Yanni's Whimsical Undersea Adventure

"I wish I could live in the ocean."

"What?" My mom looked up from her novel. "No, Yanni."

"But I do!" I protested. "It's so pretty down there!"

She sighed, closing the book and placing it on the table beside her chair. She turned to me. "Yanni, you've been swimming every day since you were born. You know how dangerous the ocean can be."

I pouted, crossing my arms and kicking my feet against the floor of her porch. "I'll be careful."

"You can't always be careful," she replied softly. "There are monsters down there, Yanni."

"Monsters?" I frowned for a moment. Couldn't she just let me swim? It would only take one day! Then we'd be home again, and if anything happened, we'd all be together! So why couldn't she just let me go?

My father took a long drag on his cigarette, turning to look at my mother with a frown as he slowly exhaled smoke into the air above him. He knew what was coming next; they had this argument almost every day! But he kept quiet this time; he didn't want to see them fight again. It made him so sad to watch them argue... but at least he didn't have to choose sides. He could stay out of it entirely!

My mother stood up from her chair, looking out over the yard and toward the ocean beyond us as she spoke softly to herself. "It's too early," she whispered to herself. "We don't know enough yet... not nearly enough..."

My dad sighed again, shaking his head slowly back and forth as he watched my mother walk down the stairs and across the yard toward the ocean's edge. He opened his mouth to call after her when I spoke up instead:

"Mommy?" I called softly, as though afraid of waking someone in a room nearby by making too much noise.