“George.”
Daddy was quiet for a minute. Then he said, “I’m sorry. I was so busy hoping you’d like Vicky and the boys, I didn’t think about what might be worrying you.”
I put my chin on my knees.
“I have a lot of shortcomings,” Daddy said, “but not caring about you is not one of them.”
“I know,” I said.
Daddy laughed. “Thanks, I think. Let’s call your mom. Then we can get this vacation back on track, right?”
I had to think about that for a second. Really, I’d been having a pretty good time. It was different than I expected it to be, but it was good all the same. I’d forgotten that for a little while.
Getting up, Daddy bumped his head again. “Ow!”
In the kitchen, Vicky was sitting at the table. Mack made a sound like nnyyeer as he ran a tiny red car along the edges. He didn’t stop except to zip around Vicky.
“I’m going to make a call,” Daddy said over the car sounds.
Vicky looked at me, not smiling her Mary Tyler Moore smile, but a different one, a smaller one that I could believe. “Harris and I can wait out on the deck.”
“You don’t have to go anywhere,” Daddy said, starting to dial.
I had a feeling this was a big moment. But it was Daddy’s big moment. I said, “Mack and I have to go dig up a sand dollar.”
Mack came to a sudden stop. His smile was bright, like headlights.
“Do I dare ask why you’re digging up a sand dollar?” Vicky asked him.
“To keep it,” he said. He picked up the sand pail. “Right in here.”
“First it has to stay outside for a long time,” I told him.
Vicky nodded. “A very long time.”
“Hey, it’s me,” Daddy said into the phone. “She’s fine. She’s heading out to find something on the beach. Do you have a few minutes to talk?”
Outside, Ben was standing up to his waist in the oncoming waves, braced as if he expected to get knocked over. “Hey, look, Ben’s going swimming.”
“It’s too wet,” Mack said.
“Okay, well, we’re doing something else anyway.”
As Mack and I started down the steps, he grabbed my hand. He was still furry and sandy, only more than before. I tried not to think about it.
“Don’t you want to get married?” Mack asked me.
“I think it’s okay,” I said, because little kids like to get answers right away. And they know what they want to hear.
Once I said it, I thought it was probably true.
We walked along the beach for a little while. I didn’t know if we could find that sand dollar again. Mack was puttering along beside me, and he wasn’t making motor sounds. Under his breath, he was saying, thoop, thoop, thoop. He made me smile.
“There it is,” he said, pointing to a little mound of sand.
We dug down a little bit, and sure enough, there it was, all soft and smelly. “Yuck,” Mack said, holding up his green plastic shovel. It had a little piece of sand dollar clinging to it.
“Let’s cover it up again,” I said. “If Daddy takes us over to the boardwalk, we can buy a very nice one. All dried out.”
While we did that, I kept seeing something out of the corner of my eye. Something red stayed at the edge of the water lapping at the sand. I expected it to be a piece of plastic, floating. When I went over and picked it up, Mack drew in a loud breath. It was a shell with claws.
“It’s a hermit crab,” I said. “The crab lives inside the shell. See where this paint is rubbing off? Somebody must have bought it and set it loose.”
“Like the shark.”
“Like that.”
“Does it bite?”
“You pick it up by the shell.” I showed him how. Legs waved in the air. Mack backed up a little and looked it over without touching.
“Can we keep it?” he asked.
“We can.” I put it in his bucket.
On the way back I told him about the aquarium with the parsley and the hermit crab pool.
“Is this your hermit crab?” he asked me.
“I think your mom will let you keep it,” I said. “What would you name a crab?”
“Volkswagen,” he said. “It looks like one.”
“Volksy,” I said, like aww.
“Volkswagen.”
Ben was sitting on the deck with Vicky when we got upstairs. His hair was still dry. But he’d gone into the water, that was a good beginning.
Mack rushed over to show them his prize. He picked it up by the shell and held it out. “Eek!” Vicky said, and made him laugh.
“I hope you don’t expect us to eat that,” Ben said, teasing.
“Nope,” Mack said, very serious.
I heard Daddy’s voice coming from inside the house. I went to the door, wondering if he was still talking to Mom. When he spoke again, he said, “I guess I thought it would be hard news for you. Lexie made me see how wrong I was to keep waiting for the right moment. As if that could ever come.”
That had to mean Mom knew he was going to marry Vicky. It made me feel so much better that I felt sick and dizzy all over again. I could talk to Mom. She’d know why I didn’t call.
I walked into the kitchen, Mack motoring along at my side. “We all have to grow up sometime,” Daddy said to Mom. He smiled at me. “I’m lucky to get a second chance.”
I put out my hand for the phone. “Here, Lexie wants to talk to you,” Daddy said.
Mack held the crab up for Daddy to see as I took the phone.
“Very cool,” Daddy said, looking impressed.
“You okay?” Mom asked me right away.
“Yep.” And I really was. But tears burned in my eyes.
Daddy walked out on the deck, Mack chugging along beside him, the hermit crab’s legs waving in the air.
Mom asked, “Does it feel a little weird out there?”
“It’s getting better now.”
“Really?”
“Really.” I figured Mom felt a little weird now. “Is that okay?”
“It is,” she said. “We’ll have some new friends.” And after a moment she added, “You’ll have brothers. I just thought of that.”
I didn’t feel like talking about that yet. “Mom? Are you eating out for breakfast?”
“Every morning.”
“Have you seen any movies?”
“Two so far.”
I had to think for a moment to know what question I really wanted to ask. And then, when I knew, I asked, “How’s that going?”
“Pretty good. Fine, really. We ate spaghetti with meatballs and thought of you.”
George says my favorite movie, Lady and the Tramp, is his favorite movie. From his childhood. That always makes me laugh, I don’t know why.
I took a deep breath. “Are you thinking about marrying George?”
“No, but, Lexie?”
“Yeah?”
“If the thought pops into my head, you’ll be the first to know.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
Mack motored back in with the hermit crab and stood next to me, like he was waiting in line to talk to Mom. The crab waved its tiny claws in the air.
Mom asked, “What’s that noise I hear? Is the fridge working okay?”
“The fridge is fine,” I said. “That’s Mack. Like the truck.”
“Mack?”
“We found a hermit crab and Mack is going to take it home,” I said. “We might loan him the aquarium.”
Mom laughed a little. “You’re already acting like a big sister.”
Daddy came back inside. “I’m going now. I love you,” I said to Mom. I passed Daddy the phone and said, “I love you too.”
He tapped the top of his head with his knuckles. Ol-luv you.
I watched Mack motor the crab around the shelf with my collection. I didn’t worry that he’d touch something. While I wasn’t worrying about that, Ben looked inside. “Hey, Mack, you want to go in the water?”
His m
otor rumbled.
“How about you?” Ben asked me. “You want to go swimming?”
Mack said, “It’s too wet.”
“Sometimes we have to get wet,” Ben said. “I’ll go first.”
I grinned and said, “I’ll go first. And when I come out, my hair will be too wet.”
“All right, then,” Ben said. “You swim and I’ll guard.”
“Me too,” Mack said.
“Deal,” I said, and we went outside to check out the water.
With every book I owe a debt of gratitude to people who, in a moment of everyday theater, inspire the story, and children, so honest and courageous, are always an inspiration. Thanks, Susan, for years of reading and commenting on stories in progress, and for letting me share some family moments, and thanks for beach titles as well. And congratulations, you have an agent!
And to people who read and reread and help me make each book the best it can be. And then they put it between knockout covers and put it in the hands of readers everywhere and then, funnily enough, tell me I did a good job. Thanks, Shana and company, for all that you do for me. Thanks go to Jill, too, for heading the appreciation committee.
Last on my list, first in my heart, my family. Two kids (the big worrier and the one with furry fingers) and their fine dad, who encouraged me in every way one person meaningfully supports another from the very first page.
Audrey Couloumbis’s first book for children, Getting Near to Baby, won the Newbery Honor in 2000. Audrey is also the author of several other highly acclaimed books for young readers, including The Misadventures of Maude March (a Book Sense 76 Pick and a New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing Selection), War Games (an NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People and a Horn Book Magazine Fanfare Best Book), which she coauthored with her husband, Akila Couloumbis, and Jake. Audrey lives in upstate New York and Florida with her dog, Phoebe, and Phoebe’s two pet parakeets, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
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