Butternut Summer (46 page)

“Well, that's all,” her dad said, letting go of both of their hands.

“That was nice, Jack,” her mom said, beaming at him, and Daisy, much to her annoyance, felt a tear slide down her cheek. She wiped quickly at it, and then, hoping to distract her parents from the realization that she was crying, again, she said, “Dad, can you pass the salad, please?”

O
ne minute Will was sitting on the bus, lulled by the sound of the engine and the gentle rocking of tires sliding over asphalt, and the next minute he was sitting on a lakeside dock, his bare feet dangling over the water. It was a perfect summer morning, he realized, glancing around, and the dock and the cabin on the bluff behind it looked a lot like Mr. Phipps's. Except they weren't, he suddenly understood. They weren't Mr. Phipps's, because they were his, his and Daisy's.

Daisy appeared then, walking out to the end of the dock. She was dressed in the short-sleeved cotton blouse that he loved—the one with the little blue flowers on it that matched her eyes—and blue jeans, and her strawberry-blond hair was down on her shoulders and slightly messy, just the way he liked it. She looked so beautiful, he almost turned away. But he didn't.

“Good morning,” she said, sitting down next to him. She put her head on his shoulder. “What are you thinking about?” she asked.

He hadn't been aware that he'd been thinking about anything, but as soon as she asked him that question he realized he had been thinking about something.

“I was thinking that this was the best decision I ever made,” he said.

“You mean, buying this cabin?” she asked.

“No, Daisy. Getting married. Getting married to you was the best decision I ever made.” And he kissed her, kissed her soft lips and her sweet mouth as if he'd never stop kissing them again . . .

He jerked awake then, trying desperately to get his bearings. He was still on the bus, he saw, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness outside its windows. He was still sitting in his seat. There was the same woman and the same fussy baby sitting across the aisle from him, the same bored teenager, plugged into his iPod, sitting in front of him. Will sighed and leaned back in his seat, lifting his watch to his eyes. It was only nine o'clock. He had a few hours left to go yet. He closed his eyes and thought about his dream, about how real it had seemed, how real
she
had seemed. And in that moment, he missed Daisy so much that it was like a pain slicing through him.

He wouldn't think about it now, he decided. About them being apart. Will found his sweatshirt, rolled it up again, and wedged it against the window, putting his head down on it and closing his eyes. He'd try to remember the dream instead—every single detail of it. And, if he was really lucky, maybe he'd fall back asleep and dream it all over again.

Meet Mary McNear

Reading Group Discussion Questions

Coming Soon from Mary McNear: An excerpt from
Moonlight on Butternut Lake

Have You Read?

More from Mary McNear

Photo by Amelia Kennedy

MARY M
C
NEAR
is a writer living in San Francisco with her husband, two teenage children, and a high-strung, minuscule white dog named Macaroon. She writes her novels in a local donut shop where she sips Diet Pepsi, observes the hubbub of neighborhood life, and tries to resist the constant temptation of freshly made donuts. She bases her novels on a lifetime of summers spent in a small town on a lake in the northern Midwest.

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1.
   
When Daisy arranges for a lunch between her estranged parents, without the consent of her mother, Caroline wonders if Daisy is trying to reunite her and Jack, even though they have been separated for eighteen years. Do most children of divorced parents harbor this wish? Is there an inevitable compulsion on the part of children of divorced parents to want to put the marriage back together, to mend what has been broken, even if it was an unhappy union?

  
2.
   
Jack, now a sober man, returns to Butternut after eighteen years, with the hope of reclaiming his ex-wife and continuing the newfound relationship with his daughter, Daisy. Why does Walt, Jack's AA sponsor, think that Jack is putting himself in a vulnerable position that could cause him to relapse? During the course of the novel, does Jack have any moments where he acknowledges that alcohol is still a temptation that he must avoid?

  
3.
   
Jack's “all or nothing” philosophy may be part of what drove him toward the extremes of drinking, gambling, and philandering. In what way does this very same philosophy help him to reestablish a life in Butternut, pursue an ex-wife who is angry with him, and maintain his sobriety?

  
4.
   
Although Buster is a good man, he is too regimented and settled in his ways to give Caroline a fuller and deeper relationship. So why is Caroline ambivalent about ending things between them? And what is it that Caroline had with Buster that she was never able to have with Jack?

  
5.
   
Being abandoned or beaten or verbally abused by a parental figure can cause long-term psychological, as well as physical, scars. Both Jack and Will emerged from such a childhood. Jack, as a younger man, indulged in extreme behavior. Will made a a “religion” of not caring. In what way were these behaviors coping, or defense, mechanisms? How and when do they both realize that these mechanisms are working against them?

  
6.
   
Caroline wonders if she was right to keep from Daisy all the pain and anger she felt after Jack left them. Was she right to do this? Parents who are divorced have been known to try to turn their children against the other parent. Except in extreme cases where the other parent has been abusive, is this ever a good policy? How does it harm the child?

  
7.
   
Daisy is attracted to Will, a young man who is unlike her in many ways. It seems, at first, that it is simply “chemistry,” that ineffable connection between two people, that draws her to him. But on closer inspection, Will has qualities that are deeply appealing to Daisy. What are they?

  
8.
   
Daisy, despite the simplicity her name would imply, has a complex and judicious understanding of herself and those around her. She recognizes the shortcomings, or failings, of her father, her mother, Jessica, herself, and Will, but she is able to simultaneously acknowledge each person's strengths. In many ways, she is the book's central character; she is the one person with whom all the other characters freely communicate. How else is Daisy different from the other characters in the book?

  
9.
   
Caroline declares that a leopard doesn't change its spots; that is, people do not change. But Butternut Summer is a book about people who do change. Who changes and how? And what does it mean to change? Do we become different persons? Or do we get in touch with a part of ourselves that has been dormant or previously inaccessible?

10.
   
Caroline has expectations for Daisy: she wants her to finish college, go to graduate school, and have a career that doesn't entail working in a coffee shop. She fears that Daisy will make the same mistakes Caroline did when she was young and thereby ruin her chances of having a different kind of life. Some parents want their children to follow in their footsteps and some parents explicitly do not want their children to follow their example. In what way are these two contrary wishes similar? And at what point do a parent's expectations become a burden to the child?

11.
   
Daisy tells Caroline that she needs to stop focusing on Daisy and instead focus on her own life. This hurts Caroline, but she realizes it's true. Why is the poster of Bermuda important and how does it symbolize Caroline's shift toward articulating her own dreams?

12.
   
Will is transformed through knowing Daisy. He doesn't want to disappoint her. And he is driven to change his own life so he can be with her “in the long run.” So why does he join the army, a plan that will take him away from Daisy for a couple years?

13.
   
The book begins with Jack's arrival in Butternut and ends with Will's departure. Jack has been away from Butternut for many years, and Will has never really left the area. How are their journeys similar and how are they different?

An excerpt from
Moonlight on Butternut Lake

Chapter One

“Miss?
Miss
?”

Mila jerked awake and stared around her, uncomprehendingly. “Where are we?” she asked, and her voice sounded strange to her.

“Butternut,” the bus driver said. “This is the last stop.”

The last stop
. That sounded ominous, she thought, as her hand moved to massage her stiff neck.

“I saw you'd fallen asleep,” the driver continued, almost apologetically. “But I remembered your ticket said Butternut. And I thought if you could sleep through that baby's screaming, you must really need the rest.”

Mila nodded, annoyed at herself for falling asleep. That was stupid. She was going to have to learn to keep her guard up. And not just some of the time, but
all
of the time. She started to stand up, but her cramped legs rebelled. She sat back down.

“Take your time,” the driver said, genially, looking every bit the grandfather Mila imagined he must be with his thick shock of white hair and pleasantly crinkled blue eyes. “You've been the only passenger since Two Harbors. Not many people travel this far north, I guess. Why don't you take a minute to stretch and I'll get your baggage out for you.”

Mila nodded, then stood up again, slowly this time, and tested her legs. They were stiff, but otherwise functional. She gathered up her handbag, which she'd been careful to wedge between herself and the side of the bus, and made her way down the aisle.

When she climbed down the bus's steps, she saw that the driver was holding her suitcase and looking, doubtfully, around.

“Is someone meeting you here?” he asked.

“They're supposed to be,” Mila said, a little uncertainly.

“Good,” he said, handing her a slightly battered suitcase. “Because they don't get much traffic out this way. I don't know why they have the bus stop out at this junction, instead of right in the town.”