Eternal Summer - A Collection of Short Stories by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-06-26T04:00:00+00:00

*

The ferry ride must have taken more out of me than I’d thought, because somewhere between George’s slow turn out of the station parking lot and his stop in the middle of what I assumed was Cape May, I fell asleep.

I’m not sure how long we’d been sitting at the curb in front of a huge old house, but from the expression on George’s face, he’d cleared his throat more than once.

“Sorry.” I pushed up in the seat, frowning at the twinge in my back and stiffness of my neck. “Long trip.” I rolled my shoulders and pressed my hands over the short black skirt that had cinched up above my knees.

George shrugged. “This is the Emlen Physick estate. It’s the beginning of your tour.”

The mansion was blue with a red roof. It reminded me of an overgrown gingerbread house with a large wrapped porch.

“Very interesting. Did you say it belonged to a doctor?”

“No, the family’s name was Physick. Came down here from Philadelphia. It’s Victorian, built in 1879.”

“Ah.” I nodded. “Are we going inside?”

“Nah, this is just a driving tour. If you want to come back and walk around, you can do it this week. Miss Jane sells tickets.” He popped the clutch and put the car into gear. “Next stop is the Colonial House…”

Three hours later, I had seen every last piece of bric-a-brac there was to be seen in Cape May. We’d wound up and down the streets, past the colorful Victorian mansions, the sharp modern homes and the smaller cottages left over from the last century. George had even driven me past the lighthouse. I felt thoroughly educated in every aspect of Cape May.

Now he slowed as we came to the end of a block, and I got my first real view of the beach over the dunes that separated it from the small boardwalk. White sand, dotted by colorful umbrellas and blankets, stretched as far as I could see. People in groups of various sizes were straggling over the steps that bridged the dunes, most of them leaving for the day, I thought. I watched a family dragging a wagon laden with buckets and beach chairs. The father was carrying a toddler, while the mother tugged on the hand of a little girl who was probably about five. An unfamiliar pang surprised me.

“Tide’s heading out,” George remarked.

“It’s beautiful,” I said. “You know, you could have dropped me here in the first place, and I would have just slept all afternoon on the beach.”

He raised one eyebrow. “You’re from Florida. You gotta come all the way to New Jersey to go to the beach?”

I sighed. “You’d be surprised. I can’t remember the last time I even saw a beach at home.” I craned my neck to see the shoreline. “Plus, it’s different up here. I don’t know how, exactly. The horizon in Florida is so sharp, so defined. Here, it’s…softer. Dreamier.”

George’s mouth quirked on one side. “Couldn’t tell you. Never seen any beach but these, up and down the Jersey shore.

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