Page 54 of Places I've Never Been

She let the thought roll around in her head.

There’s more to know.

Something about it felt good. It was a start, anyway. Her fingers itched for her notebook.

“Darn it.”

“What?” Adam asked.

“I just thought of a line I’d like to write down. But I can’t, because I didn’t bring my notebooks. I never should have left them behind.”

“What’s the line? I’ll help you remember it.”

“There’s more to know.”

He raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?”

“Yes. Why?”

He nodded. “Okay. There’s more to know. Got it.”

“I know, it doesn’t seem like anything. Yet.” She returned her gaze to the turtles. “It’s sad, don’t you think? The babies will never know their mother. They’ll pop out of those holes and have to make their way in the world alone.”

“Except for hundreds of brothers and sisters.” Adam scuffed the sand with his foot. “Your sisters make a huge difference, don’t they? You aren’t alone.”

“It’s not that simple. But I guess nothing ever is.”

“Family,” Adam said, as if that explained everything. “They can punch your buttons and trip your triggers. That’s for sure.”

She eyed him. “It’s just you and Brandon, right?”

“Yeah. Mom and Dad wanted a big family, but it didn’t work out.”

“I’m sorry.” She could feel the pain in that statement, even though it wasn’t his own.

He shrugged. “It is what it is. I try to compensate for the lack of siblings by making things a little easier for them. Not that Dad is all that willing to let me. I’ve been trying to buy them a new house, one that doesn’t need so much work. But every time Mom and I pick one out Dad finds something wrong with it.”

She thought about that. “Maybe your dad doesn’t want to move. Maybe he likes the house he has.”

Adam snorted. “The damn thing’s falling down around their ears. Mom’s anxious to move on to something new, but he’s a stubborn old fool.”

She suppressed a chuckle. Adam’s father wasn’t the only stubborn one in the family. “Maybe you should ask himabout it. What if you just helped him fix up the house he has?”

Adam smiled. “Brandon said the same thing. He thinks we should renovate the house, then send them on yearly vacations. But Dad won’t go. He hasn’t retired yet. Not sure he ever will.”

“Why not? What does he do?”

“He works in the pressroom of theLos Angeles Daily Post. He’s been there almost thirty years, and I think he’s afraid of what comes next. You work your whole life, you know? You are what you do. Then suddenly you don’t do anything. Then what are you? You’re somebody who used to be someone who did something.”

His words sparked a torrent of ideas rushing through her thoughts. “Oh…oh dammitwhydidn’t I bring a notebook?”

The only thing she could use to write down any of it was the sand and her finger. She wrote keywords in the sand in sloppy scrawl.

What am I?

Afraid

Work

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