“Get off the deck. You’re scaring my guests!” Megan screamed, hurling my old garden lantern into the flowerbed.
Its glass shattered beside the hydrangeas, and my son Robert turned the music higher instead of defending me.
A man in a linen shirt approached with a wristband that read HARBOR HOUSE MEMBERSHIP PREVIEW.
“Whose membership?” I asked.
Megan blocked the patio door.
“People who understand what this property could become.”
The beach house was where my late husband Henry and I had raised our children during long summer breaks.
We fixed the roof ourselves, restored the porch, and planted the white daisies now flattened by tires.
I still came every weekend to read near the ocean.
Robert had asked to use it for a small birthday gathering.
I agreed on the condition that there would be no overnight guests and that my bedroom remain closed.
Now thirty people were wandering through the rooms, and someone had moved my family photographs to a laundry basket.
Megan called it a networking event.
She said Robert needed to meet people who could invest in his new business.
I had heard that explanation before, usually when they wanted me to pay for an expense they considered temporary.
I walked inside and found three couples inspecting the closets.
One asked which room was available for December reservations.
I told them this was a private family home and no rooms were for rent.
The couple looked embarrassed.
They had paid for a preview weekend that included first priority to book a future series of coastal gatherings.
Megan had been collecting membership deposits in exchange for access to my home.
“It’s only a trial,” Robert insisted when I confronted him.
“A trial of what?” I asked.
He looked toward his wife, and that was answer enough.
Megan said the business would fail if I made a scene.
She reminded me how much Robert had helped after Henry’s funeral.
I reminded her that helping someone grieve didn’t give you the right to sell admission to their property.
One guest quietly showed me the brochure.
It promised members use of the private dock, which had been closed for repairs since winter.
It also mentioned guided boating excursions.
