I drove down the side street that led to his place. A large, comfortable house of weathered shingles, white trim, and brick fireplaces, it was set on an acre or two of lawns, shrubs, and trees and overlooked Vineyard Haven harbor. In front of the house was a shiny new tan Buick two-door. Sylvia b...
“Can you ride a horse? If you can’t, you can either walk in, which will be tough on you because of the altitude—it’s nearly ten thousand feet at the top of the cliffs—or you can give me a message to take up to John.” “I imagine I can stay on a tame horse for a while.” Her quick smile flickered ac...
When her husband had been alive the two of them had worked it and sold their vegetables at a farm stand, getting by in the good years, scrambling in the bad ones. My father had bought his vegetables there when I was a boy, and Amelia had delighted me with small, surprising gifts such as a seeming...
My furniture is comfortable but old and sagging, mostly stuff my father bought long ago and some that I’ve salvaged from the world’s champion discount store, the Big D, a.k.a. the Edgartown dump, where every bargain comes with an absolute money-back guarantee. Edgartown is a summer home for a lot...