Free A Question of Mercy by Elizabeth Cox

going to the ocean. He told strangers that she was his sister, but his mother said, Half-sister. To him, Jess seemed whole .
    So Jess taught him to float, holding him firm until he could do it himself, weightless, like a leaf or stick carried by the current. Maybe he could become that water—scooting fast around bushes and trees .
    After Jess let him brush the big horse, he brushed Jess’s hair. His arms felt light and floaty, like he was in water. Maybe brushing was like swimming—the arms. Adam liked to watch Jess push up a window in the evening, her own white arms rising, then dropping. He liked to hear her hum a tune he had never heard before. Jess smelled like grass .
    But she did not like him the way Adam liked her. Whenever he followed her to town, she yelled, Go back home, Adam—like she was talking to a dog. Sometimes, kids made fun of him, and Jess did too. In those moments Adam felt hurtled through space in the wake of their laughter .
    Soon he would go on a trip to see the ocean. Papa B. said so. In the time before Jess, when Adam lived without a father, he rode with his mother so long on the train to see the Grand Canyon—early, just before sunrise. He stood on the edge of the canyon for a full long moment before a man pulled him away from the edge. It was not his father, but Adam pretended that it was. His father had been gone for only a few months, when they took that trip, and Adam kept looking for him everywhere. So when the man pulled him away from the edge, Adam could smell the man-smell and in that moment he floated inside that canyon’s big air. He could see the time just before dawn, and the day folding down over the stars. Then he saw the man’s face, saw that his father was not there. He saw his mother’s face and knew what was true and what wasn’t. He felt the coldness before daylight .
    Now, Adam drifted inside the shell of this new family, and Papa B. was like a daddy. Papa B. would let him go into the ocean. All the way. Adam believed that if the ocean lived inside his body—maybe he would never be alone .

— 10 —
    A s time grew close for them to leave for Myrtle Beach, Jess realized that she was looking forward to the trip. She might make some friends and get away from the family. Adam had been packed for a week. He filled his suitcase with some washed stones, a plastic cup he used at mealtimes, his toothbrush, his stuffed horse, two Hershey Bars, and the photo he kept beside his bed, standing with his father.
    Clementine added the rest of what he needed and they drove four hours to a beach house with three bedrooms and a small porch where they could eat breakfast. Each morning Adam went fishing with Edward, and in the afternoon they all swam in the ocean. Jess couldn’t get away from them. One night they wandered to the Grand Pavilion, where bands played. Edward and Clementine rode the Ferris wheel with Adam, and Jess hung out near the bandstand looking for other teenagers. Two girls approached with Coca-Cola bottles and asked if she wanted one. Their smiles were welcoming and Betty offered Jess a sip of her own. Jess took one sip and knew it was spiked with alcohol. Jess laughed and pretended that was okay.
    Betty and Marie Coggins were both older, but assumed Jess was their age, and when they asked her what grade she was in, Jess lied. Betty, a senior, was tall, with a face no one could call pretty, but she moved her body in a provocative way. Marie, younger by a year, was a short beauty with a buxom figure. She tried to imitate Betty’s gestures. The sisters attended Mt. Chesnee School for Girls near Asheville. They bragged about the Christmas and Spring Formals at the school, and how great it was to room with other girls.
    â€œMy mother went to Mt. Chesnee,” Jess said. “She talked about it all the time, when she was alive. My daddy promised I could go, but I think he’s forgotten.”
    â€œSo that woman you’re