Chapter 2.

On a hot, moist July morning in a western suburb of Boston, in a neighborhood where modest houses were out of reach for a teacher’s salary, but not for the combined salaries of a teacher and an attorney, Josh Hiller and his friend Carl labored to move most of his worldly goods into a U-Haul truck. The rest of his stuff was already jammed into his Honda Civic, the dusty car waiting at the curb like an overloaded donkey.

Six months ago, Josh’s life had seemed difficult but manageable: He and Tanya were not getting along—but considering joint counseling; his dog, Molly, was gray-muzzled and arthritic—but as devoted as ever; and the principal of Josh’s middle school was a bitch on wheels—but more important, Josh loved teaching those kids.

Now Tanya had filed for divorce, Molly was a small round carton of ashes and bone fragments on the floor of his car’s backseat, and Westham Middle School was Josh’s previous employer. Soon his and Tanya’s three-bedroom Cape would be on the market, and then it would become someone else’s house.

Carl held a wooden-cased clock up to where Josh stood in the back of the U-Haul. “I think this is it, but you’ll probably want to take a last look around.” Leaning with both hands on the truck, he watched Josh wrap the Seth Thomas clock in a bathmat and wedge it into the seat of an armchair. “Uh, shouldn’t you pack that clock in its own box? It looks like an antique.”

“No, it’ll be fine.” Josh wiped his dripping forehead with the sleeve of his T-shirt, briefly disrupting the cloud of gnats around his head. Carl, he noticed, looked like he was going to pass out. “Let’s get out of here. Follow me to Liberty Self-Storage? Unit 2B.”

 

That afternoon Josh drove cautiously south on Route 24, having to depend on his side mirrors because the back window was blocked with cartons and bags. Also, the bicycle on the back jiggled whenever he hit a bump. It was generous of Vicky, his sister, to give him the bicycle. Although he didn’t like feeling that she was managing him, as if he couldn’t manage his own life.

It was Vicky’s idea for Josh to spend the summer on the South Coast, healing in the sun and salt air while he looked for a new job. “Not Cape Cod,” she told him. “The South Coast is just as nice as the Cape, but closer and less expensive.” She set him up with a real estate friend in Mattakiset, a town of farms and summer cottages tucked into the inlets and points around Buzzards Bay.

Josh took the exit for I-195 East, and then the exit for Mattakiset. Suddenly, there was almost no traffic, and the highway was walled in by woods on both sides. Josh followed the directions past stone walls draped with brambles, past a chicken farm, over a creek flowing into a salt marsh, past a field where cows clustered in the shade. “We’re in the country, old girl,” remarked Josh to the backseat.

Turning off Old Farm Road at a red mailbox, Josh drove between rough-cut stone posts and parked under an ancient mulberry tree. The picture Melissa the real estate agent sent him hadn’t lied—in fact, the white-clapboard farmhouse looked even more picturesque in its wider setting, with a barn and the neighboring pasture.

A large, shaggy gray dog bounded out the front door, barking, followed by a tall, sturdy woman. “You must be Josh Hiller. I’m Barbara Schaeffer, and this is Lola.”

They shook hands, and Josh held out his fingers for the dog to sniff. English sheep dog mix, he guessed. Barbara and her dog both had straight-cut gray bangs and pale blue eyes.

“Well!” said Barbara. “Let me show you around a bit, and then I’ll let you get settled. Here’s your key.” She watched Josh drop the key into the front pocket of his shorts. “Wouldn’t it be a good idea to put that right on your key chain?” Quickly she smiled, as if to soften any impression of bossiness.

Josh smiled, too, to soften any impression of willful disobedience. “Sure, good idea.”

Barbara’s smile disappeared, but she let the subject drop and beckoned him toward a screened porch on one side of the house. “Now, you’re welcome to use this space for relaxing.” Opening the screen door, she gestured at the wicker chairs and coffee table. “And to use the washer, of course.”

Josh looked from the porch furniture, with the wicker unspooling from its legs, to the top-loading Kenmore washing machine. He gazed all around the porch. “And the dryer . . .?”

Barbara pointed to an umbrella-style clothesline on the lawn. “I’ve always preferred to hang laundry out in the sunshine. And now we know how bad dryers are for the environment. And of course terrible fires can start in the lint screen.” Josh’s dismay must have showed on his face, because she added, “It is stated in our rental agreement: washer, no dryer.”

Then Barbara cleared her throat, as if to indicate starting over on the right foot. Stepping down from the porch, she explained, “I’m new to this renting business. You see, I’ve lived in this house for thirty years, but I’ve never rented the apartment before. We added it on eight years ago, for my mother-in-law.” She halted and gestured to the outdoor stairway leading to an apartment over the porch. “Well. I think everything is self-explanatory—I put up some notes around the apartment—but if you have questions, just knock on my door and ask.”

Josh smiled wryly. “Or, I could actually read the rental agreement, right?”

Barbara smiled back. “It’s really very simple. The important clauses are No smoking and No pets.” She headed back to the house, with her dog ambling after.

Wearily Josh pulled his backpack out of the car and trudged up the outside stairs. It was a little cooler here than in Westham, but just as humid. He was breathing through his mouth, which he’d been doing a lot lately. As if it was hard to get enough oxygen.

There was a hand-lettered notice on the apartment door: PLEASE! LEAVE THE SAND AT THE BEACH! Josh turned the key in the lock, pushed the door open, and headed past the bed for the bathroom. Over the toilet, as he peed, another notice: HOLD HANDLE DOWN THROUGH FLUSH.

Glancing into the kitchenette, he found further instruction over the toaster: TOASTER DOES NOT POP UP—USE TOAST TONGS. Beside the toaster was an implement fashioned from two wooden tongue depressors, a chunk of packing foam, and a rubber band. Barbara must have made this herself. Or maybe the craftsperson was her presumably deceased mother-in-law.

Josh turned to stare at the nubby brown bedspread, struggling against gloom. What had he let his sister do to him? This was a miserable place to spend his summer. Josh had dropped out of middle-class life, down to the level of an aging graduate student.

No. No, that was the wrong way to look at it. Come on, Hiller, pull yourself together. This might be a crappy rental, but he wasn’t going to spend much time here, anyway. He was going to spend the summer on the beach. And nothing was stopping him from heading for the surf right now.

 

“And here come the dogs!” The voice of a woman provoked beyond endurance. “Kids. We are leaving.”

Josh must have crashed on the beach, sedated by body-surfing. His towel was damp where he’d drooled a bit in his sleep. Pushing himself to his knees, Josh watched dogs and owners trotting down the path through the dunes. He felt ambushed. Soon enough, he wanted to tell them, you’ll be holding an empty leash. Then you’ll know how it feels.

Josh rolled to a sitting position and settled his Red Sox cap on his head. He glanced westward, down the long sweep of beach to the mouth of the Mattakiset River. Sunlight reflected blindingly from wet sand, and Josh blinked and turned toward the east end of the beach. There, Mattakiset Neck, with its concrete watch tower from World War II, poked into Buzzards Bay.

At the juncture of the causeway and the beach, something was moving: a brown dot, oscillating. Standing up to get a better look, Josh watched the dot grow to a blur of legs and then turn into a dog. A butterscotch brown, medium-large male, galloping like a greyhound along the edge of the surf. Josh wondered for an instant if the dog might be running from fear, but as the dog wheeled to charge a flock of gulls, he caught his expression: pure canine joy.

Josh shook out his towel, still watching. An older man in shorts and a polo shirt stepped forward. “Come here, Tucker!”

Josh could have told him that shouting angrily at a dog wasn’t likely to bring him back. Sure enough, the dog, some kind of retriever mix, swerved out of the man’s reach. But the dog paused for a split second to poke his black nose into Josh’s hand. Then off he galloped toward the west end of the beach. In no time he was a blur with legs again.

Josh laughed before he noticed the older man’s reddened face. “Sorry,” he said. “Is that dog giving you a bad time?”

“Yes. You might call it a bad time,” said the other man. “And it gets worse. The last time we let him run on the beach, he went back and forth for an hour and a half.” He checked the L.L. Bean watch on his wrist. “If the son of a bitch takes more than half an hour now, that’s the end of his free runs.”

Josh smirked at “son of a bitch,” but the older man didn’t seem to notice the joke. A woman in a wide-brimmed hat and a cover-up tunic appeared at his shoulder, glancing from the direction the dog had taken to the man’s face. “Oh, Gardner. Not again.” The man snorted.

“The trouble is,” the older woman said to Josh, “Tucker’s supposed to get free runs to work off his energy, but when we let him off the leash—” She gestured at the dog, shrunk to a brown dot where the waves dwindled into the river.

Pulling down the bill of his baseball hat, Josh watched Tucker disappear around the curve of the shore. “I thought I saw a sign in the parking lot: ‘No dogs on beach’?”

“Oh, nobody takes that seriously,” said the woman. “The families don’t want to stay on the beach after the lifeguards leave, anyway.” She pointed to the western end of beach, where the pulsing brown dot had reappeared. “Here he comes.”

Something made Josh ask, “Do you want me to grab him, if I get a chance?”

“Good luck with that,” said the man.

“That’s very kind of you,” said his wife.

The dog was now a blur of legs. Josh stepped toward the water, into the dog’s path, but didn’t look directly at him.

His short ears flapping, the dog skidded to a stop in front of Josh. Josh slipped the fingers of his left hand under the dog’s collar at the same time as the dog pushed his nose into Josh’s right hand. “Hey, Tucker,” said Josh.

The woman hurried forward to give Tucker a treat, and the man snapped the leash on the dog’s collar. “About time!” He added, “If it wouldn’t mean the end of my fifty-two-year marriage, this mutt would be out the door tomorrow.”

The happy, healthy young dog named Tucker grinned at Josh, a loose-jaw doggy grin. Josh felt heavy and sore around the heart. Why had he gotten involved?

“Thank you,” the woman said to Josh. “By the way, I’m Carol Harrison, and this is my husband Gardner.”

Josh introduced himself, but now he wanted to get off the beach, away from all the frolicking dogs and their owners. Slinging his towel over his shoulder, he raised a hand in farewell. Carol said, “Goodbye, and thank you so much for your help, Josh! Tucker’s turned out to be quite a handful.”

Her husband looked more angry than grateful, but he said, “Yes, thanks for grabbing him.”

“Glad to do it,” said Josh. “Sometimes dogs behave better for strangers, because they aren’t sure what they can get away with.”

Gardner grunted. His wife exclaimed, “Oh, I just thought of something, Josh. I guess you’re on vacation, but if you wanted a part-time job, with nice people— Obviously you have a way with dogs, and I know they need help at Coastal Canine. That’s where Tucker goes for day care.”

“To work off his excess energy, supposedly. Hah.” Giving the leash a yank, Gardner stumped off down the beach. Tucker glanced back at Josh, and Josh could almost swear that the dog winked at him.

“Of course, you probably just want to relax.” Carol smiled over her shoulder as she followed her husband. “Thanks again!”

By now, a steady stream of canines, licenses jingling, and their people, pockets stuffed with dog treats and poop pickup bags, was flowing onto the beach. Bucking the current, Josh hurried up the path through the dunes to his car.

 

Back at Barbara Schaeffer’s farmhouse, Josh took a shower in the cramped bathroom, which probably had been just right for Barbara’s tiny, wizened (he imagined) mother-in-law. Checking his phone, he discovered that it was well after six o’clock. No wonder he was starving.

And it was getting on toward time for the first pitch at Fenway Park. Foresightedly, he’d already set up his TV on a carton of books, plugged it in, and placed a chair in front of it. During the packing this morning, someone—Carl—had thoughtfully taped the remote to the TV.

From one of his grocery bags in the kitchenette Josh pulled a half-full jar of peanut butter and a torn bag of corn chips. Scooping from the jar with a chip, he leaned back in the chair, stretched his legs out, and turned the TV on.

A static buzz, and a screen full of black snow. Oh, shit. It needed a cable connection, of course. Where was it? Not on the wall where he’d set up the TV. Why hadn’t Barbara tacked up a little note about that?

After searching every inch of wall space in the apartment, Josh climbed down the stairs and walked around the house to Barbara’s kitchen door. Through the open window he heard her clanking dishes in the sink and warbling, “If ever I would leave you . . .” Her dog woofed.

“Sorry to bother you,” said Josh when Barbara answered his knock, “but I couldn’t find the cable connection.”

“The cable connection?”

“For my TV,” said Josh.

“Oh, cable TV!” Barbara was amused at Josh’s misunderstanding. She’d never had cable. Didn’t miss it at all. She did enjoy her DVD player—did Josh realize how many quality DVD’s you could get from the library, free?

Josh took a deep breath, smiled faintly, and went back to the apartment for his car keys.

Fifteen minutes later, he was sitting at a restaurant bar drinking a beer, with an order in for fish and chips. He’d only missed the first two innings of the Red Sox-Mariners game. Josh glanced up and down the bar, noting a young couple, a group of four or five men of different ages, and two women.

Hey, thought Josh, I could hit on someone in a bar! When was the last time he’d done that? Not that he saw any likely women to hit on just now.

There was a poof of stale cigarette smoke as someone sat down on the barstool next to Josh. A stringy man in a T-shirt and jeans, with a walrus moustache. He nodded at Josh. “How’s it goin’?” He told the bartender, “Jack Daniels on the rocks. And another beer for my friend here.”

Josh protested, but the other man, who introduced himself as Rick Johnson, insisted. “No offense, but you look like you could use another drink. You here for the weekend, or what?”

“The summer,” said Josh. “I’m renting from Barbara Schaeffer, on Old Farm Road.” Why did Rick think Josh needed another drink? Maybe because Josh was hugging himself—he’d been doing that lately. Releasing his arms, Josh placed both elbows on the padded bar.

Rick was nodding. “Mrs. Schaeffer, used to be my math teacher.” He raised his glass to Josh and settled himself more comfortably on his stool. “You’re lucky you don’t own property in this town. I got my tax bill yesterday. Holy shit. I guess Harrison and his buddies expect everyone to just keep paying and paying. Almost everybody, that is. Some people get away with murder. ‘Agricultural exemption,’ what a racket.”

Rick went on in this vein, and Josh realized that he didn’t need to feel embarrassed about accepting a beer from a stranger. Clearly, the beer was payment for sitting there and listening to Rick’s monologue. Or half listening, since Josh had the excuse of watching the game, which was shaping up to be a long one. The pitchers couldn’t get strikes, and the batters couldn’t get hits, dragging out each inning.

Josh pulled out his phone and checked it. Nothing but a message from his sister, Vicky. He’d get back to her later. This was his summer vacation, after a year from hell, and he was not going to rush to do anything. Except hit the beach again tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the gods, and the judge of words, and the president of the sovereign chiefs and the governor of the holy circle; thou art indeed . . . the Great Cat.

Inscription on the Royal Tombs at Thebes