During the summer Danish slept in my bed He spent all day with Micayla Bennett and me Everyone thought he was my dog And the house well the house felt like ours too The yellow room with the canopy bed was mine No one else slept there Mom and Dad had the room around the corner with the blue-and-ivory-striped wallpaper And Grandma’s room was at the end of the hallway She had her own bathroom but she’d let us use it All year she’d be busy on Seagate volunteering at the elementary school to help the kids with math setting up the concert schedule for the summer taking Danish to Dog Beach even when it was a little bit cold outside Even though I knew all that I always imagined her waiting patiently for us to come back for the summer We’d come for weekends sometimes but that didn’t really count Summer was summer Summer was when we were all together Grandma would make her famous corn chowder Mom would set up her easel on the back deck and paint landscapes of the ocean and Dad would try to play Ping-Pong with everyone on the island at least once After Grandma died we were all really sad We couldn’t imagine being on Seagate without her But when we came back that next summer being there was more comforting than we expected it to be Everyone wanted to tell us stories about Grandma Dad did some work on the house to spruce it up a little bit and Mom organized a special concert in Grandma’s memory Now the annual concert series is known as the Sally Bell Seagate Concert Calendar Danish died this past December It was sudden and I don’t really like to even think about it All winter and spring I kept
Avery Sanders has a boyfriend Micayla tells me Yeah I ask She didn’t mention it to me when I saw her at Pastrami on Rye the other night Just saw her at Sundae Best She was going on and on about it She said this new kid moved to Seagate in the middle of the year And he’s like a real-life boyfriend I look at Micayla surprised I wonder why she didn’t tell me before hoping that being back on Seagate would be comforting the way it was after Grandma died But so far it’s not So far I just miss him It was always Micayla Bennett and me with Danish running along with us A key member of our crew is missing I have to tell you something Micayla and I say at the exact same time and then we both burst into laughter You first I say She probably has more exciting news than my babysitting job Avery Sanders is a friend of ours but not a best friend She moved to Seagate four years ago and she lives here year-round She’s the type of friend that we never really call to make plans but if we run into each other we’ll hang out She’s nice but she’s one of those girls who seemed like a teenager when we were like nine and she’d always say that Bennett was my boyfriend even when I didn’t really know what a boyfriend was The past few times I talked to her she told me that she was bored with Seagate and that it has really changed since she moved here I always listened to what she said even though none of it made sense How could Seagate be boring And how could it
change Seagate will always be perfect and summer after summer it always stays the same That’s the beauty of it I think her grandparents live here year-round now too Micayla tells me That’s what my mom said Actually that’s another group of lucky people on Seagate the year-rounders I always wonder if that makes them luckier than the luckiest or somewhere in between On the one hand they never have to leave Seagate But on the other hand they have to see almost everyone else leave And they don’t get that amazing anticipation the excited heart-bursting feeling of coming back What did you have to tell me Micayla asks I explain the whole pickle situation with Amber Seasons That’s cool Micayla says It’s like your first real job You think Yeah for sure She digs deep in her cup for the last little bit of ice cream And it’s only a few hours You won’t miss anything I guess Micayla gives me her please-cheer-up smile again and taps my leg Come on Let’s go meet Bennett at Ping-Pong Bennett always makes you laugh after five minutes She’s right about that
Who’s he playing I ask Micayla as we get closer to the stadium It’s not really a stadium but since Ping Pong is such a huge deal on Seagate Island that’s what we call it It’s really just a big overhang in the middle of the island with fifteen Ping-Pong tables underneath it This way people can play rain or shine He said he was meeting his dad here You know they take their Sunday games really seriously Bennett’s dad only comes to Seagate on the weekends He’s a big lawyer in Boston He flies in every Friday and flies back every Sunday on these teeny-tiny planes Bennett and his dad always have a heated Ping-Pong match right before he leaves on Sunday afternoon Bennett usually wins Remy Mic Bennett shouts to us Where have you guys
