"Is that all? I signed the permission slip already; it's on the desk in the family room. Tell her -- oh. Well, give her a kiss from me in the morning, th--"

Why Francine looked up at that point and not sooner or later, she couldn't say, but she couldn't say much of anything now, looking at the dark and empty beach. There was nobody there at all, and Francine found herself wondering if there ever had been.

"Honey?"

She leaned back against the guiderail behind her, throat too tight to answer, still.

"Francine, dear, is everything okay?"

Eyes closed against the sight of the empty shore and voice so strained that it cracked halfway through the first word, she finally answered, "Oh, Momma. It's not. It's so not."