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Snob, she thought, laughing at herself

She lifted her backpack to her shoulders, pulled her hair loose fro the instructions Tallie had provided over the phone, she walked along the docks and looked for a snoer, more luxurious, cabin cruiser and o again

Natalie looked down and waved at the s up and a pipe in his mouth

"Sonny?" She felt a little silly, but Tallie had told her sooin' to Tallie's island?" he asked

She smiled, nodded, and he reached up to help her aboard

It wasn't Tallie's island Natalie didn't knoned the rest of it, but Tallie owned only four acres of Ox Island, which oand a half ht Natalie, that people thought of it as Tallie's island

It was typical, too, of a Maine lobsterainst his chin in June, when the tourists were all in shirt-sleeves and alligator-adorned jerseys, and would be freezing and covered with goose bu even before the Egret was out of the tight harbor, and downright cold as they crossed the open ocean to Ox Island

"Do you know Tallie?" asked Natalie "She'stoward the island, watching the bay, not noticing the cold salt spray that struck his face as the boat moved

"Yep," he said

Natalie smiled to herself and didn't attempt any more conversation If I were Tallie, she realized, I'd have hiraphs, and before the fifteen-minute boat ride was over I'd know his life history

Oh well, I'ently toward the decaying dock at Ox Island Heabout how they'd better fix that before the ice bust it up next winter, soainst the dock, he took Natalie's hand firmly and helped her up

"You be here Sunday at two," he said roughly "I'll take you back"

"Shall I pay you then?" she asked

"She took care of it" He turned to his engine, ignoring her thank you

Tallie wasn't at the dock Natalie hadn't expected her to be Tallie had never, according to Natalie'sin her life

But she was at the house Natalie walked up the dirt road, opened the never-locked door, and found her there, busy in the kitchen, singing "Un bel dì vedrehtly off-key, as she stirred so on the stove

She looked up in surprise "Natalie! Is it four o'clock already? I reet you! But one of the local fisherift of lobsters and scallops and halibut that I decided to make a paellahave you ever tasted paella, Natalie? Look, how the saffron changes ordinary rice to such a oodness, I've lost track of the tiht of you as a Modigliani person, and lookyou've provenyour hair that way, so that it falls into those elongated lines Are you hungry? Warh? In need ofwill seeed off her backpack, laughing, because Tallie never changed; she was still the same; no matter what happened, Tallie would always be indescribable She ran to her and hugged her, and they held each other for a long time

10

THEY HAD TALKED and talked

"Natalie," Tallie said at last, "even though you're certain that you want to--that you have to--htened Don't be You can handle whatever you find And of course oneIt's exactly what I would doI possibly can"

They were sitting, after supper, in the living roohteenth-century farht, her favorite room in the whole world The past was in it, in the ancient pine boards of the floor, and in the small-paned ith their interior shutters that had once been used to keep out unfriendly Indians, or, more often, the bitter winter wind But the past was layered over by the present, and by Tallie's presence, in the form of the brilliant white paint hich she had painted the plaster walls, and over which she had hung vivid and abstract paintings The hanging plants The shaggy Danish rug in earth shades of brown and gray on the floor The thick pottery ashtrays and bowls on the low tables The bright woven pillows strewn at random on the lohite couch Everywhere, the books And the music Tallie's life was always filled withof noisy, quick Russian dances on her stereo; there were clapping and sta combined with the abrupt and discordant melodies Tallie had served tea on a tray: a murky tea to which she had added herbs that she had collected on the island and dried herself She poured it fros Natalie blew ripples into the surface of hers, and tested it with the tip of her tongue

"But you know, Tallie," she said slowly, "Mo it, but they don't really They're very hurt And I' it"