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After I ate, I stretched out on my stomach, the warm wood heating me. Bucky crouched, looking through the slats. Superior sat at attention, staring at the water.
    “Look, the seals!” Dad pointed.
    Past the moored boats I saw the black shiny heads of a dozen seals sunning themselves on rocks.
    “Tell the story about when Mom saw the seals for the first time,” Bucky said.
    Dad laughed. “She didn’t know what they were. Came running up to the cottage, yelling, ‘The rocks are moving. The rocks are moving!’ ” Bucky giggled.
    I smiled. “They didn’t have wild seals in Michigan.”
    Dad nodded, grinning. “They sure didn’t.”
    I remembered Mom here on the dock, wind blowing her hair as she shaded her eyes with her hand and looked out at the water.
    “Can we go to Pear today?” Bucky asked.
    “I need to work,” Dad said. “I brought back the new journal. The author turned out to be Walter Steele’s grandma Edna Monahan. She lived here at the same time as Thaddeus. Imagine that, a hundred years ago!”
    Before most of the cottages had been built—and the Big House, tennis courts and rope swing, too. I brought my knees to my chest. Ian didn’t care one bit about breaking the swing.
    Dad nudged my shoulder. “I’m sure camp was great. The kids probably loved it.”
    I nodded. Would Ian show up on Wednesday?
    “Don’t worry about the swing, Goose. It sounds like it was an accident. I’ll go with you later to tell Joel Ramsey about it. Okay?”
    “Okay,” I said. Mr. Ramsey was president of the Point that summer.
    Dad cleared his throat. “There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
    Bucky had been leaning over the dock, his arm in the water, but now he sat up. I hugged my knees tighter. I didn’t like how serious his voice sounded.
    “Julia’s coming to Portland in two weeks, staying for theweekend with friends, and so I thought we could invite her up that Sunday.”
    “But what would we do with her all day?” I asked.
    “What we always do. Picnics. Walks.”
    “Can we take her camping on Upper Egg?” Bucky asked.
    I shot him a look. The past year we’d taken a friend of Dad’s hiking at Pear, but we’d never taken
anyone
camping. “But she won’t know anyone.”
    “She’s pretty friendly,” Dad said. “I think it’ll be okay.”
    The art historian Dad had dated a couple of years earlier had never come here to visit and she hadn’t come to our house in Boston much. The PT had been around a lot. The first time I met her, she tripped and fell over our coatrack.
    Aside from being a klutz, she smiled too much. She had this huge mouth with teeth the size of piano keys. Her smile was blinding.
    “Lucy?” Dad’s smile faded and I felt a sting in my chest.
    “I don’t care.”
    “Can we go to Pete’s for ice cream, huh, Dad?” Bucky asked.
    I felt Dad staring at me, but I didn’t look up. He said, “After dinner.”
    “Can’t we go now?”
    “Buck.” Dad frowned. “I’ve got to work.”
    Bucky huffed extra loudly and I shook my head at him. Dad didn’t get angry at us very often, but I couldn’t stand it when he did. Like last year when Bucky put a hole throughour couch with a screwdriver, Dad was
so
mad. He wouldn’t talk for the whole day and I felt awful, even though it wasn’t my fault.
    I just liked it best when Dad was happy.
    He started up the stairs. I stared at the water.
Great
.

n Thursday morning Lauren and I stood inside her cottage, waving good-bye to Mrs. Dennis and Stevie. My first babysitting job of the summer, not counting camp. I looked at the knotty paneling and bookcases. It was like our cottage, only it didn’t smell like mildew.
    Lauren circled me, following Superior. Finally Superior wiggled between my legs and looked up:
Help!
Lauren sighed, her shoulders falling.
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “Superior’s a little different, remember? She’s friendly, but most of the time she doesn’t let anyone but me pet her.”
    Lauren sat, her