all the things she had done that he didn’t know about—her footprints in the attic, her fingerprints on his nightstand—and her hand trembled, accidentally knocking over the sand pyramid. The shell emerged again, white and pink and smooth.
“Why did you come here?” she asked. “I understand why you hired me. It’s a big job. You couldn’t do it yourself. But you came up here for the whole summer. You brought the kids.”
There was a silence as Theo thought about her question. Beyond him, the water slapped gray and hungry against the beach. The sunset’s last orange glow lit up the lines around his mouth, making him look older.
“I guess it was kind of a dare,” he said at last. “To myself. I avoided this place for so long. Then my dad died and I had to take care of it. I thought it could be a good change for the kids. And I thought, I’m thirty-five, I should be able to go back. So I did.” He cleared his throat. “And you? Why’d you come all the way out here for a job?”
Kate smiled. “Because it was a job. You haven’t been unemployed before, have you?”
“Not in a while,” he admitted. “But this seems like a long way to come, for someone with your experience. There wasn’t anything in New York?”
Kate gathered her sweater tighter around herself. The party’s laughter wobbled and refracted against the vast emptiness of the beach.
“There might have been,” she said slowly. “But something happened … at my last job … and it made it hard for me to get hired. I mean, I didn’t do anything,” she added, worried he might misunderstand. “But—well, it’s complicated. I guess I just wanted to go somewhere new. I thought it might clear my head.”
“And has it?”
“Sort of. Maybe.” She smiled a little. “Your parents’ stuff, it’s not exactly head-clearing.”
“No,” he agreed. “No, my parents were kind of a mindfuck.”
It was a bizarre thing to say about your parents, especially about your dead parents, and Kate wanted to ask what he meant. But she found herself hesitating. Some thread of trust had stretched between her and Theo just now, and she didn’t want to break it with questions.
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “Really. I haven’t been fair to you. I’ve been taking my stuff out on you as much as you’ve been taking your stuff out on me. Maybe more.”
Theo tilted his head, studying her. Then he said, “Truce?” and held out his hand.
Kate laughed. “Fine. Truce.”
His hand was surprisingly warm, his palm rough, his grip firm. It was much larger than hers, and it seemed to trap hers inside it. Not unpleasantly. A shock traveled up her arm and then down her spine. For a moment, she could feel their pulses beating against each other, uneven, out of sync.
Kate pulled her hand away and tucked her hair behind her ear, suddenly self-conscious.
“The fireworks should be starting soon,” she said. “My uncle said they would set them off at nine thirty.”
Theo checked his watch. “Fifteen minutes.”
“Fifteen minutes,” she agreed.
Time dripped past, slow as molasses. In the distance, the party continued in a vibrant circle of light. Up close, it would have been too bright and too loud to make anything out. From their hollow in the chilled sand, though, everything was Kate’s. She could see the whole scene. The guide light of the fireworks boat as it motored out over the waves. The lanterns shining on sweaty faces. Oscar’s snores fluttered against her thigh.
At last, the fireworks screamed up to the sky and split apart in a rain of gold. The bang, the smoke, the streaks of ashes shading into darkness. Theo was beside her through it all, glowing like an electric field.
MIRANDA
SERIES 4, Clippings & publications
BOX 18, News clippings
FOLDER: 1979–1984
ARTnews
JUNE 12, 1984
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In Miniature: Jake and Miranda Re-Brand in Northern California
Martin Granberg
The New York City art scene will soon lose two more major players: Jake and Miranda Brand are relocating this month to northern California. Rumors of their move have been swirling for some time, but ARTnews has learned that they have officially purchased a home in the small hamlet of Callinas, an idyllic yet underdeveloped beach town in Marin County.
New York art savants may not feel the absence as strongly as they expect. While her infamous hospitalization raised her public profile, Miranda has distanced herself socially from the art scene and has not released a major series since the Capillaries show that first put her on the map.