon a white sliver of sole, a glowing fillet of fish lying on the ground. She bent to touch it and was knocked backwards by a man in black armor wearing the helmet of a beetle. His backhand knocked her to the ground.
Vernon Tobin arrived at the Thornes’ dark house and tried the doors on the porch, then picked up a stone and rapped on a pane till the glass shattered. He reached past the sharp edges and unlocked the tab on the inside latch and let himself in. He saw the dim shape of a tulip light and pulled the beaded cord and found himself in an unpainted wooden hallway with low ceilings. He went through to the kitchen and tugged the buoy hanging from a
string and that light went on and he saw a large clock on the wall with its red second hand gliding. Ten past three. The kitchen was yellow and under a yellow hutch he saw a black phone. He picked up the receiver. Come on, he said out loud, come on.