"She can't swim?"
"No. Even if she could, the undertow can sometimes pull the strongest swimmer out to drown."
I kept us a good distance from the water.
"I understand why you are so protective of her, Cary, and it's a good thing, a loving thing, but you've got to let her breathe."
He stared at me. The wind made the strands of his hair dance around his face. I felt the sea spray on my own. Above us, the terns circled and cried.
"I know why the family had nothing to do with your father and why he and your mother ran off," he confessed.
"You do?"
"Yes." He knelt down and plucked a shell out of the sand and handed it to May. "It wasn't something anyone told me," he continued. "I learned about it all in bits and pieces over the years just being nearby when they would discuss it.
"When my father realized what I had learned and knew, he pulled me aside one day and forbade me to ever mention anything, especially in my
grandparents' presence."
"Tell me." I asked softly.
"Your mother should have been the one to tell you, or your father, but I'm sure they were too ashamed and afraid," he added.
My heart seemed to stop and then start, and accompanying that came a thumping that made my blood rush to my head.
"Ashamed of what? What had they done?"
"Married," he said.
"So? Are your parents and our grandparents so conceited, so arrogant, that they can look down on someone who wasn't from what they call the best families? Someone who was an orphan? Just who do they think they--"
"Your mother was an orphan, yes. But she never told you the truth about who her adopted parents were."
I held my breath.
"What do you mean? Who were they?"
"Grandma and Grandpa," he said. "Your mother and your father grew up like brother and sister, and when they found out she had become pregnant with you, it was even more of a disgrace."
I shook my head and nearly laughed aloud.
"That's stupid. That's some ridiculous lie your father told you to cover up for the disgraceful and disgusting way they treated my daddy."
"It's the truth," he insisted.
"No!" I put my hands over my ears. "I won't listen to another horrible word."
May stared at me, her face in a grimace. She started to sign quickly, asking what was wrong. I shook my head at her.
"I thought you should know so you would understand why everyone has these feelings about your mother and father. Maybe you won't blame Grandma and Grandpa and my father and mother so much."
"I blame them more!" I screamed at him. "More for lying."
"They're not lying," he said softly. "I'm surprised those gossipmongers in school haven't said anything to you. It's an old story, so maybe they don't know, or maybe they just don't realize who you are."
I shook my head and backed away from him. "You're just getting back at me for what I said about May. You're cruel. I hate you," I said. "I hate you!"
I ran down the beach, tears streaming down my cheeks. I ranas hard and as fast as I could, my feet slipping and sliding in the sand. I even splashed through some water without caring, and then I fell forward on the sand, exhausted, my chest feeling as if it would explode. I took deep, hard breaths.