That Old Cape Magic

around there, call the rental-car company and find out what they wanted him to do with the wreck, then drive home together.
    When he hung up, his mother said,
There, was that so difficult?
    Yeah
, he told her,
it was
.
    He expected a smart-assed retort but it didn’t come, and when it didn’t he became aware of an unfamiliar but extremely pleasurable feeling. How to describe it? Plumb. He was feeling plumb. Okay, maybe not completely, but no more than a half bubble off. Plumb some. As good as could be expected. He wondered if
plumb
might be another word for happy.
    I think maybe I’m going to be okay, Mom
, he ventured. Still no response.
I guess what I’m saying is it’s okay for you to be dead now. Both of you. In fact
, he added, afraid he’d given them too much leeway,
I insist
.
    The boy was kicking impotently at the brightly colored shards of taillight glass when Griffin returned. He’d somehow written down all the necessary information, and his name was Tony Loveli. He was sixteen. “My father’s on his way,” he said. “He’s going to kill me. I just got my license last week.”
    “Don’t worry, Tony,” Griffin said. “We’ll tell him it was my fault.”
    The kid shook his head morosely. “You don’t understand.That’s not going to matter. He’s a divorce attorney. A complete and total fucking asshole.”
    “Not complete,” Griffin said, though of course he’d never met the man, who might well be an asshole. “Not total.”
    A fat gull circling overhead screeched a loud objection. Griffin watched it warily, but it was just a stupid bird, and after a moment, no harm done, it flew away.

Acknowledgments
    Okay, I admit it. I had help. Many thanks to my agents, Nat Sobel, Judith Weber and Joel Gotler; to my editors, Gary Fisketjon and Alison Samuel; to Emily Milder, Gabrielle Brooks, Meghan Wilson, Russell Perreault, Kate Runde, Victoria Gerken and all the other good folks at Knopf/Vintage who sell my books; to my daughters, Emily and Kate, whose weddings inspired all manner of imagined catastrophe; to my wife, Barbara, who knows enough about marriage to write her own book but read mine several times without complaint. Thanks also to The Silver Lounge on Cape Cod for the use of their sign. And, finally, my gratitude to my mother, whose recent passing caused me to reflect more deeply on inheritance and all that the word implies. Not to mention love.

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
    Copyright © 2009 by Richard Russo
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
    www.aaknopf.com
    Knopf, Borzoi Books and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Russo, Richard, [date]
That old cape magic / by Richard Russo.—1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-27330-7
1. College teachers—Fiction. 2. Married people—Fiction.
3. Cape Cod (Mass.)—Fiction. 4. Midlife crisis—Fiction.
5. Reminiscing—Fiction. 6. Domestic fiction. I. Title.
PS3568.U812T47 2009
813′.54—dc22     2009020311
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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