“My father did too,” Millie said. “Mother says he was never the same after he came home from France.”
“Let’s not talk about war anymore now,” Ruth proclaimed. “It’s too sad.”
Josephine jumped up from her seat. “Agreed. Come on, girls. We’ll take aride in the roadster and stir up some kind of fun. And you know, there’s a full moon tonight. I say it’s time for the High Tide Club to meet. What do you say?”
Ruth clapped her hands. “Brilliant!”
“I’ll get Mrs. Dorris to pack us a picnic dinner, and we’ll send for Varina to come too.” She looked over at Millie, who was gazing out the dining room’s french doors at the garden outside.
“Did you hear, Millie? Tonight’s the night!”
“I heard,” Millie said.
***
Josephine drove the roadster to Oyster Bluff, and the others waited while she knocked on the door of the simple wood-frame house where the Shaddixes lived.
It was nearly dusk, and guinea hens roosted in the lower branches of the chinaberry tree that shaded the yard, which was swept sand neatly bordered with sun-bleached giant whelk shells.
“I can’t come with y’all tonight,” Varina said.
“Of course you can,” Josephine said. “It’s Saturday night, isn’t it?” She lowered her voice. “We’re going to Mermaid Beach. For the High Tide Club.”
The girl shook her head. “No, I can’t. My daddy won’t let me.”
A man’s voice came from within the house. “Varina? Who’s that you’re talking to out there?”
“It’s me, Josephine,” the older girl called. “How are you tonight, Harley?”
Harley Shaddix’s crutch thumped against the wooden floor with each step. He appeared in the doorway behind his daughter. “I’m fine, Miss Josephine. Hope you are too. I saw Mr. Gardiner over on the mainland this morning. He told me where he’s going. Mighty proud of him.”
“I’m proud too, but so sad to see him go. Harley, would it be all right if Varina took a ride with us in the car? We’re going to take a picnic down to the beach.”
Harley looked down at his daughter. Varina was dressed in a pair of her brother’s outgrown, cast-off denim overalls and a long-sleeved blouse that hadbeen her mother’s. The pant legs and shirtsleeves were rolled up to size. She looked so tiny against her father’s powerful mass. “You done your chores? Washed up in the kitchen? Memorized your scripture verses for tomorrow?”
“Yes, sir.”
He smiled and patted her shoulder. “You been mopin’ around this house all day. Time to get out and have a little fun. Go ahead on with Miss Josephine, then. And you mind your manners, you hear?”
He looked past Josephine at the car parked at the edge of the yard. “Just the ladies tonight? You know there’s all kinds of critters skulking around this island at night. What happened to all the menfolk?”
“Most of them left this morning,” Josephine said. “But don’t worry about us.” She patted the pocket of her skirt. “I’ve got Papa’s .45, and I know how to use it.”
“Maybe I oughta stay home,” Varina said. “I got a headache.”
Josephine took the girl’s hand. “Come on, Varina. It’ll be fun.”
“Get out on the beach and get you a lungful of that good salt air, you’ll be right as rain,” Harley said firmly.
***
Josephine parked the roadster under a cluster of trees at the end of the crushed-shell path that ended at the point they’d dubbed Mermaid Beach.
A wide sand beach flattened out before them, and the full moon’s reflection shone on the surface of the water. Waves lapped gently at the shore.
“Isn’t it beautiful, girls?” Josephine asked, turning to her friends, who were seated in the car’s rumble seat. “Have you ever seen so many stars in your life?”
“The best,” Ruth declared. “And the ocean’s so much warmer down here! I swear, my lips were blue for a week after we skinny-dipped last year at Nantucket.”
