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“Prudence?”

I catch the ball on another rebound and turn. Quint has joined us, his eyes twinkling to see me in the pen with Luna. “Having a good time?”

“Yes, actually.”

“We figured it out,” says Ezra, draping his elbows casually over the wall. “The key to getting Prudence to loosen up is to be a seal.”

I tense. “She’s a sea lion,” I say a little darkly.

Jude glances at me, then at Ezra. He opens his mouth, and I can sense him getting ready to come to my defense, but, to my surprise, Quint speaks first.

“Don’t be an ass, EZ.”

Ezra looks honestly confused. “Am I being an ass?”

“Sort of. Prudence is cool. Anyway, I came to give you guys an update.”

Ezra looks from Quint to me. I happen to catch his eye as he’s giving me a thoughtful, appraising look. I swallow and let myself out of Luna’s enclosure. “Is it going to be okay?”

Quint knows immediately who I’m talking about. Before he can answer, Luna barks, annoyed that I’m abandoning our game.

“Sorry,” I tell her, tossing her the ball. “I’ll be back later, all right?” I face Quint, bracing myself for whatever news he has to give us. “Well?”

“It’s a he,” he says, “and we think he’s going to be okay.”

My heart lifts, and I know I’m not the only one. We’re all committed to this animal now, and a surge of joy passes through our whole group. Even Ezra hisses excitedly, “Yes.”

Quint’s hands come up, a warning. “Nothing is guaranteed. There’s usually a twenty-four-hour period when we consider them in critical condition. He could take a turn for the worse still. But Opal is optimistic.”

I exhale what might be the first full exhale I’ve released in a long while.

“So,” he continues, looking at me. “We need a name for his paperwork. Have you thought of one?”

“No,” I say with a bit of a relieved laugh. “I’ve been trying not to think about it until I knew for sure.” I bite my cheek. I know this isn’t a big deal. They name so many animals at this place that by the end of the busy season they’ll name them just about anything. Quint said he once called a sea turtle “Pickle” because he’d had a sandwich for lunch that day.

But it’s a big deal to me.

I think about my sea lion and the way he’d looked up at me on the beach. Even though I know he was hurting, he’d peered at me with something almost like trust. And I hear John Lennon’s voice in my head.Why in the world are we here? Surely not to live in pain and fear…

“How about Lennon?” I suggest. “Like, John Lennon?”

Quint considers it. His lips twitch at the corners. “I’ve heard far worse.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

Since Jude and Ari helped me with the festival, it seems only fair that I get up early the next morning to help them open the record store before I have to go prep for the beach cleanup. Jude is not a morning person. He’s been complaining all summer about how getting to the store by 8:00 a.m. so he can check the stock, organize the bins, and clean any fingerprints off the front glass windows might be Dad’s way of punishing him for not keeping up with his guitar lessons years ago.

Dad, however, is chipper as ever as he unlocks the door and lets us in. Dad’s first order of business, just like at home, is to pick a record to play over the sound system. “Any requests?”

Jude yawns and crams the last few bites of a toaster waffle into his mouth.

I consider asking for the Beatles, but I know that makes me sound like a broken record (get it?), so I just shrug and tell Dad to put on whatever he wants. A minute later, Jim Morrison’s sultry voice croons from the speakers.

“All right, my little helper,” says Dad, dancing through the store aisles. “You’re on broom duty. And make sure you get the sidewalk out in front, too. People drag a shocking amount of sand up here from the beach. Jude, want to open up those boxes that came yesterday? Should be some new stock.”

“Want to switch?” I ask. Jude grumbles, shakes his head, and disappears into the back room.

I find the broom and start sweeping. Ari arrives a few minutes later with atray of mochas from Java Jive. She even brought one for Dad, who presses both hands to his heart when she goes to hand it to him.