As soon as the playground was in sight, the boys took off running, hell bent for leather, as Momma said from time to time. I didn’t stop them. I intended to let them run and jump and play and get any and all of their anxiety completely out of their system. The great feature that set the Sullivan’s Island playground apart from most of the others across the country was the mound that sat smack in the middle of it. It was actually Fort Capron at one time, a fallout shelter at another, and now kids loved to slide down it on sheets of cardboard. It was the closest thing Sullivan’s Island had to sledding. The playground had been built over time. First there were tennis courts and basketball courts. Later on a gazebo was built, swings and sliding boards were added, and a playhouse, and all sorts of other opportunities for climbing or digging in the sand. There was something there for children of all ages.

Tyler and Hunter were taking advantage of all of it. I had decided it was best not to bring Sharon up in conversation with them unless they were the ones to do so. In fact, I decided to restrict my thoughts about Sharon to conversations with my bees. I sure didn’t want my disappointment in Archie’s marriage to be the talk of the town. Not for one second.

The boys seemed to know quite a few of the kids on the playground, probably from school. It reminded me that no parent knows every single thing about their child’s life and that eventually, they really will have a whole life for themselves, independent of your orbit. I shouldn’t worry about them so much. And then I wondered for a moment if Carin was watching us from somewhere, heaven maybe. How would she feel about Archie and Sharon? For some inexplicable reason I could almost hear her laughing and laughing. And when I had the thought of how she would like me taking care of her kids, I could almost feel her hand on my shoulder in gratitude. It was funny, how connected you felt to the unseen world on this island. But that was the Lowcountry and what it seemed to do to most anyone who would take the time to listen to the muses hidden in the salt air. It occurred to me then that this was another advantage of living here, that edge it gave you, that it made you a deeper thinker. If you wanted to be one, that is.