July 15, 1973

"Why are you and your friends so weird?"

Helen ignored her sister. Helen, her best friend Joe, and Joe's brother Brian were looking at National Geographic magazines and talking about the exotic places they wanted to visit. A fierce summer storm raged outside, trapping them in the house for the day. Joe had shown up on the porch, dragging Brian like a drowned rat behind him. Helen knew that their parents must be fighting again, so Joe had wanted to get Brian out of their house. Usually the three of them would escape to the beach, the park, or the woods, but the weather was not cooperating today.

"You went from having no friends in Texas to having weirdo friends here. Why do you want to hang out with boys?"

"You want to hang out with boys," Helen pointed out. Casey, the older sister, had been blessed with puberty already, and finding a boyfriend was at the top of her to-do list. Helen knew Casey wouldn't have to try very hard. Casey was gorgeous, with her long auburn hair, big blue eyes, and perfect figure. Helen had even caught Joe ogling her when he thought no one was looking. Helen wasn't worried about Joe; he thought Casey was a snob and wasn't really interested in her. But Helen pitied whatever poor boy did fall for Casey's wiles.

"Well, I wouldn't sit around looking at dumb magazines with a boy." Casey's voice was oddly unnatural, and Helen knew she was trying – and failing – to lose her Texas drawl. Helen looked over at Joe, who, like Helen, was sitting on the floor with his back against the sofa. His eyes met hers, and he smirked before returning his gaze to his magazine. Brian lay at Joe's feet, sprawled on his stomach with half a dozen magazines strewn around him.

"What would you do with a boy?" Brian piped up.

Caught off guard, Casey spluttered and huffed. "Oh, honestly!" she exclaimed as she flounced out of the room.

Helen, Joe, and Brian tracked her with their eyes before looking back at each other and bursting out laughing.

Joe settled down first. Then he looked over at Helen and asked, "Where would you go if you had your own plane?"

Helen, who in the few months she had known him had grown accustomed to his odd questions, pondered for a moment before stating decisively, "Austria. Ever since I saw The Sound of Music, I've wanted to go to the music festival in Salzburg."

Joe nodded sagely. "Good choice. You'd need a co-pilot for that long of a trip, though."

"Oh, I wouldn't fly myself there! You two could take me!"

Brian turned to look at her and made a face. "Forget it! I'm going to an exotic island. Austria sounds boring. Perfect for Joey."

Joe took one of the pillows from the sofa and threw it at Brian, who rolled onto his back and tucked it under his head. "This is boring," Brian said. "Let's do something fun."

"I know what we can do!" Joe exclaimed. Brian rolled his eyes and started playing with his gum, stretching it into a long string and then putting it back in his mouth again. "I saw it on a TV show," Joe continued. "A group of friends all wrote predictions about their future lives and buried them in a time capsule. Twenty years later they dug it up and read their predictions."

"Sounds dumb," Brian said automatically.

"Hey, Brian, you like making up stories," Helen reminded him. "Do you have a better idea?" She gestured to the window, where the rain was lashing vigorously against the glass.

"C'mon, it'll be fun," Joe said. "Helen, can you get some lined paper and some pencils?"

When Helen went to gather the supplies Joe had requested, she found Casey sitting alone and staring out the window. "Hey, Case," she said. "We're going to write stories. Wanna join us?" Helen wasn't sure what compelled her to invite Casey, who never wanted to hang out with her and the boys. Maybe it was that she looked forlorn, and Helen knew how that felt. Before her family had moved to Nantucket and she'd met Joe and Brian, Helen had spent many days alone, watching Casey and her friends have fun.

Casey turned to look at her, a sneer forming on her lips. But then her expression softened. "Oh, why not?" she said with only the slightest twang. "I'm bored."

They returned together to the living room and found the boys sitting on the floor across from each other at the coffee table. Joe looked expectant, ready to take charge of the situation, while Brian looked about ready to run away, fidgeting restlessly. His mouth fell open when Casey sat down beside him, and his body stilled. Helen handed the paper and pencils to Joe before taking the space beside him.

"Now ev'rybody listen up," Joe began and then launched into an explanation followed by a set of rules. Helen only half listened as she watched her friend take control. She thought about the chaos he probably had left behind at his own house and wished there were something she could do to make things easier for him. His parents were always nice to her, but she could sense the tension between them, and Joe had told her about their fights.

Helen realized that Joe had finished speaking, and she stared at the blank piece of paper in front of her. Everyone else got up and moved to different parts of the room to write in private.

Helen thought for a long time. What did she want in her future? She looked around at the others, all three concentrating as they wrote. Even Brian was focused intently on the future he was imagining for himself. He looked serious, as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Helen's gaze moved to Casey, who also looked serious as she wrote. Helen wondered what fantasies her sister harbored about her future.

Next Helen's gaze settled on Joe, her best friend here on Nantucket. Oddly, the normally serious Joe was the one who had a smile as he wrote. Helen could guess what he was imagining – either baseball or flying. Those were the things he talked about the most, and something was putting that smile on his face. Helen looked down quickly when Joe lifted his head to look around. She watched discreetly as Joe's eyes wandered over to Casey. He frowned slightly, then smiled again and resumed writing.

Helen's paper was still blank. She could write about playing cello in a world-famous orchestra or about traveling the world or about winning the lottery. But she couldn't concentrate. Her mind wanted to reflect on the last few months since her family had come from Texas and her life had changed so quickly. Not long after moving into their house, the Chappels got new neighbors when the Hacketts moved from their apartment in town out to the house at the end of Madaket Way. Helen wasted no time in introducing herself, and she got more than she had bargained for. Brian was about her age and was in her class at school. He was silly and annoying and almost like a pesky brother.

But it was his older brother who had caught Helen's fancy. Serious and reserved, Joe had insulted her with the first words out of his mouth. She had threatened to beat him up, he had apologized, and they had been friends ever since. Helen had never before known a boy quite like Joe. Brian was adventurous and creative; Joe had to be coaxed into having fun. But the three of them became inseparable, and soon Joe was confiding in Helen as if they had been friends for years. No one had ever trusted her like that, and she took the friendship seriously.

She sneaked another look at Joe and thought about what her life would be like without him. And suddenly she knew exactly what to write in her letter about her future. She took the pencil and wrote carefully in her best cursive penmanship. Just as she finished writing, Joe returned to sit beside her and called back Brian and Casey.

They all folded their letters and put them in envelopes. Joe explained the next step: each would choose a couple of special items to put in the time capsule. He, Joe, would procure a canister, and they would bury it whenever it finally stopped raining.

Helen enjoyed seeing Joe act so decisively. With almost everyone else he was shy and lacked the confidence to step up and be the leader. She wondered again what he had put in his letter and hoped he saw himself as the self-confident man she knew he could grow up to be.

The moment was broken when everyone started chattering, and then they all headed to the kitchen to have a snack that Helen and Casey's mom had made for them.

-oooo-

The rain continued coming down in sheets, leaving behind a pattern of droplets on the windows that obscured the world, including the Hackett house across the street. Two boys and two girls didn't mind at all as they ate and gossiped and spent the rest of the afternoon in the loving warmth of the Chappel home.