The Oysterville Sewing Circle. Susan Wiggs

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СКАЧАТЬ concrete information on a level they could understand. Tell them things in advance. Not too far in advance, but let them know what to expect and anticipate. They had only ever known the busy, eclectic neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen, where they’d lived with their mother, just a block from their primary school on West Forty-Fourth Street. Now they were about to enter a strange new world, and Caroline could tell from their quiet, wide-eyed expressions that they were worried.

      “Let’s play the remembering game,” she said, hoping to stave off the restlessness that often preceded meltdowns. “What’s the name of the town where my family lives?”

      “Oysterville,” they piped up together.

      “Hey, that’s great. You got that down. Here’s a tricky question. How many brothers and sisters do I have?”

      “Five!” Flick said.

      “Five kids in my family, so I have four siblings.”

      “How many is four?” asked Addie.

      “Like your fingers,” Flick said, holding up his hand. “One, two, three, four.”

      “You’re right about the fingers,” Caroline said. “I have two older sisters and two younger brothers. Remember, I told you our family was a sibling sandwich with me in the middle.”

      Crushed in the middle, she thought.

      “Let’s play the name game one more time,” she said. She wanted to familiarize them with their new circumstances so things wouldn’t feel so completely foreign to them. “Can you remember my sisters’ names?”

      “Virginia,” said Flick. “You just said.”

      “Good. How about my other sister? Remember how I said we’re all named after states. Caroline for Carolina, Virginia, and …?”

      “Georgia!” Flick said.

      “Georgia,” Addie repeated.

      “That’s right. And my two brothers are both younger than me, because I’m in the middle. Our parents named the boys after cities.” In the too-much-information department, her parents liked to tell people they named each child after the place where he or she had been conceived. “See if you can remember,” she said. “I showed you their pictures on my phone.”

      “Jackson.”

      “That’s right. Jackson lives on a boat in the harbor at Ilwaco. It was dark when we passed it, but I bet he’d like to show you around. He’s the seafood buyer for the restaurant, and he’s a fisherman, too.”

      “How can he live on a boat?” asked Addie.

      “Believe me, you’re not the first girl to ask that.” Jackson was the free spirit of the family, never overly concerned with domestic matters.

      “Is it a house, only it’s on a boat?”

      “Not exactly. It’s more like a boat with really small rooms. You’ll see one day soon. Now, what about my other brother—the youngest one in the family?”

      Hesitation.

      “Starts with Au,” she hinted. “When you’re older, you’ll study states and capitals in school, and you’ll learn that this is the capital of Texas.”

      Flick shrugged. “I forgot.”

      “That’s all right. It’s hard to remember names before you get to know who they belong to. My brothers are Jackson and Austin. My parents’ names are Dottie and Lyle. How about this one—can you remember the name of my family’s restaurant?”

      “Star of the Sea!”

      During the drive, they’d stopped at dozens of restaurants, diners, and truck stops. She had told them about the Shelby family restaurant, founded by her parents. A now-famous destination on the peninsula, it was located on the beach at the edge of the dunes, where the sea and sand met in irregular stitches.

      “That’s right,” she said. “Star of the Sea. I think you’re going to like it.”

      “Can we go there now?” asked Flick. “I’m hungry.”

      “My sister is fixing breakfast at the house,” Caroline reminded him. “You’ll have plenty of chances to eat there. The whole Shelby clan works at the restaurant in some way or other.” Her brother Austin was the finance guy, a CPA who kept the family books, and Georgia was the restaurant’s general manager. “It’s a true family business.”

      “Except you,” said Flick.

      “Except me,” she admitted.

      When she was little, Caroline hadn’t realized how hard her parents had worked—the long hours, the tangled problems of launching and sustaining a restaurant. As she got older, she had tried to do her share, but she had never possessed the passion and focus it took to throw herself into the enterprise. In the Shelby family, she was the dreamer, always yearning for something that drew her far away.

      “I did design the chefs’ coats and servers’ outfits a long time ago.

      They didn’t like them, though.

      Too avant-garde.”

      “What’s that mean?”

      “Too awesome,” she said.

      “Are you going to work at the restaurant now?” Addie asked.

      I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do, Caroline thought.

      “We’ll see.” She paused. “When I was a kid, I was always skeptical every time I heard a grown-up say, ‘We’ll see.’ What does that even mean? See what? When? How will we see what I’m talking about if I don’t even know what I’m talking about?”

      No response. She didn’t blame them for being as confused and out of their depth as she was. She sighed again. “Now I just said, ‘We’ll see.’ Does that make me a grown-up?”

      “You’ve always been a grown-up,” Flick pointed out.

      “Thanks a lot. You don’t think I was ever a kid like you?”

      “We’ll see,” he said.

      “You’re cheeky,” she told him. “Now, pay attention. I want you to watch out the window for the mailbox. It says Shelby and it’s decorated with seashells.”

      She slowed down as they passed undulating dunes on the west side and coastal forest on the east, with the fog snaking through like a serpent made of mist. Hand-lettered signs for fresh eggs and organic produce, U-pick cranberries and blueberries beckoned travelers. Battered mailboxes bore names both familiar and new to her—Gonzalez, Moore, Espy, Haruki, Ryerson.

      “I see it,” Flick exclaimed. “Is that where we’re going?”

      The seashell mailbox was a monstrosity, so ugly it had become a local landmark. She and her brothers and sisters had made it one year as a surprise for their СКАЧАТЬ