[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

were dozing or sleeping. The lines of his face and his body are elon-
gated, so that there is a hollow at his throat that echoes a hollow at
the base of his shirt. Below his knees, his legs are bare; and she is
struck by how smooth his skin is, how silky with dark hairs.
She looks quickly to the water and back at Haskell. She knows it
will be only moments before the others return, wet and chilled and
wrapped in rugs, their feet encrusted with fine wet sand, wanting
food and drink and feeling both virtuous and vigorous for their ex-
ercise in the sea. She saw Haskell with the camera often enough ear-
lier this morning to know how it is done. Quietly, so as not to
disturb him, she lifts the camera from its case and peers through the
viewfinder.
Beyond Haskell, in the background, is a fish house and a large
family of bathers, some of whom, Olympia realizes, are watching her
with the camera. They must be a family from Ely Falls, she decides,
for they do not have much in the way of a picnic. They are crowded,
all eleven or twelve of them, onto only one rug, so that those at the
periphery are half sitting on the sand and have to lean into the cen-
ter of the group. They have all been swimming, she determines, even
63
anita shreve
the women, for their hair is unkempt and slicked back against their
heads. They stare in a curiously impolite manner. She thinks that at
least one or two of the children must be undernourished, as they
have a sunken appearance about the cheeks.
She squeezes the shutter.
Startled, Haskell opens his eyes. She sets the camera back into its
case.
 Olympia, he says, sitting up.
She closes the top and fastens the latch.
Simultaneously, they see Olympia s father emerging from the sea
and draping himself in a robe he has left by the water s edge so as not
to have to appear too long in public in his wet bathing costume. She
watches her father walk from the sea to where they sit, wondering if
he has seen her take Haskell s picture. When he reaches them, she
thinks he cannot fail to note the strain which lies between Haskell
and her and which they both immediately seek to defuse with over-
attention to her father s needs, Haskell standing with a wrap, Olym-
pia preparing a plate of food. But her father does not ask her about
the time she has spent with Haskell, either then or later.
The others soon follow her father, Zachariah Cote a somewhat
comical spectacle in his union suit, which reveals rather large hips
and suggests that the man is better suited to a frock coat. (But which
man is not? Olympia wonders.) Philbrick, with little modesty or
self-consciousness, walks briskly to the rug, sits down to lunch, and
begins to consume his meal with enthusiasm. Unable to remain
calm in their company, Olympia stands and walks to the water s
edge with wraps for the girls, who twirl themselves into the dry
cloths as if forming cocoons. Even Martha seems happy to see her,
although somehow the girl has gotten sand into her stockings and
they bag with the weight and make odd lumps against her legs.
They walk back to the rug as if Olympia were a governess and
64
fortune s rocks
they her waterlogged charges. Along the way, when she chances to
look up, she sees that Haskell has gone.
" " "
He does not reappear for dinner in the evening. When Olympia in-
quires as to his whereabouts, Catherine says that he has been called
away to the clinic. Olympia struggles through the meal with little
appetite. She minds Haskell s absence more than she ever could have
anticipated. It is the first of many nights she will now spend when
her life, which seemed complete enough only the night before, ap-
pears to be missing an essential piece.
Wishing to be alone, she pushes her chair back. Thunder shakes
the house, and Olympia can feel the vibrations through the floor-
boards. A streak of lightning needles the sky outside the windows of
the dining room.
 A storm, Catherine says.
 The man who brings the lobsters said there would be, her
mother answers.
 I must go upstairs to close my window, Olympia says, relieved
to have an excuse to leave the table.
 Did you know, her father asks the gathering,  that such a heavy
clap of thunder will cause many of the lobsters in the waters here-
abouts to lose at least one of their claws?
 Fascinating, Catherine says.
The rain starts then, a heavy rain that slants under the eaves and
beats against the panes of glass in the windows, as if it would be
let in.
Olympia walks upstairs to her room and lies down on the bed in
a state for which she has had no preparation and of which she can-
not speak  not even to Lisette, who might have some practical ad-
vice. For how can Olympia admit to any person that she harbors
65
anita shreve
such extraordinary and inappropriate feelings for a man she hardly
knows? A man nearly three times her age? A man who seems to be
happily married to a woman Olympia much admires?
After a time, she sits up in the bed and reaches for the volume that
is still on her night table. She begins to read Haskell s book anew.
She reads until her eyes blur and her senses dull and she can con-
template with equanimity her preparations for bed.
Later she will learn that Haskell did not go to the clinic that
night, but rather walked with troubled thoughts along the beach un-
til he was surprised by the sudden storm, which almost immediately
drenched him and caused him to have to run back to the house for
shelter.
" " "
Just before daybreak, Olympia is awakened by a hoarse cry. For a few
moments, she thinks it part of another dream she cannot quite es-
cape, until she realizes that the shouting comes from below her bed-
room window. As she climbs out of bed, the hollering grows louder,
and she can hear now that it involves several men. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]