Fish squeezed my hand back while sporting an exaggerated frown, “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“Really!” I said several octaves higher than I meant, “I’m just glad we can hang out together again. I really missed all of you.”

With that, my eyes became watery with tears, and Fish knew I was thinking about that one horrible day when an accident down at the docks took the lives of so many people including my dad.

Where I was able to keep my tears in my eyes, Fish couldn’t. Our arms stopped swinging as his emotions became too much for him.

“Hey!” Bertha shouted.

I looked back and noticed that they were farther behind than I thought.