Thad had packed some sandwiches and macaroni salad for our lunch, along with a few dog treats to keep Captain happy. We ate and talked about our trip. I looked over at the canvas with Thad's pencil sketches drawn on it.

"Hey, is that going to be me?" I asked when I noticed the figure walking on the wet sand, close to the tide line.

"Maybe," he answered.

I looked at him. Not sure if he was teasing me or not.

"To be honest, I'm never quite sure about a painting until I start filling it in." He stopped, then tried explaining in a different way. "Sometimes I think I know exactly what I'm going to paint, then something comes to mind and I change it without warning," he smiled, "I surprise myself."

"Okay," I answered, "I'll be surprised too."

*

Thad decided to 'fold it up' around 3:30. I was glad because I was pretty sure my mom would still be at the cottage. I watched as he cleaned his brushes and wiped off his palette. He had started painting the background, which was mostly pastel colors in light grays and greens.

He set his paints and brushes back into their storage boxes with such speed that I was mesmerized watching him. It was like watching a video in fast forward, he moved so quickly. In no more than five minutes he was ready to go.

"Wow, you really do that fast!" I exclaimed. I glanced back at where he had sat for most of the day and I was surprised to see no trace of us remained. Gone, I said to myself or did I say it out loud? Thad looked down at me with a crooked smile. We followed the path up to the cottage with Captain running back and forth between us.

"Do you think your mom will be home?" he asked.

"That place isn't home!" I spat out. "It's a dump, a moldy, stuffy dump!" I had almost worked myself to tears. I was always so emotional lately.

"Gilly, I know you have a nice home in the Bay Area. You're right, this is just temporary housing," Thad soothed. "We can leave it at that, okay?"

I nodded my head and kept pace with him as we made our way to the cottage.

Suddenly, I got worried. What if my mom wouldn't let me go? I wasn't sure she'd let me go, even if she was invited. Maybe she'd just say no. Then we were at the blue door and the moment of truth was at hand.

*

When I opened the door, the familiar warm, stuffy air that I believed had sat there from our very first day, rushed over us. It ran out the opening trying to escape, but it never could. It was always pulled back in, sitting quietly in each of the rooms, like a bad vibe surrounding my mother and me.

My mom was sitting at the kitchen table with her reading glasses balancing on the end of her nose. She was wearing a black turtleneck sweater and her hair hung loose, touching her shoulders with a slight curl at the ends. A glass with brown liquid sat on the table next to her instead of her usual wine glass. She held a lit cigarette in her hand, the smoke winding itself around her like a protective veil. For some reason, it embarrassed me to have Thad see her smoking and drinking, but even so she looked beautiful.

I had both of my feet planted inside the cottage with Thad following behind me. I suddenly froze and so did he. Leaning against the kitchen counter, holding his own glass of brown liquid, was Tom. I hardly noticed him when he was here with Linda and her mother, but I immediately recognized him now. He was in his late 20's, with dark hair he slicked back with some kind of gel. He wasn't real big, only a few inches taller than my mother. He was thin and his skin was almost as pale as Linda's. He might have been handsome, but he looked mean with red sunken eyes and a constant scowl on his face. I felt my stomach tighten. Linda never said much, but I could tell she was afraid of him. If we had had more time together, she would probably have told me. I knew her mother was protective of her, but every time we said good night and Linda closed the blue door to her cottage, there was fear in her eyes.

"Gilly, you remember Tom, don't you?" my mom asked in a cheery voice that sounded fake.

I nodded and then felt Thad's hands on my shoulders as he moved me forward. He had set his art supplies with Captain outside and turned to close the front door.

"Oh, Mr. Squire!" my mom said sounding surprised.

"This is Tom..." she waited for him to say his last name, but instead, he just tipped his head towards Thad with a definite smirk on his face. He turned towards the counter and poured more brown stuff in his glass from a bottle with a black label that had the name Jack something written on it.

"Tom just stopped by on his way back to Southern California.
I leaned back against Thad and he gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"Mrs. Morris," Thad began, "I was wondering if you and Gilly would like to visit The Sea Lion Caves? I thought you might enjoy getting away from your writing for a while."

Tom snickered and my mother looked uncomfortable. No one spoke and it got even stuffier in there if that was possible.

"Please, mom," I begged, "I really want to see them."

My mother looked at me, then at Thad. "Gilly would love to go. Let me know when and the time she needs to be ready."

I breathed a big sigh of relief. "Are you coming?" I asked.

She shook her head, "I need to get some writing done. I haven't been doing much lately."

"Besides, I'm here," Tom threw in.

My mother smiled uncomfortably and I felt a tightening in my stomach again.

Thad smiled at my mother and said, "Could I show you what I worked on today, Mrs. Morris?"

"Ally, please call me Ally," my mother said in a friendlier voice. "I'll be right back," she said in a firm tone to Tom, who had immediately set his glass down to follow her and Thad outside.

"Sure, no problem," he muttered.

As she moved to follow Thad outside, she grabbed my arm and dragged me with her. She reached back and closed the door almost shut. I waited for Thad to show her his barely started picture, wondering why he thought she would want to see it.

"Is everything all right, Ally?" he asked. My mom seemed to understand, but I didn't.

"Yes. Tom just stopped by to say 'hello'. He rented one of the cottages for a couple of days."

A couple of days! I thought.

"If you're sure you're okay," Thad said sounding concerned.

My mother smiled and took a deep breath, "We're fine, thank you."

My mother suggested that maybe tomorrow would be a good day to take me to The Sea Lion Caves. I was excited to go, but now I even had a more important reason, I wanted to get away from creepy Tom.

I stayed outside after Thad said goodbye to my mom and me. I walked down to the end of the cottages and watched as he and Captain made their way over to the trail and began the climb up. I felt like we were safe with Thad and Captain as our friends. Maybe Linda was right - everything was going to be okay.

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