Southampton Spectacular

by M. C. Soutter

  He stopped as Devon put a hand up. She didn’t want to be rude, but she also knew from experience that it was essentially impossible to hurt Barnes’s feelings; he sometimes needed to be silenced quickly so that real business could be conducted. “Hold on,” Devon said, putting her book down again and turning to face Nina’s straw hat. “Did you just officially admit to being interested in the new guy?”

  Nina paused before answering, and then she reached up and threw her hat dramatically off her face. “No one is very discreet around here,” she said, sitting up and trying to look upset.

  “He’s swimming,” Devon said, nodding at the pool. “He can’t hear a thing.”

  Nina let out a breath and tried to maintain her pouting look.

  “Let’s have it,” Devon said, prodding her.

  Nina gave in. “His name is Austin,” she said, standing quickly and pulling up a chair so that she could speak to Devon in lower tones. “I don’t know what his dad does, but – ”

  “Austin what,” Devon interrupted.

  Nina looked confused.

  “What’s his last name?” Devon asked.

  Nina shrugged and shook her head, as though Devon had demanded to know the boy’s favorite TV show. “Anyway, he’s going to be a freshman at Dartmouth next year – ”

  “Where'd he come from? Where’s he been?”

  “Year abroad last year,” Nina answered quickly, pleased to have been ready for this question. “And even though his family’s been coming out here for years and years, he’s always been doing extra school or internships or whatever all this time. This is his first real summer off since he was eleven or something. We probably just don’t remember him – we would have been nine, right? Anyway, he’s old money,” Nina finished triumphantly.

  Devon cocked her head to one side. “Which means?”

  Barnes, who had been standing between them and the pool like a privacy screen while they talked, hooted with laughter. “Means he’s a little low on funds at the moment,” he said.

  Nina looked insulted. “It certainly does not,” she said angrily. “My dad said his dad was part – ”

  “That his dad was part of the Woolworth family, which is true,” Barnes finished for her. He turned serious. “My dad said the same thing. He also said that this Austin kid is smart as hell, and that he’s going to be some kind of all-star varsity recruit at Dartmouth, and that he already has an internship locked up at a hot-stuff New York brokerage for next summer. Which is why he gets to take this summer off.” Barnes raised his eyebrows at Nina and gave her a critical look. “Not that you’d ask your dad about any of that stuff, because you don’t actually care what he’s like. But no, his family doesn’t have any money left. Or not much, anyway.”

  Nina frowned. “What are you doing trying to dig up information on my boy?” she demanded. “Going soft on us?”

  “Give me five minutes and I’ll show you how soft I am.”

  “More like two.”

  “Tell everybody it was three and I’ll throw in a kiss at the end.”

  “And tell me I’m pretty?”

  Barnes recoiled. “Talk to you? Not afterward. Jesus.”

  Devon let them go on. Anyone who didn’t know Barnes and Nina would have assumed they were dating. Or at least hooking up whenever the opportunity presented itself. They were both classically attractive, Nina with her blond hair and her too-slender body, Barnes with his soccer-player physique and his crooked, dangerous smile; but Devon knew they never went any further than joking with each other. She had never been able to figure out exactly why. Presumably they focused their true romantic energies on people at their respective boarding schools.

  “What about if I thought he might be a nice guy?” Barnes was saying now. He put on an astonished face. “A guy that James and I could hang out with? Is that so unbelievable?”

  Nina waved a hand at him dismissively. “You’re getting in the way,” she said. “You’re trying to mess with my summer project. You’re doing research on your competition, which is what he is, and you’re jealous.”

  Barnes stumbled back as if he had been struck. His expression turned wounded. “You… I would never…” he stammered, shaking his head slowly while still back-pedaling. “You’re like a disease,” he said, “and you’re mentally challenged and cruel. The idea that I would ever be jealous… of you… it’s beyond comprehension – ”

  His voice trailed off as his heels came to the edge of the pool, and he tumbled backward. He pinwheeled his arms theatrically and twisted his face into a look of horror as he fell, then balled himself up as tightly as possible to create the maximum splash. A moment later his head popped up through the surface of the water, and he propped his arms up on the edge of the pool so that he could keep talking. He grinned at Nina. “That was pretty good, right?” When she didn’t respond, he threw his hands up like a frustrated performer in a cold theatre house. “Come on. That was quality work.”

  “You’re a buffoon,” Nina said, though she was smiling. “Anyway, thanks for letting me know how great he is and everything. I’ll really go to work on him now.”

  “You’ll come crawling back.”

  “Only if my legs are broken.”

  “Why so dramatic? What’s wrong with you?”

  “With me? You’re the one who’s always acting like this…”

  Devon sighed and made a show of returning to her book. Nina and Barnes were more likely to keep up their routine if they thought they had an audience; she would try to make it clear that she wasn’t listening anymore. It really was a routine. Barnes himself had been at the Meadow Club with them when they had spotted Austin for the first time, and he had done nothing to get in the way. Devon remembered how easy it had been to pick Austin out of the crowd. He had been one of the few people at the club not dressed in the required all-white outfit. Nina steered them toward the porch where he was standing, leaving Barnes behind them. And because Barnes could tell this was something Nina actually cared about, he shrugged and said nothing. As they came closer to the porch, Devon was able to see the new boy better. He was almost garish in his blue soccer shorts and red T-shirt, surrounded by a sea of white on white. He was tall and athletic-looking, with close-cropped, dark brown hair, and his face was so utterly relaxed that Devon at first wondered if he had just woken up. She didn’t have long to consider his expression, however, because Nina made sure they didn’t slow down as they walked past him. “We can’t look interested,” she hissed at Devon, a giggle fighting to release itself from her throat.

  “I’m interested,” Devon said placidly, once they were a safe distance away. “Why’d you drag us over to him if we weren’t going to say anything?”

  “To get a closer look,” Nina said, still whispering.

  “I was looking.”

  “But you were being obvious.”

  Devon took a breath. “Nina, I’d like to know who he is. Whether he’s just visiting or staying for the summer. Why he’s dressed like he’s never seen a tennis court. And if we don’t go talk to him, how are we going to discover any of that?”

  Nina shook her head. “That was a drive-by. This is a good, short tennis skirt, and he needs to notice me. He needs to come find out stuff about me.”

  Devon shrugged and gave in. The mission had been declared. Nina had been the first one to see him, and now she had staked her claim. Plus, Devon had to admit to herself that Nina’s approach, if needlessly indirect and undeniably silly, was fundamentally sound. It was a short tennis skirt Nina was wearing. And boys did generally come up to her without much more prompting than a drive-by. Not that she ever seemed willing to give them the time of day once they did come over, but that was another matter. For all her short skirts and brightly-colored bikinis, Nina was incredibly picky, and Devon didn’t think she’d ever actually had an official boyfriend. So maybe Austin would finally be the one.

  And maybe he would, except that Nina had immediately started pretending that she couldn’t care les
s about Austin. It had now been several days since that first pass, and he still hadn’t come over to talk. To any of them. Not even to James or Barnes, who were a couple of the most approachable people in all of Southampton. Nina hadn’t given up hope; at least Austin was still around. He didn’t seem interested in the Meadow Club, but he was like clockwork at the Beach Club. Always doing his laps in the morning, and then into the ocean in the afternoon. All that swimming seemed strange to Devon, who had grown up in the all-around-athletics culture of Southampton. She and all of her friends were natural prodigies at tennis, since it was impossible to avoid becoming good at something when you had forty-two perfectly maintained grass courts at your constant disposal. And soccer and golf and field hockey and swimming, too, for essentially the same reason; the facilities were available, and the facilities were excellent. But Austin didn’t seem like an all-arounder. He had focus. The relentless practicing in the pool, the constant laps every morning for hours at a time; those things made him different.

  I wonder if he’ll ever just come sauntering up to us the way Nina’s envisioning. Or if he even knows we exist.

  Well, of course he did. She knew he was aware of them. Of her, at least. Because she had arrived at the Beach Club earlier than her friends this morning, and after setting up her towel and her chair and her book and her little bag of hair bands and Kleenex and Neutrogena 40 sunscreen, she had looked up to find Austin standing at the end of the pool. As if he had just appeared there. She was momentarily struck by how strong he looked – no red shirt in the way this time, she thought – but then she had felt her face getting warm.

  He was looking right at her.

  She would have been even more embarrassed – fatally embarrassed – except that he was staring at her with that wonderfully peaceful expression of his. As though there could never be anything wrong with looking at him.

  She wasn’t sure how long they stayed that way. He tilted his head up a fraction of an inch, as if pointing with his chin, and she was positive he was about to say something. And afterward she couldn’t understand why she hadn’t said something. But then, as if an alarm had gone off in his head, he glanced down at his watch and went diving into the pool. He began swimming, leaving Devon to wonder how she had imagined anything passing between them. A peaceful expression was just that – a peaceful expression – and nothing more. In fact, she couldn’t be sure he had even been looking at her at all.

  Feeling sheepish, she checked behind her, in case there might have been someone or something else.

  No, she had been the only one there.

  Now, an hour later, she was left to stare at her book, not reading it. Or at the pool, where he was still swimming back and forth, seemingly without end. Meanwhile, Nina and Barnes bickered on and on about who would be less likely to hook up with the other, even if there were not a single other human left on the planet.

  Abruptly, Barnes seemed to decide that their flirting act had gone on long enough, and he went leaping into the pool. Nina collapsed back onto her towel as if exhausted by the exchange, and she readjusted her straw hat to allow for continued spying on the new boy. Florin finally returned with the ice cream for James and herself, and she called out cheerfully to announce the delivery.

  “Chocolate cone, as requested!”

  James turned and came to her without a word, little Frankie still balanced on his arm. Holding Frankie out of the way, James took the cone, slurped up a glop of ice cream from one side of the enormous scoop perched on top, and then planted a messy chocolate kiss onto Florin’s cheek. Florin bit her lip and beamed.

  James turned away and began shouting at his younger brother with renewed vigor. “Ned! Out of the baby pool right now!” He held up the chocolate cone like a torch. “Tennis clothes off, bathing suit on. Do it!”

  Ned was unimpressed.

  But now there was someone else joining the conversation.

  “Ned!” The woman who had been lying next to James’s father was now up on her feet and striding over to the eleven-year-old Dunn boy. She was young, probably no more than twenty-two or twenty-three, and she was wearing a tiny black string bikini that showcased her smooth, curving figure. Mr. Dunn had gone back to sleep on his towel on the sun-warmed bricks; he was apparently beyond caring that he had lost his pool companion.

  James tried to intercept her.

  “It’s okay, Pauline,” he said quickly. “I can – ”

  The woman ignored him. “Ned, what are you doing?” she said, as if the boy had only begun splashing a moment ago; as if he had not been up to his knees in the baby pool for the last fifteen minutes.

  Ned stopped kicking up water and turned to face her, his expression cautious. He looked like an explorer who has suddenly found himself confronted by a rare and unpredictable jungle cat. “I fell in?” he said slowly.

  “That’s fine,” Pauline said, and held out a manicured hand. “Let’s get you changed into a bathing suit. Come with me.”

  Released from blame, Ned relaxed. His smile returned, and he let himself be helped out of the pool. He still looked cautious, but not nearly as worried as he had a moment ago.

  James was silent. He watched the two of them walk away from the pool, toward the opening in the wall that led to the lockers. Frankie began whimpering, but James did not seem to notice. Frankie held out his pudgy arms toward the ice cream in James’s other hand. The ice cream was melting now, and it dripped down the cone and onto James’s hand and forearm. Frankie began wailing in earnest, as though protesting the needless waste of such a precious treat, but James did not respond. He watched Ned and Pauline disappear around the corner, and the ice cream ran all the way down to his elbow and began dripping onto the bricks.

  There were others around the pool who were watching as well – Mr. and Mrs. Conifer, big Shelly Blaine and her new boyfriend from the city, maybe-gay Mr. Mahlmann and his wife and their latest “houseguest” – but they did not say anything. They did not even give their spouses or pool companions a shake of the head, or a look. Few knew what to make of the woman the Dunns had been using as a nanny all these years, but it was best not to get involved. Or even to acknowledge that there could be anything wrong. Curiosity was allowed only up to a certain point, so people didn’t ask. Or comment. Instead they simply watched as Pauline and Ned walked away. Then they returned to their magazines and books.

  Devon had been watching them go, too; she didn’t notice Austin climbing out of the water. When she turned back to the pool, she was surprised to see him standing on the edge at the far corner. He seemed to be looking at her.

  Again.

  Now he was walking. Slowly. She was transfixed by his feet, which with every step seemed in danger of slipping off the edge and back into the pool. Was he about to jump in again? Why didn’t he lose his balance? He was like a construction worker on a high beam. The effect was so mesmerizing that he was halfway across the enclosure before Devon realized he was walking straight toward them.

  “Let’s go down to the ocean,” she said quickly.

  “Nice,” Florin said. “It’s way better down there. And my ice cream is melting.”

  Nina, who somehow hadn’t noticed Austin’s change in location or direction, sat up slowly and nodded. She flapped her hand at Barnes, who was still in the pool, as if to show how urgently she needed to get away from him.

  Devon stood up from her chair. She realized she had been sitting for too long, and she took a moment to stretch. Several people around the enclosure, mostly men, may have paused briefly in whatever they were saying. Or thinking about.

  There was a small commotion near the halfway point of the pool, and the lifeguard looked briefly interested. Then Austin appeared at the surface and hoisted himself back onto the side. He kept his head down and let the water drip off of him. He looked embarrassed.

  Nina was suddenly confused. “What just happened?” she whispered.

  “I think he might have fallen in,” Devon said.

  “Fallen in
?” Nina looked around as if someone were trying to trick her.

  Devon shrugged and walked toward the staircase leading up to the mezzanine. Reliably, Nina and Florin followed. She told herself that she was trying to avoid an awkward situation. That the new boy wouldn’t have wanted to try explaining himself, or that Nina would have been flustered to have him come upon them so suddenly. She tried to ignore the idea that she might have been trying to avoid letting Austin and Nina finally have their first talk.

  That would have been petty.

  “I still don’t understand,” Nina was saying as they walked up the wide staircase. “When did he get out?”

  “When Pauly-Girl swooped in, I think,” Florin said.

  Nina shook her head and said nothing. Over the years, she and Devon and Florin – and sometimes even Barnes – had discussed the disturbing aura of the Dunn babysitter in such overwrought detail that they no longer wanted to broach the subject. The woman had been an employee of the Dunn family for seven years – since she was sixteen, and the three of them were nine – and she had radiated danger almost before the girls had even been able to vocalize the idea. Pauline seemed to combine anger and beauty and aggression and sexuality into one fierce, frighteningly unstable package.

  She was to be avoided.

  The girls came to the top of the stairs, silently agreeing to say no more on the subject. Which had been their unofficial policy for the last two years, after all.

  Here on the mezzanine level, they had the Atlantic stretched out before them. And despite years of coming upon exactly this view, in exactly this place, all three paused. It was impossible not to appreciate the sight. The south shore of Long Island stretched out to either side, creating a beach so broad and long that the idea of overcrowding was laughable. Sometimes Devon’s parents would have summer guests to the house, and often these guests would eagerly talk about wanting to get to the beach early. “To beat the rush,” they would say. At which Peter and Cynthia Hall would smile politely, and respond that they could all get to the beach whenever their guests would like, even if that meant getting up at the crack of dawn. “There’s quite a bit of room,” Peter would say gently.