Lost and Found in Lavender Bay (The Lavender Bay Chronicles #2)

37. Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Five

I n the meantime, Diana’s business was taking off. The women who used to work at the plant with them still sought her out for mending and dressmaking.

They’d been working on getting Diana out in public for the last six months. Initially, she’d only go to Joy’s house for Sunday dinner. Although there was a small crowd, it was people Diana knew: Laura and the girls and Joy and her three kids, Frankie, Rose, and Sammy. The kids took no notice of Diana’s headscarf, had become used to it. When Edwin and Sam, Joy’s husband, had returned from the war, Diana had been shy. But Edwin was kind and solicitous and did his best to involve her in conversations. Joy’s husband, on the other hand, was a hoot. He was always joking and teasing.

“Diana, I see you eyeing up that last piece of eggplant parmigiana,” he started one Sunday afternoon.

Diana looked mortified, her face reddening. She put her hand to her chest and said in a voice barely above a whisper, “No, honestly, I wasn’t. ”

Sam winked at her, and her posture relaxed. He reached over and helped himself to the last square. “Because the last piece is always for me.”

Laura didn’t know where Sam put it. He wasn’t that tall, maybe five-five, five-six, but he packed it away like he was six-four and weighed two hundred pounds. He enjoyed his food, or more specifically, he loved his wife’s cooking.

Diana realized that he was joking, and she smiled. It wasn’t long before she caught on to his humor.

It was a start.

From regular Sunday dinners at Joy’s house, they progressed to taking Diana out for tea and cake at one of the diners in Lavender Bay. The first time, Diana was extremely self-conscious, always looking around and touching her headscarf as if to make sure it was still there. But gradually, slowly, she calmed down a bit.

Finally, they convinced her to go to the beach. As Joy had said, it was the one place you could wear a hat or a bathing cap and no one would bat an eye.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and by late morning the heat was already bordering on unbearable. Beachgoers were spread out on blankets and towels, their bodies glistening with sweat. The sun was a large white-hot ball in the cloudless sky. Beneath it, the lake shimmered and sparkled, looking like a beautiful woman dripping in diamonds.

The three of them walked side by side onto the beach. Edwin and Sam followed, Edwin carrying the beach blankets and a bag of food, and Sam similarly burdened. Laura had made peanut-butter-and-grape-jelly sandwiches for all the kids and wrapped them in wax paper. As they trod through the hot, heavy sand, the conversation revolved around the Brooklyn Dodgers and President Truman. Every once in a while, Sam cracked a joke, and the air was punctuated with his machine-gun type of laughter. With a grin, Laura looked over to Joy, who smiled and rolled her eyes. The children ran on ahead, their skin already a light brown from summer days spent at the beach. Edna rushed toward the water.

“Frankie, keep an eye on everyone,” Joy called out after her oldest boy, who was almost fourteen. He threw his hand up in a wave of acknowledgement, not bothering to turn around.

The three women shook out the blankets and spread them out over the sand, using a shoe on each corner to keep the blanket in place. They sat on one of the blankets together, with Diana at the edge and Laura in the middle. They rolled up towels and used them as headrests. Laura lay on her back and closed her eyes, not bothering to take off her sunglasses.

“I’ll go in the water and keep an eye on the kids,” Edwin said.

Without opening her eyes, Laura replied, “Okay.”

“Any luck on the job front?” Joy asked.

“Not yet.” She was trying not to get discouraged, but it was hard. She wanted to work. She liked making her own money. And if working at the plant in Cheever had taught her anything, it was that despite her lack of skills and education, she still had a contribution to make.

“Something will come up. Pray to St. Anthony. He’ll help you find a job,” Joy advised.

Next to her, Diana held up the St. Anthony medal she wore around her neck. “I second that.” She was never seen without it. And every once in a while, when she was lost in thought, Diana fingered that gold medal that hung around her neck with a faraway look in her eyes.

“Maybe I’ll try just that,” Laura said, half joking.

“As for me, I’m done working. Those two years were enough,” Joy said with a shudder. “I still dream about being at the plant, mostly frantic about being late for my shift.”

“I have dreams about the plant as well,” Laura said.

“I have nightmares about it,” Diana said quietly.

The three of them went silent for a moment and before a pall could descend around them, Laura asked Joy, “You don’t mind not working?”

“Not on your life. I like being a housewife. I was born for it. I like cooking and cleaning.”

Laura looked at her, incredulous. “You do?” She did it because it was expected of her, but she found no enjoyment in it.

“I sure do,” Joy said whole-heartedly. “Sam, would you hand me a Coke?”

Sam sat on the blanket next to them, his legs stretched out. He leaned over and rummaged around in the cardboard box that contained food and beverages and pulled out a bottle. “Joy, I forgot the bottle opener.”

Joy sighed. “After I reminded you?”

“Yep.” Sam jumped up, the Coke bottle still in his hand. “I’ll see if someone around here has one.”

“Okay.”

Sam set off, and once he was out of earshot, Joy shook her head and muttered, “I remind him of things all the time and he still forgets.”

The three of them were still lying on their backs, half listening to the shouts and laughter of their children in the water with Edwin, and the conversations on the neighboring blankets around them. Knowing that her husband was minding the girls allowed Laura to relax, and she hoped she’d doze for a bit.

That idea was short-lived. A female voice called out to them, “Hello!”

The three of them opened their eyes and propped themselves up on their elbows as Grace Gibson approached them. The young woman wore a brand-new bathing suit in red, and her dark hair, parted down the middle, hung in curls to her shoulders. But her face was thin since coming back from serving as a Red Cross worker in the Pacific, her clavicle bony. Despite her young age—she was only in her early twenties—she had an air of maturity about her. But then war would make anyone grow up quickly.

They all said hello and made small talk for a few moments. Grace informed them that she was going to work in her father’s grape jelly factory.

“After being so busy for the last couple of years, it’s hard to be idle now,” she said in a faraway voice, looking out at the lake. She sighed and smiled quickly as if sweeping away a sense of gloom. “Anyway, I told Father I wanted to learn the business from the ground up.”

“How did he take that?” Joy asked.

With a sly grin, Grace said, “He didn’t need too much coaxing. I simply reminded him he had no sons, that I was it and no one would take more interest in the business than me, as grapes are in my blood. My mother was horrified, though. She wanted me to go back to college and finishing school and all that nonsense.” Her laughter filled the air around them. “Anyway, I stopped by because I wanted to speak to Diana. ”

Diana used her hand to shield her eyes from the blinding sun, closing one eye as she looked up at Grace.

“Since I’ve returned,” Grace said, “none of my clothes fit. Everything is hanging off of me. Father said I should buy a new wardrobe, but most of the clothes I have are perfectly good. I was wondering if you could take them in for me.”

Diana nodded. “Of course.”

“Can I come by on Tuesday?”

Diana thought for a moment. “I’m booked out that day. What about Wednesday morning?”

“Perfect.”

“Did you want to join us?” Joy asked.

Grace shook her head. “No thanks.” She looked over her shoulder. “I’m with some friends over there.”

The three of them glanced in the direction she was looking and saw a group of similar-aged girls spread out on a blanket.

They said their goodbyes, and Grace turned and left with a wave.

“Gee, honey, that’s great to get her business,” Joy said to Diana.

“Yes, she’s a lovely girl. You’d think with all that money, she’d be snobbish, but she isn’t.”

“Not at all,” Laura murmured in agreement, settling back down and closing her eyes.