“Got it,” says Claire. Her face is smeared with mustard. “Kalesalad.” She squints at Louisa and asks, “Why is your face doing that?”
“Claire,” Louisa says. She clears her throat and considers her hot dog. Thelaterthat she promised Claire is actuallynow. She will be honest with her children in the way that her own mother and father were not honest with her. “Do you remember earlier in the summer, when you asked me what a love child was?”
“Yes.” Claire is deep into her hot dog.
“I didn’t answer you as honestly as I could have. A love child is a baby born to parents who are not married to each other.”
“Okay,” says Claire.
Louisa pauses. She hasn’t covered the Facts of Life with Claire yet. She knows that Steven has talked to Matty, and Abigail had questions for Louisa last year. But Claire is her baby, and she wants to put this conversation off as long as possible.
“Claire,” she says. “When a man and a woman love each other very much—”
Claire puts down her hot dog and looks at Louisa. “If this is about how babies are made,” she says, “I already know about that. Hannah told me at school.”
It doesn’t feel right that a seven-year-old has relieved Louisa of her parental duties, but Louisa is relieved not to have to begin with the basics. “Okay, good,” she says. “That’s a start. We can talk about that in more detail another time.”
“Gross,” says Claire. “Nothankyou.”
“We’ll see. Anyway. When you heard Pauline say something about a love child earlier in the summer she was probably talking about a specific person. There’s a person named Kristie Turner who is the daughter of Grandpa—yourGrandpa—and another woman who isn’t Granny.”
“Okay,” says Claire.
“Do you understand?”
“I think so.”
“What I’m saying is that a long time ago, whenIwas a little girl right around Abigail’s age, Grandpa had a”—(What’s the right word to use here? In the end she chooses the one Annie used.)—“a relationship with another woman. And they had a baby.”
Louisa lets this sink in for Claire; they are both silent for a few moments. The traffic buzzes by on Main Street. Across the street the ferry parking is packed, and, beyond that, Lermond Cove is dotted with moored boats.
Louisa swipes a fry through ketchup. “There are a lot of grown-up things that I won’t go into right now, Claire Bear, because frankly I think they would bore you. There are a lot of factors that make this a very complicated situation—factors that you wouldn’t necessarily understand.”
“I bet I would understand,” says Claire.
Louisa sucks up the very last bit of her secretive Coke through her environmentally unfriendly straw and says, “Actually I’m sure you would. But I’m not going to go into all of it right now.”
“It doesn’t seem that complicated to me,” says Claire. “She’s your sister, right?”
“Technically, yes.”
“An extra sister?”
“Well. I mean, I guess you could put it that way.”
“I think if I got an extra sister I’d just be happy about it.”
“It’s not quite that simple,” says Louisa. “You sort of have to know someone pretty well for them to be asistersister. So she’s a sister, but in name only.” Claire looks skeptical.
Renys is busy busy busy, even with the sun shining so aggressively and summer crooking its finger at the world, asking it to come out and play. Louisa turns off the car and tilts the rearview mirror so she can see Claire. “I’m not sure how this is going to go,” she says. “So just hang with me, okay?”
“Got it,” says Claire. She gives two thumbs-up. When they enter the store, Claire says, “I love it here.” She breathes in deeply.
“Me too,” says Louisa. “It smells like bargains and happiness.” Renys is like the best of CVS, HomeGoods, Woolworth’s in its heyday, and the camping accessories section of L.L. Bean, all rolled into one. In the winter Louisa still dons striped socks she bought here when she was in college.
“Which one is your sister in name only?” asks Claire, studying the checkout women. One of the women looks over, alarmed. The other smiles at Claire. Older women historically love Claire.
“Neither ofthose!”whispers Louisa. “She’s younger than I am. And keep your voice down, okay?”
