A Beach Wish

by Shelley Noble

  “Whoa, Eli,” said Noelle.

  “Well, he’s right, isn’t he?”

  Zoe realized Mel’s question was not her being defensive, but her seeking affirmation.

  Zoe wasn’t the only person on the beach having a lightbulb moment. She let out a long breath. “Why don’t we take a test run and see if it will work? If you’re up for it. Just say no if you’re not.”

  “I think it would be great,” Eve said.

  Noelle and Mel nodded their agreement.

  “And I could come up on Mondays and give your beach an air of a certain je ne sais quoi,” Chris said.

  Zoe gave him a look, and Noelle pushed him off his chair.

  “Hey, don’t mess up the talent.” He brushed off sand and climbed back onto his chaise.

  Leave it to Chris to add a little levity to a life-churning situation.

  “I think it would be perfect,” Eve said. “But are you sure you want to?”

  Was she? Or was she crazy? “It’s like Eli said, you need more than one choice. I could put my experience to work in a different field and I . . .” She hesitated. “I’d get to know my new family.”

  “For a couple of weeks before they all split on you,” Chris said.

  “No!” they all yelled in chorus. “There are weekends and holidays and—”

  “And me,” said Chris, putting up his hands to fend off imaginary assaults.

  “And . . . I could learn music somewhere besides Juilliard.” Zoe risked a tentative look at Lee.

  He looked blank, then slowly his expression changed. Pointed to his chest.

  She nodded.

  He frowned for a bit, then stood. Zoe’s heart slipped. She shouldn’t have given way to the hubris around her. She’d pushed him too fast.

  “Dad, where are you going?” Eve said, alarmed.

  He patted her on the shoulder. “You girls work it out. I’m just gonna make sure the piano’s tuned.”

  The next day David, Henry, and a group of volunteers showed up at Kelly’s to begin the minor cosmetic and organizational changes that would put the diner in line with the HD complaints. Eve and Lee had called each of the commissioners personally and evidently made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. Zoe guessed it had something to do with their reelection.

  Whatever the cause, two men showed up on Monday morning, did a cursory inspection, and declared Kelly’s back up to code. There was general celebration and free coffee while diners waited in line for a place inside.

  And Eve knew what she had to do. That afternoon, she drew up a formal agreement and took it to Wind Chime. Henry and Floret read it over, and all three of them signed a lease agreement for the inn to use Wind Chime House’s adjacent beach. Henry and Floret agreed to restrict nude sunbathing to the secluded beach on the opposite side of the property during the day. What happened after dark was left to the occupants. Eve promised that no further attempts to cut off the right-of-way to the house would be made by her family. She’d have to get Hannah to sign off on it. She had every intention of making that happen.

  She headed straight to Hannah’s house and with some trepidation told her of the arrangement. But Hannah didn’t seem interested. She was more concerned that the cleaners had twice returned her dry cleaning uncleaned.

  “They’re doing this on purpose.”

  Yes, they most likely were, thought Eve, but at least it would give Hannah something to keep her mind off Kelly’s and Wind Chime House. And the Zukowskis, who owned the only dry cleaners in town, also owned almost as much real estate as Hannah. Maybe at last Hannah had met her match.

  Hannah signed the contract with “Who cares about them anyway? But if that lowdown Sam Zukowski thinks he can give me the cold shoulder . . .”

  Eve, amazed at how easily she’d acquiesced, left with Hannah mumbling about the nerve of some people.

  She’d been afraid that with her grandmother thwarted on all sides, it would drain the life out of her. But Hannah had merely shifted to another arena. She must enjoy the constant confrontation, the chaos it created. She could have it. All to herself.

  But Eve didn’t think she would be as successful as she had been in the past. It was funny that the thing that had finally led to her downfall was the local diner and a dilapidated house on the edge of the sea.

  Two days later, they all watched as a dump truck and backhoe arrived to tear down and cart away the jetty that had separated them for several years.

  And Errol still hadn’t called.

  Zoe still hadn’t made a decision about what to do with her mother’s ashes. She left Chris and Noelle arguing over how much stuff she really needed for the first weeks of work in Manhattan. She ran back to the hotel and up to her room, to use her phone in private.

  She keyed in her brother’s landline, so he wouldn’t be distracted, and listened to it ring while her nerves warred between hoping he didn’t answer and wanting to just get it over with.

  On the fourth ring, she was about to hang up when he picked up.

  “Hi. It’s Zoe.”

  “Zoe,” he began.

  “Please, Errol, just let me have my say, then you get the rebuttal.” She heard him sigh and she hurried on. “I want to have a ceremony here. Nothing extravagant, just a few friends and family.” She crossed her fingers. “I understand how you feel, I really do. I wasn’t happy about this either, not until I got here. She was happy here. She was happy with us, but she’s no longer with us. This is what she wanted. She had a whole other life that she gave up for us. I think we owe her this much.”

  “Well, I can’t say I blame her totally,” Errol said. “Not after what our father did. But who’s going to look after the grave, put flowers on it?”

  Zoe heard a click and for a second she was afraid he’d hung up.

  “Honey, there’s not going to be a grave.”

  He hadn’t hung up; someone had picked up. Allison was on the other line. “We talked about this.”

  “It’s just . . . She’ll just be floating around out there.”

  “She’ll be in good company,” Zoe said.

  “What?”

  She had to move the phone from her ear. “It’s a memorial garden. There are others here. Not really a garden but a glen with a window through the trees where you can see the ocean. It’s really beautiful.”

  “And there’s someone to take care of her?”

  “Yes. Her friends who, um, take care of the garden.”

  She heard a strange sound and realized that her brother was sobbing.

  Tears filled her own eyes. She couldn’t remember seeing him cry, not even at the funeral.

  “I want you all to come to the ceremony, if you think you would like to. Rob and Laura, too. I think we should all be together.”

  “Of course we will. When is it?” Allison asked.

  “Whenever you can make it. I was hoping next weekend or the next. Does that give you enough time?”

  “I’ll check with Laura and get back to you, but we’ll be free one of those weekends. The sooner the better, I say.”

  “Me, too. Thanks, Allison. Oh, and, Allison. Am I still one of the family?”

  “Of course you are. What a thing to say. I’m guessing we’re not wearing black?”

  “I’m thinking it’s going to be a colorful, very celebratory affair.”

  “Excellent. I’ll call you when I know. And don’t worry about Errol. He’ll come around.”

  Zoe hung up. Dropped the phone on the bed. Whew. Now to consult with Floret and Henry about what to do.

  She pulled herself together and walked down to Wind Chime House.

  Henry and Floret didn’t appear to be at home, but she heard hammering from the woods. Now what was he doing?

  She walked down the path until she saw David standing between two new posts sticking out of the earth where the old stairs had been.

  “Déjà vu,” she said, walking up behind him.

  He nodded in her direction. “I should have finished tearin
g these down the day I started. I just got busy and—”

  “Stop. You cordoned them off. It was an accident. Everyone’s okay.” She frowned. “So you’re building them back?”

  “Yeah, Henry and Floret said the commune will be using this beach, since they’re leasing Eve the other beach, so I decided to make life easy for them.”

  “You take care of them.”

  “More the other way around. But I need to do this before I leave.”

  “You’re leaving?”

  “As soon as I get Eli off to college. An assignment in Patagonia.”

  “Sounds exciting.”

  He cocked his head as if considering. “It is sometimes. Mainly it’s just waiting for the right shot. I like it.”

  “You’re coming back?” She was beginning to sound like Mel.

  “Yeah, but I’ll have more freedom to take more work; for a while anyway.”

  Until Henry and Floret need you again, she thought.

  “Listen.” He stopped.

  Zoe listened but she didn’t hear the chimes.

  He breathed out a laugh. “I didn’t mean that kind of listen. I meant . . . Well, I just wanted to say that we got off to a rocky start. I’m sorry I didn’t get to know you better.”

  Zoe tried not to smile. “Thanks. But don’t worry. If you’re only going to be gone a couple of months, I’ll probably still be here when you get back.”

  “You’re staying?”

  “At least to help run the inn while Eve is gone.”

  “Eve? Where is she going?”

  “She, like you, wants to travel. I told her I’d keep the home fires burning while she’s away.” She laughed. “It’s funny. I just got here and everybody’s leaving.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Did you just groan? You did, didn’t you? I know you did.”

  “I didn’t. Not exactly. Do you have any idea how to run an inn?”

  “Not really, but I know how to deal with people at major music festivals. How hard can it be? Anyway, Mike said he’d help.”

  This time he really did groan.

  Chapter 28

  The celebration of the life of Jenny Bascombe was held the following weekend. It was a clear morning. The sky was blue, the clouds were high, and the day was hot. They’d decided on a simple gathering, with a few short prayers in deference to the Long Island family.

  There would be a feast afterward at Wind Chime House where food and drink and music and whatever else would abound.

  Errol and Robert and their wives drove up the night before. They arrived late, with only time for a nightcap at the bar before going off to bed in the two rooms Eve had reserved for them.

  The next morning, they got back in their car, this time with Zoe and the ashes squeezed into the back seat between Laura and Allison, and they drove to Wind Chime House.

  The others—Eve and Mike, and Noelle and Mel—had walked ahead. Chris had chosen to walk with them, arguing that there wasn’t enough room in the car. They were all dressed for a celebration, even Allison and Laura, in a Manhattan-design kind of way. Errol and Robert insisted on wearing summer suits, but they were there, and that’s all that counted.

  Zoe thought Errol gritted his teeth when he saw the state of the house, and she prayed that he wouldn’t change his mind before she could discharge her duty.

  But Allison said, “Oh, how charming.” Laura agreed, and the crisis passed. Zoe had never appreciated Allison as she deserved. Not just a trophy wife, she had managed to get both brothers on board. And Zoe was grateful.

  They parked at the house, and Zoe was glad to see David and Eli and the professor had joined with Henry and Floret, both dressed in full robes and flowers, in greeting the Bascombes. Floret held the wind chimes they would hang in the woods, wrapped in a prayer shawl of brilliant colors.

  Zoe carried the urn, her fingers molding to the cool ceramic, suddenly reluctant to let go. Henry gave her a calming smile and patted the side of his robe and the pocket that held the penknife that would cut the ashes free, unlike the day she had come to throw them away and had been stopped by plastic and her father.

  Lee wasn’t there. She’d invited him but hadn’t pushed him to attend. She didn’t know how her brothers would take him as a stand-in for their own father, whom they had decided not to invite.

  Zoe began the procession down the path, feeling a little queasy and hoping she wouldn’t embarrass herself by bursting into tears.

  They reached the glen and formed a semicircle facing the keyhole in the trees, where the brilliant blue of the sea shone through to the glen like a pathway to the sky.

  In her head Zoe could hear Chris saying, “Great lighting effect.” But today even her theatrical brother was quiet.

  Henry stepped forward and faced the group, his robes outlined by the sea. “We are here today to welcome our dear friend Jenny home. We promise to love her and keep her soul safe.”

  He looked to Errol and then Robert, who both lowered their heads. Zoe knew they wouldn’t say anything, but she also knew that beneath their stoic demeanor they were saying good-bye in their own way.

  She handed the urn to Chris, who held it while Henry cut the plastic. That was when she saw Lee standing in the trees, near the group but not a part of it.

  She was glad he’d come. Henry cut the ashes free, and she began to sprinkle the ashes in an arc until she completed a full circle.

  And then it was done. Henry took the bag from the urn and held it in the air until the last vestiges of Jenny Bascombe were set free. Together he and Floret hung the wind chime Jenny had sent to them for safekeeping.

  “Welcome home, dear friend,” said Floret, and the two of them started toward the house. Everyone else followed. Zoe lingered, but only to let the professor, flanked by David and Eli, get a head start. The professor seemed to be walking slower today than he had the day she’d met him.

  As she stepped out of the trees, the breeze lifted the leaves behind her and the first faint tinkle of the chimes teased her ears. She stopped to listen as it swept gently through the woods, knowing today her mother’s chime would join the others. And as the clear sound grew, another voice rose above it. Another melody wove in counterpoint to the chimes. A melody she knew well, and a voice she was growing to love. Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly. Lavender’s green . . .

  Zoe smiled, knowing her mother was at peace and she would never be alone.

  David was waiting for her at the gate. “Are you okay?”

  She huffed out a breath. “Yes, yes, I am.”

  In the yard, a flute and drums had struck up a lively rhythm.

  “I’m glad that the professor could come today,” she said.

  “I am, too.”

  “I haven’t seen him the last few days.”

  “He had to go up to Boston for his great-granddaughter’s birthday party. Something he didn’t want to miss.”

  “Of course not. He travels a lot, doesn’t he?”

  “Yep. Kind of a pre-bucket list.”

  “He’s lucky that he has Wind Chime to come home to.”

  “We all are.”

  She tried to catch a glimpse of his face, but he was looking out to sea.

  “He’ll be traveling less soon, make shorter trips, spend more time here.”

  “Until he spends all his time here,” Zoe said, catching his mood.

  He nodded. “For eternity.”

  The Long Island family left about an hour later, pleading a five-hour drive and wanting to miss the Sunday-night exodus from the beach. When Eve and Zoe left about an hour later, the music had changed to reggae, friends and townspeople and maybe just strangers passing through had joined the party, and things were rocking. A perfect end to a day that could have been steeped in sorrow.

  Zoe and Eve were walking back to town when a car turned into the drive and came to a stop. The window lowered and a young woman with curly red hair stuck her head out.

  “I’m sorry to bother you, but our family is vacationing nearby
, and I’m out with my grandmother today. She wants to go to this place where she had seen some wind chimes, I think. Not to buy, but, I’m not sure. I think it was a long time ago. It might not even be here still.” She looked over to the older woman seated in the passenger seat, who looked straight ahead. “She thought it might be down this road.”

  She smiled apologetically. “She doesn’t remember things so well, and she may be confused, but I feel like I should try, you know.”

  “Of course,” said Eve. She leaned in toward the old woman. “And you’re perfectly right. Wind Chime House is straight down at the end of the drive.”

  The old lady turned, smiled. “Wind Chime House,” she whispered, and looked ahead in anticipation.

  “Oh, thank you. Thank you. Do you think the owners would mind if we just drove by? We’ll try not to bother them. It’s just, it would mean so much.”

  “Not at all,” said Zoe. “They’d be delighted to see you. In fact, I think they’re expecting you.”

  Acknowledgments

  Once again my sincerest thanks to my agent, Kevan Lyon; my editor, Tessa Woodward; Elle Keck, and my whole William Morrow team for your enthusiasm, your expertise, your patience, and for all the wonderful work you do.

  Many more thanks to my writerly and not so writerly friends, Gail, Lois, Carolyn, and Pearl, who willingly volunteer as sounding boards and Dutch uncles while I ruminate, hypothesize, act out, and pace over the pieces that go into making up a story.

  You all make writing an exciting and fulfilling adventure.

  Reading Group Guide

  The death of a loved one is hard enough without it being something that unravels everything we believed about them and ourselves. It changes their place in our lives and our place in the world as we know it. Do you think the Bascombes can ever accept each other the way they did before learning of their mother’s former life and Zoe’s parentage? Does the disclosure “change everything”?