Summer Beach Reads

by Thayer, Nancy

  “I know. We’ll work it all out.”

  They turned off the lights and snuggled down into bed together. Aaron began the deep rhythmic snore of sleep almost immediately. Bella lay staring into the dark.

  The next morning they didn’t continue the discussion. Aaron’s mind was on his work. He had a couple of classes to teach for summer school, and research he was doing for a paper he was writing for an architectural journal. He’d received his master’s degree, but any publication increased his credibility and status as an architect, and while he waited to hear from California, he was glad to have this to keep his mind occupied. He drove Bella back to her house, gave her a quick smooch on the lips, and told her he’d see her that night.

  Her parents were already up when she went in, even though it was early. She said a quick hello, then raced up the stairs to shower and dress for work. It was another lush summer day, hot verging on muggy, so she wore a sundress and sandals. She had time to grab a bagel and a to-go cup of iced coffee as she went out the door.

  She opened Barnaby’s Barn, turned on the air-conditioning, and leaned on the counter, thinking. Plotting was the more appropriate word, she decided. She was waiting for someone special to arrive.

  In her cyclone of ideas about the shop, she recalled how her mother had started it, as a venue for her own creations, and then as a showroom for the handiwork of others as well. That was sixteen years ago. Bella’s friends had grown up, and while some of them had moved away and some of them were teaching, working on degrees, whatever, some of them were artisans. She realized this when she ran into Penny Aristides, who’d been in her grade all through school, in an Amherst coffee shop. Penny had been Penny Watson; she’d married Stellios Aristides, a physician practicing in Amherst, and she was pregnant with their first child. Bella and Penny chatted about old times and caught up on the past few years, and then Bella asked Penny where she’d found her fabulous earrings.

  Penny made them. It was only a hobby, she confessed.

  “Do you ever sell them?” Bella asked.

  “Oh, Bella, I’ll make you a pair if you’d like.”

  “No, what I mean is, do you ever consider selling them?” When Penny continued to look confused, Bella explained, “I’m going to change Barnaby’s Barn. I want to make it completely different, aimed at adults, with a range of unusual, cool merchandise, and your earrings are something I’d love to carry.”

  Penny had chewed her lip, thinking. “I do have several pieces.… Let me bring a few things in Monday,” she said. “We’ll talk.”

  It was after ten on Monday when Bella heard the crunch of tires on gravel. After a few moments, Penny lumbered in, one hand carrying a velvet box, the other supporting her swollen belly.

  “Hi, Penny!” Bella came around the counter to greet her friend.

  Penny stopped just inside the door. “Oh, wow. I haven’t been in here for years.”

  Bella waited for Penny to say more, to say, Oh, I love the murals with the daisies, or I should get a Lake World for my baby. Instead, she stood there, silent, looking uncomfortable. “I’m not sure …,” she began, and grimaced.

  Embarrassment flashed down Bella’s spine. “You’re not sure this is the right place for your jewelry,” she finished for Penny. “I agree completely.” Guilt zinged her as she spoke; she was betraying her mother’s taste and commercial judgment. The guilt seemed to rip at her heart. Still, Bella kept talking, the words spilling out of her from some unknown source. “I’m getting rid of most of this stuff. I’m going to sell antique furniture—upscale, valuable furniture. And art. I’m not sure what else; I’m only beginning to put details into a general picture. Let me see your jewelry.”

  Reassured, Penny set her case on the counter and opened it. Carefully she lifted out a large velvet cloth and laid several pieces on it for Bella to scrutinize.

  The jewelry was heavy, ornate, even baroque, but also somehow modern. Two pale peach cameos were held in a twisted silver web, hanging from more twisted silver with topaz stones caught in them—spectacular, unusual earrings. A necklace thick with brilliant stones, silver birds, and old-fashioned charms had a medieval appeal. Another necklace hung from a stainless steel chain, its showpiece a dazzling starburst of stones shaped like petals, with smaller stones set deep in the core.

  “I’ve always made my own jewelry,” Penny told Bella. “But I don’t know about doing it professionally.”

  “These pieces are exquisite,” Bella said. “How did you do it?”

  Penny laughed. “For one thing, I take apart my grandmothers’ costume jewelry. They used to wear so many huge brooches with matching earrings. I used to buy drugstore magnifying glasses and use tweezers and my dad’s pliers. After I married Stellios, I started stealing things out of his medical kit. Medical tools are fabulous for jewelry making—long-handled tweezers and so on. For my birthday a few years ago, Stellios surprised me with a complete set of real tools, and some sheets of silver, and a professional-quality magnifying glass.”

  As Penny talked, Bella held the jewelry up to the light, watching it dangle and sparkle. Here was someone else with a natural passion for work, and a true talent.

  “I never thought of selling it,” Penny was saying, “until you mentioned it. The truth is, I’ve made more than I can ever wear. It’s like I can’t stop myself. I wake up in the morning with an image in my mind of a new necklace, or a cuff, and my fingers itch to make it.”

  “After you have your baby,” Bella pointed out, “you won’t have much time for jewelry making.”

  “True. But I know I’ll get back to it eventually. This may sound odd, but it keeps me sane.”

  “I can understand that.”

  “And, Bella”—Penny smiled smugly—“when I say I have a lot of it, I mean a lot.”

  “I want to sell your jewelry,” Bella said decisively. “I’ve got an image in my mind of the way I’m changing the shop.” Not until she spoke did she realize this was absolutely true. “I want to spotlight your jewelry. It’s spectacular, and frankly, it should sell for a substantial price.”

  “It will all be one of a kind. That’s valuable in itself. But, Bella, how will people know it’s here? I mean, Barnaby’s Barn looks so sweet from the outside, and my creations are far from sweet.”

  “I know. As I said, I’m making changes. I’m going to repaint the outside, get rid of the flower boxes. I’m going for a kind of Italianate look. I’m going to put topiary in huge pots outside the door, and lavender, and vines up the front of the building, and of course the inside will be completely redone.”

  “That will take you a long time, won’t it?”

  “No,” Bella told her. “I can move fast when I need to.”

  11

  Yesterday at the cookout, Natalie had asked Louise if she could draw her.

  Louise had laughed. “As long as you’re not expecting me to pose nude.”

  Natalie tilted her head, squinting, imaging the setup. “No. You can keep your clothes on. I have to warn you, though, Louise, if this turns out like I think it will, I’ll want to show it. Sell it.”

  “Sweetheart, you need a younger woman if you want to make money.”

  “I don’t think so. This will be classic. I’ll do an oil copy for your family,” Natalie offered as an enticement.

  “But aren’t oils better than drawings?”

  “Not necessarily. Charcoal drawings have depth, timelessness, resonance.”

  “What kind of pose did you have in mind?” Louise asked.

  “I want you reading,” Natalie told her. “I want to do Woman, Reading.”

  “I do plenty of that,” Louise said. “Fine. When should we start?”

  “Tomorrow morning.”

  At nine, Natalie showed up at the Barnabys’ house with her easel, paper, and charcoal. Louise was in jeans and a tee shirt, barefoot, no makeup, no jewelry.

  “Perfect,” Natalie told her. “I want this to be contemporary, realistic, but also with a kind of
mystery about it. I want you curled up in a chair. Do you have a book that will hold your interest?”

  “Absolutely. A new Jonathan Kellerman mystery.” Louise obediently arranged herself in an armchair.

  Natalie said, “Get comfortable. I want to draw you looking down.”

  “Hmm.” Louise adjusted herself. “Just don’t make me look like a melted candle.”

  “Damn,” Natalie joked. “That was my exact plan.”

  Her heart bubbled with hope, excitement, and a bit of apprehension as she set up her small movable easel and gathered her paper, charcoal, erasers.

  “Okay,” Natalie said. “Go ahead and read.” Grabbing up her charcoal, she started sketching.

  Time vanished as Natalie worked. She stepped back to eye her subject, stepped forward to draw a line.

  “Natalie, I need to scratch my nose.”

  “Of course,” Natalie said. “Sorry! Go ahead and stretch, too. I don’t want you getting stiff.”

  Louise stood up, shook her shoulders out, then resumed her position.

  “We can talk,” Natalie told her. “But try not to move your head.”

  “Oh, good.” Looking down at the book, Louise said, “You know, Natalie, I’ve spent some time over the years with your aunt Eleanor. She’s quite a remarkable woman.”

  “She is,” Natalie answered, her mind allotting about five percent to conversation.

  “But I don’t believe I’ve ever met your mother,” Louise continued. “Your mother is Eleanor’s sister, right?”

  “Right.”

  “I know her name—it’s Marlene, right?”

  “Right.”

  “I know she used to drive you and Slade down here in the summers to drop you off for a vacation, but she never stayed.” Louise looked at Natalie, a question in her eyes.

  “Face the book,” Natalie told her. Still drawing, she said, “Mom raises purebred bulldogs. That’s how she makes her living. Dad left us when we were young.”

  “Oh dear, I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. But that’s why she couldn’t ever stay. She had to get back to her bulldogs.”

  “She sounds very enterprising,” Louise commented, eyes on her book.

  Natalie was working with the eraser now. In charcoal drawings, erasing was as much a part of the art as the charcoal. “Mother is insane about bulldogs,” she told Louise. “I don’t think she was as enterprising as she was infatuated.”

  “Well, she was clever to make a living with what she loves,” Louise remarked. “Isn’t that what we all hope for?”

  Natalie paused. She’d never thought of her mother as clever. Continuing to draw, she muttered, “My mother didn’t plan to make her living that way. It just happened.”

  “That’s the way it was for me,” Louise said with a chuckle. “My plan when I was young was—no making fun of me, now!—to become an airline stewardess!” She lifted her head as if gazing right through the ceiling up to the sky.

  “Eyes on the book,” Natalie ordered gently.

  Louise obeyed. “Back then it seemed the most glamorous occupation a girl could have! I would get to wear one of those darling chic uniforms, maybe with a scarf around my neck and a perky cap. I’d fly all over the world to exotic places. I’d meet fascinating pilots and marry one and all our life together we’d fly everywhere, until we’d seen every corner of the globe!”

  Natalie grinned at the vision. “Why didn’t you become a stewardess?”

  Louise chuckled. “I met Dennis. I was a sophomore at U. Mass. He had just graduated. We fell in love, and the minute I saw him, I knew all of the world I ever wanted to see was right inside that man.”

  “Oh, that’s so romantic.”

  “It was.”

  “Louise, I’m sorry, but could you stop smiling? I need you to look meditative.”

  “Meditative. Hmm. All right.”

  For a few minutes, Louise gazed at her book and Natalie worked.

  Natalie had to ask. “Did you ever regret it? Not becoming a stewardess?”

  “Honestly? I had my days. When the babies kept me up all night crying and teething and we lived in a dreary little apartment, I allowed myself to remember my old daydream. But even then, regret my decision? No. My goodness, I’m so in love with Dennis. And my babies! My children! That’s adventure enough for me. I’m extremely fortunate and I know it.” Louise allowed some silence to pass, then remarked, “I believe most mothers wouldn’t trade anything for their children. They might long for better circumstances, because it can be such hard work.”

  “I suppose,” Natalie replied noncommittally.

  “Tell me about your mother,” Louise invited. “She must be a knockout if she looks anything like you and Slade.”

  “That’s from Dad,” Natalie said. “Mom’s hair is just brown. She’s pretty, I guess, but she doesn’t keep herself up. She says the dogs don’t notice.”

  Louise laughed. “I can understand that. Children can be so critical! Dogs never say you need to have your hair styled or to get out of those old jeans.”

  “Don’t laugh.” Natalie concentrated fiercely on her drawing. It had never occurred to her that she and Slade had been critical, but of course they had been—there was so much about their mother to criticize!

  “I was lucky in my in-laws, too,” Louise mused, looking down at the book. “Dennis’s parents were reserved, their parents had come over from England. Dennis’s father taught literature at Smith. They were stuffy, but basically kindhearted. They helped us out quite a bit financially. We couldn’t have bought this house without their assistance. We didn’t have to ask. They offered. Lorraine, Dennis’s mother, helped with the children when they were small. They had only the one child, and she was especially enchanted by the little girls.” Louise went quiet, remembering.

  Good, Natalie thought. Stay in your memories. This was the expression she wanted.

  Around noon, Natalie needed to shake her hand out. She could tell that Louise was fatigued from remaining in one pose. Probably she should stop for today, although she hated to. When Natalie got going on something she loved, she became a very still, utterly focused maniac.

  Louise went to the kitchen to fix them iced tea when a knock came at the front door.

  “I’ll see who it is,” Natalie offered.

  Before she could get there, Morgan had opened the door and come in, with Petey in her arms. “Oh! Hi, Natalie. I didn’t expect to see you here. I came to say hello to Louise.”

  “Hi, Morgan. Hey, Petey!” Natalie tickled the boy’s tummy. He giggled and squirmed.

  “Oh. My. God!” Morgan exclaimed. “Natalie! How stunning!”

  Louise said, “I haven’t seen it yet. Let me see.”

  Natalie protested, “It’s far from finished! I’ve got another few days’ work to go on it.…”

  Morgan set Petey on the floor. He made a beeline for the toys.

  “My goodness,” Louise said. “Do I look like that?”

  “I haven’t finished,” Natalie repeated.

  “You don’t look exactly like that,” Morgan told Louise. “When we see you, you’re always smiling, talking—”

  “Eating,” Louise joked.

  “I’ve never seen you so … still. Thoughtful. Gosh, this is contemporary and somehow, what’s the word I want—archetypal. Natalie, we’ve got to call Bella and make her come home right now.”

  “Why?” Natalie asked.

  “Because Bella wants to make some changes in Barnaby’s Barn.” Her eyes whipped toward Louise. “You know that, right?”

  Louise waved her hand as if brushing away a fly. “I know that, and Dennis knows it, and we’re fine with it.”

  “When I was talking with her yesterday at your cookout, Natalie, Bella said she wants it to become more of an art gallery. She has a friend, Penny Aristides—”

  “I know Penny,” Louise chimed in.

  “She makes fabulous jewelry,” Morgan continued. “Bella is considering displaying that,
and some antique furniture, and, Natalie, she should hang your work, both your abstracts and your charcoals. I mean, you did say you wanted to sell your charcoal of Petey. And this of Louise, too. My gosh, it looks like an old master!”

  “An old mater, you mean,” Louise joked.

  “I’m calling Bella right now.” Morgan took her cell out of her shorts pocket.

  While they waited for Bella, they organized a platter of cold cuts, cheeses, red grapes, and crackers. They set it on the dining room table with a pitcher of iced tea just as Bella came in the door.

  “Hi, Morgan; hi, Natalie—OH!” Bella slammed to a halt, hand on her heart, looking at Natalie’s drawing. “Oh, wow.”

  “Thanks. It’s not finished, though. I’ve got several more days of work to do on it. The shading is really important, the contrast between dark charcoal and light—” Spotting a section that irritated her, Natalie stepped to the canvas, picked up her charcoal, and lightly added a blurring of gray.

  “So what I’m thinking,” Morgan suggested enthusiastically, “is that you carry Natalie’s charcoals and some of her abstracts. You’ve seen her charcoal of Petey, right?”

  “I don’t think I have,” Bella admitted. “I’ve seen the oil of Petey. It’s in your living room. Where’s the Petey charcoal, Natalie?”

  Now Natalie was working with the eraser, dabbing lightly. “In my studio.”

  From the corner, Louise spoke up. “Will you want to keep anything I’ve been selling? Just asking.”

  Bella answered, “Mom, of course I want to keep your Lake Worlds. For the rest, I’m not so sure. I’ve been looking at the records. Not much has been selling. The Lucy Lattimer dolls have to go.”

  “Poor Lucy.” After a moment Louise added, “But, you know, I haven’t spoken with her for a while, and I’m not sure she’s in good health. We’ll just box them up and store them in the back.”

  They gathered around the table. Morgan held Petey on her lap and handed him a cracker to gnaw. “Did I tell you the Ruoffs were over about a week ago? They saw the abstract I bought from Natalie and went wild for it.”