An American Tune: A Novel

16 “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”

164 “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” The first week of August, the litany of Claire’s last moments began: last day at work, last volleyball game, last sunset picnic on the beach, last overnight with her high school girlfriends, last cheeseburger at theFriendly.TonightwasthelastconcertoftheseasonatInterlochen, a tradition since Claire was a baby. Even Jo was going. They’d loaded her wheelchair into Monique’s van, then strapped her, muddled but cheerful, into the backseat, Claire and Dylan on either side of her. It was a beautiful evening, cool and clear, still light as they joined the throngs of people winding along the various wooded paths, all of which led to the Kellogg Arena at the center of the grounds. There were stone and clapboard practice huts set back among the trees, the occasional earnest camper framed in a window bent over his instrument and the strains of music drifting into the evening air, mingling with the sound of people talking. Charlie and Monique walked ahead a bit under the canopy of trees, chatting as they always did, about their time at the camp as teenagers.Theruleswerestricterthen,theyneverfailedtoremember. Campers were always in their uniforms: girls in navy blue corduroy knickers, pale blue shirts and red knee socks; boys in navy blue pants and blue oxford shirts. Now they were dressed in infinite variations 16 165 “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” of navy blue and red–most only vaguely in uniform, sporting red knee socks with a blue mini-skirt or a blue “Interlochen” sweatshirt over a pair of jeans. Dylan pushed Jo’s wheelchair and Claire walked alongside, chatting to her grandmother who gazed up at her, beatific, as if she could not imagine why this lovely young woman had decided to be so attentive to her. “It’s sweet,” Diane said, as if reading her thoughts. “The two of them with Jo.” Then smiled. “Getting ready to come tonight, I was thinking about the time we went to visit her and they’d wheeled everybodyintotheloungetoheartheoldguysplayingbigbandmusic .” “God,” Nora said. “The piano player on oxygen!” “And all those old ladies bobbing to ‘A String of Pearls.’ Probably feeling twenty. All I could think was that it’ll be us in thirty years, only it’ll be, what? ‘Sympathy for the Devil’? It’s so bizarre, isn’t it? I think of my mom at the age we are now, and she was old.” “We’re old,” Nora said. “In case you haven’t noticed.” “Not old like my mom was in her fifties,” Diane said. “We don’t have that awful helmet hair, do we? We’re not wearing knits.I have to keep reminding myself that I’m going to be a grandmother–speaking of which, Carah called today. Both she and Rose are coming. In September.” Nora stopped short and gave her a hug. “They’re really, truly coming!” Diane nodded, blinking back tears. “God. I’m so–emotional about it. I know I’m about to drive Mo crazy. I can’t wait, I’m scared to death. We’re fixing up Betty’s room for them,” she said. “Painting. Taking down those hideous drapes and getting blinds that let the light in. We’ve got a guy coming tomorrow to give us an estimate.” “Wait,” Nora said. “You’re redecorating Betty’s room?” “It was Mo’s idea,” Diane said. “You can’t get Betty out of Florida with a crowbar anymore, and Mo said, why should we keep that hideous early American furniture just because she picked it out forty years ago. “Mo said that?” Diane laughed. “She’s not saying she thinks we ought to get rid of it. Knowing Mo, she’ll make an annex to the Museum of Charlie, 166 An American Tune and put it there. But she’s been so great about the girls coming. She’s so happy for me. She totally surprises me sometimes, you know?” “Mmm,” Nora had responded, thinking that she could not remember the last time Charlie had surprised her, or if he had ever surprised her at all. She tried as she had countless times in the past months to remember how it had felt to be happy with Charlie, before Claire’s school decision came between them. Days and days, each virtually the same. What a comfort they had seemed to her, unfolding–Claire at the center of them. Charlie kept a...