It was Nancy Titcomb, her face tanned, her lipstick red, her black hair sun-bleached to brown. Behind her stood AnnaMaria Slavitt and two tall blonde boys, both tan. One of them wore a tank T-shirt, and spots of skin on his shoulders were peeled back to pink. AnnaMaria was chewing gum. She smiled and wrinkled her nose at Allie, who said hi back and stepped aside for them all to sit in the corner booth. She gave them each a menu and was about to turn and leave when Nancy smiled up at her. “Did you have a nice summer?”

“Of course.”

“Oh, tell her who we saw yesterday.” AnnaMaria had her arm around the peeling-backed boy.

“Bobby Kennedy. The entire summer in Hyannis we didn’t see one, and then on our last day–Bobby.”

Allie left them for a few minutes. She rang in two checks at the register, then helped Beatrice stack clean plates from the kitchen. She was surprised Tittiecomb knew her name at all and she remembered Nancy’s nauseatingly cheerful speech in the Woodies stadium in June. From behind the counter, Allie looked back out the window at the green. Leo’s harmonica teacher stood under the gazebo adjusting three silver microphones on their stands. He also wore a tie, one of those bolo things cowboys wear, and she wanted to be out there too, helping Leo get ready. In the shade near the fence a couple of families had laid out a picnic on blankets. Allie went back to the corner booth. Titcomb and Slavitt would only order onion rings if the boys did, so the boys did and the one next to Nancy said to put his in his cheeseburger. AnnaMaria thought this was so amusing she had to take her gum out of her mouth to finish her laugh.

The big surprise was, people were showing up. Leo tried not to look out at them. He got on his hands and knees and helped Ryder tape the microphone wires to the gazebo floor, but he heard them, heard their lawn chairs unfolding, their blankets snapping in the air on their way to the grass, their kids running around between the trees laughing. Leo’s tie hung to the floor in front of him and he had to keep swatting it out of the way so he could lay tape over the wire.

“Stay cool, Young Buddy.”

“How can you stand it?”

“It all goes away once you get inside the music. Believe me, she’ll protect you.”