When You Were Young

"Then why can they go? They're littler than me."

"They're used to it," she says. She sits down next to him and puts an arm around his shoulder. "If anything happened to you, I couldn't live with myself. Don't you see I only want to protect you?"

"I don't need protecting. I can take care of myself," he says, wiping his nose with his sleeve.

"I know you think so, but there are dangers there you can't understand. If you saw-" she breaks off with a shudder.

"I'm not scared," he says. "Stop treating me like a baby."

She smiles and kisses him on the forehead, dark brown hair caressing his face. He brushes it away to kiss her on the cheek. "I don't want you to leave me," he says.

"Don't worry, I'll be back soon."

"Not until spring. That's what you told them."

"It's not so long. Three months. Maybe sooner."

"I don't want to wait three months."

"Please, Joe, I need you to stay here and look after your father. He needs you."

"I don't care about him. I only care about you."

"I know you don't mean that," she says. She stands up and for a moment bites down on her lip. "Your father is a good man. He loves you very much, even if he doesn't always show it."

"I know," Joey says. "But I don't want to lose you."

"You aren't going to lose me," Mommy says. "I'll be back before you know it." Tears come to her midnight blue eyes at last, but she smiles through them. She offers her hand to Joey. "Come and say goodbye to the girls."

He follows her back along the dock to the boat, where the girls are running from one end to the other. Aunt Veronica chases after Molly with something in her hand. "Girls, what are you doing?" Mommy shouts.

"She started it," Molly says. "She tried to put a fish down my dress."

"Can't you two behave for even a few minutes?" Mommy says. The girls look down at the deck and then Aunt Veronica tosses a fish over the side of the boat. "Now say goodbye to Joseph."

"Goodbye," the girls say together.

"Goodbye," he says.

"You two go sit down now and no more mischief." Before going to her seat, Veronica grins at Joey and winks. Something in her eyes gives him a chill. He wants to warn Mommy, but she's already hugging him and saying, "I'll be back real soon."

"Don't go, please," he says. His entire body shakes with sobs. She isn't coming back, he thinks. Aunt Veronica is going to hurt her. He tries to say something, but she doesn't hear. She pushes the boat away from the dock. He can only stand there and watch her grow smaller as she gets farther away. Aunt Veronica turns to him and waves. The sound of her laughter brings him to his knees.