This One Summer

Rose and her parents have dinner together, and the mood is light. They joke, laugh, and enjoy the evening. However, after dinner, Rose sits down to read a book and is interrupted by her parents arguing. Evan accuses Alice of being “miserable the whole time” (101) and wanting to be away from her family. Alice hints that something is bothering her that she cannot simply shake off, which is later revealed to be her miscarriage. Rose is upset to hear her parents fighting, so she retreats to her room and refuses to open her door. Evan insists that she join him on the beach to watch the stars, and they leave together. He tells Rose not to worry about his and Alice’s arguing, because “it’s all just adult junk that doesn’t mean anything anyway” (105). In an aside, the text of which is backdropped by the milky way, Rose explains that her mother tried to have a second child two years ago. Alice tried all sorts of methods and treatments, but nothing worked. Rose knows this is why her parents continue to fight, as the suffering they endured was never worked through.

Rose thinks back to another time in Awago. When she was younger, she was afraid to swim in the lake and remembers her mother teaching her how to keep her eyes open underwater to conquer her fear. In the present, Rose floats face-down in the lake, and Windy comments that she looks “like a dead person” (112). Windy confesses that her mother knows someone whose daughter died recently, and Rose admits she knows someone who died recently too. When Windy asks about Rose’s mother almost drowning, Rose becomes defensive, not wanting to discuss it.

After swimming, Rose and Windy walk to Brewster’s to rent another movie. On the way, Windy jokes that bathing suits are like underwear, and Rose becomes irritated with her immaturity. At the store, Duncan seems happy to see the girls, and commends them on their bravery in watching so many horror movies. Rose wants to impress him and decides to rent Jaws, even though Windy mentioned wanting to watch something other than horror. Some drama starts between the group of teenagers when a girl walks in angry, and Windy promises to come back later and eavesdrop on them for fill Rose. Rose heads home to see her maternal aunt and uncle, who are coming to visit.

Alice’s sister Jodie and her husband Daniel (Rose’s aunt and uncle) come to visit for Alice’s birthday. They bring balloons, beer, and wine, and Jodie checks on Alice to see how she is feeling, while the men barbecue, and Rose takes photographs of various objects in the backyard. She overhears her mother and aunt talking, and Alice admits, “I wish I was a little kid. So I could just scream and be mad. It’s terrible to say, but I wish I could just… disappear” (128-129). This perturbs Rose, who goes inside to get a drink and leaves, slamming the door.

The next day at the beach, Rose muses on how her aunt and uncle seem childish, especially since her uncle often encourages her to drink beer and swears profusely in her presence—and that it’s probably best they have no children. Daniel pressures Alice to go for a swim, but she declines (as the lake triggers the memory of her miscarriage). He does not let up, trying to pull her up by her arm in a joking manner. Alice pushes Daniel, and he lands on top of some beach chairs. He becomes irate and starts yelling about the oppressive nature of Alice’s moods, and Alice leaves the beach. Rose dives into the water and swims as far away from the scene as possible, with a three-frame illustration showing her underwater.

Jodie and Daniel leave Awago almost immediately after the beach incident, and Rose goes back to the cottage to recover. Windy soon knocks on the door, and reveals that she thinks one of the teenage girls is pregnant. Later, the girls watch Jaws, and Rose thinks about the night before, when she heard her mother screaming at her father through two sets of windows. After the movie, the girls go out for a walk and find a deer. They decide to follow it, and head into the forest where they discover some chairs and garbage that they assume belong to the teenagers. Rose is curious and looks at the items, but Windy wants to leave and makes fun of Duncan and the other teenagers for being less fortunate, as the surrounding area is filled with rotting houses: “This is BUM headquarters. This is totally where those guys hang out” (154). Windy convinces Rose to race her to the beach, and a large splash shows the girls underwater, performing various moves and acting like fish. Rose decides to swim back to the cottage alone after Windy goes home, and when she gets there, her father tells her that he is going back to the city for a few days. She starts to worry that her parents are slowly drifting apart, and thinks of their arguments. She reveals that her swimming instructor can hold his breath for four laps, but that when it comes to her parents, her mother often tells her father, “You can say what you want, Evan, but I’m not holding my breath” (169).