D. took me to Captain Clark’s restaurant. After our date he walked me to the door and kissed me goodnight. My first kiss—it was nice.
At the drive-in, D. asked me to go steady. I said yes and then he wanted to neck. I told him I’d like to watch the movie first but he looked so disappointed that I changed my mind. When I told Betty, she said going steady is one step away from getting married!
Sylvia’s account of her budding romance was interrupted by the news she’d begun working as a full-time maid for the Winslow family. She elaborated:
Mr. Winslow is very ill. In addition to cleaning, I help his daughter, Ivy, prepare meals but she’s so sweet to me it doesn’t seem like work. Sometimes I help care for her brother, M., and he’s very pleasant, too.
Zoey smiled at Sylvia’s obvious affection for her great-aunt and great-uncle. There was a lapse in-between dates before she indicated Thomas Winslow had died and she’d been asked to move into the Winslow residence. Ivy and Marcus quickly became the subjects of her scribblings:
I’m concerned about Ivy. She hardly eats, she’s very pale and I hear her weeping at night. M. doesn’t seem as sad as he did right after Mr. Winslow died. His body may be weak but his character is strong.
M. told me, “As pretty as you are, you’re more than just a pretty face.” He wants to teach me to play chess.
M. is the gentlest, kindest, smartest man I’ve ever met and he listens to all my silly ideas. Some wealthy girl will be very lucky to have him for a husband one day.
Ivy has been walking to the harbor every afternoon and it seems to be helping her mood. While she’s gone, M. and I visit in the living room. He’s supposed to be teaching me to play chess, but we talk so much he forgets.
Recognizing that Sylvia and Marcus’s love story was unfolding before her eyes, Zoey turned the page in anticipation of learning how she’d ended her relationship with her “steady” in order to date Marcus.
Instead, Sylvia had scrawled:
D. and I met at our usual place but then he took me to a deserted cottage near Rose Beach. He carried me over the threshold because he said that’s what he’d do if we were married. I’m so ashamed to admit I gave in to his charms.
Here the ink was splotched, perhaps with teardrops.
I won’t ever do that again until after I’m his wife. Once we’re married, Father can’t make me return home in the fall. I just hope D. will still let me work as a maid here so I can see M. and Ivy every day.
“Oh, Aunt Sylvia,” Zoey whispered, wincing empathetically at her aunt’s naivete and regret, as well as her fear of her father. The diary continued, documenting an increasingly upsetting sequence of events, some that Zoey remembered from Ivy’s stories, and others she’d never known. She quickly read through those excerpts, eager to reach the joyful sections about Sylvia’s relationship with Marcus again.
The lighthouse keeper, P., left a note here for me. He must have seen D. and me together because he wrote that I should stop dating him. Why would he suggest such a thing? Doesn’t he think I’m good enough?
P. left another note. It really hurts my feelings.
D. asked me to go to the cottage to talk. I thought it was just an excuse for you-know-what but when we got there he said he was breaking up with me. I begged him to tell me what I did wrong so I could change it. When he wouldn’t, I cried so hard I was shaking. He put his arm around me and then we kissed. One thing led to another and even though I swore to myself I wouldn’t give in to temptation, I did… Afterward, he seemed more withdrawn than before but at least we’re still going steady.
P. came to the house to speak with me but I was upset so Ivy made him leave.
D broke up with me for good. He said he was sorry but he’s ‘real gone’ for someone else. That must have been what P. was trying to warn me about. I should have known—my sisters always said no one would ever want to marry me.
When M. caught me crying, he said whoever made me weep like that didn’t deserve me. I’m not as sad about D. breaking up with me as I am about leaving Dune Island after Labor Day.
Ivy brought D. home for supper!!! I’m not surprised he’d choose her instead of me and I’m glad she’s so much happier now. I pretended not to know him and he did the same. But I wish I hadn’t ever gone to the cottage with him. I’ll die of shame if he tells Ivy about him and me—or if Marcus finds out!
“No way,” Zoey uttered, aghast to discover that D. stood for Dennis.Ivy’sDennis. Captain Denny.
She studied the preceding passages, hoping she had jumped to the wrong conclusion. Then she perused them a third time. But there was no denying it: Sylvia had been going steady with Dennis. She hadsleptwith Dennis. And although Zoey already knew what the consequence of that had been, she needed to read about it with her own eyes. Her hands trembled so much she nearly tore the page when she flipped it over. She smoothed it flat and didn’t stop reading until she’d reached the last entry in the diary.
M. used all his strength to climb to the widow’s walk to watch the sunset with me. While we were up there, he told me he loved me!!! I asked him if he really meant it. He said he never meant anything more and he’d prove it by marrying me right away, if I agreed. (I did, of course—I love, love, love him!) When we kissed, I felt like I was dancing in the stars.
D. and Ivy are engaged, too! He must not have told her about us. It’s better this way.
I’mlate.
I never dreamed I’d get to have a baby of my own, but I’m sick about the trouble I’m in. If I break up with M., he’ll be devastated, whether or not I tell him the reason. Where would I go anyway? I can’t return home—I’m terrified of how my father will react. If I tell D., he might marry me but Ivy will be crushed… and I would be, too. I know it’s selfish of me, but I don’t want to lose M. or end my friendship with Ivy. What am I going to do?
The rest of the diary was blank and Zoey assumed that must have been because Sylvia had dropped it down the wall or it had slid from its hiding place. But she didn’t need the journal to know that Sylvia had decided to marry Marcus and keep her son’s paternity a secret.
“Marcus Jr. wasDennis’s son,” Zoey said aloud in wonderment.
