The Topsail Accord by J. Kalnay Page B

me for tomorrow morning but not for tonight? Was I supposed to be a replacement? I don’t think that she is looking for a replacement. I don’t think that she is looking for anything. And just when she had not been looking, I ran her over and spilled half her coffee and then poured out the rest of it.
    But she said she had seen me earlier in the week, and the week before. So maybe she had been looking after all....

Fireworks
     
    Shannon sits in the powdery sand surrounded by her family in the cool late evening breeze. The three foot tall sea oats on the dune sway gently behind them in their makeshift amphitheater. Cara is in her element, providing a never to be forgotten moment for her entire family. She rises to speak, and everyone quiets to hear her. Her voice barely carries over the waves, even as small as they are.
    “ Thank you everyone for another great July. We treasure that you are all able to come every year. We’ve never done fireworks before, so I don’t know what to expect, but I know that we’ll all remember our night of fireworks at the beach house.”
    She signals to the volunteer firemen who are with the fireworks man who reminds everyone of a “carney”.
    She moves quickly to sit beside Shannon, taking her hand in hers.
    The show begins.
    First one shell arcs up into the star filled sky and then another. After an impossibly long pause the shells burst, one white, one blazing red. Shell after shell reach up into the sub-tropical air that hangs pregnant over the nearly still Atlantic.
    Their small group oohs and ahhs, never having seen fireworks so close.
    The fireworks man finds his rhythm and range and adjusts the arcs after watching his first tentative ranging shots. Soon three and four shells are arcing up and bursting together. Then a different type of attraction, a brick of shells that fire one right after another sending a constant stream of smaller red, white, and blue blazes fifty feet into the air. Then there is a pause. The small group looks at each other, wondering whether the show is over.
    And then they hear a deeper thump, then several more thumps, and crane their necks skyward to follow the paths of these different shells. While they watch, more and more thumps echo from the launching pad. Suddenly the entire sky is ablaze with fireworks of every color. Incredibly loud booms follow one after another. Cara turns away from the bursting shells to watch the faces of her family, seeing smiles of wonder filling every face. She lives for these moments.
    Her eyes catch Shannon’s.
    “ I love you,” Shannon mouths.
    “ I love you too,” Cara says.

Joe
     
    Like many others who live here on the island and who knew about the fireworks I have parked in the public access down the beach from her house and have walked up close to the security fence. I have brought a beach chair so I can sit and watch this unusual event.
    I recognize nearly all the people here, and I recognize my friend Bill the policeman. I can see that he is not too busy, that the small crowd is well behaved and that the row of chairs has added an extra layer to his security fence. So I walk over and shake hands.
    “ Quite a show,” I say.
    “ Yes,” he says.
    “ I know the two women who are putting on the show,” I say.
    “ I know the homeowner, and I’ve met some others in her family. They seem like a nice family. And the homeowner, well, she’s something special.”
    “ Yes she is,” I answer.
    Bill detects the change in tone in my voice.
    “ Oh?” he asks.
    “ Yeah.”
    “ Well then,” he says.
    I detect the change in his voice.
    “ She has quite a following,” Bill says in his professional voice.
    Now it is my turn to say “Oh?”
    “ Yeah. There was a man here earlier asking about her.”
    “ A man?”
    “ Big guy. Ohio plates. Kinda felt like a stalker.”
    “ Wow. You know she’s rich right? I mean richer than me?”
    “ No shit?” Bill asks.
    “ Yeah. She’s a geologist and she literally