Anne Marie

“Anne Marie, will you help me row?”

I woke to the sound of my father’s voice, who looked extremely tired. I growled at my real name, but then immediately regretted it. We had been out rowing on the Pacific Ocean for a few days now. I did not know what time it was, or what day of the week it was, like I did before. Melvin always let me sleep when I needed/wanted to. This was a lot, so he didn’t really get that much sleep, for we had to keep moving. And at night, when he thought I was asleep, but I really wasn’t, he sometimes cried, I now realize that it was for my mother, knowing that she would not survive the disease, even if he told me that she would survive, and that she was probably getting better each day, while he actually knew that she was getting worse and worse each day. I guess he was just trying to keep me from worrying, and when he tried to comfort me at night sometimes, I squirmed away, but I now realize that he didn’t want to lose me like he lost my mother. I, being so young, did not realize this, so I just kept it up.

Anyways, seeing that he was very tired, told that I would help him row, and that he could sleep, he really needed it.