Summer Sisters (13 page)

That did it! She threw herself over the seat, tumbling into Tim’s lap, taking him by surprise as she grabbed the car keys out of the ignition. He tried to hold her still, tried to wrestle the keys away from her but she was no fool. There was no way she was going to give them up.

“Vix … Vix …” Caitlin said over and over. “What are you doing?”

What was she doing? Saving
her!
She was prepared to scratch out Tim’s eyes if she had to. She’d read about situations like this. Stick the key all the way into his ear … or up his nose, to cause maximum pain. But somehow she couldn’t get herself to stick a key up Tim Castellano’s perfect nose.

He twisted her arm until it hurt and wrenched away the keys. “Jesus,” he said, “what’s with you?” He started the car, backing up so suddenly Vix tumbled into Caitlin. He came to a screeching halt at their driveway and released the automatic door lock. Vix shoved open the door on Caitlin’s side and practically dragged her out. “Run …” she said. But Caitlin shook her off and chased Tim’s car down the dark road, calling, “Tim … wait …” He must have seen her following him because the car stopped. If Caitlin couldn’t protect herself, then Vix would have to do it for her. She headed toward them. But after a minute, Tim’s car pulled out and Caitlin called, “Vix … where are you?”

“Here … ”

Caitlin followed the sound of her voice. “Isn’t he incredible!” she asked, grabbing Vix. “I think he’s attracted to me. I could feel it.”

“I could feel it, too,” Vix said. “When I fell over onto his lap. Inside his pants, if you get what I’m saying.”

“He was hard?”

“I refuse to answer that question.”

“That’s so exciting.”

“Are you crazy? He’s lewd. He’s sick.”

“He just wanted to give us some advice. It’s not like he touched us or suggested anything.”

“Is that what you were waiting for?” She shrugged.

“I can’t believe this!” Vix said. “What would have happened if I hadn’t been here?”

“He wouldn’t have done anything. I mean, maybe he was thinking about it … but … ”

“He shouldn’t be thinking about it,” Vix told her. “We’re fifteen and he’s thirty-five, remember?”

“Actually, I think he’d be a good one for my first time, don’t you?”

“He’s married. His wife is pregnant. They have a three-year-old. So no, I don’t think he’d be a good one at all!” Where was her judgment?

Caitlin held up two bills. “He almost forgot to pay us. He gave us each a twenty.”

“I don’t want his money!” She knocked the bills out of Caitlin’s hand.

Caitlin bent down, picked them up, and stuck one in the pocket of Vix’s jeans. “I’m not going back to that house,” Vix said. “I’m never going back!”

“We only have three more days.”

“Fine. You can tell them I’ve got the flu … or poison ivy or something highly contagious. And if you get raped don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

“He’s not even going to be there. He and Loren are going to Nantucket tomorrow morning. It’ll just be Kitty and Max.”

“Who told you that?”

“Tim. Just now. That’s why I kissed him goodbye. We’re not going to see him again.”

“You kissed him?”

She nodded. “I stuck my tongue in his mouth.”

“Are you completely crazy?”

Caitlin started laughing. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

Vix couldn’t let Caitlin go to Kitty’s house alone. Who knew what trouble she might get into without her protection. But when they got there the next morning, Tim and Loren
were
gone.

“A little honeymoon,” Kitty told them. “A romantic getaway.” She sighed. “You have to work to keep romance alive in a marriage. Remember that when your time comes.”

14

E
VERYTHING SHE KNEW
about a loving relationship came from watching Abby and Lamb. They knew how to keep romance alive in their marriage. That’s what she would remember when and if her time came. Until the last Saturday of the summer when it all seemed to fall apart. She was in the kitchen with Caitlin arguing with the Chicago Boys over whether or not to mix the tomato sauce with the spaghetti before it was served. She and Caitlin wanted the sauce on the side, with basil and parsley from the garden, but Daniel said, “No green stuff in our pasta! Put it on yours after it’s on your plate.”

“I don’t want mine drowning in your Ragu,” Caitlin told him. Sharkey, who was buried in a crossword puzzle, asked, “What’s a four-letter word for undulate?”

“Flow?” Vix said. “Or maybe gush?”

“Gush … that’s it!” Sharkey said. “Thanks.”

Outside it was raining, a slow, soft rain.

Abby and Lamb had been cool and remote all day but now their voices, coming from the living room, heated up and as they did, the kitchen crew grew more quiet.

“I keep telling you, it’s no big deal,” they heard Lamb say. “Everybody hitches on the island.”

“You’re oblivious!” Abby told him. “You live in some other world.”

“If you’d learn to cut them some slack, Ab, you wouldn’t have such a hard time. You bring it on yourself … that’s all I’m saying.”

It was
her
fault they were arguing, Vix thought, hers and Caitlin’s. If Abby hadn’t bumped into some guy she knew in the dairy aisle at Cronig’s she might never have found out they’d been hitching. Not that they’d told him their names. But he’d recognized Caitlin. “I’ll bet you’re Lamb Somers’ girl,” he’d said, oh so proud of himself. “I’ve got a good eye for faces and you and Lamb are dead ringers.” Caitlin neither confirmed nor denied.

Vix felt a tightening in her chest that grew worse as Abby shouted at Lamb. “You think it’s enough to love them, but I don’t. They’re fifteen years old. They need guidance. It’s up to us to encourage them to act responsibly.”

“Save the lecture for the kids, Ab.”

“Dammit, Lamb! When is the last time you took a good look at your daughter? She’s not a little girl anymore. And neither is Vix … in case you haven’t noticed.”

Ohmygod!
This was so embarrassing. Vix felt her face grow hot and she looked at the floor.

“Caitlin’s right,” Abby said. “I don’t fit in. I’m never going to fit in. I don’t even know if I
want
to fit in.”

“Don’t make this into something you’re going to regret,” Lamb told her.

“I’m going to regret? You’d have plenty to regret if that man had driven into the woods with the girls. I
don’t even want to think about what might have happened.”

Vix prayed she’d never find out about their adventure with Tim Castellano.

“You worry too much about things that are
never
going to happen!”

“I’m glad you have some special god watching over you while the rest of us …”

“Are you getting your period, Ab? Is that it?”

She must have thrown something at him then, a book or her purse, because they heard a thud, then Lamb calling,
“Jesus!”

“I’m not sure how much more I can take of this family,” Abby shouted, before she burst into tears.

Daniel severed a head of lettuce with a chopping knife. Gus glanced over at Vix. She looked away, ashamed of having had any part in this. By then she’d grown so used to hitching it hadn’t seemed like a big thing. How else to get to all the beaches, to town to browse, to the construction site where they’d hang out, waiting for Von and Bru to take a break?

“Come on, honey,” Lamb said, “let’s talk about it in the car. We’re already half an hour late.”

“Don’t patronize me!” Abby said in a hoarse voice. “I hate it when you patronize me.”

“I only meant …” Lamb began.

“I know exactly what you meant.”

They heard Abby blowing her nose, then nothing. A few minutes later the two of them came through the kitchen. Abby avoided their eyes, grabbed a poncho off a peg, and pulled the hood up over her head. Vix wanted to rush to her side and hug her, tell her she was a won
derful mother, the best, that
she
appreciated her even if no one else did, that she was right to worry about them, that
she
was sorry she’d caused this trouble and she’d never do it again.

“We’ll be home by ten-thirty,” Lamb told them, “eleven at the latest. We’ll talk about this tomorrow, okay?”

Tomorrow her world would come apart. Goodbye scholarship. Goodbye magic summers. Tomorrow it would all be over.

As soon as they were gone Gus let out a long, low whistle. “Trouble in River City.”

Daniel said, “Six months. I give them another six months and she’ll be out of here.”

“Sounds good to me,” Caitlin said.

“Listen you little bitch …” Daniel grabbed her and spun her around. “You’re the reason she’s miserable!”

“Like hell I am!”

“Get your slimy paws off my sister,” Sharkey snapped, coming up behind Daniel.

Daniel reeled. “Stay out of this,
Sharkolater!
” Gus stood close, ready to spring into action if necessary. For a moment he and Vix looked into one another’s eyes.

Daniel

H
E HATES WHAT
this family is doing to his mother. If they think he’s going to stand by while they destroy her, they’re wrong! Tomorrow he’ll go to her, pledge his loyalty, tell her whatever she decides to do, he’ll stick by her. She doesn’t have to worry. They’ll be okay. They don’t need Lamb or his money or his repulsive kids.

Sharkey

G
OTTA GET THEM
out of here before all hell breaks loose. Before Daniel really loses it and chops up something besides lettuce.
Come on … come on
, he tells the girls, ushering them out of the house and into his truck. He drives into Oak Bluffs. For the first time he can remember the yakkers keep their mouths shut. Nobody wants to think what this could mean. Not even his sister. He gets lucky, finds a place to park on Circuit Ave. and leads them up to the pizza place. He hopes he has enough cash on him. He’ll tell them they can each order a slice. That’s it. A slice and a soda.

B
EFORE THEY EVEN PUT
in their order they heard raised voices and turned to see Bru sitting at a small table up front, arguing with a redheaded girl. She pushed her chair away from the table. “That’s it …” she shouted through her tears.
“Fini, finis, finito
. Get it? It’s over in any language!”

“Calm down, would you?” Bru said. “The whole fucking place is listening.” Which was true.

The redhead grabbed her mug of beer, lifted it, and tossed it in Bru’s face. “Grow up!” she cried before storming out of the restaurant.

For the rest of her life, every lovers’ quarrel would remind Vix of this night, this night when anger crackled in the air. She vowed then and there no guy would ever make her feel that bad.

PART TWO
Rapture
1982–1983

15

A
LL HER LIFE
she’d dreamed of being seventeen, like the Dancing Queen. And now she was, or would be very soon. On July Fourth she and Caitlin were singing along with Debbie Harry as they cruised up island in Caitlin’s rusted red pickup. By the time they hit Menemsha it was after five. They figured they’d do sunset there, then head for home. But as soon as they stepped onto the beach they spotted Bru and Von tossing around a Fris-bee.

Caitlin pushed her canvas tote at Vix, kicked off her Tevas, and flashed her a wicked smile as she raced down the beach, leaping into the air to snatch their Frisbee in mid-flight. Vix hung back, watching, as if she were in sixth grade again, studying Caitlin for the secret to success.

Caitlin was dazzling at seventeen. Her hair cascaded down her back, her skin was moist and flawless, and the expression on her face dared anyone to mess with her. She’d reached her full height that year, leaving Vix three inches behind. She was all legs, like Barbie, but without the ridiculous chest. Caitlin saw this as a defect, some trick nature had played on her.

The girls at school encouraged her to send a photo to
Elle
or
Cosmo
or even
Seventeen
. The boys drooled over her. Even the teachers found her irresistible, but irritating. She was so bright. Why didn’t she apply herself? She could be anything, do anything, with just a little effort. But half the time she didn’t turn her papers in when they were due, and she refused to study for tests. “School has nothing to do with life,” she’d say.

She’d gone skiing with Phoebe over spring break, to the Italian Alps, and returned with big news for Vix. “Congratulations are in order,” she’d announced. “I’m no longer a virgin.”

So, Caitlin had been first, just as she’d guaranteed. Well, Vix wasn’t surprised. She wasn’t even disappointed. “Who?” she asked. “Where?”

“A ski instructor,” Caitlin said. “Italian. Very physical. You know the type.”

Vix didn’t.

“We met on the tram. He was all over me by the time we got to the top of the mountain. We could hardly ski down fast enough.”

Vix felt her heart beating faster. “And?” she asked, not certain how much she wanted to know.