Page 50 of The Vanishing Place

Dinah jumped up and down in the sea, waving her arms.

“Come on, Adam.”

Big sister splashed in the little waves, her clothes getting wet. Dad would be mad. Cameron was there too. Dinah’s best friend.

“Come on, mate,” Cameron shouted.

Adam giggled and ran down the beach. “You have to find me,” he squealed.

His legs zoomed beneath him, flying him away as Dinah and Cameron turned into tiny dots.

Adam hurried behind a grassy sand dune, where Dinah and Cameron would never look.

Then he scrunched his eyes shut, waiting and invisible, as a hundred million hours passed.

Eventually, he poked his head up to take a quick peek and spotted Cameron.

Cameron was a teenager. Fourteen. Even bigger than Dinah.

“We’re coming,” Cameron yelled.

An excited squeal slipped from Adam’s lips, and he pushed it back with his hand.

“Come out,” sang Dinah. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

Adam closed his eyes, doing his best hiding ever, and flattened himself against the sand.

One, two, three… He squeezed his fists tight… eight, nine, ten, twelve …

Adam popped his head up, getting bored. Dinah was running across the sand with her arms out like an airplane.

“Dinah!” Adam crawled over the grass, his knees and hands sinking into the sand. “Dinah, wait for me.”

Big sister stopped in the water, the bottom of her skirt dark and wet, then she scooped up a handful of sea and splashed it toward the beach.

“Come get me!”

Then, from nowhere, two hands picked him up, and fingers tickled his tummy.

“Stop!” Adam giggled. “Stop it.”

He squirmed and laughed and snorted until Cameron put him down.

“Come on,” he said, taking Adam’s hand. “Let’s get her.”

Then they ran at the water. But Cameron was too fast, his legs were too long, and Adam tripped and stumbled to the ground, his mouth filling with sand.

“Shit.” Cameron knelt next to him. “Sorry, buddy.”

He dusted the sand from Adam’s face, then ruffled his hair.

“What are you silly boys up to?”

Dinah collapsed onto the sand next to them, lying with her arms out like a Christmas angel, and Adam snuggled into her. Dinah wrapped her arms around him and kissed his head—not like at home.

“Can we go swimming?”

“I think we need to get back,” she said. “Dad will want lunch soon.”

“Can we go tomorrow?”

“Maybe. We’ll see how Dad is doing.”

“He’ll just be reading his silly book.”

“We’ll see.” Dinah squeezed his hand a bit hard. “Okay?”

“Okay.”