Beach Promenade (Derby, Tad, Jimmy)
Who: Derby, Tad, and Jimmy What: Walking on the boardwalk and encountering one another... fatefully(?) When: Friday, June 17th 2005, weekend before the reunion. Where: The big boardwalk in the Vale. Warnings: Should be clean.
The air that lifted in layers from the bay like a freshly baked biscuit were not the same as they had been in Derby Harrington's childhood. Once upon a time they smelled of nothing but oil and fish, every so often frosted with the low moan of a shipping freighter coming in to the docks in New Coventry. Now the bay was freckled with ice cream wrappers and napkins with smudges of ketchup, seagulls frantically whipped the air above the boardwalk, and tourists milled around making noise and taking pictures. The scent of cotton candy and humanity was thick. Derby heretofore could not decide if it was an improvement or a detraction. It was lively now, yes, but so... bourgeois. It was colorful and tacky and a number of unquantified adjectives. At least it was making the Harringtons money with which to further distance themselves from tourists...
Derby sighed as he walked close to the railing, between two fingers pinching the side of his sunglasses. The wind made his pristine white chinos flutter around his legs. The noise only helped to remind him of quieter times he'd spent on this pier, birthdays long past in which...
No. There was nothing going back. Only forward.
"Spencer," he said loftily. "Go and see if that ice cream is edible, will you?"