payment page
“It occurred to me that I was going to have to make the most of this summer, really make it count, in case there wasn't another one quite like it. I was getting older too. Things couldn't stay the same forever.”
At the end of Chapter Nineteen, Belly’s brother Steven leaves Cousins Beach to tour colleges, and his departure reminds Belly that all of their lives are changing in so many ways. The teenagers are growing older, the parents are getting divorces, and Susannah has been facing a health crisis. Conrad will be the first of the group to go to college, and the others will follow. They may stop spending their summers together at the house in Cousins Beach. As a result of her realization about how quickly time passes, Belly wants to make the most of this year because it could be the last time that the Conklin and Fisher families are all together.
“Maybe she really did miss me. It was just, she couldn’t take for granted that I was going to spend every night at home like I had every other summer. I was almost sixteen, practically an adult. My mother had to accept that I couldn’t be her bean forever.”
Belly’s observation about Laurel in Chapter Thirty-Four shows that all of the characters wish time would slow down in their own way. Laurel sometimes calls her daughter “bean,” a pet name from Belly’s childhood. Belly loves the nickname because it makes her feel like a kid again, but also resents it for sounding childish when she is trying to appear more mature.
