by Clare Hutton
Grandma gave her a long look, her blue eyes sharp, and then patted Emma’s hand. “Not all changes are for the worse, you know,” she said.
“I know,” Emma agreed, and said the next bit in a singsong reciting voice: “The important thing is that we’re all together now.”
“Well, it’s true,” Grandma said. “Just look at us all.”
Emma looked around. Her dad and the uncles had all congregated by the grill and were talking as smoke rose in lazy spirals toward the blue sky. Mateo and Tomás ran across the lawn, screaming with excitement, as Riley determinedly followed along behind, panting. Abuelita and Aunt Bonnie were sharing a plate of cookies at the picnic table, their heads bent together in conversation. Natalia came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of ribs—“Watch it!” Zoe said behind her, her hands full of plates—piled so high they wobbled and almost fell. From the kitchen, Aunt Alison said something Emma couldn’t hear and laughed.
“We’re all still here, whatever house we’re in,” Grandma said firmly. “I’ll always love Seaview House, but family is what matters.”
“I guess so,” Emma said, looking down at her hands as she fiddled with her food. She couldn’t help feeling as if she was losing something important. Seaview House was almost like family—it had held her mother’s family, the Stephensons, for generations. It was their past—and her past, too. She couldn’t imagine it not being part of her future.
While Emma ate, Natalia had been bouncing back and forth between Emma and Zoe, eager to drag Emma down to the beach to show off the new game she’d invented. Finally, once everyone was stuffed full of brownies and watermelon, the three cousins crossed the road and climbed down the grassy bank to the edge of the beach. Natalia and Zoe’s little brothers tagged along after them. Riley came, too, lagging behind as he creakily hauled himself down the slope, his bushy tail waving. Emma waited for him, burying her hand in the thick ruff of hair at the nape of his neck as they walked down toward the shore together.
This stretch of the beach, north of where the tourists stayed and only accessible from the backyards of family houses, was almost deserted, with only an older couple in the distance collecting shells down by the water.
“Ta-da!” Natalia said.
On a tarp lay what looked like hundreds of brightly colored …
“Water balloons?” Emma asked.
“Not just any water balloons,” Natalia corrected. “The Most Amazing Water Balloon Game Ever.”
“We were filling balloons all yesterday and this morning,” Zoe added, sighing. “Sometimes I think Natalia’s actually five.” Natalia stuck out her tongue at Zoe.
“We helped,” six-year-old Tomás added, and their four-year-old brother, Mateo, nodded enthusiastically. “We get to play, too.”
“See the Hula-Hoops?” Natalia asked, pointing at three red hoops placed to make the points of a large triangle on the beach, weighed down here and there by piles of sand to keep them from blowing away. “If you throw a balloon from the starting line here and get it in one of the side hoops, that’s five points. The middle one, farther away, is ten. If you get your first balloon in, you can throw again for twice as many points, but you have to throw it backward over your shoulder without peeking, and other people can try to catch the balloon in midair. If they catch it without it breaking or hitting the ground, they get all the points you have so far.”
“Sounds fun,” Emma said, flexing her fingers. She was good at throwing and catching; she’d played softball for a couple of summers.
“Sounds like we’re all going to get soaked,” Zoe said. “And like we’ll spend all evening picking up bits of water balloon off the beach.” Natalia made another face at her, and she added, “But fun, too, yeah.”
“I’ve been practicing catching balloons,” Natalia said with a smirk. “Fear me, because I am going to be the champion.”
“You can go first, Emma,” Tomás offered generously. “Since you just got here.”
Emma picked up a pale blue balloon and hoisted it in her hand, getting used to the weight. It was cold and squishy. She swung her arm experimentally, squinting at the hoops. She could probably win the game, she thought, no matter whether Natalia had been practicing or not.
Emma threw the balloon and it flew in a perfect arc, landing with a splash right in the middle of the center hoop. Her cousins cheered, and Riley barked with excitement, his shaggy tail whipping the air.
“Ten points!” Tomás shouted.
“Wow,” Mateo said, hopping up and down. “That was really, really good.”
“The challenge is the next part,” Natalia said, handing her another balloon. “Turn around, and no peeking. If you get it in, you get another twenty points.”
Her back to the hoops, Emma was sure that her muscles remembered the exact force she had used to throw the balloon. She could get it in again. She focused and threw the balloon back over her shoulder.
Swinging around to look, she was just in time to see Natalia leap for the balloon and almost catch it, knocking the balloon from its course just enough to send it shooting right into Zoe’s face. It burst, soaking her head with water.
“Oh!” Zoe said, gasping. Her eyes narrowed and she grabbed for a balloon, starting toward her sister. “It is on.”
Emma watched, knotting her fingers together nervously as Zoe ran after Natalia, pelting her with balloons. Are they playing? Or is she really mad? Zoe’s mouth was in a tight line beneath the streams of water running down her face from her hair.
“Oh no you don’t!” Natalia yelled, catching one of the balloons that Zoe had thrown at her and tossing it back. She was laughing, though.
Zoe tossed the balloon at Natalia, but lightly, so it landed on the beach and splattered Natalia’s legs, not her face. “Come on,” she said, pushing her wet bangs out of her face. “It’s your turn.”
Gradually, most of the adults came down to the beach and started tossing water balloons as well.
But Emma’s mom and Aunt Alison had wandered farther down the beach and were talking intently, leaning in toward each other as if they had a secret. Emma wondered what it was.
But as her mother followed Aunt Alison to the throwing line, Emma decided it was all in her mind. The sun was shining and everyone was laughing. Everything was just as a summer afternoon in Waverly should be.
As the sun got lower behind the houses, they finally declared a winner. Uncle Luis held his arms high in triumph: “The champion! Fifty points!”
Then, as Zoe had predicted, they all had to clean up the beach.
“Blargh,” said Emma, carefully picking a scrap of red rubber from a mass of seaweed at the edge of the water. “How did a balloon even get all the way over here?”
“There was a lot of out-of-bounds chasing,” Zoe said seriously.
“I think we’ve pretty much got it all now, though,” Natalia said. Satisfied with the cleanliness of the beach, the rest of the family was starting to head back toward the house, Aunt Alison carrying Mateo. Riley followed them, his bushy tail waving. Shadows were spreading, and Emma shivered as a brisk breeze sprang up from the water.
It was almost the end of the first day at Waverly, Emma realized. Only six more to go before they’d have to leave again. I wish we could stay longer, she thought again.
Emma’s mom turned and called back, “Are you girls coming up?”
“We’ll be up soon!” Natalia shouted back.
They watched as the others crossed the beach and climbed the grassy hill toward the house. Emma sat down and dug her feet into the still-warm sand.
“What should we do?” she asked carefully. She knew what she wanted to do, but it had been six months since she’d seen her cousins. What if they’d outgrown the pact?
“Cousin pact, duh,” said Natalia cheerfully, and Zoe nodded.
They’d started the pact the summer when they were seven, just old enough to have private games. Already at that point they’d been inseparable when the family was all together.
The pact had been changed and refined as they got older, but the most important parts had stayed the same.
They stood and walked together to the edge of the water, gentle cool waves lapping at their toes. Each of them bent down and took a handful of sand.
“Our days together slide like sand through our fingers,” Natalia said solemnly. They opened their fists and the damp sand oozed through their fingers, leaving their hands gritty.
“The tides go in and the tides go out,” Zoe said, looking out at the horizon, “but we stay the same.”
“Not just cousins and sisters, but best friends,” Emma said, and her cousins chimed in on the last word as they reached out to join hands. “Forever.”
Back at the house, it was almost fully dark. The family gathered in the backyard, where Grandma Stephenson, seated in a sturdy lawn chair, was handing out sparklers.
“Be careful, children. Don’t rush Grandma,” Abuelita scolded lovingly.
“I’m scared to hold it when it’s lit. You hold mine,” Mateo said, pushing his sparkler at Tomás.
Lightning bugs were rising from the grass, flashing secret codes at each other. Emma took the sparkler her grandmother handed her and sat cross-legged on the lawn, waiting for Uncle Luis to get out a lighter and light them all.
“Look,” Zoe said, sitting down on one side of Emma. “You can see Orion’s Belt.” She pointed, her finger tracing a line of stars. The stars were bright against the deep darkness of the sky. As Emma tipped her head back, she felt almost as if she was looking down into the night, as if she could fall and fall into the depths of the nighttime sky.
“The stars are way brighter here than in Seattle,” she told Zoe. “Because there aren’t so many lights and buildings.”
“I’d like to come to Seattle again,” Zoe said. “Remember when we stayed with you guys two years ago? You’re so lucky. I’d love to live in a city.”
“It’s better here,” Emma told her. Seattle was cool, but Emma couldn’t imagine not wanting to live in Waverly, right by the bay and surrounded by everyone who loved you. Zoe shrugged, looking unconvinced.
“Hey!” Natalia plopped down on Emma’s other side. Her sparkler was fizzing and shining and she touched it to first Zoe’s, then Emma’s. Emma jerked back reflexively as hers burst into sparks, and both her cousins giggled.
The sparklers smelled like smoke and, beyond that, Emma could smell the salt and sand of the bay. Crickets chirped somewhere out in the darkness, and grass tickled the back of Emma’s legs. Natalia leaned against her, her side warm against Emma’s. An almost-full moon was shining in the sky above them. “I see the moon, and the moon sees me,” Zoe sang softly beside her, leaning back on her elbows.
A whole week of Waverly stretched out in front of her, feeling like both a long time and not long enough. Emma wasn’t going to think about having to leave, not yet.
A cool breeze gently lifted Emma’s hair. Right now, everything was perfect. Emma wished the moment could last forever.
I don’t want to leave, Emma thought. She was floating on her back in the bay, gentle waves lifting her in a steady rhythm. Gulls screeched overhead in the blue afternoon sky. She could hear Mateo squealing as Zoe tossed him in the waves and the more distant voice of Natalia helping Tomás to build a sand castle on the beach.
It had been a really good week, but it had flown by. The three girls had swum almost every day, and Uncle Dean had taken them out on his boat a couple of times. They’d had a bonfire on the beach and eaten s’mores until their hands and faces were sticky. Emma’s dad had driven her and the twins up to spend a day at an amusement park, where Natalia had dared the others to ride all the scariest rides and Zoe had treated them all to ice cream and Emma had won a stuffed dog by throwing darts at balloons. All the time, Emma had felt the minutes ticking by, counting down to when their vacation would be over and she’d have to say good-bye.
They’d had so much fun, but they hadn’t gotten to do everything on Emma’s list. They hadn’t had time to knit, for instance. There was never enough time in Waverly for Emma to do everything she wanted.
Almost over kept going through her head. Early tomorrow morning, she would be on a plane back home.
Squeezing her eyes closed, she tried to think of what they should do this last night:
That might be fun—if everyone wanted to play, and no one fought, and they didn’t get stuck playing the baby games Mateo and Tomás would want.
Natalia had suggested giving each other makeovers and painting each other’s nails one night—she had a collection of nail polishes in shades ranging from bright white to forest green to pastel blue to black, but they hadn’t gotten around to it.
They’d talked about making a whole dinner for the family. Zoe claimed she knew how to make lasagna, but they’d never gotten around to that, either.
With a sigh, Emma brought her legs down and stood upright, water streaming down her back from her hair. It’s over, she thought. There just wasn’t time for everything, and I’ve got to accept that. Zoe splashed over to her, holding Mateo’s hand. “Want to head in?” she asked. “I think Mateo’s lips are turning blue.”
Natalia looked up as they waded into shore. She and Tomás had abandoned their sand castle, and she was patting warm sand over and around her brother’s feet. “Okay, pull your foot out carefully,” she instructed. “Look! A turtle house. Tonight a little turtle will come and live in it and maybe we’ll see him come out in the morning.” Tomás giggled.
Emma’s chest ached with sadness. “I won’t have time to come down to the beach in the morning,” she said, her voice wobbling.
Zoe wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry,” she said, her brown eyes warm with sympathy. “There won’t really be a turtle. It’s just a game.”
Natalia rolled her eyes. “You’re such a pill,” she said. “Tomás and I believe the turtle is real.” She smiled at Emma as Tomás nodded fiercely. “Anyway, Emma’s not sad about that. She’s just going to miss us.”
“Well, duh,” Zoe said. She bumped her hip into Emma’s. “We’ll miss you, too, Em. But it won’t be long till Christmas.”
Emma didn’t say anything. It felt really real now, that everything was ending. If she tried to talk, she thought she might cry.
Up at Zoe and Natalia’s house, all the adults had already gathered for another big family dinner, this one a good-bye. Two long picnic tables set end to end in the backyard were spread with newspapers. By the time the kids had changed out of their swimsuits, plates of steamed crabs sat on each table, flanked by baskets of rolls and bowls of coleslaw and potato salad.
“Oh, yum,” Emma said, sitting down next to Natalia and reaching for the nearest crab plate. You couldn’t get sweet blue crabs like these in Seattle, they were a Maryland thing, so Aunt Alison and Uncle Luis made sure to schedule a crab feast every year when Emma and her parents were visiting. The little aching part inside her reminded her: The last night, the last night. But she pushed it away. She would enjoy now. Zoe sat down on her other side and grabbed a roll.
After everyone had enjoyed their fill of delicious crab, Aunt Alison, Abuelita, and Emma’s mom brought out a tray of cookies and fruit. Aunt Alison and Emma’s mom stayed standing at the end of the table, looking around at the assembled family.
“Before you start dessert,” her mother said, “I—Alison and I—have something important to tell you.” The sisters took each other’s hands and smiled, eyes shining.
Zoe nudged Emma and raised an eyebrow questioningly, but Emma shrugged.
“Brian and I miss all of you so much when we’re home in Seattle,” Emma’s mom went on, and her dad nodded. “And our jobs are so high-stress, we don’t see Emma enough. We feel like we’re missing out on what’s really important in life.”
“Amy and I have had a dream for a long time,” Aunt Alison chimed in. “Since we were girls, really. And now we can realize this dream in a place that was so important to us growing up, and which is so
important now to the whole family.”
Natalia’s hand gripped Emma’s knee hard suddenly, as if she’d realized, or suspected, something, but Emma frowned. She still didn’t have a clue what their mothers were talking about.
“Anyway,” her mom went on, “Alison and I have always planned that we would someday open a bed-and-breakfast together. And when we married Brian and Luis, they became part of that dream. We wanted to use our skills to make people happy, to make a place that was beautiful and welcoming. And I wanted to be able to spend more time with Emma and with all of you.”
Emma’s heart was pounding. Did her mom mean …
Emma’s mom looked at Grandma Stephenson. “Mom has agreed to sell us half of Seaview House,” Emma’s mother announced. “Brian and Emma and I are going to leave Seattle and come to live in Waverly, and open a bed-and-breakfast in the old family house with Alison and Luis. And Brian and Emma and I will live there, and Grandma will come and live with us. While Emma’s at camp this summer, Brian and I will get us ready to move. We’ll all come back out here before school starts.”
Grandma Stephenson smiled around at the assembled family. “It’s taken me a while to make this decision. I wasn’t sure I wanted to let anyone take over my house, or if I could cope with the change of letting strangers come and stay in it. I wanted everything to stay the way it was.” She leaned forward, and now she was looking directly at Emma, her blue eyes bright. “Emma helped me realize that sometimes change is necessary. It’s important that Seaview House stay in the family.” She smiled. “I want my grandchildren to be able to have their weddings in the garden someday.”
The world swung dizzyingly around Emma. She couldn’t breathe. Everything was going to change, and it had happened so fast. Zoe had tight hold of her arm, and Natalia was gripping her knee still, but both seemed temporarily stunned into silence.