AFTER PERLEY CAME BACK FROM MAINE THAT TIME, HE TOLD her he was useless; he didn’t even manage to join the marines. He stayed in his room and would not even read the notes she put under his door. Finally she used her own key (the doors of the old cottage had skeleton keys) and came in, when he was sitting bare-chested in his underwear. He had one of his grandfather’s machetes in his hand, thinking he could kill himself with it. The machete they were going to use to go to Oak Island and discover the treasure, a long time ago when their hearts were young and glad.
“We’ll be more rootin-tootin than that good old Dug Vanderflutin,” Mary had said to him. They were seven and eight. They had found those old India-issued British imperial helmets up in the attic and had walked about with them on their heads, sat at the table with them on, winking at each other—collecting rope. Making a potato salad. Sneaking quarters to buy chocolate bars. Then they had found the machete, and a map—which they themselves had picked up at a service station, and were heading to the door, with a picnic basket, when Nanesse and her old aunt stopped them.
“Tu ne pouvez pas imaginer ce qu’elle est sur lui—une mauvaise influence,” Nan said later that day to her husband.
You can’t imagine what a bad influence she is.
It seemed only a moment from then until this moment when he held the machete and looked at her.
She told him he didn’t need to.
“Need to what?”
“Need to join the marines to be a man—”
He stared down at his feet. She took the machete from him and tossed it on the bed. But she did not leave.
She stood back and undid her skirt and slowly tossed it aside. He looked up at her. Her blouse came down over her creamy thighs, but she unbuttoned it slowly. She looked at him, stared at him a long moment. Then took her blouse off. She was now naked except for a small pair of black panties. His mouth opened and his eyes blinked. He began to breathe heavier, and his eyes watered. So, giving a sigh, she took her panties off.
“Oh my good god, you are absolutely gorgeous,” he said.
“See,” she said, quite matter of fact, as she stared at him. “You’ve just proven it, haven’t you! You have all the equipment to be a man—and I can see it reacts just like a man’s should—so please understand you don’t have to try to prove it anymore.”
“You are my cousin,” he said, softly.
“At this moment—and this is the only moment—that does not matter.”
And then she picked up her blouse, skirt and panties, and left the room naked.