The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy

“SO I STARTED out as a waitress,” she said. She crossed her legs at the ankles, stretched them out in front of her and leaned back against the back of the sofa. “But I had hopes of becoming the hostess, and I acted as if I was already being groomed for the job. Actually, I was being groomed for the job; I was doing the grooming. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences...

     Ariane spun around and strode into the Sunrise Cove, head up, a new confidence about her, as if she were the older sister in the picture, not the ingenue. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

“I TALKED DENNY into driving me to the resort for my first day on the job. The place wasn’t really ready yet, and there were contractors and carpenters and electricians swarming all over the place plying their trades. A very handsome sign was going up out front. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

     “Aren’t you at least interested in finding out what it might be worth to me to get you to stay?” Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

     “You’ve made up your mind. I see. Well, you must be right, then. Go ahead, go. Don’t let yourself listen to what I’ve got to say, because if you were to start to negotiate, then that ironclad determination you have to make a break, to get out of here at any cost, would be gone.” Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substa...

SHE HAD TOLD her family. Now she had to tell Porky White. She was sure that Porky would be upset when she announced that she was leaving the clam bar, and as the moment for telling him approached, she discovered, to her surprise, that she would be upset about it, too. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subsc...

SHE HESITATED, pacing up and down in the gravel at the edge of the roadway, and she suffered a failure of will. She decided not to bring the matter up, not to upset the harmony of a family evening, not to risk being turned down. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

“WHEN I GOT OUTSIDE, I remembered that I didn’t have a ride. I took my shoes off and pulled my hem up and walked home—” ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

     Ariane stood outside the room, in the echoing hallway, hesitating, listening to the men arguing, biting her lip, grimacing, wondering whether she should go ahead with what she had planned or turn around and leave. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

SHE STUMBLED off the planks and got some concrete muck on her shoe. She wiped at it with her handkerchief, but that didn’t do it, so she spit on the handkerchief, hiked her skirt up, and bent her leg up to get at the muck, in the process showing a lot of leg.     Cornelius Murray, the manager of the resort, was watching from a window, enjoying the show, not only her legs, but her discomfiture. He...

“TINA TALKED me into letting her drive me to the place,” she said. “She thought I’d make a better entrance. So, she drove her car, and I sat in the back. I don’t know what the hell we thought we were supposed to look like. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

SHE SPRANG out of bed. Normally, when she got up, she had the annoying feeling that she was being watched. There was a reason for that feeling. It wasn’t always an illusion. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

“ONE MORNING,” she said, “not long after that visit, I woke up to find that the signs seemed right. I sat up in bed, pushed my curtains aside—” Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

SHE BEGAN VISITING the resort almost daily, before she went to her job as a waitress at the clam bar. A couple of times she borrowed her girlfriend Tina’s car, a six-year-old Commander that still had a lot of life in it. In the car she felt invisible and anonymous. She could park on the town pier and observe the work without feeling that she was being observed herself. ... Get full access to The P...

“PETER?” said Ariane.     “Hmm?” I said. “Oh. Sorry, I got a little carried away with my thoughts there.”     “You were somewhere else.”     ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

WHAT DENNY MEANT when he said that the resort seemed out of place was what a large chunk of the population of Babbington thought: that Babbington would be better off without the resort, which most of the people who lived in the older part of town called “the motel.” ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscri...

DENNY BEGAN TO SPEAK more directly and honestly than he had ever spoken to anyone before. He told her that he loved her and would always love her. He was amazed by the way he spoke. He used words that he had never used before: tender, forever, rapture, even marriage . Something had certainly happened to Denny there in the car, pushing himself on Ariane. ... Get full access to The Personal History,...

AT THE DOCK, there was a crowd, and Ariane rewarded Denny for his honesty with a kiss, a good one. Then she patted him, like a child, and said, “That’s enough now.” Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

“YOU KNOW,” I said, “if I had been there, if I had been there beside you instead of Denny, we would have had a lot to say, we would have had a lively conversation, we would have had a lot of laughs.”     “Oh, Peter. Stop torturing yourself. You would have been as tongue-tied as Denny.”     ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterle...

WHEN DENNIS, the young man everyone called “Denny,” went to Corinne’s that night, he didn’t intend to stay. He came to take Ariane away.  Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

“I FOUND THE BATHROOM,” she said. “I washed my face. I looked at myself in the mirror, and I saw how much I had changed. Of course, I was still gorgeous—but I had a hardness that I hadn’t had.” ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

DURING THAT TIME in Ariane’s life, when she was working at Captain White’s and hanging around Corinne’s and living up to Tootsie Koochikov’s reputation, I stopped spending afternoons with her at her house—her parents’ house, that is—ending a practice that we had begun when I was eleven. I missed those afternoons. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations o...

SHE TOOK THE CLAM HAT OFF and tossed it into a corner of the sofa, where it lay there watching us, wide-eyed, amused. ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

“AFTER WORK,” she said, “most of the time, a few of us, the younger workers from Captain White’s, would go down the street, to a bar—”     “Corinne’s.”     “Right.” Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

“TOOTSIE KOOCHIKOV. I allowed myself to be called that for years,” she said, “right on through high school, until one night when I discovered, to my surprise, that I had had enough of it. It was after I had graduated, when I was working at Captain White’s—that clam bar.” ... Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/su...