The Sweetness of Salt

by Cecilia Galante

Sophie straightened up. She stepped back as Mom grabbed me and held me against the front of her. Mom’s breath was coming in little spurts, as if she couldn’t catch it fast enough, and behind me I could feel her legs shaking.

  “Don’t worry,” Sophie said in a strange voice. “I’m not going to hurt her.”

  I could hear her behind me as she turned and walked back into her room.

  And then, inside the safety of Mom’s arms, the slam of her door.

  chapter

  15

  I got lost in Albany after stopping at a Burger King for dinner. “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” I thought, driving aimlessly along a mile-long street before realizing I was probably going in the wrong direction. It was almost two in the morning. A few street lights here and there broke up the darkness, but it was hard to make out much of anything. Finally I pulled over at a twenty-four-hour gas station. It was empty except for a lone gas attendant, an older man with a graying beard. I locked my doors as he approached and then rolled down the window just an inch as I asked for directions. “Oh, you ain’t too far off.” The man scratched his head with diesel-stained fingers. “You gotta go back down this road…”

  “Can you hold on a second?” I dug around in my purse for a pen. “I want to write this down.” The man slowed his speech as I wrote and when I went over it, repeating his words back slowly to him, he grinned and nodded his head. “You’ll be fine,” he said, tapping the side of the car. “Just drive it like I said it.”

  He was right. Twenty minutes later, much to my relief, I was back on course.

  The sun was just starting to rise, dismissing the moon with a slow bleed of horizontal light, when I finally spotted the sign for Poultney. I pulled the car off to the side of the road, put my head down in the middle of the steering wheel, and took my first real breath since the trip had begun. It was 4:47 a.m.—eleven hours and forty-seven minutes after I had left Silver Springs.

  Sophie hadn’t told me where on Main Street her place was, but since the street itself was no longer than a football field, I drove up and down several times, looking for some kind of clue. It was a sweet, sleepy stretch of road, scattered with black lampposts and neat lawns. Green Mountain College sat at the north end of it, a tiny campus dotted with brick buildings, paved pathways, and a multitude of maple trees. I slowed the car down as I passed a Mobil station, Perry’s Family Eatery, the Poultney House of Pizza, something called the Red Brick Café, Tot’s Diner, a redbrick church, and finally, around a slight curve, Poultney High School.

  Interspersed between the business establishments were regular houses, all in various states of duress. Most of them were neatly maintained, with picture-perfect lawns and pristine front porches. One or two of them, however, looked as if they had been forgotten about entirely. I passed by them with my heart in my throat, hoping that I wouldn’t find some semblance of Sophie behind the peeling paint and rickety frames.

  My phone buzzed inside my pocket. Damn. I’d forgotten to call Mom again. She’d called as I’d been trying to find my way out of Albany and I’d lied, telling her that I had an hour or so more to go. I’d turned my phone off, but she’d probably been up the rest of night, pacing around the house. Dad too.

  “Mom,” I said. “I literally just got…”

  “You said you would call, Sophie. You promised!” Her voice was a combination of rage and tears.

  “I got lost, Mom. But I’m here now. I just this second drove into Poultney. I’m here, okay? And I’m fine. I’m totally fine.”

  She inhaled shakily. “Okay.”

  “I’m going to get Sophie now. I’ll call you in a little while.”

  I tossed the phone back into my bag and let my head fall back against the seat. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted something moving. A man wearing baggy black pants and a Red Sox baseball cap was strolling down the opposite side of the street. I watched as he stopped suddenly, stooped to the ground, and picked something up. He studied the object for a few seconds, turning it around with his fingers, and then inserted it into the side pocket of his jacket.

  I rolled down the window. “Excuse me?”

  The man looked over at me and adjusted the brim of his cap. Tufts of white hair poked out from the sides.

  “Hi,” I leaned across the seat, close to the window. “I’m from out of town. I’m looking for my sister. Sophie Anderson? She lives somewhere here on Main Street. She’s opening a bakery. Have you ever heard…”

  The man cut me off with a point of his finger, indicating the house directly behind me. I turned around, taking in the two-story, ramshackle structure with a slow dread, and then looked back at the man. “This…this one? Are you sure?”

  He nodded, closing his eyes for emphasis, and pointed at it once again.

  “Okay,” I said miserably. “Well, thanks.”

  To be honest, 149 Main Street looked as if it had once been a pretty decent-looking house. About a hundred years ago. Now it had the unsettling appearance of having been uprooted by a tornado, whirled around a few times, and then flung back to earth. A good chunk of the roof on the left side was missing entirely. Bare wooden beams, thick and pale as elephant ribs, indicated that something up there was in the process of being restructured, but I could not tell what. The other half of the roof, miraculously enough, looked okay, except for an old dilapidated chimney that stood stubbornly upright in one corner. Curls of peeling brown paint dotted the sides of the house, and the front porch had an enormous hole in the middle of it. The porch railing, full of missing spokes, looked like a mouthful of teeth that had been punched out.

  This was Sophie’s place? The soon-to-be bakery?

  I ran my hands through my hair, put the car back in gear, and made a hesitant turn into the driveway. Clusters of dead, rotting bushes cleaved to the side of the house, and the lawn—if it had indeed ever been a lawn—was a mess of brown dirt. A side porch, leading up to a small narrow door, held a green watering can and a white wicker rocking chair. Maybe the man had been mistaken. This place didn’t look or feel like Sophie at all.

  Suddenly the side door opened, and as if she knew I’d been thinking about her, Sophie appeared, dressed in denim overalls and a white T-shirt. The cuffs of her overalls had been rolled up around the ankles, and her sneakers were spattered with paint. The edges of a red bandanna, folded and tied around the top of her head, stuck out like little ears, and her blond hair was scooped back into a ponytail. She looked confused for a moment, her eyes taking in the green Bug, and then they opened up wide. “Julia?” She ran over, tapped on the window glass and then yanked open the door. “Julia? Oh my God! You’re here! I can’t believe you’re here!”

  I giggled with relief, forgetting the state of the house for a moment, or even the reason I had come up to see her in the first place. “Believe it,” I said, getting out of the car. “I’m here.”

  She grabbed me and held me tight against her. The smell of turpentine and cigarettes drifted out from her hair. “You drove?” she asked, pulling away again. “The whole way? By yourself?”

  I nodded, realizing for the first time as she said it, that in fact I had. “I got lost in Albany, though. That place is like a maze.”

  Sophie looked down at her watch. “It’s not even five yet. What’d you do, drive all night?”

  I nodded again.

  “Aha!” she chortled. “That’s my girl!” She frowned suddenly. “Wait. Is everything all right? Are you in trouble?”

  “No!”

  “Mom and Dad? They’re all right?”

  “Yeah. They’re fine.” Now was definitely not the time to get into things. “God, Sophie. You always think the worst.”

  “So then, you just…felt like coming?” Her voice was soft. “To see me?”

  “Well, yeah. Just for the weekend though. I have to leave Sunday. My internship starts Monday.”

  For a split second, Sophie’s face fell. Then she flung an arm around my shoulder. “Oh, Jules, I’m so sorry about that whole scene. At your
dinner, I mean. I was gonna call and explain everything to you, but then I felt weird about it, and I don’t know…I just feel so bad about the whole thing. Especially leaving without saying good-bye.” She scratched her upper lip. “I really am sorry. I hope I didn’t ruin your big day.”

  I shook my head. “You didn’t. It’s okay.”

  She studied my face for a minute and then laughed out loud. “I just can’t believe you’re here! In Vermont! And that I get you all to myself for a whole weekend!”

  “What about Goober?” I asked suddenly, looking around. “Where’s she?”

  “Oh, she’s still with Greg. He took her camping. It’s her favorite thing to do in the summer. They go up to Lake Bomoseen and stay the whole weekend.”

  “Oh.” I was disappointed. “She’s not even gonna remember what I look like the next time she sees me. When’ll she be back?”

  “Not till Monday.”

  “Shoot. I’ll be gone by then.”

  “We’ll call her.” Sophie grabbed my arm. “Listen, have you eaten yet?”

  “You mean breakfast?” I shook my head.

  “Leave your things in the car,” Sophie said, pulling me down the driveway toward the street. “Right now, I’m taking you to breakfast at the best place in town.”

  chapter

  16

  Perry’s Main Street Eatery was a small, brightly lit place directly across the street. Several glass-topped tables set with paper placemats and silverware had been placed neatly throughout the room, and green-checkered curtains were draped over a single front window. A long counter complete with six swivel stools lined the opposite side of the restaurant. The kitchen could be seen at one end, while various muffins the size of softballs sat underneath a glass dome at the other.

  Sophie looked around quickly and then pointed to a small table next to the window. “Over there,” she said. “Right behind the Table of Knowledge.”

  “The what?” I repeated, following her across the small expanse of restaurant, being careful not to bump into anyone.

  “The Table of Knowledge!” Sophie announced, stopping next to a table where three men were sitting. I recognized the one with the Red Sox baseball hat, but he did not look up. She slapped the shoulder of the largest man, a ruddy-looking guy with small hairs protruding from the end of his nose. “How’re you doin’, Walt?”

  Walt grinned and tipped his head back a little in Sophie’s direction. “Just dandy, Anderson. Just dandy. You finish the upstairs bedrooms yet?” Walt’s blue-checkered shirt with bright orange suspenders exposed a vast stomach underneath. His hands were as wide and rough as baseball mitts, and he had a wad of chewing tobacco shoved inside his left cheek.

  “Almost,” Sophie said. “I have a little bit more sanding to do in the first one. But listen, we can talk shop later. I want to introduce you to someone.” She put an arm around my shoulder. “This is my little sister, Julia. The one I told you about, remember? Who just graduated?”

  Another man, sitting opposite Walt, made an “Oh ho!” sound. A scruffy beard covered the lower half of his face, and he had a piece of egg on the front of his red hunting shirt. “Valedictorian, right?” He extended his hand.

  I shook it and looked away, embarrassed. “Sophie!”

  Sophie beamed at me and squeezed my shoulder a little more tightly. “She’s just shy, Lloyd. She’s always been that way. But yes, this is our valedictorian.”

  “Congratulations,” Walt said. “That’s quite an accomplishment.”

  “It sure is.” Lloyd scooped a piece of runny egg up with the edge of his toast, and popped it into his mouth. “Nothing to be shy about.”

  The man in the Red Sox cap looked up at me briefly but didn’t say anything. Sophie held out her palm in his direction. “This is Jimmy,” she said. “Jimmy, this is my little sister, Julia.”

  Jimmy acknowledged me with a nod of his head, and then dropped his eyes once more.

  “These guys,” Sophie said, addressing me now, “are known in Poultney as the Table of Knowledge. They’re called that because they know the answer to just about every question under the sun.”

  “We’ve also got our finger in everyone’s business around this place,” Lloyd said. “You want to know what’s really going on in Poultney? Pull up a chair and sit yourself down.”

  Sophie guffawed. “They’re also the best carpenters around. I wouldn’t be halfway as far along with my place right now if it weren’t for them. They’ve taught me everything.”

  “Wow. That’s great.”

  Walt waved off Sophie’s compliments. “We just give her suggestions,” he said. “She’s the one doing all the work.”

  “That’s not true and you know it,” Sophie said, leaning in closer to me. “Walt just put up half that roof last week, and Jimmy’s done most of the kitchen himself.” She straightened back up again. “Besides, I couldn’t do any of the work I’m doing without your suggestions. What do I know about redoing a house?”

  Walt made a snorting sound. “You know a lot more than you give yourself credit for. I never seen no one come down here outta the blue like you and just wing it.” He nodded. “I keep telling you. You got guts, girl.”

  It was weird listening to a stranger say things about Sophie. House-building skills? Sophie?

  Sophie moved in a few steps as a waitress holding a pot of coffee above her head tried to angle her way in behind her. A pencil stuck out menacingly behind her ear, and her mouth was set in a thin line.

  “You two go on over and eat now,” Lloyd said, gesturing toward the waitress with his chin. “You keep blocking Miriam’s way, she’s gonna get all ornery on me, and slip some regular in with my decaf.”

  Miriam, pouring coffee at the next table, raised a thin eyebrow in Lloyd’s direction. Sophie laughed. “Okay. Talk to you later, guys.”

  “Later,” Lloyd said.

  “Make sure you get the special,” Walt said, leaning back in his chair. “It’s excellent.”

  “What is it?” Sophie asked.

  “Creamed chipped beef over biscuits, plus two fried eggs.”

  Sophie and I exchanged a look. “We’ll think about it, Walt,” Sophie said.

  We settled ourselves at our table as Walt turned back around.

  “You know, I saw that other guy—the one with the Red Sox hat—this morning,” I kept my voice low as I opened my napkin and put it in my lap.

  “Jimmy?” Sophie asked.

  “Yeah, he was walking along the street and I asked him for directions to your place. He didn’t say anything, though. He just pointed to it.”

  “Yeah, that’s Jimmy,” Sophie said. “He doesn’t talk much.”

  “He’s shy?”

  “No, he’s not shy. I’ve seen him talk with certain people. Like Goober. He loves Goober. He’ll talk up a storm with her.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. He lost his wife a while back. And he’s…particular, I guess.” She reached out and rubbed my hand. “I still can’t believe you’re here. It’s just so great!”

  Miriam appeared next to us suddenly, holding her coffee pot directly over my cup. She had an elfish-looking face, with small green eyes, a pointed chin, and round cheeks. “Coffee, girls?”

  “Please.” Sophie and I both pushed our cups forward.

  “Know what you want?” Miriam asked.

  “Oh, you have to get the pancakes,” Sophie said to me. “They use real maple syrup here that they tap themselves. Wait’ll you taste it. It’s incredible.”

  I glanced over as a burst of laughter exploded from the Table of Knowledge. Walt slapped the sides of his belly and then leaned over, spitting a brown substance into a cup. Lloyd tilted his head back and laughed again. Even Jimmy smiled—into his coffee cup.

  “So all of them have been helping you?” I asked. “With the house?”

  Sophie leaned forward, her fingers balanced on the rim of her cup. “Julia, let me tell you something. I don’t know where I would be or what I would be doing right now if
it weren’t for those guys.” She glanced down. “It was kind of stupid, really, when I think about it now—just buying a place with no real knowledge of how to fix it up or anything. I mean, look at it!” We both stared out the window at the house across the street, which managed somehow, despite the distance, to look even worse. “And that’s with work done,” Sophie said. “You should’ve seen the place when I first bought it.”

  I stared at the structure, trying to imagine it looking worse than it did now.

  It was difficult.

  “So…why are they helping you?” I asked. “I mean, it’s nice of them and everything, but it just seems kind of weird. You buy this place, move to this town where no one knows you, and suddenly three strangers just…”

  “The house used to belong to Jimmy’s family,” Sophie said. “It’s kind of a cool story, actually. The three of them—Walt and Lloyd and Jimmy—have been best friends since elementary school. Apparently Walt and Lloyd used to hang out over there when they were growing up. I guess back then it was a really beautiful place. But as Jimmy’s family passed away, it started to fall apart. No one’s lived in it for years.”

  “So the three of them have a vested interest in getting it fixed up again,” I concluded.

  Sophie nodded. “Exactly.”

  “That’s nice of them,” I said softly.

  “It is nice,” Sophie echoed. “And don’t get me wrong when I say this, because I’m more than grateful for everything they’ve done. But I want to do some on my own too. It’s one thing to have help. It’s another to have three different opinions breathing down your neck all day, every day.”

  I glanced over in their direction. Lloyd had finally spotted the egg on his shirt and was brushing it off. Walt was beckoning to Miriam for another coffee. And Jimmy was looking at something outside. They looked okay to me. And I liked the whole part about them having a stake in getting the house fixed up. But it still felt a little weird. And I hoped Sophie knew what she was doing.