Loveladies Harbor is the setting for the weekend Katherine and Michael spend at Erica Small’s beach house just after high school graduation. Its stilted, glass-fronted house and beachside gatherings make the visit a vivid pause between graduation and the departure for camp, while the absent friend and the approaching separation lend the reunion a sense of change.

Setting and House

Erica’s house stands on stilts right on the beach. From outside, Katherine describes it as three boxlike sections: a larger central block flanked by two smaller ones. The ocean-facing side is entirely glass. Inside, a large living room has a white tile floor and white wicker furniture with green cushions; two smaller wings each contain two bedrooms and a bathroom. Erica’s parents use one wing, while Erica’s room is in the other. Katherine shares Erica’s room, and Michael sleeps opposite them.

The Postgraduation Visit

The morning after graduation, Katherine and Michael set out for Long Beach Island, having been invited to Erica’s house at Loveladies Harbor. The drive from Westfield, New Jersey, takes two hours down the parkway, and the two take turns driving. The trip follows an indoor graduation forced by a thunderstorm: because the ceremony allows each senior only two tickets, Michael cannot attend and waits at home with Jamie and Katherine’s grandparents.

Beach Gathering and Transition

After lunch, Katherine, Michael, and Erica walk along the beach and toss a football. Erica introduces them to the summer kids she has known for years. A few miles away, at a surfing beach in Harvey Cedars, they watch surfers and use a roll of film posing on the surfboards. That evening, the young people gather at the house; one girl sings with a guitar. Some of the group smoke marijuana, which Katherine declines, while Michael drinks some beer without drinking enough to get sick.

Later, after the visitors have left and Erica has gone to bed, Katherine and Michael take a sleeping bag onto the beach and make love. They wake at dawn and watch the sun rise together. Four days later, Katherine and Jamie leave for camp. The visit thus occupies a brief interval between the public milestone of graduation and the next separation, gathering the friends at the beach even as their shared plans and relationships have begun to change.