A cymbal clap of wind and waves outside sends the crumbling cliff to the front of my mind’s eye, making my nerves too brittle to meet up the buttons with their holes. It’s okay. I’ll be able to leave soon. They promised they wouldn’t leave me here for long. And anyway I’m going to move back to New York, just as soon as I save up enough for the deposit on an apartment. But with the mortgage here and the bills I never have much left over. Eventually, though. Soon. I won’t be able to afford a place by myself, but it could be cool to have roommates. Sometimes I rehearse what it would be like. I wouldn’t want to make things awkward by acting eager or too withdrawn. I would keep to myself just enough. Let them take the lead until I figure out how much space people my age want. Will we hang out and cook together, or go out to our local bar and sit in the same spot every time? Talk about bands and, I don’t know, something quirky like classic cars or paleo baking? Not that I know anything about anything, but I could catch up. They’d see me as the quiet one, a little weird but a good person really. Once you get to know her. I could fit in.

Down in the kitchen I pull a paper towel off the roll and cut a wedge of the apple pie I made yesterday. Congealed and tart and sweet, it makes the perfect breakfast eaten out of hand in the dash to Mrs. Tyburn’s house. I stuff a bite into my mouth and wrap the dish with the remaining pie, a generous half, in a kitchen towel, then hoist my bag onto my shoulder and pull the kitchen door shut behind me.

As usual, the waves are waiting.

I think most people have some part of their neighborhood where they never go—an uninspiring park, a corner where men sit and make noise when you walk by, the yard where a dog barks and lunges and flings ropes of froth from its gums, the street where the cars go slow and stop without really parking, and the transactions are quick and furtive. For me, that part of the neighborhood is the sea. I leave it alone and it leaves me alone. Except that, lately, it doesn’t.