small talk

     “Did you know Malcolm well?”

     “My sister was married to him for fifteen years, and we are very close, so naturally I knew him. I wouldn’t say ‘well’—we are both very private people. But he was very welcoming to me over the years. I was sorry to hear he had died. I came over on the first boat the next morning.”

       “Where do you live?”

       “You could say I’m based in Providence. I travel a great deal for work.” He put his glass down and scratched his wrist.

        “What kind of work do you do?”

       “I’m a salesman—a very high level, world travelling salesman.”

        “What do you sell?”

        He smiled. “Pharmaceuticals.”

        She sipped her wine. Better back off. “How utterly fascinating,” she said. “What do you think of our little corner of the world?”

       “I haven’t seen very much of it, really. Maybe you could show me around,” he said with a wink.

     “Yes, I can see you are a salesman,” said Merideth tartly. “I don’t give island tours, but you are welcome to come by and see my garden sometime. Not that anything much is in bloom yet.” She took another tiny sip and put her glass down on the table next to his. “I must speak to your sister.”

     “A pleasure to meet you, Merideth. I will certainly come and tour your garden while I’m here.”

      “Are you staying a while?”

      “I will stay with my sister as long as she needs me. Until this business is wrapped up.” He scratched his wrist again.

      A peculiar way to put the death of his brother-in-law, thought Merideth, as she shook his hand and moved off indoors.

funeral arrangements

“Ah, yes, the garden club lady,” said Jerry, shaking her hand.

     “Have we met?” Merideth asked brightly.

    “I don’t believe so, and surely I would remember,” he inclined his head gallantly.

     Although Merideth considered herself a tough old bird, she was not proof against a handsome man flirting with her. A very handsome man.

      He took her arm and guided her through the crowd and out onto the porch overlooking Crescent Beach.

     “May I get you something to drink? Coffee? Wine?”

     Merideth considered balancing a cup and saucer. Oh well, she thought. It was practically five o’clock. The sun was almost under the yardarm. “I’ll have a small glass of red wine. Thank you.”

     He disappeared indoors and she took a breath. Hopefully he was getting an alcoholic drink as well. She needed to forget about those sapphire eyes and those shoulders and get him talking.

      Young Earl walked through the door onto the porch. He looked as if he wanted to bolt back indoors when he saw her, but grudgingly nodded. “Never been out here since the new people,” he said.

    “Me neither. Beautiful view.” She wondered what he was doing here. Socializing wasn’t his thing, and he must have known she would be here. He stood awkwardly, hands by his side, until he saw Jerry coming towards her with a drink in each hand, then nodded and bumbled back indoors.

      “Thank you. Do you come here often?” she asked coyly.

     He sipped a clear, fizzy liquid with a slice of lime.  Club soda?

    “Not nearly as often as I will in future,” he teased. “I’m Jerry.”

    “Oh, you like the view? It is marvelous, isn’t it. And your sister—Catherine is your sister?—has done an excellent job of framing it with the nice new railings and hanging baskets.” He didn’t need to know that she deplored geraniums. Even pink ones. The smell! “I am Merideth.”

     “Merry Death,” he said. “How odd. The Merry part I understand.”

    “I’m probably looking like death warmed over right now,” said Merideth. “That funeral took it out of me.”

     He looked solemn. “Yes. A terrible thing.”

the zoo

      He drove in silence to the Manisses. “I’ll just leave the van here,” he said.  She was very subdued. He felt sorry for her. What must it feel like to see your children in an alternate life you had no part in. Not to mention the fact that the man with whom you made those children, who you presumably loved at one time, naked and sweaty, was now ashes.

      “Let’s go look at the animals,” he said.

      He put some coins into a machine and took out a package of food pellets. The dromedary and a llama were already hanging their heads over the fence expectantly.

     “They’re as out of place as I am,” said Kat.

    “This hotel is named after the Manisses tribe. Legend has it they were exiles from a mainland tribe. Rejects. They were enslaved by the white settlers who came here from England in 1661. Supposedly if an Indian could build a stone wall from one end of the island to the other, he would be freed. I doubt that story though.

    “Now the island has been overtaken by tourists and cottagers from Connecticut and New Jersey, and the descendants of those white settlers work for them. And the jobs they won’t do, we import people from Brazil, Eastern Europe and Thailand to do.

     “So we’re all exiles and newcomers. And if you look out over the ocean, we all seem pretty small and out of place.”

      “I get the same feeling in the desert in New Mexico. Have you ever been there?”

     “No. I can’t get that far from an ocean.”

     “There it’s all about the sky. There’s a lot of sky over the ocean, too. But it seems like more there. Or more extreme.”

      “I thought you lived in Greenwich.”

      “Ridgefield. In the woods. But I’ve had a tiny place near Santa Fe for years. Malcolm and I bought it when we were married. I spend a lot of time out there.”

      “Doing what?”

      “Painting, mostly. Kate once told me you paint, too.”

       “I do. Seascapes mainly. What do you paint?”

      “Skyscapes.”

      They both laughed.

      The animals gave up and wandered away.

after words

 “I got a much different impression of Catherine than I ever have before,” said Kate, as they drove towards town.

    “Me too,” said Merideth. “She always seemed brittle, reserved. I would not have thought she had so much feeling.”

      Kat said nothing.

     “I told you she wasn’t so bad,” said Bill.

     “Yeah but you never spent as much time with her as I did,” said Kate. “Maybe ‘cause I’m older now? Or I wonder if maybe I thought she and Jerry were the same person.”

        “Is that her brother?” asked Merideth. “They look so much alike. Are they twins?”

       “Yes,” said Kate. “And I hate him. He follows her everywhere she goes. He’s always around. Probably wanting money. Dad’s money. ”

       “What does he do?” asked Meredith.

     “That’s a New York question!” said Kate.

     “Gigolo,” said Bill.

     “No, he’s some kind of a salesman. I don’t know what. Probably doesn’t matter. If you can sell, you can sell anything.”

     “He didn’t manage to sell himself to you!” said Bill.

     Kate shuddered. Bobby pulled up across from the Surf. “”Why don’t you all get out. I’ll find someplace to park.”

      “I’ll just go back to the hotel,” said Kat.

      “Mom!”

     “I don’t know these people. It’s become pretty clear to me that I am very far removed from this part of Malcolm’s life. And I don’t think the bad fairy showing up at the christening is all that appropriate.”

     “It would be interesting to see what Catherine made of you, though,” said Meredith.  “I’d give something to be a fly on that wall.”

     “Where are you staying?” asked Bill.

     “The Manissees.”

     “I’ll come by. Lets have dinner later.”

     “When worlds collide,” Bobby said, after they all got out.

     “Yes,” said Kat. “It’s hard on everybody. Even without a murder investigation.”

kat among the pigeons

 “Mom! What are you doing here!”

      “I was married to the man for seventeen years,” she said. “That’s longer than his current wife. I loved him too! I can be here.”

     Kate frowned at Merideth.

     “I didn’t tell her. She came on her own.”

     Bobby was already in the van, but he watched as his passengers paused. Cat was among the pigeons now, all right! Or Kat. He liked her. He had been expecting a Greenwich matron like the ones he had grown up with, but there was more to her. He wondered what she had been doing all these years besides being a divorcee and mother.

     “Oh, you might as well come along,” said Kate.

     “Everybody else and his brother is,” said Merideth. “All we’re missing is Wife No. 2.”

      “I doubt she’s coming,” said Bill. “She moved on to some Saudi prince or something.”

       “My!” said Merideth.

       “Come on,” said Kate again. “Bobby’s waiting.”

      The TV crew grabbed some B roll of them getting into the van.  Then they started walking towards Reverend Paul and the grave plot. He grabbed the urn and  headed for his car, parked at the playground across the street. As he turned the key, he heard the nail gun start up again. It was that time of year.

meanwhile. . .

What the gazebo and the travel trailer have in common," pronounced the President of the Garden Club, "Is that both are dreams that become yard ornaments."

last words

      “What was that about the ribbon?” Bill asked his sister.

      “It’s a Jewish custom,” she whispered. “I looked it up on the Internet. You’re supposed to rend your garments, but people rend a ribbon instead.”

       “We weren’t raised Jewish!”

      “I know, but Dad was. The other thing is quick burial and something about putting dirt on the coffin, but there’s no coffin. There is an urn. It’s inside the podium.”

 

      Reverend Paul looked around the assembled congregation, some of whom sat in stunned silence while others were buzzing. “Thank you, Kate,” he said. “Does anyone else want to share any memories before we close?”

       They waited.

     The widow Addams got up. “I was not planning to say anything,” she said. “I have no prepared remarks. I did not think I could get through a speech. But I have to thank Kate for saying what we are all thinking. Someone killed my husband.” She couldn’t speak for a moment. “I know many of you believe I married him for money. I did not. I married him for love, and it has only now started to sink in that I won’t see him again. Ever. In this world.” She was openly crying now. “I thought I would have many more years with him. Please, find out who did this. He was a good man, a kind man. Good to the island and to everyone who is sitting here right now. He loved you.”

       She paused for a long while to collect herself. “And he loved to entertain you. After we leave here, please come to the Surf for food and drink. Laugh and enjoy yourselves in Mac’s memory. It’s what he would like the best, not a solemn graveside ceremony.”

       Reverend Paul could see that, after all of the drama, he wouldn’t be able to hold their attention much longer. He quickly moved to the “burial” of the urn, though the marker was not yet made and the ashes were not yet inside the urn.  As he uttered the final prayers, the family left, followed by the rest of the mourners.