note: some offensive nguage in this chapter

  “Who would like to cruise around town?” asked Lin Sas.

  “On our bikes?” asked her brother. “Unfortunately, Joey didn’t drive the Corvair over.”

  “But there is the Simca. Don’t forget the Simca. Ronnie wouldn’t even notice if we stole it.” The three guitar pyers were ensconced under a towering hibiscus, and oblivious to the rest of them.

  Lin sighed. “I was thinking more along the lines of a cssy convertible.”

  “But I didn’t bring the Bug, either,” Kris informed her.

  “And it is definitely a convertible,” said Jam. “I wouldn’t guarantee the cssy part.”

  “Cssier than what any of the rest of you drive.”

  “I’d agree with that. But it’s not what I had in mind either.” Lin wore a bit of a smug smile.

  “So Dad’s gonna let you drive his baby, is he?” asked Jam.

  “Well, I’ve always been his favorite, you know.” She wrinkled her nose at him.

  “Yeah, he looks at me and shakes his head. Another mistake!”

  Now Lin shot a look of disapproval at her little brother but followed it with a shrug and a smile. “He can bme someone else for me. Anyway, he did give me the keys to the Caddy.” She held them up and jingled them. “He’d probably let you drive it if you had a license.”

  “Too much bother. Tests and stuff and I’m not going to be living in Florida anyway.”

  “Whatever you say. Follow me. And make sure you don’t have anything nasty stuck to your persons before boarding Preston Summerlin’s Magic Carpet.”

  “Maybe we should have candy to throw to people as we pass by,” suggested Joey. “Like a parade float!”

  The Summerlins’ two car garage fronted on Gulf Shore, away from the house. The frame structure seemed to have nothing to with the stuccoed residence it sat beside, with a screen of hibiscus and tamarinds separating one from the other. It was like they didn’t want to acknowledge its existence until they needed their cars. Those two cars, the Cadilc convertible and the Buick station wagon, sat gleaming side by side when Jam and Lin swung wide the old-fashioned hinged wooden garage doors.

  “Wow,” said Joey on beholding the Cadilc. “I want one too.”

  “I don’t bme you at all,” said Lin. “I’m gd the top’s already down. Just pull the cover off. There we go. You may all just gaze upon its splendor for a while first, if you’d like. Dad looked at a new el Dorado and cimed it didn’t have as much space, but I think he’s just too much in love with this car ever to part with it. It’s a Sixty-two de Ville. It had red upholstery originally but he had it redone in white so it would be cooler in the sun.”

  “Shotgun!” called Kris.

  “And I’ll ride in the back. like the queen,” said Joey, giving her best Queen Elizabeth wave. “You can be my consort, Mister Summerlin. Just remember to walk a few paces behind me if we get out anywhere.”

  He gave her a bow. “Your highness.”

  “That’s not cutting it. You should have already been holding the door for me. Oh, never mind.” She vaulted into the rear seat. “You’re way too slow.”

  Jam opened the right-hand door and slid into the back beside her. Kris followed him, dropping into the front seat. It was a big seat and, boy, was that a big door! The massive piece of metal was easy to pull shut, though.

  Lin settled beside her, behind the wheel. “I’m always nervous about pulling out here,” she admitted. “It’s a little hard to see if anyone’s coming until your nose is almost in the street. And this car has an especially long nose.”

  “Kris could perch on the hood and be a lookout,” suggested Joey.

  “A hood ornament,” added Jam.

  “Must we take those two?” Kris asked. “They’re not sophisticated enough to ride in a car like this.”

  Joey only made a rude noise at that. She did, however, shut up. She was being a bit over the top today, wasn’t she? Maybe that was because of Lin. Joey might feel a little awkward around her after this past week. Or not. How would she know? Lin cranked the big vee-eight and it started at once. Kris only knew it had a big vee-eight by rumor but was willing to believe it. What else should a Cadilc have?

  Lin eased it onto Gulf Shore without mishap, turning left. “We need to go where people can see and admire us,” she announced.

  “Then just keep going along the beach,” Kris told her. “At least as far as the Beach Club.” That was the Beach Hotel and Golf Club, officially, but people had called it the Beach Club pretty much from the time it was built.

  “They’ll recognize the car there. Dad golfs there sometimes,” Jam informed them. “Hey,” he said, turning to Joey, “didn’t you caddy for him once or twice?”

  Kris didn’t hear an answer. Maybe her friend had nodded her head. “Doesn’t Dad golf at the country club?” Lin asked, over her shoulder. They cruised past Fifth Avenue.

  “Beach Club is convenient, especially when he pys with his old cronies.”

  She wished Will could be riding beside her but he hadn’t shown up. He’d said he might not. Or he could be waiting when they got back, couldn’t he? It was still morning. Clouds were beginning to pile up out to the east, white and nonthreatening at the moment. It didn’t look like it wasn’t going to rain right away.

  It would spoil at least half their fun if they had to put the top up. “We should have music!”

  “Let’s see what my father listens to,” said Lin, switching on the radio.

  “Just as likely to be Mom’s choice,” Jam told her. It turned out to be the local station, WNOG, ‘Wonderful Naples on the Gulf.’ Either one could have tuned that in. And none of the four currently in the Cadilc wanted it.

  There were, however, buttons to push and what station any one of them might pull in was a mystery. Kris doubted any were tuned to WQAM or any other source of rock music. Someone talking. She pushed another. Latin music filled the air.

  “We can guess who’s been listening to that,” said Jam. “Leave it there.”

  “And turn it up,” Joey added.

  She did so, saying, “It seems to suit this car.”

  Lin nodded. “Doesn’t it, though? I wonder if my mother drives about with it bsting like that.”

  “I wouldn’t doubt it,” Jam said.

  “Crowded at the Beach Club. It would be a good pce to turn.”

  “Right, I assume.” That didn’t require an answer. The area around the rambling hotel and golf course was packed, every parking space full, including the street before it. The street before that, too. Further north was uninteresting, at least to Kris.

  The tree-lined street onto which they turned, rather unimaginatively named Golf Drive, wound beside the course. There were plenty of golfers, most on foot. It might be nice to have it like that at the club to which the Greenes belonged. For Kris, the best part of golf was being able to walk about. Riding in a cart ruined that. Even having other people in carts zipping about spoiled things some. It hurried the game up too much.

  “Ronnie lives right over there,” Joey announced, waving an arm to their right.

  “And Joey right on the other side of the Trail,” Kris had to add. “Might be best to turn back south there.”

  “I think we want to see Joey’s home,” said Jam.

  “No, you don’t,” was all Joey had to say about that.

  “Oh, but wouldn’t it be cool to cruise by?” Kris asked

  “I don’t need to show anyone up.”

  Maybe Joey had a point. Jam was sitting right behind her but from the corner of her eye Kris could see him nod his head in agreement. They turned right on reaching the four nes of Forty-one, the Tamiami Trail, and cruised south, slowly, radio bsting. Kris felt silly but she also felt good. This was what she had wanted from her summer, her friends and the sun and forgetting everything but having fun.

  Oh, of course it wouldn’t, couldn’t, st but a few minutes. Joey and Jam were going on about something in the back seat. They’d been jabbering since the ride began.

  But Lin—she looked amused, maybe, but not really happy. Had she seemed happy anytime Kris had seen her these past couple weeks? That thought didn’t stay with her long. There was too much to see today, too many people to wave to. Some of them she even knew and that was a bonus!

  Lin kept going straight ahead when they reached Four Corners. “Hey, Joey, it’s time to visit the city docks!”

  “We’ll have to make Jam get out so we can fit in sailors for each of us!” came the reply.

  Kris had no idea what they were going on about but at least the two appeared to be friends again. There were lots of cars parked at the docks but not many people moving about. No sailors for her friends! Most boaters would already be on the water, and not ready to come back yet. They turned right at the intersection, where a tall mast stood, its fgs furling and unfurling in the modest onshore breeze. That mast had come down in Hurricane Donna, in Sixty. Kris remembered riding her bike down here and looking at it, the steel shaft lying crumpled on the pavement.

  Toward the beach again. Oh, and Lin was taking them right by her house. Whatever Joey might prefer, Kris didn’t mind showing off to her family at all. “Wave, everyone!” she ordered. Aw, no one outside. She stood up and waved anyway, one hand on the top of the windshield.

  A right on Third. Maybe cruise the Old Naples area? Not much going on there. Lin took a left onto wide, palm-lined Broad Avenue and then left again to Twelfth, the pier street. Parking was crowded along it too, and the sidewalks were busy.

  “What the heck is that?” asked Jam, of a sudden. “It looks like a Jeep impregnated a golf cart at some time.”

  Lin took a look and slowed down. “Oh, a Mini Moke. I haven’t seen one since I visited Bermuda.”

  “Grubby Rhein drives it,” Kris said, taking care to sound casual about it.

  “Grubby?”

  “Ex-boyfriend,” expined Joey. “The sort she’d just as soon humiliate.”

  “Nah, just show him up a bit.”

  “I understand. I have too many exes of that sort myself.” She pulled alongside the little open vehicle, stopping in the street. Two boys were sitting in the car, drinking sodas. Grubby and the younger guy who seemed to follow him everywhere. His disciple.

  Grubby gave them a zy looking over. “Hi, Kris. Hey, that’s one nice ride.”

  Lin leaned forward and grinned. “Wanna race?”

  He ughed easily. “I’d have a better chance if I ran. Hey, Jam-man. Jambaya!”

  “My friends call me Jam,” he called back, “but you may address me as Mister Summerlin.”

  Grubby shook his head. “Can’t you find anyone better to ride around with, Kris?”

  “The other two are okay,” she told him.

  Grubby’s companion leaned forward, looked around him. “Yeah, where’s the nigger you’ve been dating?

  In one move, without one seeming moment of hesitation, Grubby turned and punched his buddy in the middle of his chest. Hard. “Don’t you ever talk like that around Kris,” he growled. Kris didn’t remember ever seeing Grubby angry. He was always the id-back guy. “Or me.”

  The boy looked like he might say something. Instead he got out of the Moke and walked off, his shoulders shaking. Anger? Humiliation? Or maybe just having trouble catching his breath after taking a body shot.

  Jam stood up and appuded. A moment ter, Joey joined him. Grubby only ughed as they pulled away. “See you on the Fourth,” Jam called back to him.

  Well, that wasn’t how she’d expected her encounter with Grubby Rhein to go. But it was a fitting conclusion to this day. The st day of June. One month closer to the end of this summer in the sun.