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↳ 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 'on top of the world looking over the edge'
━━ 𓄼 𓄹 ━━
PENSACOLA BEACH, FLORIDA twelve years later
BASIL was impossible to tire.
Cam extended a sunburnt arm and threw the frisbee. The golden retriever barked as he ran and caught it again. It was a loop: throw, retrieve, throw. Turquoise waves flowed with a gentle thrum against the shore, and the sand was white as powdered sugar.
A young girl, barely five years old, chased after Basil. The dog was trying to keep out of her reach almost as much as he was trying to catch the toy. Amari only covered a third of the distance of his canine legs before he had pivoted in the white sand to run back. Still, she only shrieked and continued the game.
Cam laughed, throwing the frisbee even further this time.
Amari ran back over to Cam and flopped down on the sand in front of her, utterly exhausted. Her hazel eyes reflected like coins in the bright sun. "Tía, can I ride Basil?"
For the third time that day, Cam was forced to tell her, "No, you can't ride Basil. You're too big."
"I'm actually very small," Amari argued. She grabbed a fistfull of sand and let it flow between her fingers.
Cam had to laugh. "Not small enough. You'd have to be the size of that sand crab you found earlier."
It had popped right up out of the ground while Amari was filling a bucket for her sand castle. Immediately, Amari had screamed and almost started crying, but then Max had held her hand and let her look at it up close. It had scurried away with Basil in hot pursuit.
"Do crabs have families?" Amari asked, squinting against the sunlight.
"Hm," Cam considered the statement. "I think they do."
"Joanna is just like a big crab," Amari said sourly, focus already drifting from her original question. "Crabby. All the time."
Basil barked, as if he too were laughing.
"Can we get ice cream?"
Cam glanced over her shoulder to where her older brother was still laying on sand, face towards the sky. He wasn't listening, and even if he was, Cam had the reputation of fun aunt to maintain. "I don't see why not. Let's ask your sister if she wants to come."
