Kenney: Still Waters Part 2

Chapter 3

I opened my eyes slowly.

Sammy was standing over my bed.

"Kenney wake up. I have to show you something."

"What?" I was still groggy, but sat straight up in bed and gave Sammy the tightest hug. I was having the worst dream and was so happy to see her standing there. Then I rolled over and threw the covers back over my head. It felt like we had just gone to sleep.

"It's outside," she pulled the covers back off of me and helped me sit up again. "Come on."

Then she peeked out of the door to make sure everyone was still asleep and tiptoed out into the hallway. She looked back to make sure that I was following before she headed down the old wooden stairs, careful to step over the one squeaky steps, and I did the same. As soon as we got outside, I stopped in my tracks. The moon was blood-orange and seemed to take up half the sky.

"Sammy what is that!" I was standing there staring, with my mouth and eyes wide open.

She watched me, smiling. "It's a harvest moon." I turned to stare at her, and then turned back to the moon, mouth still wide open. "I knew you would like it, Kenney." I turned to stare at her again, and then back at the moon again. "I thought you needed to see that." I nodded, huge eyes still glued to the moon. "Daddy didn't come home again."

I closed my mouth and turned to her, putting my hand in hers. "He's ok, Sammy."

She nodded. "I keep having that dream," she whispered, and then held onto my hand a little tighter.

"It's ok," I repeated.

"Kenney," she hesitated like she wasn't going to tell me what was on her mind. Her eyes dove into mine, like my eyes were water. She wiped a tear from my face. I didn't even know that I was crying. But I already knew what she was going to say. "I was with him...in my dream this time. I died, too."

I nodded and whispered, "I know." I had been having the exact same dream when she woke me up. I was dreaming that I couldn't find her or daddy this time. They were both lost.

"If anything happens to me..." I shook my head no. She shook her head yes. "I want you to keep your eyes open. Watch for these kinds of moons and know that I'm talkin' to you when you see them. I want you to know that everything's gonna be ok. Every time you look at one, know everything's gonna be alright, ok Kenney?" She looked at me like she felt sorry for me. Like she already knew that my life was about to get real bad real quick. "That's what grandma used to always tell us to do, and she was right. It's always true." I nodded and she wiped more tears from my face. "Wanna go look at it from the tracks?" I nodded again. "Ok, let's go."

She took my seven year old hand in her twelve year old hand and we walked down to the tracks together. When we got there, she let me climb up first. I held on tight to what looked like handle bars leading all the way up to the top of the bridge that the railroad tracks where on. It was a long way down. I always took my time getting up there and held on extra tight. Sometimes I would lose my nerve and change my mind about going all the way to the top, but I would push myself anyway because I knew Sammy was always right behind me. When we got to the top I reached back and helped Sammy up. She never needed my help, but she always let me feel useful anyway.

We were sitting there in silence for a while until she pointed to a bright orange crack in the black sky. The crack was the exact same color as the moon. The sunrise was taking a real long time to come up that morning. I tried not to get antsy, and hoped mama wouldn't wake up before we snuck back in.