Cape Cod Light by Maryann McFadden

Author:Maryann McFadden [McFadden, Maryann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780984867189
Publisher: Three Women Press
Published: 2018-12-03T16:00:00+00:00

AMY WOULDN’T go out without her. Not that she’d admit it, but she was staying in the house all the time, as if Fanny, her own grandmother, was a baby that needed watching. How could she not feel guilty? And a little bit annoyed with Claire for doing this to her. Every day Amy wanted to walk somewhere or go explore a beach, and if Fanny said no, she didn’t go, but also didn’t complain. If being in Cape Cod was good for anyone, Fanny thought, it was Amy. In the last few days she seemed like a different person.

Now Amy asked her yet again to go out for a walk. It was late morning and like a summer day outside, she insisted, so sunny and warm.

“The exercise will be good for your hip.”

She remembered Mama admonishing herself in her last years, forcing herself to walk up and down the street, back and forth, as many times as she could.

Finally, she gave in.

They walked in the opposite direction than the one they’d ridden in the pedicab the other day. With Amy pushing the stroller, they moved slowly past old houses and up the narrow street. On the corner just up their block was the Provincetown Art Museum, and a few doors down was a big white house with a front porch where two white dogs watched them with tails wagging anxiously. English gardens bursting with yellow roses surrounded the green lawn, and Fanny saw a sign advertising the place as The Copper Fox. Then she saw Ted, their landlord, coming down the porch steps, and he waved at them. Fanny hadn’t realized he lived so close by.

Then they passed the gourmet shop where Amy told her she’d gotten the fennel seed. They stopped for a minute so Amy could adjust the top of the stroller to keep the sun off Rose’s face. Fanny was glad for the rest and then smiled, seeing that the baby was already asleep.

“The fresh air always puts them to sleep,” she told Amy, as they began walking again. “Sometimes that was the only way I could get Eugene to nap.”

“I’m going to do it every day and try to get Rose into a real routine,” Amy said. “Besides, I love walking here, it’s just so quaint. I almost feel like I’m in a different country.”

Fanny looked at her and saw that Amy’s face was soft and relaxed. She looked so young, and she was prettier than she’d looked in a long time, with her black hair pulled back into a ponytail. The puffiness had disappeared from her face.

A block later, Amy stopped again, and Fanny presumed it was to let her rest. But Amy was staring up at a sign.

“Hey, isn’t this the place the pedicab driver mentioned?” she asked.

Fanny looked up at the sign. Dominick’s on the Harbor. Billy had told them it was his favorite restaurant and that they had the best Italian food in town.

“Their pasta fagioli is to die for,” he’d exclaimed.

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