Sunday At The Beach

My brother is named Lil Daniel because Pappa is Daniel, sometimes he hates it when Sissy and I call him Lil Daniel in front of some girl he is trying so hard to impress. My brother is sixteen, but to hear him tell it he is seventeen, although he won't have a birthday until May. On Sunday all of us walked down to the beach, it wasn't far from the windmill. It was like all of our worries and concerns vanished for a couple of hours. The people in the tent next to us joined us at the beach. On arrival back to our temporary home Mamma was getting our dinner together, dinner was mostly bread, Mamma could make anything taste good. Pappa and Uncle Jack and the men from the next tent talked of the current events .The Mayor was very strict about what would happen to looters, anyone caught taking advantage of this horrible situation would be dealt with in an unkindly manner. Then Mamma called me,"Annabel, you and Sissy need to get ready for bed". I hugged Pappa and gave him a kiss and said my goodnights to everyone and dissappeared into the tent. It was to be a rest less night for all of us. My brother hadn't slept since Wednesday he'd been fighting the Great Fire shoulder to shoulder with the other men. Now he was back with his family and the dreams began to haunt him, he kept us all awake, while he put out more fires in his sleep. Sissy had had enough and she went to pop him in his sleep but she missed and got Pappa which started a big fuss. Our tent sounded like a pack of wild chauawaas, Lil Daniel sleep right thru it, then just as quickly as it started it ended. Silence.