The Divorce Party (26 page)

“It’s perfect,” Anna says. “It makes me want to go listen to it.”

“So we’ll go listen. As soon as I finish.”

“But we’re not going to tell them it’s here?”

“No,” he says. “They’ll find it one day. Or someone will find it.”

She smiles. “Like a second gift.”

“Like a blessing.”

She goes and lies beside him, her husband. “Who are you to bless anyone, old man?”

He laughs, and wonders, for a second, what a stranger would think if he came upon them. Two people lying here, between their home and the rest of everything. Would he know that they spent their whole lives here? Would he know that that has made all the difference? Would that even be the truth?

He looks at his wife, watches as she closes her eyes and takes in the late-day sun.

“Can everything end right here?” she says. “When we get to be this happy?”

He moves closer to her. “It just did.”

Author’s Note

In early spring 2005, I drove with a friend to Montauk, New York. While heading over the Napeague stretch, my friend mentioned a hurricane had hit this area in the 1930s, which separated Montauk from the rest of Long Island.

I began wondering: whose house could have survived such a powerful storm? What would be happening in that family today?

For their help as I aimed to answer these questions and understand everything about the Hurricane of 1938, I am grateful to Robin Strong and the entire staff at the Montauk Library. Several texts and documentary films were useful in my research as well. In particular:
Sudden Sea
by R. A. Scotti;
The Great Hurricane: 1938
by Cherie Burns; Scott Morris’s
From the Ashes: The Life and Times of Tick Hall;
Abianne Prince’s
Voices in Time: An Oral History of Montauk 1926-1943; A Healing Divorce
by Phil and Barbara Penningroth; and
When Things Fall Apart
by Pema Chodron.

I took liberties in changing facts and playing with pieces of history in order to make my story work the way that I wanted it to work. These were intentional choices.

A final note: for their support as I worked to complete this book, I am indebted to my wonderful editor and agents—Molly B. Barton, Gail Hochman, and Sylvie Rabineau. My gratitude, also, goes to my family and friends for generously reading many drafts; and to Joe the Art of Coffee and The City Bakery for giving me warm and welcoming places to write them.

And a big thank-you to the many people who shared their personal stories with me while I was working on this book. We all live such quietly brave lives, and I feel blessed that I was invited into yours.

—LD, January 2008