برای:
این روزهای خودم
دربارهی الی
بعضی از دوست‌هام
و شیدا

In the evenings we drank and played all-terrain bocce on the rocky beach while the little kids collected their starfish and wishing stones. The older ones exchanged scuttlebutt under the dock behind the kayaks.

We broke up the game so scouts could go back to the cabins for more wine and ginger snaps.

Eddie and I waded out to waist deep and reunited. He was still wearing his son’s goggles. When I realized we were both peeing I laughed and told him to look the other way. I looked the other way too, but out of the corner of my eyes I saw him standing straight and still, keeping his mouth open as he went.

The kids were like Lord of the Flies when they got together. My daughter was screaming, saying Eddie’s son stole her magic.

Eddie waded that way.

He was like family except for the time the summer before college we got drunk on beer and fell asleep cuddled on his basement floor.

When I thought about the others—his wife, our other friends, the kids, and my husband—I thought these things will always happen and ducked under the water, dropping to the bottom to open my eyes.

by Jennifer Pieroni