It’s the first invitation he has received since he got out of jail, and Eddie won’t lie: he’s over the moon. Eddie Pancik, formerly known as Fast Eddie, dutifully served a three-to-five-year sentence (in two years and three months) at MCI–Plymouth for conspiracy and racketeering after confessing to pimping out his crew of Russian cleaning girls to his high-end real estate clients. Eddie’s conviction had coincided with his discovery that his wife, Grace, was having an affair with their handsome and handsomely paid landscape architect, Benton Coe—and so when Eddie had first gotten to jail, it had felt like his world was caving in.
If Eddie learned anything while being incarcerated, it’s that human beings are resilient. He won’t say he thrived during his time at MCI–Plymouth, but it wasn’t nearly as awful as he’d expected. In some ways he appreciated the discipline and the hiatus from the rat race. Whereas before, Eddie’s focus had always been on drumming up business and the next big deal, jail taught him to be mindful and present. He went to the weight room every day at seven a.m., then to breakfast, then he spent the morning teaching an ersatz real estate class in the prison library. The clientele of the prison was primarily white-collar criminals—embezzlers, credit card scammers, some drug lords but none with violent convictions—and nearly all of them, Eddie found, had a good head for business. Most times Eddie’s “classes” turned into roundtable discussions of how good business ideas went awry. Sometimes the line was blurry, they all agreed.
Eddie even managed to sell a house while in lockup—to a man named Forrest Landry, who had hundreds of millions in trust with his wife, Karen. Karen Landry was one of those long-suffering types—Forrest had been unfaithful to her as well as to the law—but prison had made Forrest penitent, and he decided that a house on the platinum stretch of Hulbert Avenue would be just the thing to make amends.
He paid the listing price: $11.5 million.
Eddie’s commission was $345,000. Eddie’s sister, Barbie, acted as Eddie’s proxy, and the windfall was directed to Eddie’s wife, Grace, who used the money to pay college tuition for their twin daughters, Hope and Allegra. Hope had gotten into every college she applied to and had opted to go to Bucknell University in the middle of Exactly Nowhere, Pennsylvania. The school is ridiculously expensive, although—as Hope pointed out—not as expensive as Duke, USC, or Brown, her other three choices. She is getting straight As and playing the flute in a jazz band. Now in the fall of her sophomore year, she’s even pledging a sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, which both Eddie and Grace agreed was a good thing, as Hope had been a bit of a loner in high school.
Allegra didn’t get in anywhere except UMass Dartmouth and Plymouth State because of poor test scores and even worse grades. She decided on UMass Dartmouth, with an eye to transferring to the main campus in Amherst her sophomore year—but instead she flunked out. She returned to Nantucket and went to work for her aunt Barbie at Bayberry Properties, a company owned by Barbie’s husband, Glenn Daley.
Eddie is secretly okay with the fact that Allegra isn’t in college, and not just for the obvious financial reasons. Eddie sees a lot of himself in Allegra. He, too, struggled with traditional book learning. Allegra has common sense, ambition, and enviable social skills. She has started out as the receptionist at Bayberry Properties, but Glenn has been talking about promoting her to office manager sometime in the next year. From there it will only be a matter of time before she pursues her broker’s license. The kid is going to be a success; Eddie is sure of it. He has seen her in action at the office—she is polite, professional, and confident way beyond her years. She’s even nice on the phone when the odious Rachel McMann calls. Rachel used to work at Bayberry Properties, but while Eddie was in jail, she struck out on her own, and she’s had an alarming amount of success, even though she’s the worst gossip on the island.
Glenn Daley, once Eddie’s biggest rival, offered Eddie a desk at Bayberry Properties at Barbie’s insistence. Eddie now sits in the back row against the wall with two other first-year associates, and the three of them split phone duty, although somehow Eddie always ends up getting stuck with the weekend shifts. It’s like starting in the business all over again, but Eddie tries to feel grateful. He should be humbled that Glenn Daley has chosen to claim his convicted felon of a brother-in-law and give him a fresh start.
Eddie shows Grace the invitation. “Look,” he says. “Bart Quinn’s birthday party at the VFW on Halloween!” He tries to tamp down his enthusiasm, but it’s difficult. He’s thrilled that the Quinns haven’t forsaken him. There are others on the island who have either shunned him or given him the stink eye. Philip Meier from Nantucket Bank, for one. Eddie bumped into him at the post office, and Philip walked by Eddie without so much as a hello. And don’t get Eddie started on his former office manager, Eloise Coffin. Eddie would love to key Eloise’s car, but she drives a twelve-year-old Hyundai, so it would hardly be worth it. When Eddie went to jail, it was Eloise who talked to the press.
“Halloween?” Grace says. She takes the invitation from Eddie and puts on her reading glasses. The reading glasses are new since Eddie went to jail, as is all the gray in the part of her hair. One of the infinite number of things Eddie feels guilty about is causing Grace to look middle aged. “I can’t go.”
“You can’t?” Eddie says. He feels a sense of panic. They’ve been invited to a party by the Quinns, which may lead to an invitation to the Quinns’ annual Christmas Eve party. That would really restore Eddie’s social credentials. They have to go. “Why not?”
“I’m working up the alley,” Grace says. “I’m in charge of giving out the candy to the trick-or-treaters. I’ve been doing it for years.”
Doing it for years? The phrase “up the alley” annoys Eddie. “Up the alley” means Academy Hill, the former school that is now fixed-income housing for elders. It’s a hundred yards from the teensy-tiny cottage Grace bought on Lily Street, up Snake Alley. Grace has been volunteering at Academy Hill since Eddie went away. She may have worked there last Halloween and possibly the Halloween before that, but this hardly qualifies as “doing it for years.” However, Eddie holds his tongue. He promised himself in jail that, as far as Grace was concerned, he would be a new man—a kind, patient, and attentive husband. He will not belittle Grace’s charity work. He will not ask her to skip it. But what will he do about the party?