no expectation, much as she did for a serve.
5
J ULIA’S AUNT LIZ WAS always called the Bullet Aunt. This was because as a child in her father’s dry-goods store Aunt Liz had stepped right into the path of a holdup man’s bullet, which had been intended for her father. After that Aunt Liz had been visited every day in the hospital by the entire seventh grade of Valdosta Grammar School until their prayers took hold, the bullet ceased to infect, and Aunt Liz lived to tell the tale, which she did often, even though all this had happened thirty-odd years before.
Kathy had never heard this story from the lips of Aunt Liz herself until the August evening she and Julia stepped off the plane into the fierce Florida heat. August was not the time of year to go to Florida. Julia’s mother had declined to come for that reason. The night Kathy had won the finals at the Newton Country Club tournament, she had been invited over the telephone by Caroline Collins herself to replace Alicia deLong as one of five New England girls to be represented at the National Championships in Boca Raton, which began two days after Newton. Unable quite to believe this honor which had fallen so suddenly at her feet, Kathy had told Julia, and Julia had told her mother, and her mother had immediately telephoned Aunt Liz, who lived smack in the middle of Boca Raton’s Gold Coast. It had been arranged in two minutes’ time that Kathy would stay with Aunt Liz, whose house was but a stone’s throw from the tournament, and that Julia would go along for the fun. Julia’s mother advised Julia that her cousins, Roger and Jeffrey, were two innocent young boys, unaware of northern ways, and that she should not say anything shocking in front of them. “They’re nineteen and seventeen, Mother,” said Julia in exasperation. “It doesn’t matter if they’re forty and forty-three,” Mrs. Redmond had said right back. “Don’t drink, and don’t you dare sit in either of their laps like you did when you were twelve.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“And don’t you girls go ordering a drink on the plane.”
“Yes, Mother. Mother?”
“What?”
“Aren’t you going to tell Kathy to keep out of Roger and Jeffrey’s laps?”
“Katherine has far better manners than you, Julia. Katherine is a young lady. I do not ever worry about Katherine. I worry about you.”
At Logan Airport Oliver looked for a moment as if he were going to kiss Kathy good-bye. Then he thought better of it, stood back like a soldier who had broken ranks, and waved instead. Kathy, her precious rackets under one arm, waved until she could see no one behind the glare of the morning sun. She waved again through the tiny window of the plane, although she knew her family and Oliver could no longer see her. The plane, the first Kathy had been on in her life, shot down the runway and lifted into the air. She was not so much struck with the extraordinary mechanical miracle of this happening as she was transported, suddenly, with the certainty that this was the beginning of something new, and she was no more in control of the something new than she was of the huge machine which carried her as a helpless passenger. Julia ordered a glass of wine for each of them. The stewardess, wary of their ages, seemed disinclined to bring them until she spotted Kathy’s several rackets lying on the extra seat and for some reason changed her mind. The wine swallowed in one gulp, Kathy felt both expansive and groggy. “I feel funny,” she admitted to Julia.
“Good funny or bad funny?” Julia asked, knowing better than to guzzle her glass of wine.
“I feel as if I’m sort of in a room all alone.”
“You shouldn’t drink so fast.”
“My folks have to go to Springfield today. They have to move my grandmother to a new nursing home. Dedham ... Kathy’s voice trailed off. She didn’t want to say to Julia that the home in Dedham was cheaper. This even her parents had not easily admitted. Kathy would not
5
J ULIA’S AUNT LIZ WAS always called the Bullet Aunt. This was because as a child in her father’s dry-goods store Aunt Liz had stepped right into the path of a holdup man’s bullet, which had been intended for her father. After that Aunt Liz had been visited every day in the hospital by the entire seventh grade of Valdosta Grammar School until their prayers took hold, the bullet ceased to infect, and Aunt Liz lived to tell the tale, which she did often, even though all this had happened thirty-odd years before.
Kathy had never heard this story from the lips of Aunt Liz herself until the August evening she and Julia stepped off the plane into the fierce Florida heat. August was not the time of year to go to Florida. Julia’s mother had declined to come for that reason. The night Kathy had won the finals at the Newton Country Club tournament, she had been invited over the telephone by Caroline Collins herself to replace Alicia deLong as one of five New England girls to be represented at the National Championships in Boca Raton, which began two days after Newton. Unable quite to believe this honor which had fallen so suddenly at her feet, Kathy had told Julia, and Julia had told her mother, and her mother had immediately telephoned Aunt Liz, who lived smack in the middle of Boca Raton’s Gold Coast. It had been arranged in two minutes’ time that Kathy would stay with Aunt Liz, whose house was but a stone’s throw from the tournament, and that Julia would go along for the fun. Julia’s mother advised Julia that her cousins, Roger and Jeffrey, were two innocent young boys, unaware of northern ways, and that she should not say anything shocking in front of them. “They’re nineteen and seventeen, Mother,” said Julia in exasperation. “It doesn’t matter if they’re forty and forty-three,” Mrs. Redmond had said right back. “Don’t drink, and don’t you dare sit in either of their laps like you did when you were twelve.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“And don’t you girls go ordering a drink on the plane.”
“Yes, Mother. Mother?”
“What?”
“Aren’t you going to tell Kathy to keep out of Roger and Jeffrey’s laps?”
“Katherine has far better manners than you, Julia. Katherine is a young lady. I do not ever worry about Katherine. I worry about you.”
At Logan Airport Oliver looked for a moment as if he were going to kiss Kathy good-bye. Then he thought better of it, stood back like a soldier who had broken ranks, and waved instead. Kathy, her precious rackets under one arm, waved until she could see no one behind the glare of the morning sun. She waved again through the tiny window of the plane, although she knew her family and Oliver could no longer see her. The plane, the first Kathy had been on in her life, shot down the runway and lifted into the air. She was not so much struck with the extraordinary mechanical miracle of this happening as she was transported, suddenly, with the certainty that this was the beginning of something new, and she was no more in control of the something new than she was of the huge machine which carried her as a helpless passenger. Julia ordered a glass of wine for each of them. The stewardess, wary of their ages, seemed disinclined to bring them until she spotted Kathy’s several rackets lying on the extra seat and for some reason changed her mind. The wine swallowed in one gulp, Kathy felt both expansive and groggy. “I feel funny,” she admitted to Julia.
“Good funny or bad funny?” Julia asked, knowing better than to guzzle her glass of wine.
“I feel as if I’m sort of in a room all alone.”
“You shouldn’t drink so fast.”
“My folks have to go to Springfield today. They have to move my grandmother to a new nursing home. Dedham ... Kathy’s voice trailed off. She didn’t want to say to Julia that the home in Dedham was cheaper. This even her parents had not easily admitted. Kathy would not
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