Summer of '69(108)

After lunch, Jessie lies on her stomach and reads Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. She stops every few pages to daydream about her older self graduating from college and moving to New York City or Paris or Amsterdam, which is where Anne Frank lived.

At quarter to three, they pack up their things and climb into the Scout, and they reach the ferry at the exact moment that David Levin is coming down the gangplank.

Kate says, “Go ahead, it’s okay.”

Jessie gets out of the car and runs into her father’s arms and he holds her tight and says, “Oh, honey, you are a sight for sore eyes.” Jessie squeezes him tightly and thinks that he’s the sight for sore eyes; she didn’t realize how much she missed him until just this second.

He pulls away and says, “I can’t believe how grown-up and beautiful you’re getting.”

Her face grows warm, or maybe that’s from the sun.

“Don’t forget, we have an ice cream date,” David says. “But right now, I want to kiss your mother.”



They drive back to the house and Kate and David disappear upstairs and Jessie takes a long outdoor shower and then goes upstairs in Little Fair and sees an envelope on the table. Her heart seizes. Tiger? But as she gets closer, she sees it’s just a letter from Doris. Jessie takes it into her room and stretches out across the bed. Her skin is tight from the sun, and despite the shower, there are still grains of sand hiding in the part of her hair and the whorls of her ears, but this is how it’s supposed to be in summer.

Dear Jessie,

I can’t believe you have a boyfriend. I hope he gets to visit Brookline so we can meet him in person.



Jessie realizes that this line means exactly what it says: Doris doesn’t believe Jessie has a boyfriend. And Doris is correct, but she never needs to know that.

There’s big news here and that is that Leslie got caught stealing a pair of pearl earrings from Filene’s. She went shopping with Pammy Pope and told Pammy how easy it was to just take whatever she wanted without paying for it. Pammy said she wanted a pair of pearl earrings. Piece of cake, Leslie said. She took out her own gold studs and stuck them in her pocket. Then at the jewelry counter, she asked to see the pearl earrings. She stuck them in her ears and pretended to admire them in the mirror and when the saleslady got distracted, Leslie slipped into the next department, then the next, then she eased out the door to the street. Pammy was in awe. She thought Leslie had gotten away with it.

Leslie was stopped by the police two blocks away.

The police took her to the station, called her parents, said they had witnessed the burglary on a hidden camera and they could charge Leslie and she would go to court and maybe even a juvenile delinquent center. Leslie’s father managed to talk the police out of it and he took Leslie home.

But now…Leslie’s parents have decided to send her to boarding school in Switzerland (which is where her grandmother lives) because they don’t want Leslie going down a “wayward path.”

So I guess that just leaves you and me, facing seventh grade together!

See you in a few weeks.

From your best friend, Doris



The drama of the day and the sun at the beach have worn Jessie down. She has every intention of using the dollar her father gave her to walk down to Vincent’s for pizza, but the second her parents leave for dinner at the Skipper, she goes up to her room and falls asleep.

She wakes up in the middle of the night, absolutely ravenous. She knows the offerings in the fridge at Little Fair are meager—half a jar of pickles, grape jam, a package of hot dogs that would require boiling, which seems like too much work. Jessie tiptoes down the stairs but finds the door to Mr. Crimmins’s room open. The room is empty and dark, and Jessie wonders if Mr. Crimmins will move back to Pine Street now that Pick is gone. She supposes the answer is yes.

Jessie crosses the yard and enters the kitchen at All’s Fair, hoping that Kate brought home a doggie bag from the Skipper; her mother hasn’t eaten a full meal since Tiger left. Sure enough, there’s a paper bag on the counter and inside is a box containing cold fried chicken. Jessie is so hungry she bites into the drumstick right away. She hears voices. Maybe she’s not the only person awake, or maybe someone left the television on.

Jessie tiptoes down the hall. No one has turned on the TV since Blair left for the hospital. But Jessie can see the watery light flickering into the hall.

She pauses at the doorway, drumstick still in hand, and peers in. She sees the silhouette of her parents sitting on the sofa, but what catches Jessie’s attention is the television screen. There’s a man in an astronaut suit emerging from a rocket.

A voice says, “We see you coming down the ladder.”

It’s the moon landing! Jessie knew it was happening soon but with everything else going on, she forgot it was tonight. She is so happy she woke up.

There’s another voice, far away and distorted, like a man talking into a tin can. The voice says, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Her parents stand up—but then Jessie realizes it’s not her parents. It’s…Nonny and Mr. Crimmins. Nonny turns to Mr. Crimmins, offering both her hands.

“Bill,” she says. “Did you ever think we’d live long enough to see this?”

Mr. Crimmins pulls Exalta to him and kisses her—really kisses her, like a character in one of Blair’s soap operas.