Pawleys Island-lowcountry 5 (30 page)

When asked what he thought, Evan shrugged his shoulders and said it didn’t matter much what he thought, but he would like to see the Gray Man for himself and catch a fish in the Waccamaw.

“I can take you fishing anytime you want to go,” Huey said, smiling.

“You can? Really?”

“Of course! I was quite the sportsman not too many years ago. And I used to fish with my father all the time! Maybe we can build a club house on one of the little islands and start our own Hot and Hot Fish Club!”

I pictured Huey and Evan, fishing from opposite ends of a little boat, coming home at the end of a long afternoon of drinking Cokes in bottles, Evan’s ears frayed around the edges from hours of listening to Huey’s stories about the glories of his family’s history and with a string of fish to feed us all.

I looked around the table. Julian had Rebecca’s attention, telling her stories about family court and the crazy things people do to each other. Miss Olivia was listening intently to Sami as she talked about teenage girls and how mean they are. Miss Olivia, of course, was nodding her head in agreement. Evan would interrupt Sami every other minute and Miss Olivia would pat his hand saying,
Just a minute, Evan. Let’s hear what your sister has to say, and then I can listen to you!

Sami wanted to move into this world of rivers and wildlife and generations living all together? Well, why not? This was the place I had come to put my life back together, and so had Rebecca. It had worked out beautifully for us. Sometimes people needed a change of venue to sharpen their focus.

Dinner was over, and we were debating what to do next. I thought we should all go to bed because in the morning the storm would surely be gone. The wind continued to wail and shake the house. Somewhere outside a shutter was flapping furiously.

“I’ll go see about it,” Huey said.

“Need a hand?” Julian said.

Evan stood up to go with them.

Rebecca said, “Where do you think you’re going?”

“This is man’s work, Mom.”

Rebecca looked to me and then Huey.

“Be careful,” she said.

Just those words and Evan grew a foot taller.

There wasn’t anything so unusually fantastic about the night, with the exception of the storm. But if I had to push a pin in the map of our lives to mark the point of a small leap forward, it would have been that night.

The young hearts of Evan and Sami were on the mend. Rebecca entrusted Evan to Huey and Julian, letting Evan know she had faith in his ability to maneuver the weather. You wouldn’t have taken a millions dollars to miss the expression of masculine pride on Evan’s face when she let him go out in the night with the men.
Be careful
.

Miss Olivia was enthralled with every speck of them, but Samantha most especially. Maybe she viewed them as surrogate grandchildren. Rebecca, the daughter she never had. I didn’t know. But in the years I had known Miss Olivia, I had never seen her so satisfied. I heard her say that in the spring she would take them to see the hundreds of egrets and great blue herons that made their nests on the property, that one day she would show Sami the diaries of her Revolutionary War ancestors and that if she was very good, she’d teach her how to make her string bean salad.

I wondered what Rebecca would decide. Would she sell her house and move to Litchfield? Would she fall in love with Jeff Mahoney? Would she grow a respectable reputation as an artist? I couldn’t say with any certainty, but I had a strong feeling that we would be neighbors very soon.

And, Julian and me? Well, we were in step with each other and a little bit in love. Okay, maybe more. I just wanted time to pass and see where events took us. If our love was meant to be forever, then it would be. There was no need to rush to anything.

Later, when everyone was tucked in for the night, I listened to Julian’s gentle snoring and waited for sleep to come. The wind and rain seemed to be lessening.

What a night! Another hurricane! Huey had done everything he could to see about our safety, our comfort and our well-being. I loved that he cared enough about us to want us all under his roof. We were important to him and he was very important to me. I loved him better than any brother I could have known. And his mother too. I wished Miss Olivia would live forever, but death was already creeping in her shadows.

I was a lucky woman. Tragedy upon tragedy, and now I found myself but a few years later counting my blessings for all the love I felt and all the love I felt I had to give. But in the end, didn’t the most important and precious things we gave each other come from our hearts? So far, all hearts were open for business and doing fine. Yes, we were doing just fine.

I
T
was late October and the damp chill of fall was all around us. Rebecca had not sold her house in Charleston; she had merely closed it up.

“The gossip at school is killing the kids, Abigail. They come home every day crying.”

“Kids can be so cruel.”

“Claudia said that I could use her condo, even
buy
it if I wanted to, because she never gets here as much as she would like to. She said,
Just pay the utilities and it’s yours
. What do you think?”

“I think, pay the utilities and put the kids in school here. They can go to Waccamaw.”

“Can you help me arrange it?”

“Are you kidding? In a snap! I can’t wait to tell Huey! He’ll be thrilled!”

At the first mention of Rebecca’s return, Huey immediately started shopping for a boat with the intention of teaching Evan to fish. Thank God Julian stepped in, was available and willing, because Huey finally admitted to me that the closest thing he had done related to fishing or water sports of any kind in over twenty years was to order Dover sole in a restaurant. So Julian brought his Boston Whaler up to Pawleys and parked it in my yard.

“Very attractive,” I said.

“What? I think it looks good!”

I put my hand on my hip and looked at him.

“Be glad I didn’t bring my big boat!”

I put my hand on my other hip and said, “Julian?”

“Okay! Okay! I’ll find a dock for it.”

“Oh, shoot, I don’t care. Anyway, the important thing is to get young Evan out on the water and teach him to fish.”

“Abigail? Right from the very beginning, I never said anything when Huey was going on and on about his fishing expertise. I could tell he didn’t know bait from tackle. I’ll get them both out in the boat this weekend and make fishermen out of them. Don’t you worry.”

“You, sir, are my hero!” I gave him a noisy smooch on his cheek.

Rebecca had transferred her children to the Waccamaw school system and moved back into Claudia’s. Thankfully, the children loved the new school and found the move to be easier than they had thought it would be. The plan was to finish out the school year and then decide whether or not to make it a permanent move. It made good sense to me.

Tisdale made frequent visits, and of course we took him for dinner at Huey’s and introduced him to Miss Olivia. I had believed Tisdale’s age to be somewhere in the zone of seventy. Apparently, he was older. But the fact that he was younger than Miss Olivia didn’t matter to her at all, as she batted her eyes at him like a young debutante. He was delighted by it. They remembered many of the same songs and movies or restaurants that had been out of business for years. All that reminiscing gave them hours and hours of happy conversations. And for as much as Tisdale enjoyed Miss Olivia’s company, they doted on Rebecca’s children together. Sami and Evan reveled in all the attention. Any onlooker would have assumed that they were the grandparents.

It was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. The marsh grass was turning from bright green to its winter colors of russet and gold and the sunsets were richer shades of crimson and amethyst. That time of year was powerful as my attention drifted from outdoor activities to planning for other things, like which books I would read over the winter. I thought about walking the beach with Julian, bundled up against the icy breezes and damp weather. We would build fires together and talk about life. And about us.

For the first time in so many years, I could plan for holidays with someone I loved. Our little gang spoke of an elegant Thanksgiving dinner at Huey’s, and the next night Julian and I would host a casual oyster roast on the beach at my house. Claudia was coming for Thanksgiving too, and along with Rebecca, Sami and Evan they were all determined to feed us on Saturday night.

“We’ll have a barbecue!” Rebecca had said last week, and everyone agreed.

But that Saturday, in mid-October, the boys were out on the boat and Rebecca and Sami were at my house on Pawleys to have lunch and stroll the shore. After a finger-licking feast of salami sandwiches with baked potato chips and diet sodas—hold the pickles, please; the girls don’t want the salt—we were putting the dishes in the dishwasher and talking about the absurdities of life.

During the last month, offers flowed in from all over the country for Rebecca to endorse various health-related products and programs. She declined them all, saying it was ridiculous to capitalize on her divorce by singing the praises of fried eel chips that were supposed to be rich in essential oils, make you lose weight, take ten years off your face and prevent every disease on the planet. Inner makeup, indeed.

“Are you kidding me? I’d rather get
sick
!” Rebecca said, showing me the letter she received. “I couldn’t put an eel chip in my mouth for a million dollars.”

“I would,” Sami said.

“I hate eel! Despise it! Loathe it! Eel’s the nastiest thing in the whole blooming ocean!”

“Tell us how you really feel, Mom,” Sami said.

“Yeah, well, you can’t hardly kill the nasty buggers. My daddy’s fishing buddy caught one once and cut it up in chunks. Two days later it was still pulsing. You think that’s not gross?”

“That’s gross,” I said.

I had just turned on the dishwasher when the phone rang. It was Byron.

“Miss Abigail, oh, my God, I can’t get Huey on his cell phone!”

“Byron? What’s happened?”

“It’s Miss Olivia! I went out to the terrace to take her a tray of lunch and she was in her chair sleeping. ’Cept she wasn’t sleeping, Miss Abigail…” He began to cry so hard, like he was a baby. I wished I could’ve reached through the phone and put my arms around him. My whole body went limp and I dropped into a kitchen chair. I already knew the terrible news he was struggling to tell me.

“I’ll be right there, Byron. Just hang on.”

I hung up the phone and looked at the earnest dread in Rebecca’s and Samantha’s faces.

“She’s gone,” I said. “Oh, dear God.”

Sami turned in to Rebecca’s arms and whimpered.

“I have to go over there right away. Please, stay here, okay?” I scribbled Julian’s and Huey’s cell phone numbers on a piece of paper and handed it to Rebecca. “Keep calling them until you get them, okay?”

I grabbed my bag and drove over to Huey’s as fast as I possibly could. When I got there, I didn’t even remember the drive. All I could do was think about how devastated Huey was going to be, and he would be
completely
devastated.

Byron was standing in the driveway, and I jumped out of my car. He was almost hysterical. I went right up to him and hugged him as hard as I could.

“It’s okay, Byron. It’s okay. Go call Daphne and tell her I need her help.”

“I didn’t know what to do, Miss Abigail! I knew she was dead, but I couldn’t tell EMS to come get her and let Huey find his momma in a morgue! That ain’t right! And it wouldn’t do no good to call the doctor! She’s already dead!”

“Where is she?”

“On the terrace. Right where I found her! Oh, Lord!”

“Get Daphne over here as fast as you can.”

I ran to the place where Miss Olivia was gently slumped in her chair. A little breeze swirled crisp leaves around her feet, as though her spirit was riding on the little currents of air, swirling here and there, having a look at everything. Her eyes were closed and you could believe that she was just napping, except for the absence of her breath. Only her left hand was hanging from her side. I placed her arm across her lap. It was cold. I pulled a chair up to her side and decided to just wait with her body until Daphne arrived.

“She’ll be here in two minutes,” Byron said as he came toward me from the house.

“Did she have a local physician?”

“Doctor? Oh, Lord! Mostly she went down to Charleston, but she did get some medicine for bronchitis last year.”

“Go see if the medicine bottle is still in her bathroom cabinet and call the doctor on the label. Or call Huey’s doctor. Tell them it’s a matter of life and death and to hurry.”

“What if they tell me to go to the emergency room?”

“No, wait.” I took a deep breath and felt my eyes burning. “Tell them Miss Olivia Valentine of Evergreen Plantation has passed away and it would not be possible…Oh, Byron, if that happens, call me to the phone.”

I tried to figure out what had happened to Miss Olivia. She was sitting on her terrace, reading a magazine, watching the Waccamaw, which was the place she loved most in all the world. I picked up the magazine from the ground and saw she had folded its pages back to the horoscopes. God bless her, Miss Olivia had gone to the heaven reading
Town & Country
.

I heard the crunch on the gravel and knew Daphne had arrived. Her car door slammed, and in a matter of seconds she was at my side.

“Oh, no! What a terrible shock! When Byron called me I didn’t know what to do first so I just came straight here! Oh, Lord! I said, oh, Lord, not Miss Olivia! It’s gonna kill Mr. Huey! So many other bad people to take before her! Lord knows, dead people scare me, but not Miss Olivia. No, not her. But why her? Why now?”

I put my arm around her skinny shoulder and said, “I guess God wanted to take her home, Daphne. Listen, I don’t want Huey to come home and find her like this, so I want you and Byron to help me move her to her bed. We can prop her up under the covers and wait for the doctor and Huey to arrive.”

“Yeah, it would be terrible for Huey to see her like this. I’ll go get him,” she said.

It was a bit of a struggle, but they managed to carry Miss Olivia to her own bed. Daphne turned down the covers and I removed her shoes. All together, we slipped her tiny body between the sheets. She couldn’t have weighed more than one hundred pounds.

“Did you get the doctor, Byron?”

“I spoke to the nurse. He’s calling us back.”

We straightened her out and pulled the covers up over her waist, folding her hands over her stomach. She looked peaceful and beautiful in the rose-hued afternoon light that streamed through her windows, washing her bed in a warm glow. I felt so incredibly sad. The world had lost a great woman when Miss Olivia closed her eyes.

It was two o’clock then, and another hour passed before the doctor called to say he was on his way.

And finally, Rebecca called.

“Julian just called and I told him, Abigail. I hope it was all right to do that. He’s almost back at the dock anyway. Do you need me to get anything? I’m leaving to come over right now.”

“No, thanks. I’m going outside to wait for Huey. I’ll see you soon.” I hung up and looked over to Byron. “Maybe we should make a pot of coffee or something. Do you have any cookies or a coffee cake? There will be people coming and going for a while.”

“I’ll take care of it,” he said. “Don’t worry.”

Byron had moved from near hysterics to a somber mood. I knew he was feeling like I was—sorry to lose someone as wonderful as Miss Olivia, somewhat afraid of shouldering Huey’s pain and trying to think through the logistics of wake and funeral and how life would stop until they were over. And that when they were over, there would be a huge gaping hole in all of our hearts for a long time to come. Huey would feel it for the rest of his days.

I went outside and down to the river, and sure enough, I could just make out Julian’s boat in the distance. When they finally docked, I took Evan’s hand and helped him off the boat. They were quiet. I could see that Evan and Huey had been crying and that Julian was upset as well. He had not known Miss Olivia long but he loved her like we all did.

I hugged Huey hard and said, “Oh, Huey, I’m so sorry.”

Huey said, “Thanks. Me too.”

Byron came outside and ran to Huey. Huey threw himself into Byron’s arms and began to bawl. Huey’s racking sobs unnerved Byron; then Byron lost it and just wailed along with him.

I saw the doctor walking across the lawn at the same time Julian did. Rebecca and Sami were right behind him. Daphne was leaving.

“I’ll go greet him,” Julian said.

“Miss Olivia is in her bedroom,” I said. “Let me say good-bye to Daphne.”

Evan ran for Rebecca and Sami and I was left with the inconsolable Huey and Byron.

“I’ll be right back,” I said. “Daphne! Wait!” I caught up with her and said, “Listen, thanks for coming and helping me today. I realize that it was above and beyond the call of duty. And to be honest, I didn’t have anyone else to call.”

“No big deal. I’m glad I could help.” She looked all around at the vast property, and then she said, “This is some gorgeous place, isn’t it? My stupid brother sure stepped in it, didn’t he?”

“Uh, well, it isn’t so bad to work in an oceanfront house on Pawleys, is it?” I was just teasing her.

She shook her head and looked at the ground. Then she looked up at me with the strangest expression that I couldn’t read.

“Well, this has been some day, huh? What a shock!”

“Ain’t over yet,” she said and turned to walk away. “See you tomorrow!”

“No, you’re right. It’s going to be a long afternoon and night. See you tomorrow!” I wondered what she had meant and decided it meant nothing. “Thanks again!” I said and went back toward Huey and Byron.

Byron had his hand on Huey’s shoulder, consoling him. Poor Huey, I thought. His heart’s broken.

“I have to go in there,” he said and broke down again.

Huey wanted to see his mother and he wanted to be alone when he did. Finally, he went in her house and to her bedroom.

“I’ll be right outside the door, Huey,” I said.

“Thanks,” he said.

Julian and Byron waited with me. We didn’t know what to say to each other. What could anyone say? That she was elderly and had enjoyed a good, long and happy life? Or that at least she wasn’t sick and had to suffer a long illness? All those things were obvious and useless to those people she had left without so much as a good-bye. Finally Byron spoke.

“I’m going to go start dinner,” he said. “We have to eat, don’t we?”

There were some issues about how we would put Miss Olivia to rest. First, she had long ago dropped a formal religious affiliation with any congregation. She said she didn’t need a minister to help her talk to God. She had said on many occasions that she talked to God all the time and that she felt very good about her Christian soul. But it seemed wrong not to have some kind of a religious service for her, because we needed it even if she had felt she would not.