A car horn sounded and my neck jerked forward onto my chest as I came back with a thud, heart pounding and eyes wide-open to the ocean.

“Sadie, my dear, are you all right?”

Leonard was leaning forward from the other chair on the balcony, his hand on my arm, and looking anxiously into my face. So much for my alone time.

“I must say you’re very pale. You look like you’ve...” I willed him not to say it. Hoped against hope. Just leave it. “Seen a ghost.” Ahh. Good shot, old soldier.

I drew my body up straight and looked hard into the sun for as long as I could stand it and remembered how it felt to fly up, up into the sky, knowing he was always going to be there to catch me. Higher, Dad, higher! When I finally changed the direction of my gaze, through the black spots shooting around my eyeballs, I could just make out Norman walking slowly along the beach. Head down, hands in pockets. Looking for shells or the perfect rock, or perhaps the meaning of life.

“Hey, Leonard?” Even inside my own head my voice sounded far, far away, and I wondered if he could hear me.

“Do you think I’m doing the right thing? Looking for Norman’s father and taking him to the Fringe and, I mean...this trip. You know...everything.” I swallowed hard, sending a mouthful of words back down unused.

Leonard rearranged his bones on the chair, smoothing his trousers and straightening each shirtsleeve deliberately. He had the air of someone who hadn’t been asked their opinion for a very long time and wasn’t about to blow it by rushing in.

“You know, I never got to see my Iris as a mother,” he said finally. “We tried for such a long time, but in the end we just...well, we had to let it go. The idea. She was just too sad after four dear little ones who...didn’t quite make it. So she never had the chance to know what kind of a mother she might have been. What sort of child ours would have been.” He turned his old gray head to the sea and the breeze gently lifted a wisp of his hair.

“But you do, Sadie. You know what kind of child you have. Norman is an extraordinary boy. Quite extraordinary. But, my dear, even an old codger like me can see how much he’s suffering from the loss of young Jax. As are you.”

The unexpected mention of Jax’s name landed a punch right in the tender part of my stomach and I sucked in my breath while the pain passed. Leonard leaned back in his chair and patted his windblown hair back into place.

“I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do any more than you, Sadie, and it’s really not for me to say. But I do believe it’s worth a try. And maybe there’s a young man who would benefit from being a father to a boy like your Norman. Perhaps he’s out there just waiting to be found. Maybe he needs Norman as much as Norman needs him. One just never knows, my dear.”