“Where will you go?” asked Sara, her feet swishing back in forth in the water as she dangled them off the dock. Her pink shoes lay forgotten in the grass behind her. The muted orange sky turned all the shadows to dark green.
“I don’t know. Do you think I will be able to go places?” said Tim.
“I dunno. Maybe. I heard that you can.”
“Then I will come here!” said Tim.
“Come on! You have to pick someplace exotic! Remote! Like California…”
“Is that where you’d go?”
Sara paused. “I haven’t thought about it,” she said, thinking she probably wouldn’t have to for quite a while. “When did you find out you’re leaving?”
“A few months ago,” said Tim casually as he swam back and forth in the warm water to the beat of crickets singing.
“Does it hurt?” asked Sara, pulling her black hair back behind her ear.
“A little. Sometimes.” said Tim. “I will spy on you.”
“You better not!” said Sara.
“In the shower...,” said Tim slyly.
“Don’t!” said Sara, reaching down off the dock and splashing Tim in the face.
“You won’t even know! Sometimes I will be there, sometimes not. But for all you know I’ll live in your shower!”
“Oh no you won’t!” said Sara as she jumped off the dock and crashed into the lake next to Tim. She put her hand on his head and pushed him down. Tim grabbed her leg and pulled her under. They shoved and splashed for a few minutes before Tim’s mother called down to the dock.
“Tim! It’s time for your medicine!”
“Ugh! That’s one thing I won’t miss,” said Tim.
Sara skipped the funeral the next week and threw small sticks into the moving water and watched them glide away.
“Ok, that should be enough time,” she said as she stood up. It was nearly sunset again as she ran back to the house. She closed the bathroom door behind her, locked it, and smiled as she took off her clothes and started the shower.
