Juno's Daughters (19 page)

Jim:
There are still a couple of houses on the east side of the island that we don't know about. The Strohs tend to be pretty late sleepers, though, and their place was still dark. I doubt she would have ended up there, though, since they have the new baby. No one answered at the Andersons and it looked like Luke had gone out fishing early.

Arthur:
What about Marcus up near Disney Point?

Winifred:
Oh, that seems unlikely. I love Marcus, but he is a little strange.

Jack:
About Disney Point. She would know better than to go swimming around there, I hope? (
Turns.
) Oh, Jenny. Good. Lilly wouldn't swim in President's Channel or anywhere around there, would she? She knows about those currents, right?

Jenny:
(
Slowly.
) She knows how treacherous the currents are.

Peg:
Jenny, honey. You look like you've seen a ghost. This is Lilly we're talking about, remember? She'll turn up.

Dale:
Probably in some boy's bed.

Miranda:
I've tried texting her about ten times already.

Trinculo:
Did anyone look on Jack's boat yet?

Chad:
I looked. She's not there.

Sally:
She's not in the boathouse either.

Ariel:
Or in the bathhouse.

Jenny:
(
Snaps her phone shut.
) I'm going up to Disney Point.

Frankie:
Wait a second. This is a mystery and we should do what any good detective would do, which is try to discover a motive. What does Lilly want?

Peg:
Frankie, stop.

Frankie:
(
Looking around.
) What is it? What are you guys not telling me?

Arthur:
Mmm. Jen? (
Clears his throat.
) When you're ready, I can walk you up there. To Disney Point. We can stop by Marcus's place on the way, just in case.

Jenny:
I'm ready now.

Trinculo:
Me, too.

Jenny:
No. You stay here. Please. (
Turns to Frankie.
) And you, too. I've got one daughter missing, the last thing I need is to lose another one.

Ariel:
I'll come.

Jenny:
If you want to.

Arthur:
This way.

Arthur:
I'll call everyone to the schoolhouse, then. For a meeting.

Jenny:
Yes.

Ariel:
You're sure that Marcus guy doesn't have her tied up in a back room somewhere now? He was an odd one.

Arthur:
He's harmless. (
Looks hard at Ariel.
) We're not big on judging each other, here on the island.

Ariel:
Touché. (
Brushes Jenny's arm with his fingertips.
) I was just making light. I'm sure she's fine.

Jenny:
What makes you think so?

Ariel:
She's the original survivor, that girl. Stronger than Frankie. Even stronger than you.

Jenny:
Survivors get depressed, don't they? They get their hearts broken.

Ariel:
She didn't do it, Jenny. She's no Ophelia.

Jenny:
(
Staring at the water.
) But how do you
know
? How do you know which ones would and which ones wouldn't?

Ariel:
Because I was one of the ones who would. Tried, in fact. More than once.

Jenny:
(
Turns to him.
) Really? That doesn't seem like you.

Ariel:
It doesn't seem like me
now
. (
Looks back out at the sea.
) The first time was when I was Frankie's age. Washed an entire bottle of aspirin down with Tang—do you remember that stuff? Had my stomach pumped.

Jenny:
Oh, I'm so sorry.

Ariel:
You're sorry about a whole lot of stuff, and only some of it has anything to do with you.

Jenny:
I didn't mean . . .

Ariel:
It's okay. I'm just a bitch. (
Gives her a sidelong glance.
) I'm not sorry about it, though.

Jenny:
(
Smiles.
) Well, okay then.

Ariel:
Okay.

Jenny:
Shall we head back down?

Ariel:
Yes, we ought to.

Peg:
Mystery solved, Jen! It was Luke Anderson. He took Lilly to San Juan early this morning on his boat.

Winifred:
Your parents thought you had gone fishing.

Chad:
Lilly was the release, but what was the catch?

Luke:
She asked me to. Was I supposed to say no?

Esme:
You could have told someone.

Luke:
So, I'm supposed to tell someone now, every time I go fishing?

Sally:
You didn't
go
fishing.

Luke:
Whatever. Anyway, it was barely even light.

Peg:
Okay, people. Thanks to Lilly, we're about two hours behind schedule. Captain Jack has the boat ready. As soon as the first group loads up we can run them over to Orcas.

Trinculo:
Can I do anything to help?

Dale:
You've done enough, Tiger. Don't you think? And been done enough, as well, I should imagine.

Jenny:
(
To Luke.
) You brought her into Friday Harbor? Did she say anything?

Luke:
(
Glances from Jenny to the ground.
) She said a whole lot of stuff.

Jenny:
I'm sure she did, knowing Lilly. But did she say she was going
home
?

Luke:
She said she was going to make a bold declaration.

Jenny:
A bold declaration? What does Lilly have to declare?

Luke:
Her love.

T
he wind had picked up on the ride from Waldron to Orcas. When the second group arrived at the ferry terminal they found the first cupping paper coffee cups in their hands and huddling around the entrance to the Orcas Village Store. Peg got a table inside to go over her Waldron notes and Dale snapped the buckles on his guitar case open and hoisted himself, with a fair amount of huffing and puffing, onto a low stone wall that bordered the small patio and outside tables. Ferdinand and Ariel walked up the hill to look around. Chad pulled a Hacky Sack from his pocket and he and David and Sally proceeded to kick it around in the street. Each time it hit the ground they all would pause for sips from the coffee cups that they had lined up along the wall. Dale sat strumming the guitar and trying to remember the lyrics to “Wake Up Little Susie.”

“We both fell sound asleep, wake up little Suzie and weep . . .”

“Wake up, little Suuuusie, waaake up!” sang Miranda and Frankie.

Dale frowned. “No, wait. Not yet. First it goes, it's four o'clock something something and we're in trouble deep . . .”

Trinculo came up beside Jenny, who was standing apart from the others watching the ferry make its way across to them from Lopez.

He inclined his head toward Dale and the girls. “They sound good together.”

Jenny glanced at Miranda and Frankie and smiled. Frankie was clearly enjoying having the older girl's undivided attention without her sister around. Jenny avoided looking directly at Trinculo and pulled her phone from her pocket to check, once again, for messages. Nothing.

Trinculo brought his coffee cup up to his mouth with both hands. “Caliban, on the other hand, looks like he could use some sleep.”

Caliban hunched in a plastic chair with a sweater wrapped tightly around his shoulders, staring off into the distance. An untouched powdered donut sat on a paper plate on his lap. He was wearing sunglasses though the morning was still shrouded in fog. His skin had a sickly green tinge.

Jenny stirred her coffee with the plastic straw. “Peg will be furious if he blows the performance tomorrow night.”

Trinculo said, “Oh, no. Don't worry. He's a professional. He may have forgotten how to tie his shoes last night, but come tomorrow he will know his lines.”

Jenny kept her eyes in her cup, watching her coffee settle back into a smooth, black disk.

“I'll talk to her again, Jenny,” said Trinculo softly. “Whatever it takes.”

She shook her head. “No. It should be me who does it.” The coffee was cold, but she swallowed a mouthful of the bitter liquid anyway. “You know, I was standing here remembering the first real broken heart that Lilly had. She was sixteen.”

Trinculo's expression was pained. “It doesn't get easier.”

Jenny met his eyes for the first time since Waldron. “No. It doesn't.” She looked from his face back out to the water. The ferry was close enough to see people standing on the deck outside. “She was crazy in love with this boy at school. A senior. And he loved her, too, I think. For a while. He was her first . . .” She kicked a small rock down the hill with the toe of her boot. “God, I shouldn't be telling you this. She would
kill
me if she knew I was telling you this.”

The fog was breaking up in chunks, like snow melting off a car. Trinculo set his cup by his feet and fished his sunglasses out of his pocket. “Look. I don't want to come between you and your daughter, but I will say that you've both seen me naked and in, well, a somewhat compromised position.”

“Shhhh,” said Jenny and she touched her finger to his lips. She then added, in a pretty good imitation of Peg, “That is not to be spoken of.”

Trinculo laughed. “I was just sayin.'”

Jenny continued, “The thing was, it was so
Lilly
. We went to Marin to visit my sister, and while we were there she got an e-mail from the guy saying that he'd met someone on vacation with his parents. He didn't say he wanted to break up with her, what he said was he thought he might be in love with both of them at the same time.” Jenny smiled. “And Lilly, being Lilly, knew right away that this was bullshit. She sobbed in my arms for maybe five minutes all out, and then she looked up at me and do you know what she said?”

Trinculo waited.

“She said, ‘He couldn't go without sex for
two weeks
?'”

They both laughed.

“No one is going to pull anything over on that girl,” said Trinculo, shaking his head.

“No.” Jenny touched his arm. She could feel the warmth of his skin through the fabric of his waffled cotton T-shirt. “We should go down.”

Trinculo looked at the back of her hand and then raised his eyes to her face. His look had such desire in it that she blushed.

“When will I see you next?”

“Tomorrow night. At Peg's.”

“I meant alone.”

Jenny chewed her bottom lip. “I don't know,” she said. “Let's play it by ear, okay?”

The ferry captain let out a long, loud blast. The cars in line started their engines and from the Village and the market and the parking lot and the edge of the cliff, each of the Waldron travelers began to make their way down the hill toward the boat.

The actors followed the line of tourists off the ferry in twos and threes, separating at the landing as if an invisible string binding them together had been cut. They called out their good-byes to each other on their way to the market, to a restaurant for lunch, or in the case of Caliban, home to bed. Jenny and Trinculo touched hands so briefly before parting, and said so little, that it was unlikely that anyone noticed but themselves. Frankie climbed into the truck with her backpack clutched to her chest and her hair wild around her head. She had packed her toothbrush, Jenny thought, but it was unlikely that she had used it.