“Where are your boys?” Darcy asked Susan.
“Asleep. I’ve enrolled them in a summer day camp. They love it, and they’re put in different sections, separated for the day, which is good for them. They fall asleep the moment their heads hit their pillows. I wish I’d thought of this earlier in the summer.”
“Hello!” Mimi called out. She came across the grass with her arm around Willow’s shoulders for steadiness. In the radiance of the little lights, she looked amazing, like a woman stepping out of the past.
“What are you wearing?” Darcy asked, stunned by the older woman’s plunging silk nightgown and magnificent silk wrapper thickly embroidered with a flamboyance of colorful birds.
Mimi chortled. “Fabulous, isn’t it? It was my mother’s. She was a clotheshorse, and I always coveted this, and now I have it. I don’t often get a chance to wear it.”
“Damn,” Susan swore. “I sleep in an old stretched-out T-shirt of Otto’s.”
“Me, too,” Darcy said. “Well, I don’t mean I sleep in one of Otto’s T-shirts….”
Laughing, Mimi leveraged herself into a chair. “You young women can make a T-shirt look like a stripper’s costume. At my age, I prefer silk and lots of it. Now. What were you gossiping about? I saw you from my bedroom window.”
Willow and Susan rapidly repeated their news.
“But if the boys are in a day camp, when does Willow babysit?”
“In the late afternoon,” Willow said.
Susan added, “For three hours. From four to seven. That’s a quiet time for Merry Wicks—she’s the owner—but people do come in from time to time, especially on cloudy days. I give her a chance to do errands and eat a proper meal. She returns and keeps the shop open until nine. It’s amazing, how people find the place, even though it’s not in the center of town.”
“And I’ll bring the boys to my house,” Willow added. “Because we’ve got the trampoline and the badminton set there. If it’s raining, we’ll play some of the games stored in our cupboards.”
“But won’t your mother mind?” Mimi asked. “Three rambunctious youngsters—so much noise?”
“I checked with Mom, and she’s cool about it. Dad’s up in Boston all week, so Mom said she’ll go shopping, that will only take her a hundred hours, or drive out to some beach and have a long walk and enjoy the island.”
“Of course, she won’t always have the boys at her house,” Susan cut in. “Otto can take his laptop to the library, so if Henry or George or Alfred want to play at home, Willow can watch them there and they won’t be a bother to him.”
“We can always walk down to Flock so the guys can say hi to their mom,” Willow said.
“I’m guessing the shop will be boring to them and frankly, three boys in a yarn shop is not a mix made in heaven,” Susan said.
“What does Otto think of you working?” Mimi asked.
“I thought he’d object. It’s not like we need the money. But he understands—who better?—my desire to escape my darlings, and my need to do something adult.”
Mimi set her eagle eye on Willow. “And what do your parents think of you spending all your time with old ladies and children? They must want you to make some acquaintances of your own age.”
Willow rolled her eyes. “I met an ‘acquaintance’ my own age when I first got here, Mimi. That didn’t work out so well. Ask Darcy about that sometime. But anyway, I’m happy at the library, and I enjoy the boys. I think they’re the totally right age for me this summer.”
“You’ve only had them for two afternoons,” Susan reminded Willow. “Wait until you’ve spent a week with them.”
“If they get bored, I’ll walk them into town for ice cream, or we can go to Children’s Beach,” Willow added.
“If it rains,” Mimi told her, “bring your tribe over to our house. There’s a Ping-Pong table in the basement.”
“Awesome!” Willow cried. “I love Ping-Pong!”
“Alfred is too young for Ping-Pong,” Susan mused. “He isn’t tall enough yet.”
“I’ll take them shopping,” Willow said. “The Sunken Ship has cool toys….”
“Alfred likes monster trucks,” Susan told her.
“But, Mimi!” Willow suddenly looked distressed. “When will I be able to read to you? I forgot, we’re right in the middle of The Age of Innocence!”
“I don’t work on Mondays or on weekends,” Susan quickly informed them, worried.
“There you are, then,” Mimi said, soothing them with her easy voice. “You can read to me on Mondays and weekends—if you don’t need the time for yourself.”
Darcy settled back in her chair, letting the conversation fade into the background, enjoying the moment, the three other women of all ages leaning toward one another, sharing information, making plans, talking of yarn and toys. The pinpoints of light gave an air of mystery and drama to their faces, a kind of depth. It was as if this conversation could be taking place a hundred years ago, or fifty years from now. Women would always plot about childcare and knitting.
She especially enjoyed watching Willow. Her long auburn hair was twisted up in back and held with a clasp so that much of it stuck out in all directions from the top of her head, like a spout. She wore cutoffs, flip-flops, and a blue T-shirt with the joke logo Nantucket University. Willow was animated as she talked, completely at ease, laughing and waving her arms and shouting “No way!” or “Totally!” at something Mimi or Susan said. She was a sweet, funny girl, and Darcy was fond of her. More than that, she felt proud of her for making such an about-face in such a brief period of time from baby bombshell needing the attention and sexual lessons of Logan to this child/young woman, comfortable hanging around with old ladies. She felt connected to Willow—and just at that moment, as if the girl had intuited Darcy’s thoughts, Willow flashed a grin full of affection at Darcy before returning to the conversation with Susan and Mimi.
But when Darcy looked at Susan, a little midge of worry buzzed in Darcy’s thoughts. Boyz was gone five days of the week, working in Boston, leaving the bounteous Autumn free. If Susan was ensconced in the yarn shop, and her boys were with Willow, that meant that Otto was free to go anywhere to do anything with anyone.
To do anything.
But really, what business was it of hers? She liked Susan, and would hate to see her hurt, but Darcy had no real idea of Susan and Otto’s relationship. Other people’s marriages held private pacts and arrangements so intimate they were kept hidden from everyone else, even from the children. Maybe Susan would be relieved to have the tyrannical Otto release his energies on another woman. And would it surprise Darcy at all if Boyz, up in Boston for the week, had a mistress? Ha.
“Darcy?” Mimi’s voice broke into her thoughts. “You look like you’re fading.”