*Kai*

I watch her sleep on the large sofa in the center of my train wagon, the little boy who almost drowned curled against her lap and her chest, where I long to be. She had relinquished claim to the lad only long enough for me to carry him from the sand to the railway station and into the car. Then she settled on the sofa like a queen and signaled for the boy to be handed over. I would have handed over anything she asked.

I was carrying some of the damned ice creams when I heard her cry for help and saw her rushing headlong into the waves,...