Should he send another text?
Left on Lighthouse Road, past the pretty houses that are spaced far apart, and into the parking lot for the lighthouse. The grass between the parking lot and the water, which is a gentle downhill slope, is dotted with picnic tables, and he chooses one to sit at while he eats his sandwich. He looks out at the little strip of sandy beach and Owls Head Bay beyond that, and even farther out, Monroe Island. After he’s done eating he spreads his towel out on the grass and lies down on it.
He checks his phone. There is a missed call from his mother, but nothing else.He counts his ribs. They are all present and accounted for. He has never known Hazel not to be holding her phone, so the thought that she may have just, like, put it down is unimaginable. She must be ignoring him on purpose.
He does fifty sit-ups and twenty-five push-ups in the grass, staving off the urge to check his phone again. When he’s done with the push-ups he sits up, panting. A little boy is staring at him. He’s maybe four or five, with chubby cheeks and a cowlick and a little golf shirt with a collar.
“Hey,” says Matty.
“Hi,” says the boy. Then he puts his thumb in his mouth and, talking around it, says, “What were you doing?”
“Nothing,” says Matty, embarrassed that he had an audience. “Just some sit-ups.”
“Why?”
“To get strong.”
“But why?”
Matty considers the boy. He’s wearing little boat shoes too. He looks like a miniature Wall Street guy on vacation.To impress an angel named Hazeldoesn’t seem like the right answer, even though it’s partly true. “Because I want to be strong,” he says. “So I can run fast.”
“Why do you want to run fast?” Matty remembers when Claire was in this phase. You never got to the end of the questions: there was always anotherwhywaiting in the wings.
He’s trying to think of an answer to this round when he hears a lady calling, “Miles!Miles!”A minute later she appears, jogging down the hill from the parking lot. When she reaches them she says, “Miles. Youcan’trun away from me like that. Do you see all that water down there? That water isvery dangerousfor little boys like you. The currents are strong! And it’s cold.”
“Okay,” says Miles equitably. The woman guides Miles’s thumbgently out of his mouth, and, yeah, Matty was just thinking that he’s a little old to be sucking it, buthewasn’t going to bring it up.
“Sorry,” the woman says to Matty. “Sorry if he was bothering you. He has this habit of justtaking offlately when my back is turned.”
“He wasn’t bothering me.” Matty smiles at the little boy and says, “Bye, Miles.”
“Bye.” Miles and his mom move up the hill away from Matty.
His phone rings again. His mom. Decline. Hazel had said,I’ll see you around.But what did that mean? Was Matty supposed to call her? Or will she call Matty? The thought of calling Hazel and having to suffer through her potential declining of his call is too much to bear. If he asked his mother she would most likely spout something about Ruth Bader Ginsberg and female equality without really answering the question.
He’d like to ask his dad.
The way back to Ships View has a lot of uphills. He pedals very slowly by the Pelletiers’ house. Billy’s truck is gone; he’s probably hauling. When he gets to his own driveway he’s sweating and his leg muscles are quivering. Matty’s water bottle is empty, so his plan is to wobble his way right through the playroom and into the kitchen, avoiding whoever is eating in the dining room (there’s always someone eating in the dining room), and refill it. Then he’ll go up to his room and stare at his phone some more, until he decides to swim.
Not so fast, though. From the dining room he hears, “Matty? Is that you? Where’ve you been? I’ve been calling you!” His mom.
Then he hears: “Hey, buddy. Come in here.” He turns off the faucet without filling his bottle. Only one person in the world calls himbuddy.
His dad is there, sitting at the table, drinking a glass of iced tea. Claire is in his lap, even though she’s way too old to do that, and Abigail has her chair pulled close on his left side.
“There he is!” says Steven. “Nobody knew where you went!”
“Look who surprised us.” Louisa’s cheeks are pink, the way they get after she’s been drinking wine, but she’s not drinking wine. “Look who found time to come up after all! I couldn’t believe it. The phone rang a little bit ago, the house phone, and you know nobody ever calls me on the house phone, so I didn’t think it was for me. But it was this guy, wondering if anyone could pick him up at the Owls Head airport!”
“Smallest plane I’ve ever been on,” says Steven, grinning.
“Olivia is taking care of Gavin,” says Abigail. “So he’s in good hands.” She turns to Steven. “You told her not to overfeed him, right? You definitely definitely told her?”
“Definitely definitely.”
Matty can’t believe it either. His father ishere! Right here in front of him, like it’s the most natural thing in the world. He steps toward Steven. He’d like to hug him, but that would be hard with Claire in his lap.
Steven seems to read Matty’s mind. He raises his hand for a fist bump. Matty fist bumps back like it’s not a big deal. Then Steven spills Claire from his lap and stands and opens his arms, and into them goes Matty, and he doesn’t stay there too long, because after all heisalmost thirteen, but he stays there long enough.
