Page 33 of The Book of Summer

“How’s the view for ya, gents?” Ruby asked aloud, rubbing the salt and grime from the windowpanes. “And the veranda? Has it been properly swept? Yes, please do! Continue to drop your cigarette ashes about! No need to hassle with a receptacle. There’s always someone to sweep it up!”

“Ruby?” said a voice, a pinch to the side.

“God bless it!” Ruby jumped, and then turned to the doorway. “Applesauce! Mary Young, you scared the dickens out of me.”

Her sister-in-law looked wan and mildly depressed, as was customary. Ruby was a touch wan and depressed herself.

“How does Sam stand such rough language?” Mary said.

“He taught me all the best curse words, dontcha know?” Ruby joked.

“Life’s such an endless gas for you, isn’t it? When will you ever get serious?”

“I’m as serious as they come. So, what are you up to, Mare?”

Not opening Cliff House,Ruby hastened to add. The previous year Mary had been of moderate assistance, but now that she was pregnant—a new “scion,” she claimed—it was all convalescing and complaining so far. And Ruby had her doubts about the alleged baby. Mary displayed none of the usual pregnancy signs and anyway the woman seemed about as fecund as a coal mine.

“Can you imagine sticking your pecker into that broad?” Topper once asked a pal, accidentally within earshot of Ruby. Her brother had been three deep in his favored whiskey-and-whiskey cocktails. “The damn thing would snap like a twig.”

Ruby made like a respectable society bird and promptly jumped to her feet and slapped her brother on the cheek. But, facts were facts. It was the most vivid description she’d heard of another human. And despite her knowing very little aboutpeckers,it seemed accurate to boot.

“Just wanted to check on you,” Mary said as she leaned into the doorjamb, winded with indignation. “Before I catch up on some correspondence. The work never ends! By the by, Mrs. Grimsbury has put tea out on the veranda if you care to partake.”

“Swell,” Ruby replied, eyeing Mary’s midsection and noting it was wooden and flat as ever. “Alas, I don’t have time for sipping tea. There’s a house to be opened. But I do hope you enjoy reclining on the very lawn furniture I dragged from the shed last night!”

“No need to be testy.”

“I’m only ragging you. The tea sounds lovely but I’m short on time. Give Mrs. G. my regrets.”

“All right,” Mary said with a shrug. It was the most physically demonstrative she’d ever been. “No tea. Suit yourself.”

As she pit-a-patted out of the room, Ruby shook her head. Good Lord, her brothers had horrible taste in women. They were lucky she brought Sam into the fold. Their gene pool was going to require some degree of help.

***

The first night at the club: always with a ten-piece band, the same man and woman at the mike. Both of them were Negroes. A couple, or maybe not. Either way, as the party reached its peak, they were marching the saints right on in.

“What a night! What a night!” Sam said, puffing on a cigarette and drinking like a horse.

He was grinning like a loon, too, his face glossed with sweat. His hair, hours ago slicked back, now dipped in chunks across his forehead, the ends kissing his thick black lashes.

“You said it.” Ruby moved onto his lap. “An utter kick.”

She grabbed the cigarette from between his fingers and took a puff as he kissed her neck. Ruby pictured people gasping. Mary would be notably horrified—that is, if she weren’t out on the floor. How Ruby’s sister-in-law could justify a day of convalescing followed by a night spent jitterbugging was a mystery for the ages. For all her manufactured propriety, Mary sure liked to play by her own rules.

“Sitting on my lap?” Sam teased. “In front of all these people?! You’re bad business, Mrs. Packard!”

Ruby giggled and nuzzled a spot where her husband had neglected to shave.

Remember this,she wanted to say.Remember how happy we are. If you go to Europe, it could be a year before we see each other. More. It’s possible we might not meet again until we’re on some other plane.

“My wife, scandalizing the club like she’s on a mission,” Sam said, and shifted awkwardly.

“Please! We’re married!”

Ruby locked her knees together and batted her eyes.

“I’m just an innocent island girl,” she said. “A near-Quaker, like the ones who founded this place.”