Summer of '69(82)

But as the house lights dim and the show begins, Kate grows uneasy. The plot seems innocent enough—a longtime Washington Senators fan desperately wants his team to beat the Yankees and win the pennant. But it quickly turns into a tale of selling one’s soul to the devil. The character of Mr. Applegate is going to turn old Joe Boyd into Shoeless Joe Hardy, who will have the talent to lead the Senators to the pennant…in exchange for his soul.

Kate struggles not to draw parallels. She and Bill have an agreement, an understanding. He and his grandson can stay indefinitely…if he finds a way to get Tiger home.

But if that doesn’t happen?

The show is entertaining. Kate loses herself in the story for long stretches. Bill Crimmins is sitting between Kate and Exalta, but Kate notices Exalta pitched forward in her seat, in thrall to the actors and the music.

The woman who plays Lola is a knockout. Kate recognizes her as one of the people who were sitting at table 1 at the Opera House the other night. When she sings “Whatever Lola Wants,” Exalta sings along softly.

Well, yes, Kate thinks, her mother would like that song.

Kate decides she will talk to Bill Crimmins tonight. She can’t wait another day. Nixon has promised to start sending boys home but there are still half a million troops in Vietnam, and the ones who will leave first are the ones who have been over there the longest, meaning not Tiger. Kate wants to believe that the peace talks taking place in Paris will work, but the negotiators can’t even decide on a round table versus a rectangular table, so how can they possibly iron out their ideological differences?

The play has a happy ending—Shoeless Joe wins the pennant and escapes eternal damnation and is reunited with his one true love, his wife. I don’t need everything tied up with a bow, Kate thinks. She just needs her son to come home.

At the curtain call, Exalta jumps to her feet, clapping wildly, and then Bill Crimmins stands, presumably in deference to Exalta. (Whatever Exalta wants, Kate thinks, Exalta gets.) And soon the rest of the audience members get to their feet. There are whistles and hollers of approval. The cast bows, then bows again.

The lights come up, and, as much as Kate enjoyed the show, she’s glad it’s over.



Out on the street, Exalta gushes, “That was just marvelous, wasn’t it?”

“It was indeed,” Bill Crimmins agrees heartily.

“Let’s go to dinner,” Exalta says.

“Mother,” Kate says.

“At the Woodbox,” Exalta says. “I haven’t been once all summer and it’s right across the street!”

“I could go for some popovers,” Bill Crimmins says. “And Madame T. is quite fond of me, you know.”

“Everyone on this island is fond of you, Bill,” Exalta observes.

“I’m going to pass,” Kate says. She likes to eat at the Woodbox when they come up for the occasional autumn weekend, but in the summer, it’s beastly hot, and beyond that, Kate doesn’t have the patience to sit and make small talk about the play when she has such pressing business to discuss with Bill Crimmins. She’s positive that once she demurs, Exalta will as well, because what is Exalta going to do? Go to dinner with Bill Crimmins by herself?

Yes, apparently. Bill Crimmins links his arm through Exalta’s and they saunter across the street, leaving Kate to stand out in front of All’s Fair.

Kate tells herself she doesn’t care. She goes inside to pour herself a vodka.



Kate is three drinks in when she hears her mother and Bill Crimmins come home. There are brief good-nights exchanged and then Kate hears Exalta’s footsteps on the stairs, and Bill Crimmins strides into the kitchen whistling “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.,” his blazer dangling off one hooked finger. When he sees Kate sitting in the near dark with a vodka over ice in front of her, he startles and his expression becomes fearful, as though he has encountered the devil herself.

“Bill,” she says.

“Katie.”

Again, the loathsome nickname. Kate stands up, steadying herself against the table. “I need to know about Tiger.”

Bill’s face falls and Kate grips the table’s edge.

“I overestimated my brother-in-law’s influence,” he says. “He isn’t able to pull the strings to get Tiger home.”

“Bill,” Kate says. She isn’t sure which emotion to indulge first, anger or agony. She knew things would turn out this way—the U.S. military isn’t inclined to grant personal favors, even when the request comes from the very top—and yet she still feels swindled. Bill’s suggestion had been prompted by desperation. He needed a place for himself and the boy to live; he might have flat-out lied to bargain his way into Little Fair. Did Bill’s brother-in-law even know the general? Had Bill’s brother-in-law really served in World War II? Did Bill even have a brother-in-law?

“I do have information, however,” Bill says. “I was able to get that.”

“Information?” Kate says. “What does that mean?”

Bill pulls a chair out as though to sit down, but Kate shakes her head. “Tell me right now.”

“Tiger has been sent off on a special mission.” Bill bunches his blazer up in his hands and stares down at it. “It was unexpected. Tiger’s company ran into a bad firefight”—Kate squeezes her eyes closed—“and so many men in his company were killed that the survivors were reassigned to other companies and Tiger was sent…”