learned . . .? Daphne stomped confidently past the boarded-up
windows of the nervous art dealers and down the block, where a
line was forming outside the Overeasy Café. ?It?s that Whalers love
nothing more than a really good storm,? she finished with relish.
It was true. Helen?s fellow Nantucketers were proud of their ability
to live through whatever Mother Nature threw at them. It was a
macho thing, but also a chance to bond. They shared a good laugh
over the howling wind, ice, snow, or rain while they all looked for
their hysterical cats and retrieved their lawn decorations from each
other?s living rooms.
The block didn?t have electricity, and folks were still sweeping up
glass from the broken windows. In spite of all this, Helen wasn?t at
all surprised that the café was seating people. In fact, she knew
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that at that moment her father and Kate were six blocks away at
the News Store, checking out the damage. She also knew that if
people started hanging around out front looking hungry, Jerry and
Kate would open the doors and feed them. With the refrigerators
out, the perishable would have to be eaten or thrown out, anyway,
and Kate would much rather give food to her neighbors than watch
it spoil.
Helen thought for a moment of how she should be there with
them, but then she caught a glimpse of her new reflection in the
one window outside the Overeasy Café that wasn?t broken. She
wasn?t Helen. She was a cute brunette from the mainland, and she
and her tacky, horse-faced mother were on vacation in Nantucket.
These two tourists owed nothing to anyone.
Helen sat, put her napkin in her lap, and ordered whatever the
café could make on a gas stove?eggs, bacon, and French-pressed
coffee. As she pushed her food around, Matt walked into the diner.