Summer

Summer is the season of Tommy and Maribeth’s first meeting and growing closeness. It gives their relationship its beginning: Tommy becomes a steady source of practical and emotional support as Maribeth faces an unexpected pregnancy, while the coming school year begins to place limits on the time they can spend together.

Meeting and Early Closeness

Tommy meets Maribeth during the summer. Their friendship quickly becomes a regular presence in her days: he visits her at the restaurant, drives her home, and takes her out for a soda, a walk, or a movie. The visits are not merely social. Tommy is concerned for her well-being and wants to know that she is all right, while Maribeth comes to regard him as a uniquely trusted friend.

By the time the summer is ending, their closeness has taken on several meanings for Maribeth. She thinks of Tommy as the kind of friend she never had, the brother Ryan had not been, and a contrast to Paul Browne, who could never have been the lover she needed. The relationship is intimate, but its foundation is companionship and care rather than a simple romantic beginning.

Care and Practical Help

Tommy’s concern leads him to arrange medical care. Knowing that Maribeth needs to see a doctor, he borrows his mother’s address and telephone book without permission and writes down the name and address of Avery MacLean, the obstetrician who had cared for Liz and delivered both her children. Tommy trusts the doctor and believes he will help them.

To secure an appointment, Tommy phones while pretending to be Maribeth’s husband. He gives the name Mrs. Robertson and claims that he and his wife have recently moved to Grinnell after getting married. His trembling fingers betray how difficult the deception is for him, but the nurse appears to believe the story. When Tommy tells Maribeth about the appointment, she panics at the prospect of facing the doctor and asks what she should say. The deception is an act of youthful improvisation, but it also shows that Tommy is trying to connect her with adult medical support rather than leave her to manage the pregnancy alone.

The appointment makes the pregnancy more immediate. Afterwards, Tommy and Maribeth talk quietly over milkshakes about the book he has given her, her trimester, and what the doctor explained about labor and delivery. At sixteen, Maribeth finds the prospect frightening; she is preparing to give birth to a baby she does not intend to keep and expects never to see again. The doctor’s advice and the baby’s visible growth make a situation that had sometimes felt unbelievable increasingly real.

The School-Year Change

On September 1, Tommy returns to school, and their summer routine becomes harder to sustain. His classes continue until three in the afternoon, followed by sports and his paper route; by the time he sees Maribeth in the early evening, he is exhausted. The calendar changes the texture of their friendship: his concern remains constant, but the hours available to express it contract.

When they are alone, Tommy holds and kisses Maribeth. They talk about her job, his school, and their problems with the ease of people who share a daily life, and at times the intimacy feels almost like marriage. Yet they do not go beyond kissing, holding, and touching. Maribeth does not want to have sex while carrying Paul’s baby, and she wants any future intimacy with Tommy to happen later, after she has returned to school and college and chosen the right partner. Tommy desires her, but understands her boundary.

Their closeness also becomes intellectual and practical. Tommy does homework at her home or in a back corner of the restaurant while she brings him milkshakes and hamburgers; sometimes she helps him with his work. They are academic equals, and they begin to study together. Tommy plans to copy the school curriculum for her and lend her his books, so she can keep up with the work she is missing and continue her education. Summer’s companionship thus extends into a shared effort to preserve Maribeth’s future options.

The Summer’s Lasting Consequence

The season remains important after its easy routine ends. When Tommy finally tells his mother about Maribeth, he identifies her as someone he met that summer. By then she is six and a half months pregnant. His parents’ question about why he had not told them exposes how estranged the family has become since Annie died: Tommy has felt unable to speak to them, just as they have ceased speaking to one another. The summer connection that began between two young people therefore brings Maribeth’s circumstances into a household still shaped by bereavement.

Summer is both an opening and a limit. It is when Tommy and Maribeth meet, establish trust, and begin making concrete plans for care and education; it is also a temporary interval before school, work, and the pregnancy’s approaching consequences reshape their days. The season’s significance lies not in a carefree romance, but in the support that grows between them while Maribeth faces a future she did not choose and Tommy tries to help her meet it.