Chapter Eight: The Last Sweet Summer

June came; bringing with it the sticky humidity that makes you sick. For Joe and I, it was the last vacation before we had to get serious. Next year, we were the cream of the crop, the seniors. We would be dealing with our future, but for the time being, that worry was temporarily suspended in the magic time capsule of summer.

There was something about spending days at the beach with the wind in your hair, the warm rays of the sun glistening off your body and the sweet taste of the salty sea air on your lips that made eternal youth a possibility. Perhaps, this was what Ponce De Leon was searching for. The waves of the ocean might as well be the ripples in that proverbial fountain of youth.

For Donny and Cleo, well, their future was now. They had to stop playing this summer and decide what to do with the rest of their lives. As was typical of teenagers though, they pushed that worry off until later. This was just the beginning of a long, hot season of endless days and endless nights. Cleo had some ideas of going off to California to attend college and maybe search for some of the happiness that she couldn’t find here. It wasn’t common in those days for a girl to go off and further her education. But Cleo, well, she was anything but common and she had the money to do anything she wanted. I hope she would find it, a place where she belonged and where she would be accepted for being herself. Donny wasn’t sure where he was going or what he wanted to do. I was kind of glad they were sticking around for the summer. It would make Jess’ absence a little less gloomy.

The last night that Jess was home, Grammy made all  his favorites for supper. She cried. I don’t think she was too sad though. It seemed to me that if anything, Grammy was proud of the decision that Jess had made. I think she felt the army would straighten him out. And since we were in peaceful times, with no wars looming around the corner, it would make a man out of him, the way it had Gramps, who was a career soldier until he passed away. I couldn’t eat. The lump in my throat impeded my swallowing anything but a few bites of cornbread. Jess knew what I was feeling but he said that this was something he had to do. There was no life in this town. The town did something funny to you when it held secrets. I wondered what he meant by that until I fell asleep; no closer to an answer then I had been hours before.

Jeff left the next morning at sunrise. Grammy and Stevie stayed in their rooms. Maybe they didn’t want to say goodbye or maybe they couldn’t. I don’t think they were sleeping…who could? I think maybe they knew we needed time together. After all, we had faced a lot together and this was just one more goodbye for us in what was becoming a very long list.

“Well Cinder, I guess this is it. I have to leave soon.”

I was trying to be brave and hold back the tears that were welling up in my eyes. “I’m going to miss you, Jess.” I said as quietly as a mouse. Affection did not come easy for me.

“I’m going to miss you too Cinder. Don’t let those kids at school give you any more grief. You hear?”

I nodded my head dumbly. I never knew that he knew.

“And don’t let Donny break your heart. He’s just one in a long line of hearts that will fall to you kid.”

I blushed and the tears fell unwanted, unbidden down my cheeks. He reached up with his hand and brushed them away, the gesture so gentle it made me want to cry harder. I reached up and wrapped my arms around him, hoping that he would take something of me with him, hoping that I could keep some of him here with me.

The taxi pulled up to the curb and he laughed at me as he untangled my arms from around his neck. “I’ll be back Cinder, just you wait and see,” he said. He climbed into the taxi, and it began to pull away, but then it stopped. He opened the door and for an instant I wondered if he had second thoughts.

But he just added, “Hey Cinder?”

“Yeah?”

“Do me a favor and find out the truth about daddy,” and with that mysterious statement he stuck out his tongue and with a chuckle, got in the car and left.

I didn’t know what he meant by it but far too many things had cropped up about daddy now. I was determined to find out, but it had to wait until exactly the right moment. When that moment came, I would ask Grammy. Grammy would tell me everything I needed to know.