SISTER EATS BROTHER

9

By the time I stand up, I don't know how much time has passed since I ran away from Adam. It could've been thirty minutes...or an hour and thirty minutes. I trudge numbly, slowly...back the way I came, as the sky darkens above me. A steady sprinkle of rain has begun when I finally see her. She's in the same spot, still naked and still digging.

    How infuriating can one person be? Jesus...

When I reach her, I step forward, stumbling and almost falling on my face. Pain lances up my leg, and I wince. Then I look down, realizing that I'd tripped into a hole...and there are holes everywhere, dug deep enough that I can't see the bottom, just shadows and blackness.

    "What the hell are you doing?" I ask, trying to sound pissed off, but my voice just comes out weak and brittle.

    Adam's arm is shoulder-deep in the ground, working on her...thirteenth?...hole, a look of concentration on her face as her eyes flicker up to mine. "Come over here and help me," she urges. "Your arm is longer than mine."

    I stare at her for several seconds as she bites her lip and furrows her brow, pressing her cheek against the wet sand, shoulder flexing as she struggles. This is pointless. But still, my feet move on their own, and I drop to my knees next to her, pushing her out of the way to shove my arm into the millionth hole she's dug until my fingers touch the bottom, and I scoop sand out like a machine until I can't reach the bottom anymore.

    Adam laughs like a little kid as she watches me. Happy, excited, overjoyed.

It's really starting to piss me off.

The sand is cool to the touch, and once I'm done, I move to the next one, slowly digging until I can't dig anymore, adding clumpy sand to the piles that Adam has started. Why am I even doing this? We did this when we were kids, when our parents were still kicking.

We visited the beach a few times growing up, once a year, and I can almost remember it like it was yesterday.

I hated my dad. No, I was scared to death of him. He always ignored me unless I was doing something he didn't like. He would watch me while I was digging with Adam, but he didn't say anything. Mainly because there was usually a beer in his hand when we were all at the beach as a family. He didn't try to stop me, letting me live in the fantasy of being a carefree child for a little while. Only because he allowed it, and he knew I knew that. But I could tell he didn't approve. Adam was always so excited, dragging me around and showing me how it's done, and I just wanted to help her. But I could feel his eyes on the back of my head, watching me, boring into me.

    He's not here anymore. Only Adam watches me now. And...her eyes don't scare me like his always did. The thought makes me frown.

Then..it starts to pour.

    Adam whoops loudly, jumping up and running down to the shore to grab her bathing suit before it's whisked away by the crashing waves and incoming wind. She disappears into the fog for several seconds, and I squint, shielding my eyes, watching. Worried that she might somehow be swept away. The rain water begins to slowly pour into the holes, filling them inch by inch, and I scoot back further under the tree, the bark of the trunk scratching against my back.

The storm is so sudden and frantic and loud and intense, enough to get my heart racing, enough to make my body thrum with nervous energy, fingers tapping fast against my arms.

    I see her. Adam's body clears the mist as she runs back, stumbling over the wet sand, avoiding the holes she'd dug. She plops down next to me under the tree, sighing loudly, contentedly. Cupping her hands, she holds them out to catch the rain. Leans forward, drinks it.