"I guess it's a lot," I said thoughtfully. The beach was close now, I could smell the salt on the air. "I don't know if I told you much about Sally. I- it's hard to talk about her most of the time."

I paused, trusting Beverly to give me the moment I needed to gather myself for what I wanted to say. Enough time had gone by now that I didn't always feel sad when I thought of Sally, I could instead remember all the fun we had had and what it felt like to have her turn her smile on me, but inevitably I would remember that she was gone now. Ripped violently away from this world.

"When Peter first brought her to the Island, we didn't realize she was a girl," I said. "Peter didn't want girls on the Island, you know what he was like about that. Sally had been dressing as a boy, posing as a boy to survive living on the streets in London and she continued to hide like that even on the Island. That was the first time I realized I could feel like that about a boy or a girl. Because I loved Sal. And I loved Sally. But it was scary at first."

I shrugged. "Richie's had to keep that all bottled up."