Sea Glass_ A Novel - Anita Shreve [100]
“You believe in free love, Louis,” Sadie says emphatically. She spits tobacco juice into an ashtray on the table, and Vivian says Really.
“I believe in it,” Louis says, “though I don’t know that I’ve ever practiced it.”
“Whereas I,” Vivian says, “have practiced it and don’t believe in it.”
“Hey, baby,” Ross says with a low whistle.
“I am, however, very, very discriminating,” Vivian says, giving Ross the eye.
“Did you get to try the peach ice cream?” Honora asks Alphonse, who has his feet hooked around the rungs of the wooden chair.
“I had two bowls,” he says.
“I was thinking about trying blueberry,” Honora says, “since it’s the season now.” She takes a sip of her gin and tonic, which tastes unaccountably good tonight.
“I used to live on a blueberry farm,” Alphonse says.
“Did you?” asks Honora, truly surprised. She knows so little about Alphonse. “When was this?”
“Until I was nine,” he says. “The farm went bad.”
“You say a vow, you make a commitment, and then you have to honor that commitment,” Sexton, astonishingly, is saying from his place at the middle of the table. Honora has noticed that whenever they gather, whether for a meal or a meeting, Sexton manages to insinuate himself into the center of it. His hair is perfectly parted, the dark blond curls as sleek as a movie star’s. His mustache is groomed and waxed. It would be impossible to tell, she thinks, looking at him, that he is a ring spinner in the Ely Falls Mill.
“What is this thing called love?”
“I’m not sure bringing Alphonse was such a good idea,” Honora says, turning to McDermott.
“Do him good,” McDermott says, looking at the boy. “Expose him to different ideas.”
“I think it’s called corrupting a minor,” Honora says. “And anyway, it’s not the ideas I’m worried about.”
“Won’t tell his mother,” McDermott says, and she thinks he might be a little bit drunk already. She can feel the heat from the side of his body.
“Is it all right to tell you that you look very pretty tonight?” he asks.
“Perfectly all right,” she says.
“You look very pretty tonight,” he says.
From the center of the table, Sexton shoots Honora a quick glance. “You make the vows to each other,” he says, “and that’s what’s binding.” Honora wonders if this speech is for her benefit. They have not spoken since the incident in the bedroom.
“But why should they be binding?” Sadie is asking.
“My baby just cares for me.”
“What about you, Ross?” Sadie suddenly asks when Sexton doesn’t answer.
Ross blinks. “Me?”
“Do you believe in free love?”
“Nothing’s free,” he says.
“Definitely brown,” McDermott says to Honora.
“Hey, doll, give me a dance,” Vivian says to Louis. She stretches her long graceful arms above her head. “My feet are itching.”
Louis smiles and stands.
“Sadie, how about a dance?” Sexton asks. “We can finish our discussion on the dance floor.”
“I’ll dance with you,” Sadie says, standing and dropping an ice cube back into her glass, “but I think you’re a capitalist shit.”
Honora watches Sexton and Sadie move through the throng, which seems to have doubled already since they arrived — Sexton tall and broad shouldered and almost too impeccable in this slightly sleazy roadhouse, and Sadie, who barely reaches his chest, in her overalls. People turn their heads to stare.
“He’s a good sport,” McDermott says beside her.
“She’s all right,” Honora says.
“Oh, I like Sadie,” he says. “I think she’s great. I just don’t know that I want to dance with her.”
“The mustache bother you?” Tsomides asks from his end of the table. “We Greeks like our women with mustaches.”
“Pretend you didn’t hear that,” Honora says to Alphonse.
“Hey, cockroach,” Tsomides says to Alphonse. “Come over here so I can talk to you.”
Alphonse pushes his chair back, and Honora notices that the boy seems a bit unsteady on his feet as he makes his way to the end of the table. Ross and Mahon, Honora notes, have disappeared. “I think Alphonse is tipsy,” Honora says to McDermott.
“He’ll be all right,” he says. He pauses. “I should ask you to dance.”
“Maybe you should,