Free Point Hope by Kristen James

dreading the thought of being alone with Angel. The feeling startled her.
    Summer had picked up a novel from the end table. Either she was reading or pretending to. Rosette was a bit surprised that Leena was still sitting there, though.
    “Oh, I’d better get home too.” Leena still seemed to hesitate as she stood and started toward the side French doors.
    “Thanks for coming over,” Rosette called. “We should get together more.” The words came out before she thought it through. They could easily invite Leena on their walk, but she didn’t really want to.
    No one followed up on her comment as they said goodbye. Rosette called “thanks” to Trey as she followed Angel out the door, into the breeze, pulling on her jacket as she went. It would be nice to get out of the house after several days of sitting with a baby and constantly visiting with friends and family.
    Rosette fell into step beside Angel, and they walked through the backyard to the stairs. They paused for a minute, looking at the view. The ocean roared as always, endless waves washing in, hypnotizing in their endless rhythm. Huge globs of clouds zipped across the blue sky like they were racing. The wind played over them, a feeling Rosette had always loved. It made it her alive. Today it reminded her she was still alive.
    Even her friend closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation. Angel was a mix of Mexican, Hawaiian, and a few other ethnic groups, which gave her gorgeous, shiny black hair and warm brown skin. She didn’t flaunt her beauty. Actually, she didn’t seem to notice it. She usually had her hair braided or pulled back into a mix of clips and a ponytail, and she hardly wore any makeup. Maybe she didn’t wear any—just had naturally full and black eyelashes.
    As they started down, Angel slipped her arm through Rosette’s. “This is all so crazy.”
    Rosette burst out laughing. Yup, she’d cracked. “Oh, I had no idea how badly I needed this!”
    “I thought you were going to argue with me back there. You didn’t look like you wanted to come.”
    “I didn’t want to think about things. Any more than I already am, I guess.”
    Descending the stairs made them breathless, so they were quiet until they reached the beach.
    “So,” Angel said, flicking a meaningful look over Rosette’s face. “Is it just the stuff I know about that’s going on?”
    Rosette tried for a blank face as she looked at her friend. She almost said, “Isn’t it enough?” But she didn’t speak. She met Angel’s eyes for a second and then had to look away. Where to begin? Should she share any of this?
    They started down toward the ocean, and Angel patiently waited. A recent rain had left an intricate pattern in the sand. Rosette studied that as they walked, until they cleared the brush and could see the ocean.
    “Start with the smallest.” Angel pushed her hands into her jacket pockets and watched Rosette for a minute.
    “There aren’t any small things.” She turned and walked a ways from the path and sat down on a washed-up log. Most often, they walked down to the water and continued along the beach. But that was too much right now. “Okay… I don’t know much about what happened that night, but I wonder if Amanda…”
    “Tried to get in an accident?”
    That was a prettier way of saying it. She looked down and felt her eyes tearing up. Angel put her arm across Rosette’s shoulders.
    “There isn’t any way to know or even guess, is there?” Angel asked.
    Rosette shrugged under Angel’s arm. “But did I miss something? Should I have stayed with her?”
    Angel knew better than to answer. They watched the waves crash in and a seagull playing in the wind. It hovered like a kite, tilting this way and that without moving forward.
    She was moving forward in life, wasn’t she? Her kids were relatively happy, outside of the recent tragedy. Did anything else matter?
    “I’m worried about you. I mean, after all of this, you weren’t expecting to have