Elin Hilderbrand - The Rumor

Hope should have just told Brick while she had the chance: Yes, Allegra is seeing Ian. Yes, Allegra is screwing Ian.

Indeed, Hope was certain the reason the rumor about Hope and Brick died so quickly was because Allegra put her foot down and stomped it out. She knew Hope was capable of telling everyone about her and Ian Coburn.

A less nourishing thought was that the rumor about Hope and Brick had fizzled because nobody in their right mind could imagine Brick wanting to have sex with Hope.

Hope resumed believing that Allegra would blow it; she couldn’t two-time all summer on this tiny island without getting caught. All Hope had to do was wait.

But waiting was tedious. The school year was drawing to a close, and the weather had warmed up. By the end of the first week of June, Hope had aced all her exams. There was nothing left to study for and no reason, even, to practice the flute. Her job at the rectory of St. Mary’s Church would start right after school ended, but that would be a quiet, antisocial snooze. She would help Mrs. Aguiar file, and she would do some research for Father Declan’s homilies. She would answer the phone and inform an endless string of visitors that Masses were held Saturday at 5:00 p.m. and Sunday at 8:30, 10:00, and 11:30, there was weekday Mass at 7:30 a.m., and there was a Spanish Mass at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday.

For now, when Hope came home from school, she would lie in the hammock strung tightly between two elms overlooking Polpis Harbor, and she would read. Allegra was already heading to the beach with her friends every afternoon to drink the beer that Bluto’s older sister bought for them and then pass out in the sand. Allegra never invited Hope to go, and Hope’s friends were home reading in their own hammocks or getting a jump on their college application essays. Hope comforted herself with the knowledge that next spring she, Hope, would be getting into the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt, and maybe even Duke, while Allegra would be waitlisted at North Podunk Junior College.

Still, it was lonely.

The only bright spot in Hope’s life was her talks with Benton about books. She had started with Goodbye, Columbus, although it had struck her as old fashioned and macho. She had liked Appointment in Samarra much better. Benton had seemed really tickled that she was following his suggestions, and when he saw her, he made a point to ask her where she was in each book and how she was liking it.

The conversations never lasted as long as Hope wanted because Hope’s mother always interrupted-calling Benton over to the henhouse or needing his help with the lawn mower. Some days, Grace made Benton elaborate lunches-seared-tuna Caesar salads or frisée aux lardons topped with poached eggs. And there was always a basket of crusty rolls and a small wooden cutting board with cheese, crackers, sausage, mustard, butter, and Marcona almonds.

Hope longed to be invited to join in these lunches, and she told her mother so.

“This is an important time for Benton and me to talk,” Grace said. “I’m sorry, darling. Would you like me to make you a ham sandwich?”

“A ham sandwich?” Hope asked.

“On a baguette with sweet butter and fig jam?” Grace said. “You can eat it in the hammock while you read.”

That did sound enticing, but not quite as enticing as sitting down at the table with her mother and Benton.

“I’d rather have salad with you guys,” Hope said.

“I’m sorry, darling,” Grace said. “We have gardening issues to discuss.”

Gardening issues? Was her mother serious? She wasn’t willing to include Hope in these lunches, despite her near-constant pleas that both Hope and Allegra spend more time with her?

“Fine,” Hope said. “A ham sandwich is fine.”

Allegra’s end-of-the-year grades were piss poor: low C’s in chemistry, trig, and American history and a D in English, but a 79 in chorus-which, she pointed out, was nearly a B (the grade in chorus was impressive, Hope thought, since Allegra couldn’t carry a tune to save her life). In an uncharacteristic display of backbone, Eddie informed Allegra that she would not have driving privileges for the summer. This was okay when she was out with Ian Coburn in the red Camaro, but to see Brick she either needed to take the shuttle (which came out to the Polpis Road only three times daily) or she had to beg Hope for a ride.

Hope agreed to chauffeur more than she might have, if only to see Brick. Brick seemed miserable. He was working part time at Nantucket Bank as an “information assistant,” which, he announced, was the dullest of indoor jobs. He greeted people, he directed them either left, toward the tellers, or right, toward the loan officers; he was also in charge of showing people how to use the Penny Arcade, which sorted and counted change and spat out a receipt that customers could trade in for paper money. Brick looked bloated and pale; he had lost the luster and verve he’d possessed only a few weeks earlier.

There was a full week of graduation parties, and Allegra and Brick were invited to all of them. Hope wasn’t invited to any, although whenever they pulled in the driveway, Brick would say, “Why don’t you come in for a while, Hope?”

“No, thank you,” Hope said.

At more than one of the parties, Ian Coburn’s red Camaro was already parked out front, and Hope thought, How does she pull this off on a nightly basis?

One day, when Benton was working in the rose bed, Hope ostentatiously threw herself across the hammock, brandishing the copy of Lolita that she had recently purchased.

She opened the book with a loud sigh, hoping Benton would notice her, but for a long time, he was consumed with cutting back the roses.

“Ow!” Benton said. He’d hit a thorn.

“Are you okay?” Hope asked. She was up and out of the hammock in a flash. “Do you want me to get you a Band-Aid?”

“Oh, Hope!” Benton said. “I didn’t see you there. You’re quiet as a mouse.” He then noticed Hope’s book. “Hey! You’re reading Lolita!”

Hope blushed. “Yep.”

Benton stepped out of the rose bed and wiped at his forehead with an orange bandanna. “I keep promising to get you that list of a hundred books, but I’ve been so busy.”

“You have clients other than Mom, right?” Hope said.

“Right,” Benton said. “I work on six projects at a time.”

“You have five other clients?” Hope asked. “It feels like you’re always here.”

“Well,” he said, gazing back at the house, “this one is my personal favorite. And I have a manager and ten college kids working for me.”

“I don’t understand why you’re a gardener if you were a literature major,” Hope said.

Benton laughed. “Life happens, Hope. I was on a work-study scholarship at Ohio State, and they put me on the grounds crew. I liked it. When I graduated, it was more appealing to me to work outside with yards and gardens, parks, green spaces. It’s not that I don’t dream of being an English teacher someday-I sort of do. But I guess I just prefer this kind of work.”

“Did you read all the time when you were a teenager?” Hope asked.

“I read secretly,” Benton said. “Late at night. During the day, I did regular teenage stuff. I played rugby, I drank beer in the woods with my bozo friends.”

“You were sort of a combination of me and Allegra,” Hope said.

“Maybe?” Benton said. “I don’t really know your sister.”

Hope felt happy about this. Most people liked Allegra better because she was outgoing, like Eddie. She could converse, tease, flirt, and make instant friends. If Benton met Allegra, he would prefer Allegra, or so Hope feared.

But maybe not. Allegra wouldn’t tolerate a long discussion about books.

“She’s nothing like me,” Hope said. “She’s beautiful and shallow.”

Benton didn’t flinch at this assessment. “You’re beautiful,” he said.

Hope shrugged. She could tell when someone was saying this just to be nice. “She’s more beautiful. She and her best friend, Hollis, are the most popular girls in the school. Allegra has been dating Brick Llewellyn since the start of sophomore year, but now she’s bored with him, but instead of just breaking up with him, she’s been hanging out with this kid named Ian who goes to BC.”

“BC,” Benton said. “Good school.”

Clearly, Benton hadn’t heard Eddie’s joke.

“She’s not cheating on him,” Hope said quickly. As much as she was aching for Allegra to get her comeuppance, she couldn’t seem to be the one to turn her in. “But she isn’t being very nice.”

“And that bothers you?” Benton said.

“I want her to act like a decent human being,” Hope said. She wished all this sounded less like an episode of Degrassi and more like painful, complicated real life. “Do you have any advice?”

“Actually,” Benton said, “I do.”

At that moment, Grace poked her head out the back sliding door. She seemed delighted to see Hope and Benton talking. “Benton,” she said, “lunch is ready.” To Hope, she said, “Honey? Would you like a ham sandwich?”

Hope shrugged. As always, her mother ruined everything. “I guess,” she said.

Just when she thought life couldn’t get any better, she received a phone call from Hester Phan.

“I have exciting news,” Hester said. Hester was a serious Vietnamese American woman with a deadpan voice. She sounded as if she were calling to tell Grace that there was a sale on rubber gloves at the Stop & Shop.

“You do?” Grace said.

“The home-and-garden editor of the Boston Globe loved the photos. They want to do a feature in the Sunday paper.”

Grace shrieked. “When?” she said.

“They’re sending a writer and photographer on July twenty-first,” Hester said, “to run five days later on Sunday the twenty-sixth.”

They had less than a month to get ready!

“Whoo-hoo!” Grace said. “Thank you, Hester, thank you!”

“That’s my job,” Hester said. “I’ll call closer to the date with the exact details. And I’ll send Eddie my final bill.”

Grace hung up. She didn’t know whether to call Eddie or Benton first. The right thing to do was to call Eddie. This was his house, and he was paying Hester’s fee. Besides, she wanted to tell Benton in person.

She said, “You’re not going to believe this! The Boston Globe said yes! The Sunday Boston Globe!”

“Yes to what?” Eddie said.

“Yes to the gardening feature!” Grace said.

“Oh, right, right,” Eddie said. “Does this mean I can stop paying Hester?”

“After the final bill,” Grace said. “Which, I think we agreed, includes a success bonus.”

“Why should she get a bonus for success?” Eddie said. “It’s her job. She should succeed as a matter of course, not get a bonus for it.” He sounded like he was in some kind of cavern. His voice was reverberating, and Grace could hear his footsteps.

“Where are you?” she said.

“Number thirteen Eagle Wing Lane,” he said.

“It sounds empty,” Grace said. “Aren’t there supposed to be guys working?”

“Yes,” Eddie said. “There are supposed to be guys working.”

She couldn’t decipher the tone of his voice. Was he being sarcastic?

She didn’t care. She was too excited about the Sunday Boston Globe. She said, “Honey, aren’t you happy for me?”

“Thrilled,” Eddie said.

Grace hung up. Eddie didn’t sound thrilled-but what had she expected?

She wished the girls were home, but Hope had started her job at the church rectory, and Allegra was off island at her new SAT-prep course. Instead of once a week for six weeks, this class met every day for a week, including Saturday. Allegra needed yet another prep class because the other class had resulted in only a thirty-point increase in her critical-reading score, and her math score had stayed the same. Neither score was very high.

Eddie wasn’t happy about spending money on another class, in addition to the cost of flying her back and forth.

Grace said that some people just didn’t test well.

Eddie said she wasn’t trying. Had Grace ever seen her studying?

No, Grace had not seen Allegra studying, and, furthermore, Allegra was out every single night.

Grace would tell the girls about the Sunday Boston Globe that evening at dinner.

Would they care?

Grace wanted to call Madeline, but Madeline had been very busy writing her new novel at the apartment, and Grace didn’t want to interrupt her. However, she was too excited to keep the news to herself, and it was still half an hour until Benton would arrive.

Grace sent Madeline a text: Sunday Boston Globe featuring my garden July 26!