Surfside Sisters(59)

“I understand. I hope she’s okay. Let me know how she is. How you are.”

“I will. And maybe you can send me some photos of the country.”

“Sure. Well, good luck, Keely.”

“Yes, thanks.”

Her stomach felt hollow when she clicked off.

Then she looked at her laptop, standing ready and waiting on the table. She’d take it with her, and maybe a change of scenery would be just what she needed to kick-start her novel revisions.



* * *



—

As Keely’s plane lifted off from LaGuardia, she looked down at the rows of skyscrapers separated by rivers of vehicles and linked to the mainland by bridges. In minutes, the plane was over Long Island Sound and the dark blue Atlantic, and forty-five minutes later, she saw Nantucket, low and green and surrounded by water, held to the mainland by nothing—no bridge could span thirty miles—with only a few roads linking the cluster of buildings at the harbor to the far points of the island.

The plane came in from the north onto the runway that ended at the ocean. It taxied up to a small gray shed. The pilot thanked his six passengers. Keely went down the ramp and walked across the tarmac to the terminal to wait for her luggage.

Brenda was there to greet her.

“Oh, honey, look at you, you’re wasting away to nothing.”

Brenda hugged Keely tightly, and Keely was surprised at how that affection warmed her and brought her emotions right to the surface. She blinked back tears.

“It’s so good to see you, Brenda.”

    “I brought you a deep-dish apple pie and a hamburger casserole—they’re in the back of the car. I’m not sure your mother has much food in the house.”

“That’s so nice. And you know how I love your pies.” Keely lifted her rolling suitcase from the luggage bin and followed Brenda out of the small building. “I tried to phone Mom to let her know I was coming, but her landline doesn’t work and she doesn’t answer her cell.”

“She lost her cellphone a few weeks ago. I helped her get a new one but she never uses it. See what I mean? She’s let everything go. I am so relieved you’re here. How long can you stay?”

“I’m not sure.”

“It seems wrong to me that you’re not living here, Keely. If you don’t mind my speaking frankly. It’s one thing that your mother misses you, but the island isn’t the same without you.”

Keely wanted to distract Brenda. “How are your chickens?”

“Oh, my, what drama we’ve had! A summer person’s little dog got into our yard…” Brenda chatted away happily until they reached Eloise’s house. “Okay, here we are.” Brenda pulled into the driveway of the modest one-story ranch house on Kingfisher Drive. “I’ll carry in the casserole and pie.”

Keely hooked her laptop and bag over her shoulder and pulled her rolling suitcase up the walk. She stopped at the door of the house she’d grown up in. It had always been a glossy yellow, but now it looked faded and weathered. Her mother used to paint it first thing every spring, when the scouring winter winds had calmed and the daffodils were blooming. It was a plain house, but her mother had always kept some sort of greenery in the window boxes.

Keely knocked. No answer.

“Knock harder, hon. YOOHOO!”

Keely knocked again. At the front window, a curtain twitched.

The door opened. Her mother stood there in a shabby old chenille robe and grimy slippers.

    “Keely!”

“Hi, Mom.”

“My goodness, this is a surprise. Darling, I’m so happy to see you!”

Eloise hugged Keely. “Brenda,” she said, “I’d ask you in, but the house is a mess. I’ve been sorting through old papers and clothes. Trying to declutter, you know.”

Brenda leaned forward and set her two dishes on the floor. “Oh, that’s fine, Eloise. I understand, of course. I’m just dropping off a casserole and an apple pie. You always loved my pies.”

Keely turned to hug her mother’s friend. “Brenda, thank you so much for everything. It was great of you to pick me up at the airport.”

Brenda gave Keely a meaningful look. “Anything I can do, Keely, you just let me know.” She bustled away down the walk to her car, turning to wave at Keely and Eloise when she reached her car door.

“Come in,” Eloise said. “If I’d known you were coming…” She looked confused. “Did you tell me you were coming?”

“I tried to, Mom, but your landline doesn’t work.”

“Oh, maybe I left it off the hook again,” Eloise said vaguely. “And my new cellphone is so confusing.”

Her mother had loved technology when she worked at the hospital. Every year wonderful new diagnostic and therapeutic machines arrived on the island, making Eloise’s work easier. It was a bad sign that her mother was having trouble with her new cell.

Keely hefted her suitcase inside and started to put her purse and computer bag on the table by the front door. But the table was so piled with mail and newspapers there was no room. She set them on the floor. There wasn’t much room there, either.

Eloise picked up Brenda’s dishes and carried them into the kitchen, but Keely remained by the front door, stunned.