An American Tune: A Novel

25 “Stand by Me”

249 “Stand by Me” The sky was blue and cloudless, the sun shining–warm on Nora’s face, despite the cold air. She came down from the woods, Astro following , and picked up a stone as she did every morning. Light gray, smooth, and egg-shaped, it fit perfectly into the palm of her hand. When she’d walked a while, she took off one glove so she could feel the stone against her skin, as if it could ground her in this place. She’d been sleepless the night before, knowing Tom was nearby. She lay in bed thinking of him driving from Traverse City to Monarch this morning, on the two-lane highway that wound up and down through woods and farmland. It was a road she loved in every season–especially spring, when, coming down a hill into blooming cherry orchards, it seemed as if huge pink clouds had fallen from the sky. Today the bare branches of the same trees would be iced with snow, the dried grasses in the meadows bent and broken. The big, white farmhouses along the road always looked the same, cozy and inviting, each with an apple-red silo next to the barn, topped by what looked like a big, round piece of red-and-white striped peppermint candy. Would Tom smile at the sight of them as she always did? The minutes on the digital clock on her bedside table had whispered away–but so slowly. Moonlight shone through the dark windows , revealing icy patterns on the glass. Near four, Nora threw back the comforter and stepped, shuddering, into the frigid air. She 25 250 An American Tune wrapped her robe around her, padded down to the kitchen and sat, drinking coffee, the radio turned on low. In time, night drained from the window and the edges of the meadow grew pink with dawn. Classical music morphed to news: “Citing inspectors’ discovery of twelve empty warheads and documents related to a failed nuclear program’s attempt at laser enrichment of uranium, critics of the Bush administration’s planned invasion argue that the inspections are working and that they should continue under the terms of 1999 UN Security Council Resolution 1284. They contend that if Iraq still possesses illegal weapons it can be peacefully and effectively disarmed by the inspections process, thus making the argument for war moot. But the Bush administrationarguesinsteadthattheinspectionprocesshasdemonstratedthat Saddam Hussein is not willing to disarm . . .” Now, at the shoreline, she picked up her pace, imagining Tom starting toward her from Monarch Beach. Astro trotted along beside her,occasionallystoppingtobarkatthewaves,splashingintothewater to chase a seagull, oblivious to the freezing water. He ran around her sometimes, leaping at her knees–which meant he wanted her to find a stick and throw it, she knew. But she kept on. She slowed when she came to the place, near the point, where there were dozens of huge rocks just beyond the shore, set in place by glaciers thousands and thousands of years before. Sun dazzled them this morning, bounced off their shiny wet surfaces. Rocks the size of basketballs or melons could be seen just under the surface of the clear water, some had washed up, tangled in bright green seaweed, along the shore. Early last summer, she had passed a young man, nineteen or twenty, wrapping them a dozen or so at a time into a blanket, then dragging it down the beach a ways to dump the stones on the sand. She had thought he was making one of the sculptures that had been mysteriously appearing on the beach in the last year or so, but on her way back she saw that he had lined the rocks in vertical groups and was in the process of forming each group into a letter. She stopped, curious, and asked, “What in the world are you spelling?” 251 “Stand by Me” He grinned, bending to ruffle Astro’s wet fur. “Will you marry me?” He waved his arm toward the southernmost letter. “See?” Norahadthoughtitwasan“M,”facingthewater,butnowsawthat itwasa“W”facingthelookoutpointatthetopofthesteepdune,high above them. Next to it, “I-L-L. Then Y-O-U M-A-R.” “How long have you been here?” she asked. “Couple of hours,” he said. “I still have to get the stones for the rest of the letters, so I figure it’ll take me at least another two. Man, I’lltell you what. I’m...