Happenings in Paradise-Summer Begins

It was June, and the sun hovered on the horizon until close to midnight, rising three hours later, but it never got dark. Between sunset and sunrise, there was a smokey dusk, and if people couldn’t sleep, they lit a lamp so they could putter around or read. The constant light threw everyone out of kilter. Farmers, tired from a day of discing slept restlessly for a few hours, waking to worry about what was left undone because of the heat. Their wives struggled heavy-lidded through their day, sleep-walking through the most necessary of chores. Only small children, their energy depleted from their extended day of play, slept well.

Like everyone else, Norma is exhausted. She has been awake for eighteen hours, having slept only briefly the night before. It’s ten in the evening now, but she is still out, coming back from a visit with her friend Doreen, two miles down the road. Their bikes weave down the road, the patchwork fields rising on either side of them, black soil freshly tilled and seeded, slow to awaken in the Northern spring. The girls move as swiftly as the ruts allow, not talking—to do so would throw them off their balance and up-end them into the ditch.

Norma knows this, because she has lived here all of her life. But Doreen’s family just moved to a farm down the road, and this is their first spring. It’s only June, Norma thinks, and the grader hasn’t been by yet, to smooth out the deep ruts in the road, impassable for months. Things will be better for bike riding soon.

“You should walk,” Norma’s mother told her, before she started out in the afternoon, “Nobody takes their bikes out on the road so soon. Wait until the grader comes by.”
But they made it—they are almost there.

As they enter the gate to Norma’s farm, they can see the glint of a car in the driveway. Norma’s heart lifts. Visitors. Her mother loves visitors—the company makes her happy. And Norma knew that if her mother was happy, they would all be happier.
“Someone’s here,” Norma says, “Come all this way on these roads, and so late, they must be desperate.”

“Well, your Mom will be glad she has company,” Doreen says, “No wonder, if I lived way down here, I would too.”

“Yeah,” Norma answered, “Mom’s lonely. That’s for sure.”

Norma and Doreen were snoopers. They liked nothing better than to collect bits and pieces of what they saw and heard, and spin them into a scenario they could discuss and chew over for days. This was a stroke of luck, Norma thought—fresh gossip brought to her doorstep, so they could listen in!

Her mother’s visitors were Mrs. Conley from town and Mrs. Ubisky from down the road. Norma liked Mrs. Conley, but Mrs. Ubisky, well she wasn’t nice to Norma, mean in fact. Didn’t matter though. Any visitors were better than nothing.

The girls slouched around the periphery of the kitchen, finally alighting on two chairs in the corner, away from the women, sitting over their tea.

“Oh, quit gaping at us, ” Norma’s mother immediately said, “Haven’t you two got anything better to do?”

Well, they hadn’t. Norma fit herself more firmly in the kitchen chair, a part of the furniture, a fly on the wall. Nothing could pry her from here, hanging on every word the women spoke. She was starved for this—a view into another life, another scene from town, or from the house down the road, where things happened. Doreen caught her eye, her eyebrows moving up and down in their secret signal. “Let’s get out of here,” the eyebrows said, “there’s nothing interesting here.”

Norma rose silently from her chair, Doreen slipped bonelessly behind her, her bare feet tracing Norma’s steps.

“And Iris, I think she’s been seeing that Burmey boy in the evenings,” Mrs. Ubitsky was saying, “How they know when to meet each other I’ll never know.”

“Shh,”, Norma’s mother hissed, “the girls are still around, I think.”

Norma froze, Doreen bumping into her as she came up behind.

“Well, Anyway, they’re hot and heavy at it in the pick-up truck every time I see them. She’s right up next to him, so tight you think there’s only one person. But if you wait a round a little, you can see there’s two of ’em.”

“Oh, leave them alone, ” Mrs. Conley said, “They’re young and foolish, Sally will come to her senses before the end of summer. The Burmey boy isn’t much of a catch, you know.”

“That’s exactly it,”, Mrs. Ubisky insisted, “I’ve a good mind to go see Sally’s mother, If it was my daughter, I’d want to know.”

“Better not, ” Norma heard her mother say, “You tell a mother her daughter is a slut, she ends up hating you, not the kid.”

Doreen moved slightly, her foot landing right on top of Norma’s, Norma stifled a little yelp, but said nothing. They stayed glued to the other side of the kitchen wall, both sets of eyebrows moving a mile a minute in silent communication.

“Anyway,” one of the women was saying, “That kind of foolishness always leads to trouble, and trouble will find you out sooner or later.’

“Hmmm, let’s just wait and see,” Mrs. Ubisky said, sagely, “Time will tell, time always tells, you know.”

The kitchen chairs scraped along the floor, signalling the women getting ready to leave, and the girls evaporated into Norma’s bedroom,in a spasm of giggles. Norma couldn’t believe her good luck. Sally, the stuck-up perfect girl, doing bad things with Alan Burmey, driving all around the country thinking no one knew. It was just like her to think she was above it all.

“What are you going to do?” Doreen almost held her breath, waiting for Norma’s plan.”

“Nothing, right now, but let’s wait, just like old lady Ubisky said, It won’t be too long until something happens.”

Tomorrow, Norma will walk Doreen half way home, as was their habit. They’ll have to be on the road before ten, to avoid the afternoon heat. In the next bed, Doreen is trying to sleep, ignoring a mosquito that is buzzing around their heads. They’ve given up trying to kill it. It was easier just to pull the gauzy sheet over their heads. They lay there for a few minutes without saying more. Norma ran the conversation through her head, thoughts like ice cream melting on her tongue. The summer rose in front of her, suddenly more interesting, filled with collusion and intrigue.

To be continued.