Summer Days, Starry Nights

by Vikki VanSickle

  I heard footsteps on the stairs. Bo, or Daddy? They came to a stop outside the door. Definitely Daddy. I rolled over and pretended to be asleep.

  “You awake, Reenie?” he whispered.

  I made my breathing slow and even, so he would think I was sleeping. I couldn’t see him with my eyes closed, but he must have stood there for a while, silent as an owl, because I was half asleep for real when I heard him whisper, “Good night.”

  * * *

  On Sunday I woke up dry-mouthed, hot and sticky and unsure of where I was. Then I rolled over and saw Scarlett and remembered that I was sleeping in her room. And then I remembered why.

  I lay in bed listening to the birds outside the window until Scarlett stirred. Then I followed her as she raced down the stairs and into the kitchen. I worried about how I was going to distract her today.

  Only this time, Mimi was there waiting for us.

  Scarlett and I stopped dead in our tracks, stumbling into the dining room as the door swung back and hit us both from behind. It was just like I had imagined, only I had stopped believing it would actually happen. I resisted the urge to rub my eyes, in case I blinked and she disappeared.

  Mimi was sitting at the bar with Daddy, both of them holding thick white mugs of coffee. Her lavender dressing gown was cinched around her waist. Her hair was set in rollers all over her head, like the interlocking cells of a honeycomb. Her face was pale, but I could tell instantly that she was regular Mimi, not the black mood that took hold of her and drained her of all the good things that made her Mimi. She smiled brightly at us, stood up and opened her arms.

  Scarlett was the first to snap out of the dumb shock that had frozen us in place, and she threw herself against Mimi. It took me a bit longer to thaw. I hung back as Mimi tucked Scarlett’s hair behind her ears and covered her cheeks with glossy kisses.

  “When did you get back?” Scarlett demanded.

  “Last night.”

  “Why you didn’t wake me up?”

  “It was very late,” Mimi said.

  I looked over at Daddy to see if it was true. He looked a little sheepish. “We came in to check on you, and you were both fast asleep,” he explained.

  How could I have slept through my mother’s return, and not known that she had crept in to check on us in the night? That seemed like the sort of thing a person should sense.

  “Did you miss us?” Scarlett asked.

  “Every single day.”

  “You were gone for a long time.”

  “I know,” Mimi said. “But I’m back now.”

  “For good?” Scarlett asked, putting a hand on either side of Mimi’s cheeks and staring her directly in the face.

  Mimi looked very solemn. She placed her own hands on top of Scarlett’s before replying, “Yes, for good.”

  “Wait until you see the loot your mother picked up for you girls,” Daddy said, whistling.

  “Presents?” Scarlett cried. “Where?”

  Mimi laughed. “You’ll have to wait until after breakfast,” she said.

  “Where’s Bo?” I asked.

  Everyone looked at me.

  “Come give your mother a hug,” Daddy said. “You haven’t seen her in a week and the first thing you say is ‘where’s Bo?’”

  “It’s not like I asked her to go away for a week,” I said evenly, avoiding Mimi’s eyes. “Where’s Bo?”

  Mimi’s smile faltered a little, but she recovered quickly, shifting Scarlett to one side and beckoning to me with her free arm. “Bo’s out fishing. Come give me a hug, Maureen. I missed you so much.”

  I didn’t want to go to her, but I did it anyway, for Scarlett and for Daddy, who so desperately wanted things to go back to normal. As if nothing had ever happened.

  I leaned stiffly into Mimi and let her squeeze me and tell me how much she missed me, and I wished I was with Bo, out on the lake, away from this charade.

  When Mimi brought out the presents, I paid close attention to the price tags. Everything had come from stores in Orillia. I knew that both Daddy and Bo, and probably Chief Bowen, too, had searched everywhere they could think of in Orillia. There was no way Mimi could have hidden in a town that small for a whole week. She had disappeared and returned under the cloak of night. Wherever she had been in between was still a mystery, but it sure wasn’t Orillia. These presents had been chosen and paid for by Daddy. The knowledge made me feel old and slightly sad, like I had learned the truth about Santa Claus all over again.

  For the rest of the summer, Scarlett and I went back to living fairly separate lives. I was surprised to find how much I missed her. Even though I relished my freedom, I felt a little betrayed. For a whole week I had been Scarlett’s playmate and protector, and she dropped me without a thought the second Mimi returned.

  We never spoke of Mimi’s disappearance again, at least not to each other. Everyone went back to their old routines, but two things remained. Scarlett was a champion tree climber, scaling the Lookout to a height that even I hadn’t attempted. The more Mimi begged her to come down, the higher she climbed. And secondly, the marbles remained in their dish by her bedside, inches away from Scarlett’s pillow. One night, months later, I overheard Mimi asking her what those dusty marbles were doing rolling around in her good tea saucer.

  “They’re for luck,” Scarlett said. “Five marbles for five Starrs.”

  “Which one is mine?” Mimi asked.

  “This one.”

  “It has a chip in it.”

  “That’s because you were bad. You went away without saying goodbye.”

  The marbles stayed where they were. Mimi never asked about them again.

  PART TWO

  SPARKS

  June and July, 1962

  A Family Meeting

  “Reenie, come down from that tree. Your mother has called a family meeting.”

  From where I was sitting in the lap of the Lookout, I could see a bald spot on the very top of Daddy’s head that I had never seen before. How could I, when our usual position was on the ground — me looking up and him looking down? He’d brushed his hair over it best he could, but it was there, like a worn elbow in an old jacket.

  “Coming,” I called, but I watched him head back to the lodge before making my way down. I needed time to think about that bald spot. How long had it been there, and if it wasn’t for the tree and my bird’s-eye view, how long would it have been before I noticed it? A bald spot seems like the kind of thing a daughter should notice.

  I notice lots of things. Sandy Shores is full of secrets, if you know where to look. At first glance everything is pretty as a postcard: rustic old lodge overlooking a sandy beach white as sugar. The linens may be new and the dining hall freshly painted, but for every swept corner and trimmed bush there are shadows and sinkholes. I definitely notice more than Bo or Scarlett. But maybe that’s because Bo is too busy with his guitar and Scarlett is too busy being adorable. Being in the middle makes me perfectly positioned to notice things that others don’t. Like Mimi.

  She had been brooding again, lost in her own thoughts. After she’d returned last summer, she was as good as gold all year: attentive, loving and full of careful laughter. But recently I had caught her staring out the window, stirring her tea absently, long after it had turned cold. She was silent at meals and once served us chocolate pudding before the meatloaf. I recognized Mimi’s moods like I recognized cloud patterns, and just like the low clouds that circle before a storm, I knew something big was brewing in her head.

  It made me nervous.

  * * *

  Our usual table, tucked into the corner of the dining hall, near the kitchen, had been set for dinner even though it was barely four o’clock. There was even a plate of roast chicken and creamed corn. Elsa had only been back for two weeks, but already I could feel my shorts getting tighter. She was a wonderful cook. Without her jams and jars of homemade preserves, I was certain the Starrs would never make it through the winter. My mother was good at a lot of things, b
ut cooking wasn’t one of them.

  As I came in, Mimi smiled at me and poured me a glass of milk. “Ah, Reenie, there you are.”

  I slipped into my spot at the table and tucked into the food. I didn’t know I was hungry until my stomach started growling. My plate was almost clean when Mimi cleared her throat.

  “I’ve been thinking,” she began, setting her cutlery aside. “Maybe what this place needs is some entertainment.” She spoke as if we were in the middle of a conversation. Bo and I exchanged glances, but Daddy continued to eat as if he knew exactly what she was talking about. “The big hotels have ballrooms with dancing and a live band. I heard that Gravenhurst even has a variety show with professional singers on Tuesday evenings. We wouldn’t need something that grand, at least not to start with. We could have lessons during the day and then a dance every once in a while.”

  Daddy spoke up, his words measured and careful. “We’re only a month away from the start of the season. Where are we going to find someone to run this entertainment?” he asked.

  “You don’t have to worry about that, I’ll take care of it.”

  Daddy looked up from his plate, surprised. “You would do that?”

  Mimi smoothed her skirt and straightened her shoulders. “I think I’d be good at it. I used to work at a supper club, Frank. You know that.”

  I held my breath and kept my eyes down, hoping against hope that Daddy would say yes. He had decided to scale down the restaurant after last year’s disappointment. Now we had only one server, with Bo on hand to help out if things got busy. Show biz wasn’t really Daddy’s thing, but it was so rare for Mimi to take an interest in anything about Sandy Shores that I was sure he couldn’t refuse.

  I was right. Daddy swallowed and a big old smile crept across his face. “Well, sure, Dorrie. I think that’s a fine idea. Why don’t you look into it a little?”

  “Actually, I have an idea,” Mimi paused for dramatic effect. I looked over at Daddy, who looked genuinely surprised.

  “What is it?” I asked, practically on the edge of my seat.

  “Not what, who,” Mimi said with a smile. “Gwendolyn Cates.”

  “Who?” Bo mumbled.

  I gasped. “How could you forget?”

  Mimi frowned. “You remember Gwendolyn,” she said. “She came to stay here once. My friend Grace’s daughter? The ballet dancer?”

  “Oh, her,” Bo said, then went back to his plate.

  “How come I don’t remember her?” Scarlett asked.

  “You were too young, sweet pea,” Mimi said.

  Daddy put down his fork; he looked worried. “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Dorrie? We don’t really know her all that well …”

  Mimi flushed. “I think she would be a perfect fit. I’ll telephone Grace and see if Gwendolyn is available.”

  I thought it was a great plan. The idea of Gwendolyn coming all the way from Toronto to Sandy Shores to teach dance thrilled me to my very bones. I tucked back into my baked potato, prepared just the way I like it, with big dollops of sour cream and sliced pickles. The summer was starting to look brighter every moment.

  Trouble in Paradise

  Neither Mimi nor Daddy had mentioned anything about Sandy Shores being in trouble, but I’d overheard them talking about it through the winter. They were worried about our numbers. We’d had fewer guests last summer than ever before.

  I knew this already, because for the first time that I could remember, there were a number of weeks where one or two of our cottages were unoccupied. Though, at the time, I was too busy having fun playing in the empty cottages to realize that it meant bad news. This year, preregistration was down, and it looked like we were about to have another bad season.

  The thought of Sandy Shores being in trouble made my heart ache and my stomach twist into sailor’s knots. Sandy Shores was more than my home. It was in my blood, passed down through the generations like blue eyes or dimples. I wasn’t sure I could live without it. The only person who loved Sandy Shores as much as I did was Daddy. He loved Sandy Shores more than anything else in the whole world. Not more than Mimi or Bo or Scarlett or me, but pretty close. After my grandfather died, Daddy had special permission to come home from the war to take over the business.

  Daddy never talks about the war, though. When pressed, usually by Bo, all he says is that he thought about home every second of every day. “Sometimes, the smell was so bad, I couldn’t keep any food down. So I thought of waking up here and taking a big deep breath. Kids, I have been all over the place, and I can honestly say that we have the sweetest smelling air in the whole wide world.”

  I knew exactly what he meant. The air at Sandy Shores smells like a combination of lake water, campfire, grass and tanning oil. It is sweet, salty, pungent and fresh. Mimi’s forever dabbing perfume behind her ears and rubbing creams into her skin to smell “more like a lady and less like a fish hut,” but I love the way I smell after a day in the sun. I fall asleep at night burrowing my nose in the crook of my elbow, breathing in the smell of the lake on my skin.

  “Some men dream of coming home to their sweethearts,” Mimi said ruefully, “but not your father. He dreamed of coming home to the woods with all the blackflies.”

  I wished on every star I saw that Daddy would leave the business to me, even though I’m a girl. Who had ever heard of a girl running a resort by herself? It just wasn’t done. Bo was the one who stood to take over our little piece of heaven. He was the oldest and a boy, which meant that I had two strikes against me, even though Bo always got out of his chores and would rather be in town at the movies than weeding or raking the beach.

  If Sandy Shores was in trouble, then it needed me more than ever. I thought it was perfect just the way it was, but if dazzling our guests with a big show was the way to bring people in and keep us afloat, then I was on board one hundred percent.

  Maybe the restaurant hadn’t taken off like we’d hoped, but entertainment was something Mimi had in her bones. She was going to save us all with her dramatic flair and love of glamour. Before, it had set her apart, like she was a parrot from the jungle set free in the middle of Ontario. The rest of us, we fit in like the loons in the lake or the rabbits that lived in the woods at the edge of the property. But Mimi was too shiny, too exotic. She wouldn’t last two days out here on her own. On my darkest days I wondered if that was what brought on her moods and made her so sad.

  Take me away from Sandy Shores and I wouldn’t survive, like a fish out of water. Take Mimi away, and she’d never look back.

  A Scarf Full of Memories

  A few days later, Mimi stood up at breakfast and clinked a fork against her water glass.

  “I have an announcement,” she said.

  We all looked up from our eggs, even Bo, who was having trouble keeping his eyes open. I had heard him creep in through his window late last night for the second time in a week. He was probably with his band again. Lately his bandmates seemed to be the only people Bo could stand to be around. Bo and I had never been best friends, but we used to do things together. He taught me to jump from the cliff and how to slit a blade of glass to make a whistle. Now all he did was glower at me, when he could even be bothered to look my way. I had half a mind to let Mimi and Daddy know what he was up to, but watching him struggle to stay awake was worth it in its own way.

  Mimi went on, “I’m thrilled to say that Gwendolyn has agreed to come and teach dance this summer.”

  Scarlett and I cheered. Daddy got up and kissed Mimi on the cheek.

  “That’s wonderful, Dorrie,” he said.

  Mimi beamed, dropping a hand to pet Scarlett’s silky head. “Aren’t we lucky? A real ballet dancer, here for the whole summer!”

  I was ecstatic that Gwendolyn would be returning. It had been six years since she visited, but I had bright memories of that weekend. She had been so exotic, a ballerina in training, graceful, athletic and fun. I thought about her from time to time, and how different her life was from mine; growing up in
a big city, taking lessons at a prestigious ballet school. She would be almost eighteen now. She was practically an adult. I bet she went out dancing and had lots of boyfriends. I had visions of us staying up late, giggling in bed while she told me story after story about her exciting life.

  “Maybe she can stay in my room,” I offered.

  “Don’t be silly, she’ll have her own room,” Mimi said.

  Daddy frowned. “Take away a room from a paying customer all summer?” he said.

  “She’s a guest and an employee!” Mimi exclaimed. “We can’t have her bunking with Reenie as if she’s here for an extended sleepover!”

  My cheeks burned. That was exactly what I had been imagining.

  “Besides, it’s not like we don’t have the room,” Mimi muttered. Daddy’s face darkened and I got that sour milk feeling in my stomach. In all the excitement I had forgotten the reason Gwendolyn was coming in the first place. Sandy Shores was in trouble. This was a rescue mission.

  “Well, I think it’s great! I can’t wait to see her again!” I said.

  “Remember, Reenie, she’s here to work,” Mimi cautioned.

  “Yeah,” Bo chimed in. “She won’t have time to babysit.”

  “I don’t need a babysitter!” I cried.

  “Are you sure? ’Cause you’re sure acting like a baby, Weenie!”

  Bo grinned, got up and darted for the kitchen, laughing. His drowsiness had burned off and he was back to his usual self. I had long since given up trying to chase him. His legs were just that much longer and he was just that much faster than I was.