The Way Home

We sit watching the water as it rises and falls on the shoreline. The two of us huddled together on the darkening beach for warmth. You must be wondering what we are doing at night at the beach. We have nowhere to be. Noone to answer to except each other. Our home is anywhere we want it to be. The only exception is if they want money for the home, then we cannot reside there. I sit hugging my sister. The dampness is starting to come in through our clothes.
I look up at her. There are tears streaming down her face.
"Sandra why are you crying?"
"I guess I can tell you." she says as she wipes her eyes with her hands.
"you can tell me anything." I stair at her with a confused look. In the past two weeks that we've been traveling from town to town making our way to anywhere we want, she's never hesitated to tell me anything.
"I think we are going to have to seperate. At least until I can find a job and take care of us. We can't keep running from place to place. You need to go to school. I can try to get ahold of moms sister. Maybe you can stay with her for a while." She doesn't look at me while she talks, she just watches the waves come and go.
"I can't go there she hates kids. you know that. I remember the last things mom said to us before she went to the hospital. she told us to take care of one another. she told us to never loose sight of each other."
"Hunter, I know what she said but do you think she wanted this kind of life for us? We're sitting on a beach at about ten at night freezing. She would have scolded us something awful. I think she wanted us to be safe and together not living on the street. We could try to find dad or grandma."
I looked at her in utter amazement. "The reason we left the house so quickly was because dad was coming to take us to grandma's. You said that dad beat mom and that's why she left with us. You told me grandma was the worst woman on the face of the earth and we would be better off freezing or dying of starvation."
"I know what I said. But we only have fifty cents out of the money we brought from home and we need food and shelter. If we try to go to the public shelter they'll put us in foster homes. I know what can happen in foster homes. At least we wouldn't have to starve if we turned ourselves in to dad and grandma."
"I will not be beat. I want to do what we always do. Why can't we make another grand adventure? like the ones we did on the first few days after we started on this trip?"
"I guess the summer has been sorta fun. I also know that I'm only fifteen years old and I know I can't take care of someone who is eleven. I can't get a job right now because we don't have an address. We need one for me to apply. I know how you feel but, I also will not have you die because I was to stupid to see that we need to find a better way of life. It's only August imagine the cold when November or January get here. We don't have what we need to survive. I am going to find a phone and use the fifty cents left and call grandma's. We have to call her, she may be the only one who can help us. Mom's sister does hate kids and grandma's more strict than mean."
"No, if you do that then I'll never forgive you."
"That is a chance I have to take. I have to think of your safety and mine. Now lets get up and go to the phone."
She stood up and dusted the sand off her jeans as best she could then she leaned down to pick up her backpack with the few items we had gathered before we left our home. Then she turned away from me and walked towards the street.
I watched her walk. She had a defeted look from the back of her. I knew she would not change her mind. I got up quickly and picked up my backpack, not bothering to brush off the sand. I ran after her.
"I don't see why we have to go to grandma's. Isn't there anywhere else we can go?"
"Well grandma has lots of money and she may just send us off to bording school or something.I guess we'll find out soon enough."
She stopped walking for a moment and turned toward me. She hugged me the tightest and longest she had ever hugged me then turned and walked up to the payphone. She picked up the phone and pressed the 0 then quickly hung up the phone again.
"I don't know if I can do this. I haven't spoken to her since mom was well."
"I can't believe this. You're really going to do this. You're really gonna call grandma and have her come get us?"
"You know if there was any other way I would do it. I promised mom on her death bed I would keep you safe and I will do whatever it takes to make sure you're taken care of."
I sat down on the ground and stared at her. I started to cry too. I watched her through tear filled eyes. She picked up the phone and put in the change. Before she could dial anything she hung it up again. The coins jingled as they fell back down.
"I thought you were gonna call dad."
"I am but I need to talk to you first. There are so many things that you don't know. You're smarter than mom realized. She didn't want you to know that she was sick. I remember the day she came home and told me that she had cancer and the doctor told her there was nothing they could do." She stopped for a minute and wiped at the tears that were flowing. Then she pulled her pack around so she could get to it and shuffled around until she found a napkin to wipe her nose. She offered one to me I took it and wiped my nose too. I was afraid to talk. I didnt want to say anything that would change her mind. I knew something was wrong I had heard the whispers between mom and Sandra but the minute they realized I was in the room they would stop talking. I sat there quietly until she was ready to talk again.