Roddy’s home telephone number, and called him the minute Lance had ordered Squee away from the lunch table. But it was important to Peg to be dutiful, obedient, and—perhaps above all—blameless in all that she undertook, and thus she agonized through her chores until the five o’clock whistle blew down at the ferry docks, whereupon she dashed with breathless determination to the Lodge office and found Cybelle Schwartz behind the desk, reading a dog-eared, three-year-old issue of Cosmopolitan.
“May I . . .” Peg began, “please, can I ring someone?”
Cybelle eyed her suspiciously.
“I’ve . . . I’ve got to—you—I’ve got to make a call . . . on the telephone!”
“Staff’s supposed to use the pay phone downstairs.”
“Please!” Peg cried. “It’s desperately important!”
“Is it long distance? I can’t let you call long distance.”
“No—it’s right here! Do you . . . can you get the number, for the man, the one who fixes things . . . Roddy?”
Cybelle was nodding, haughty and self-important. “That’s Roddy Jacobs. He doesn’t have a phone himself, but you can sometimes get him here.” She dialed the number at Eden’s and passed the receiver to Peg.
Someone answered, and Peg asked for Roddy. He wasn’t in—an obstacle Peg hadn’t anticipated. She paused for such a long time that Eden asked, “Hello? Can I help you with something?”
“Oh,” wailed Peg. She looked to Cybelle nervously, unsure of how she might proceed. “I don’t know . . . I . . . I’m working here at the Lodge and I’ve . . . I’ve got to talk with Mr. . . . with Roddy.” She said his name as if it were a foreign word. “I’m terribly, I’m afraid . . . with Squee . . . I’m just entirely . . .”
“Squee?” Eden said sharply. “What happened to Squee?”
“What?” said Peg. “No, I don’t . . . I’ve just . . .” And then she burst into tears.
Cybelle, embarrassed, disappeared into the back room.
“Please, sweetheart,” Eden said on the line, “please calm down. Did something happen to Squee? I’m Roddy’s mother,” she explained to the sobbing girl. “Can you tell me what happened, please?”
Peg’s tears abated slightly. “Do you . . . ? You know the Squire . . . Squee? You know Squee?”
“What happened?” Eden’s voice was rip-cord tense. “I’m his god-mother,” she said, and though it wasn’t true, she couldn’t find words that were, some way to explain her relationship to the child. “Please,” Eden said shrilly. “Please, is he all right?”
Peg took a gulp of air, and when she let it out inside another sob, all she could think to say was “It’s really that I don’t know . . .”
Eden broke in. “You’re at the Lodge? Why don’t I come there? I’m coming down there.”
Peg’s next sob conveyed acquiescence.
“Go down to the Sand Beach Road entrance,” Eden instructed. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”
Roddy, who’d also finished up work at the Lodge at five, pulled into the driveway at home just as Eden was pulling out. She saw him and bristled: What in god’s name was Roddy doing home when something was wrong with Squee down at the Lodge? Then she felt relief: if Roddy was home, it could be nothing too bad down there. And then the relief turned to fear: Roddy was home to tell her about whatever terrible thing had happened down at the Lodge. They stopped their vehicles in the driveway and spoke through the windows. In the confusion it took some moments before they were able to make themselves clear.
“I was just there,” Roddy said. “Nothing’s wrong down at the Lodge. Not more than usual. Now . . .”
“She wanted to talk to you,” Eden said.
“Well, what?” Roddy was tired, and unprepared for this welcome home. “What? You want me to come down with you?” It was not what he wanted at all.
“She’s waiting by the road. Just come with me.”
Roddy did as his mother instructed.
Eden wasn’t sure exactly what would happen when they reached the girl at the Lodge, but when they pulled up beside her on Sand Beach Road, Peg tugged open the back door of the Caddy and climbed in gratefully. She was no longer crying, but her pale skin was splotchy red, her eyelashes slick and wet. “I’m so thankful to you,” she said as she pulled the door shut behind her and slid across the seat, “just for getting out of there for a bit, you know? Just to be away from it all?” So Eden