base, but the actual bases have been removed so the kids won’t trip. And she can’t see, so she keeps going, and she’s clearly going to run straight into the Righteous Heating and Plumbing sign on the right-field fence. Somebody yells, ‘Turn, Cheerios!’ And she pivots, and with some kind of internal GPS or magnets in her head or whatever, she heads straight for second. She’s like a bloodhound. And when she gets there, they have to do it again—‘Turn, Cheerios!’ She turns.
“After they get her around the turn at third, it looks like she’s going to win. Mike is ahead of Double Dutch, but he’s about a step behind Bree. And then somebody thinks they see him trying to trip her. And you hear these voices going, ‘Wheaties is cheating! Wheaties is cheating!’ Bree is still on her feet. She’s still going to beat him. But then—absolutely everybody sees it this time—out from Mike’s Wheaties box comes this foot, he sticks it right out in front of her, and she trips and falls flat on what is, under about half a foot of foam, her face. So Mike crosses the plate while Bree is lying on the ground with her hands and feet sticking out, waggling. She’s like a foam turtle. In the shape of a Cheerios box.”
“I assume somebody helped her up. I mean, she’s not still there.”
Evvie cackled. “No, no. She’s not. They got her up, and her mom put the video on YouTube and called it, ‘The Video the Claws Lobster-Roll Stand Doesn’t Want You to See.’ Eventually they revoked Mike’s gift certificate, and Bree got free DQ for a year. Fan Relations Doug dumped Talley out of shame, and she had to quit the lobster-roll stand, so now she’s a manager at the CVS in Camden. Mike was banned from the cereal-box races for life, in part because he was told to give a public apology, got up to the microphone at a game, and made fart noises with his elbow.” Evvie took a deep swallow from her water bottle. “That is all true. My hand to God.”
“It’s not surprising they don’t give a damn about me.”
She grinned. “Believe me, they know all about you. It’s a different gossip economy. They’re worrying about the Claws and the sorry state of the soccer field at the high school, and the fate of the Maine lobster, and whether the tourists are going to come. I’m sure that’s why Andy thought it would be a good place to take a break. They’re just…”
“Not petty?”
“Oh, no,” she said as she peeled back the corner of the label on the bottle. “They are very petty. But they’re petty about insiders more than outsiders. They only violate your privacy if they’ve known you since you were a child.”
“They’ve known you since you were a child.” He looked over at her.
“They have,” she said slowly. She hadn’t been listening to the refrigerator, but it clicked off, and suddenly she was very much listening to it not running. “Anyway. What are you going to do while you’re here? I assume you’re not looking to get into the lobster business.”
“Your local signs certainly make it seem like an option, especially since apparently I’m not going to get in at the shoe factory like I was hoping.”
“Oh, the lobster thing is real. It’s what my dad did. He bought his own boat when I was little, and he had it until a couple years ago, when he retired.”
“Is he still with your mom?”
“No. She’s been in Florida since I was eight. She’s remarried to a real estate guy, and she makes jewelry and sells it to tourists. Last I checked, she was doing something with sea glass and old dimes. Don’t ask me what aesthetic that is.”
“Maybe she’s inspired by those guys at the beach with metal detectors. I saw a lot of that in Miami.”
“I’ll bet. Anyway, tell me your plans.”
“Read Vonnegut,” he said. “Write poetry. I play the ukulele a little. I make driftwood sculptures.”
She suddenly realized her brows were knitted together and she popped them apart. “Oh. Oh.”
“That’s a joke.”
Evvie rolled her eyes. “Mm-hmm, hilarious.”
He laughed. “I’m not sure. Not baseball. Just…Maine, I guess. Probably hang out with Andy. I’m sort of on vacation from everything.”
“Honestly, I would have thought New York would be a good place for that, for blending into the background.”
“For most people,” he said, then briefly tilted his head to indicate how much there was