Florence turned to face Gussie then, giving her niece her full attention. “Yes, you’re quite right. I nearly forgot.”
When Florence and Gussie returned to the chairs Joseph and Esther had rented, they found Anna sitting on a blanket, alone.
“Your parents went for a walk,” Anna said to Florence, completely ignoring Gussie.
Florence motioned for a small, pleated bag, within arm’s reach of Anna, and Anna passed it to her. As Florence rooted through it, a redbathing cap escaped. Gussie reached for it and handed it to Florence, who waved it away, one hairpin already in hand and three more in her teeth. While Florence pulled her short, brown hair away from her face, Gussie held the rubber cap in her lap, admiring it. Her aunt always had the prettiest things. Tiny stamped divots ran across the cap’s surface in neat rows. Each one reminded Gussie of a starburst.
“Are bathing caps required at this beach?” Anna asked.
Florence mumbled something through her pursed lips but it was unintelligible on account of the pins, so Gussie answered for her. “Not anymore.”
Anna exasperated Gussie but for no real reason. She was quiet and a little hard to understand but she was also perfectly nice, and even pretty—with dark brown hair, green eyes, and pale skin that was unlikely to get any darker if Anna continued to wear drab cotton dresses to the beach.
“My hair just gets in my eyes when I swim,” Florence said after removing the last pin from her mouth.
“Very good,” said Anna, but the wordgoodcame out sounding more likegut. Anna’s English was close to perfect but her accent was heavy, and sometimes her words came out slowly, as if her sentences were a string of taffy. Often, Gussie didn’t have the patience to wait on them. Gussie’s mother had told her to be kind—that she should try to imagine what it must be like for Anna to be in a new place, so far from her parents, but Gussie wasn’t inclined to be sympathetic.
Gussie heard a high-pitched whistle followed by a “heigh-ho!” and turned to watch Stuart Williams leap from the Boardwalk onto the hot sand.
“Have you abandoned your post?” her aunt shouted at him as he raced toward them and grabbed Florence up in a hug. Anna and Gussie stood to greet him, too.
Gussie thought Stuart was very handsome. He didn’t look anything like the men in her family, or any of the men at the synagogue, for that matter. He had clear, blue eyes and short, blond hair, and in the summer months, his skin tanned to a golden brown. He wore the same blue suitthat all the Atlantic City Beach Patrol lifeguards wore—a wool one-piece with a white belt and the lettersACBPstitched across his chest.
“Dan said you were here, so I had to come see the siren of the sea for myself.” He rubbed the top of Gussie’s head with his fist and extended a hand toward Anna. “I’m Stuart.”
“Stuart, this is Anna from Germany,” said Florence. “She’s staying with my parents for the summer. Until she goes to college.”
“Good to meet you, Anna from Germany,” he said with a smile. “Where are you going to school?”
“New Jersey State Teachers College.”
“Ah, in picturesque Trenton.”
“He’s a wisecrack. Don’t pay him any attention,” said Florence to Anna, conspiratorially. “Trenton’s fine.”
Stuart’s eyes were shiny and bright. “When’d you get back?” he said, returning his attention to Florence.
Florence put a finger to her lips, as if she were doing a complicated arithmetic problem. “Three or four days ago?”
“And this is the first I’m seeing you? I’m outraged.”
“I went looking for you at the States Avenue stand but they said you’d been booted down the beach.”
He wagged his head in the direction of The Covington. “Long story. And one that’s probably best told from the stern of a boat.”
“Stuart coaches the Ambassador Swim Club in the off-season,” Florence said to Anna. “Spent four years ordering me around.”
“A lot of good it did,” said Stuart.
“He’s a monster,” Florence said to Anna, which Gussie knew was not actually true. It bothered her when grown-ups said the opposite of what they meant.
“So, you’re really going to do it?” he asked Florence when everyone’s smiles had faded from their faces.
“I am.”
“How’s the training been going?”
“Fine, good. I’m in the pool all the time, so it’s been good to get back in the ocean.”
