and Alex led her to the bathroom to help her change into dry clothes. Katie stayed with Josh on the blanket, admiring the way the sunlight rippled on the water while Josh scooped sand into little piles.
“Hey, do you want to help me fly my kite?” Josh suddenly asked.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever flown a kite before…”
“It’s easy,” he insisted, digging around in the pile of toys Alex had brought and pulling out a small kite. “I can show you how. C’mon.”
He took off running down the beach, and Katie jogged a few steps before settling back into a brisk walk. By the time she reached him, he was already beginning to unwind the string and he handed her the kite. “Just hold this above your head, okay?”
She nodded as Josh started to back up slowly, continuing to loosen the string with practiced ease.
“Are you ready?” he shouted as he finally came to a stop. “When I take off running and yell, just let go!”
“I’m ready!” she shouted back.
Josh started running, and when Katie felt the tension in the kite and heard him shout, she released it immediately. She wasn’t sure the breeze was strong enough, but the kite shot straight to the sky within seconds. Josh stopped and turned around. As she walked toward him, he let out even more line.
Reaching his side, she shielded her eyes from the sun as she watched the slowly rising kite. Black and yellow, the distinctive Batman logo was visible even from a distance.
“I’m pretty good at flying kites,” he said, staring up at it. “How come you’ve never flown one?”
“I don’t know. It just wasn’t something I did as a kid.”
“You should have. It’s fun.”
Josh continued to stare upward, his face a mask of concentration. For the first time, Katie noticed how much Josh and Kristen looked alike.
“How do you like school? You’re in kindergarten, right?”
“It’s okay. I like recess best. We have races and stuff.”
Of course, she thought. Since they had arrived at the beach, he’d barely stopped moving. “Is your teacher nice?”
“She’s really nice. She’s kind of like my dad. She doesn’t yell or anything.”
“Your dad doesn’t yell?”
“No,” he said with great conviction.
“What does he do when he gets mad?”
“He doesn’t get mad.”
Katie studied Josh, wondering if he was serious before realizing that he was.
“Do you have a lot of friends?” he asked.
“Not too many. Why?”
“Because my dad says that you’re his friend. That’s why he brought you to the beach.”
“When did he say that?”
“When we were in the waves.”
“What else did he say?”
“He asked us if it bothered us that you came.”
“Does it?”
“Why should it?” He shrugged. “Everybody needs friends, and the beach is fun.”
No argument there. “You’re right,” she said.
“My mom used to come with us out here, you know.”
“She did?”
“Yeah, but she died.”
“I know. And I’m sorry. That must be hard. You must miss her very much.”
He nodded and for an instant, he looked both older and younger than his age. “My dad gets sad sometimes. He doesn’t think I know, but I can tell.”
“I’d be sad, too.”
He was quiet as he thought about her answer. “Thanks for helping me with my kite,” he said.
“You two seemed to be having a good time,” Alex observed.
After Kristen had changed, Alex helped her get her kite in the air and then went to stand with Katie on the compact sand near the water’s edge. Katie could feel her hair moving slightly in the breeze.
“He’s sweet. And more talkative than I thought he’d be.”
As Alex watched his kids managing their kites, she had the sense that his eyes missed nothing.
“So this is what you do on weekends after you leave the store. You spend time with the kids?”
“Always,” he said. “I think it’s important.”
“Even though it sounds like your parents felt differently?”
He hesitated. “That would be the easy answer, right? I felt slighted somehow and made a promise to myself to be different? It sounds good, but I don’t know if it’s totally accurate. The truth is that I spend time with them because I enjoy it. I enjoy them. I like watching them grow up and I want to be part of that.”
As he answered, Katie found herself remembering her own childhood, trying and failing to imagine either of her parents echoing Alex’s sentiments.
“Why did you join the army after you got out of school?”
“At the time, I thought it was the right thing to do. I was up for a new challenge, I wanted to try something