Beloved (34 page)

"
Mac wanted me over his place while my heat was out,
"
Uncle Easy explained,
"
but it
'
s hard finding your way to a new bathroom in the dark. You know?
"

He poured from the full teapot with some effort, then put the teapot back on the burner, still on
"
high.
"
Jane hesitated whether to say anything as, with an unsteady grip on the mugs, Uncle Easy began making his way to the table.

"Uh ..
. the burner?
"
she finally ventured.

Flustered, Uncle Easy wheeled around, spilling some of the coffee.
"
Gawdamighty, I
do
that nowadays.
"
He shuffled back to the stove and turned off the burner. When he turned back around to Jane, the cheerful good humor was gone from his ashen face.
"
We don
'
t have to say nothin
'
about this, do we? It
'
s mighty embarrassin
'
.
"

But he looked more than embarrassed. Jane
'
s heart went out to him. She thought of Aunt Sylvia and her losing battle against entering a nursing home. She thought of her grandmother, and her grandfather. No one got to grow old at home anymore. Their kids were all gone, off in other cities, even other countries.

"
Oh, I do that all the time,
"
she said cheerfully as she peeled off a paper towel and mopped up the spilled coffee.
"
Once I left the oven on for three whole days before I noticed.
"

He was grateful to her for that. An irresistible smile set off a road map of wrinkles on his face; his blue eyes shone with renewed life. They settled down with the coffee, and Uncle Easy said,
"
So. Whaddya think of my nephew?
"

When she acted blank, he said,
"
Don
'
t tell me you ain
'
t interested. I know he
'
s got somethin
'
that appeals deep down to women like you. Lookit Celeste. Who
'
da guessed they
'
d marry? Course, it was a disaste
r
—
but all the same, I
'
m curious. What is it about
'
im?
"

Jane flushed and said,
"
If you mean,
why would he be considered ..
. attractive, yes, I sup
pose that would be the word ..
. to some women, I suppose it
'
s beca
use he cares for his family ..
. he
's hard-working ..
. he cares about the environment
....
"

"
Yeah, yeah. Besides that. What
is
it about him?
"

He asked the question with a kind of wide-eyed innocence that Jane assumed came only with age. There was
certainly nothing indecent in it. In fact, if anyone was feeling indecent about anything just now, it was Jane. About Mac. And it was new. And shocking.

Oh no. Oh nuts. Oh damn.
Is that what it was all this time, that feeling of being threatened? Nothing but simple, sexual desire? Impossible. She wasn
'
t stupid. She
'
d been turned on before. She
'
d had men before. She knew what simple, sexual desire felt like. What she felt around Mac was
nothing
like that. It was scarier.

"
Well, you know how intrigued women get when they
'
re around quiet men,
"
Jane said with a nervous laugh.
"
They always want to know what the guy
'
s thinking.
"

"
They won
'
t find out from Mac McKenzie. Guaranteed. That boy knows how to keep his own counsel.
"

Uncle Easy leaned over his coffee cup and tapped the table with the middle finger of his liver-spotted hand.
"
Lemme give you an example. When Mac was a kid, he got in some trouble over a car. He took the rap for it all by himself
—
but he wasn
'
t alone. I know that for a fact.
"

He sat back in his chrome-legged chair.
"
How do I know? Because he come by before supper on the night he sunk the Porsche. He was all excited, I remember it like it was yesterday. He told me,
'
We
'
re gonna test-drive Elway
'
s new car tonight.
'
Course, he never said nothin
'
about stealing it first, but that ain
'
t the point. He had an
accomplice
is the point, and whoever it was let Mac take the blame, and Mac never said nothin
'
.
"

Uncle Easy folded one arm over the other.
"
That
'
s
the kind of boy he is.
"

"But ...
but his whole life might have turned out differently!
"
Jane said, dismayed by Mac
'
s outlaw code of honor.
"
Maybe it was the other kid
who actually did the thing ..
. maybe Mac just went along for the ride.
"

"
Now you
'
re talkin
'
,
"
Uncle Easy said, nodding sagely.
"
And I don
'
t mind tellin
'
you I got a fair idea who it was. Local snot-nosed kid, his parents no better
'
n anyone else, but they inherited waterfront, sold some of it, put on airs and sent the little twerp off-island to some fancy-pants school in
Andover
.
"

Something began moving in Jane
'
s memory, like ice breaking up in a harbor in spring. She knew who the old man was alluding to, even though she couldn
'
t possibly have known.

"
You
'
re talking about Phillip Harrow,
"
she said, shocked.

"
He
'
s your neighbor,
"
Uncle Easy said quietly.
"
You ought to know what kind of man you got for a neighbor.
"

"
Phillip.
But he had so much to lose!
"

"
Exactly. He had so much to lose. So he run like a dog. Him and Mac was palling around all during that week. It was Phil
'
s spring break—Phil went to grammar school on the island, so they were still friends of sorts. Who else could it
'
ve been?
"

"
Did you ever tell this to anyone?
"
Jane asked.

"
Nope. Except to Mac. He said to mind my own business, which I done. But now I
'
m old and I don
'
t care anymore. Besides, I
didn
'
t
tell you,
"
he added slyly.
"
You figured it out yourself.
"

"
This is awful! Mac
'
s reputation has been
ruined
, if you
're right ..
. but if you
're not ..
. but you must be right
...."

"
Ruined? Hell, it was only a car
."

They heard the front door and Uncle Easy made a silencing gesture with his hand.
"
Shush. Water under the bridge,
"
he said in a hiss.

Mac came in and of course realized that the two conspirators had been gossiping about him. He looked from one to the other with a fine sense of irony and said blandly,
"
I cleaned out the leaves from the gutter while I was up there. Anything else before we go out to look at the truck?
"

"
Nothin
'
at all. The place is runnin
'
like a clock. My thanks to you, lad. Now: Let
'
s go sell the girl some wheels.
"

They went out to the garage, tucked partly behind the house on the narrow lot. The truck was a true island vehicle: old and heavily rusted, but with low mileage. There was some talk of whether or not it would pass the next inspection, but that was almost a year away. It had been handpainted in camouflage rust, which the men considered a plus. The price was right, in the hundreds rather than in the thousands. Jane agreed on the spot to buy it. Virtually everyone on the island drove either a pickup truck or a four-wheel drive. Jane was pleased; she felt like one of the crowd.

She wrote out a check and Uncle Easy gave her a laboriously written bill of sale and directions to the Motor Vehicles Registry in town. When she and Mac were settled back in his own pickup, which looked pretty spiffy by comparison, Jane said,
"
How will your uncle get around without a car?
"

"
He
'
ll manage. Those of us who
'
re left on the island will chip in on the chores and shopping. I hate to s
ee him lose his wheels, but ..
. he
'
s been a little forgetful lately,
"
Mac admitted with a sigh.
"
We
'
re all taking this one day at a time,
"
he added.

"
I like him; he
'
s a straight shooter.
"

"
He talks too much.
"

"
Oh, sure;
you
'
d
think so.
"

They exchanged tentative, ironic smiles. Jane drew a long, discreet breath, scrambling for oxygen. This was not on the agenda, this light-headedness she was feeling.

It was Uncle Easy
'
s fault. He
'
d put a ridiculous bee in her bonnet, and now she
'
d probably spend the rest of her stay on
Nantucket
second-guessing her
—
and Mac
'
s
—
every look, every smile, every pregnant pause. Heck, she liked it better the old way, when all she wanted was for Mac not to despise her.

"
Have you heard from Jerry?
"
she ventured to ask, driving all such speculations from her mind.

"
Yeah, he
'
s fine. The bandage is off and the stitches are on their way out. I think he
'
s a little disappointed.
Sic
tran
sit gloria mundi.
"

"
He
'
ll have other shots at glory,
"
she said, surprised once more by this thoroughly mystifying neighbor of hers. What did he do? Study Latin in reform school?

"
That was the damnedest accident,
"
she added thoughtfully.
"
I still can
't believe it was ..
.
"

"
Was what?
"

She heard the warning in his voice: whatever it was she was going to say, he did not want to hear it. But Jane plowed on anyway.

"
An accident,
"
she said.

"
He tripped,
"
Mac said evenly.
"
That
'
s called an accident.
"

"
But
why
did he trip?
"