Summer by the Sea by Jenny Hale

she arrived. Faith was sure she was sore and tired just from the journey. But she’d wanted to come. She’d planned it. And now, she sat, drinking a margarita, on the same plot of land she’d run on as a kid. Originally, Faith didn’t understand why she’d put herself through it at ninety years old. But now she did. This might be the last time Nan got to visit this place. A sinking feeling hit Faith in the gut as she thought about life without Nan. She didn’t even want to contemplate that, but there was no escaping the fact that she wouldn’t be around forever. Suddenly, all the drama with Casey seemed a little silly when faced with that.
    “I’m glad you did this too,” she said as she put her hand on top of Nan’s.
    Her mom poked her head out the door. “Y’all seen Casey? Is she out here?”
    They both shook their heads.
    “Maybe she went out to the car or something. There’s no telling. Anyone want more drinks or are we finished for the night?”
    “I’m finished, thank you,” Faith said. “Nan?” She looked over at her grandmother, chewing on a smile. She had such a young spirit. It was easy to forget that she was ninety, but being with her now, Faith could see some differences in Nan. She was slower, more hesitant. At heart, though, she was the same fiery woman. It was so good to be with her again.
    “I’ve got enough right here,” she said.
    When her mom went back inside, Faith noticed Casey down on the beach. “Mind if I leave you now?” she asked, nodding toward her sister. Nan followed her gaze, thoughts clearly behind her eyes. She nodded with a pleasant smile.
    “But before you go,” Nan said as she stood up. Faith stopped and turned toward her. “I don’t know what’s bothering Casey—she hasn’t told me—but you two need to talk it out. Life’s too short to tuck important conversations in your pocket for later. You just never know. I had an argument with my sister, Clara. You never met her. We didn’t straighten things out, and now it’s too late.”
    Faith started to sit back down, ready to hear about this mystery sister of Nan’s, but Nan stopped her. “No, no,” she said, waving her hand. “Don’t bother with me and my old stories. Go check on Casey. It looks like she may need someone to talk to.”
    Perhaps it was a story for another time. Faith walked around the corner and headed down the steps. At the bottom, she kicked her flip-flops off and put her toes in the warm sand. It was soft—like powder—under her feet. She padded along the narrow path, through the sea grass, over the dune leading to the beach. It was late afternoon, and the sand, having absorbed the day’s heat, burned her feet a little as she made her way across the vast shoreline to reach Casey. Her sister was at the water’s edge, barefoot, standing in the waves as the foam crawled across the sand before sliding back out to sea. The wind blew Faith’s hair into her face, her T-shirt rippling under its force. She pushed her hair back and held it at the base of her neck as she stepped up next to her sister.
    “Whacha doin’?” she asked Casey the same way she had as a girl. Faith drew a line in the sand with her brightly painted toes and watched it disappear as the tide erased it.
    “Just thinking. Trying to clear my head.”
    The waves were rough, pushing gritty sand around Faith’s feet and she had to move them around to keep them from getting buried. As a child, the waves had scared Faith when they were this big. She’d worried they were giant, gray creatures rolling on their sides. Each one slammed the shore in an eruption of white, bubbly foam then fanned out along the ground like spilled milk. Faith took in a big gulp of the salty air. The smell of it took her right back to her childhood. So many memories were colliding in her mind that she had trouble sorting out which one to let float to her consciousness. Roasting marshmallows, her mom squirting chocolate sauce on them just to make