The Swallowtail Legacy 1: Wreck at Ada's Reef

The Swallowtail Legacy 1: Wreck at Ada's Reef — page 7
MICHAEL D. BEIL steams south toward a dilapidated wooden dock and above me a single gull cries then swoops down to see if I have anything anything to offer it Pogo our English setter sets beside me body quivering and tail high in the air I reach down and stroke the top of her head but she doesn't take her eyes off the gull for a second My heart leaps when we bump against the pilings at the ferry dock and lines are made fast we have arrived Without a word Pip slips her tiny hand into mine together our hearts pound out a rhythm that I am sure can be heard over the whin ing engine and shouts of dockhands Our stepfather Thomas gathers Pip and me along with his own three boys Blake Nate and Jack with his long arms Everybody ready We should get a family picture This is a big- Let's not I say When I was five and Pip three our dad died when the small plane piloted by his best friend crashed into the Connecticut River a few hundred yards short of the runway at Goodspeed Airport That same summer Thomas's wife was killed by a falling tree branch while she was jogging jogging in Central Park Four and half years later Mom married Thomas They had been friends nothing more they both insisted in college and reconnected at a class reunion So we had kind of a Brady Bunch thing going for a couple of years but then three months ago Mom died and what was left Thomas and his kids and then Pip and me I don't know 2