Three in the morning, I was lying in bed wide-awake when the rumble of a truck traveled up the driveway. Relief and apprehension warred with each other, glad Pa finally showed up but weary as to which version of him was down there unloading something onto the front porch.

I climbed out of bed and peeped out the window. Below, Pa’s shadowy figure slid a cooler out the bed of the truck, the sound of it scraping making it through my closed window. He lugged it to the porch before going back for another. A total of five in all.

Steeling myself, I tiptoed downstairs and out the front door to see what on earth he was doing. A briny smell hit me as soon as I stepped onto the porch. “Pa?”

He reached inside the cab and gathered a brown paper bag. “Yeah?”

“What’s going on?” I crossed my arms to keep from shivering.

Pa closed the truck door and started my way. “They were saying at the hardware store that shrimp season was still open and so I thought I’d go grab us a mess from McClellanville.”

That coastal town was three hours away, and a mess of shrimp was more like five pounds, not five coolers. I lifted the lids, each one brimming with seafood.

I was madder than a wet hen about him just taking off like that without telling a soul but tried tamping it down by taking a few deep breaths. “What happened to you picking up Boss?”

His head snapped up from the bag he was rummaging in. “Ah, shoot. I knew I was forgetting something.” He wheeled around and started down the steps.

“Where are you going?”

“To get Boss,” Pa replied in a tone that should have been followed by a duh, and it made me want to scream at the top of my lungs.

“Wait! Vance Cumberland already brought him home.”

Another one-eighty sent Pa back toward the porch, moving too fast to keep up with. “Oh, good. I’m starving. How about getting that big wash pan so we can shell some shrimp. I got everything we need. Cornmeal and oil.” He opened the door and flipped the living room light on. “Where’s everybody at?”

“In bed. It’s three in the morning.” I reached past him and switched it off. There was plenty enough light from the one I left on in the kitchen.

Pa looked over his shoulder at me with a look of confusion on his face. “Really?” he asked and I confirmed with a head nod. “Humph. Time must have gotten away from me somehow.” He continued on to the kitchen with no consideration to those sleeping, tossing the grocery bag on the counter, slamming cabinet doors, sending pans clanging while pulling out the wash pan. The whole house would be awake if he kept that up, and no one else needed to be witness to his current state.