Guests of August by Gloria Goldreich

Author:Gloria Goldreich
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448303601
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2019-09-25T16:00:00+00:00

TEN

As though exhausted by the complications of their excursion into the White Mountains, a new and surprisingly pleasant lassitude overtakes the guests of August. They stake out sovereign territories beneath the wide-branched trees and place their chairs on discrete islands of shade.

Andrea Templeton chooses a seat near the playground area where Matt, Donny and Cary are constructing a waterfall, piling rock upon rock and pouring streams of water from juice bottles down into a pool they carefully dug. Their game defies the danger of the previous day, neutralizes their fear. They are in complete control of the elements. It is Donny whom Andrea watches closely. She searches her grandson’s face, straining to see her son in the set of his mouth, the sharpness of his features, but Donny is his mother’s son. It is Wendy’s coloring he has inherited, her sharp features, her olive skin and dark eyes. Adam is not restored to her through this grandson she hardly knows. But then, she thinks sadly, had she really known Adam? She sighs, opens her book and struggles to remember where she stopped reading the previous day.

Simon Epstein, Mark Templeton and Michael Curran commandeer a redwood table on a far corner of the lawn and set up a command center, laptops and spreadsheets, their cell phones and Blackberries near to hand, as though at any moment a crisis may arise and be averted. Michael holds a pen and as Simon directs, he corrects numbers on his printouts. Mark Templeton looks on, his hands loosely clasped, his lips pursed, indifferent and powerful, a financial regent in his impeccably ironed oxford blue shirt and chino trousers, sharply creased, because Andrea hung them so carefully in his garment bag. He is grateful to Andrea for such small attentions and he frowns as his grandson, Donny, runs past him in dirt-spattered jeans and an oversized T-shirt. Wendy should dress her son more carefully. Andrea, he is certain, never allowed Adam to run about like a ragamuffin, but then he cannot really be sure about that. He cannot really remember Adam as a small boy. Nor as an adolescent for that matter.

Helene and Greg Ames spread a blanket beneath an elm tree and Greg lazily plucks at his guitar. Louise has suggested a sing-along for the after-dinner hour and he is trying to decide what songs to play. Helene lies on the blanket, her head resting on his thigh, an unopened book in her outstretched hand. She stares at the inn, worried about Susan who did not come down to breakfast. Jeff himself ate little, drank too much coffee and offered monosyllabic replies to his children’s strangely awkward chatter, erupting with uncharacteristic anger when Jeremy and Annette bickered over the last piece of coffee cake.

‘Is Susan all right?’ Helene had asked tentatively.

‘Fine. She’s fine.’ His reply was terse, his face tense. He turned away from Matt, who stared at him anxiously.

It strikes Helene as odd that she should be worried about the sister who had always worried about her.

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