Why I did not go after him
People ask me why I did not make him pay for it right there. Why I did not call the sheriff, or march up those steps and tell him what I thought of a grown man who would do that to a child.
The answer is my mother.
Mama is seventy-four. My daddy died three years ago in March. Beach week at Edisto is the only week of the year when she gets all of us under one roof, and it is the thing she lives for.
She starts saving for the rental in January. She clips the coupons for the Piggly Wiggly. She makes a list of who sleeps in which room, and she tapes it to the refrigerator the first night.
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Bridget grabbed my arm on that beach and held on with both hands. “Please don’t ruin Grandma’s week,” she said. “Please, Mom. It’s just a camera.”
It was not just a camera. But I looked at her face and I understood that she was protecting her grandmother, and that she was asking me to let her do it. So I let her.
That is the whole reason. Not fear of Eldon. Not that I thought he was right. My girl asked me for something, and it was a good thing to ask for.
Where the men were
My husband, Fritz, was not there for the first half of that week. He is the herd manager at a dairy outside Greenwood, two hundred and forty Holsteins, and the owner’s son had broken his leg in June.
Somebody had to be there for the milkings at four in the morning and four in the afternoon. Fritz was going to drive down Friday night for the last two days. He had not missed beach week in sixteen years.
I walked up into the dunes where nobody could hear me, sat down in the sea oats, and called him. I told him the whole thing in about six sentences. My hands were shaking.
He was quiet so long I thought the call had dropped. Fritz is like that. He thinks before he talks, and when he finally talks, it is usually worth waiting for.
“Is she all right?” he asked.
“She didn’t cry,” I said. “She told me not to make a fuss.”
“That’s my girl,” he said. Then another long pause. “Elise, don’t let him run her off that beach. Whatever else you do. She goes back down there tomorrow.”
I asked him if he wanted me to put Bridget on the phone. He said yes, and I walked her up into the dunes, and I let them have it to themselves. She came back with red eyes for the first time that night.