The four of us thanked them, told them good night, and crossed the dunes without talking, still under the spell of what we had just witnessed. The sound of our feet scrunching in the sand was loud in the quiet night. And then from the pine barrens beyond the road came the most ungodly scream I’ve ever heard in my life. Multiply Sophie’s Tarzan yell exponentially and you’re getting close.

And then came one of the shining moments of Fred’s life. We three women threw ourselves at him for protection. Threw ourselves so hard, we literally upended him in the sand, knocking him on his butt with the three of us on top of him.

The scream came again, with a protracted moan this time. Someone was being tortured in the pine barrens. Dismembered in the pine barrens by a sadistic monster.

“My God!” Frances moaned.

“Do something, Papa!” Haley said.

“Get off him!” I pushed my way under the other two. I could feel Fred shaking. “You’ve hurt him.” Fred shook harder. “Get up, sweetheart, if you can.”

“It’s a screech owl,” he said. “Just a plain old screech owl. Y’all let me up.” He started snickering.

“Are you sure?” Haley asked.

“I can’t believe you city women don’t know what a screech owl sounds like.” The snicker became a laugh.

The three of us got up and brushed the sand off. “Hush,” I told him.

But he laughed like hell all the way to the car. In fact, we were across the bridge and headed east down 98 before his fits of laughter stopped. The last one was accompanied by a pat on my leg and a request to clean off his glasses, which were fogging up.

“I can’t believe that turtle,” Haley finally said into the silence.

“And the number of eggs!” Frances was trying.

After five more miles of silence, Fred announced that the Berliners were very nice people. We all agreed that they were. But how, he asked, could they work in Atlanta and live in Destin and wasn’t Gulf Towers still a “no children under sixteen” facility?

I had forgotten about that. But the moment he said it, I realized that Millicent had bent the rules for the dark-eyed Sophie. It also meant that while there were plenty of children visiting during vacation seasons, much of the time Sophie would live in a world of adults.

We explained to Fred about the Berliners’ jobs, that they had wanted to get Sophie away from Atlanta.

“She’s very precocious,” Haley said. “And I think they thought the environment would be safer here.” She paused. “That’s ironic, isn’t it. Anyway, Sophie can’t spread her wings quite as widely here.”

“She still does a pretty good job, though. Wait until you see her black gauze outfit and her bikini,” Frances added.