Mama's Asleep

"Let go!" shouted Jeramy at Will, "You'll break it!"
"No!" Will yelled back, "You stole it!" Jeramy was 6 and 3/4, while Will was only 5 and 1/2, so logically WILL had stolen it. Yet, the small, ripped bear with an eye missing had been Will's before now. Their small fingers snatched for the stuffed animal. They tumbled in the sand, far up by the trees, not by the ice-cold water. "I'll tell Mama!"
Will's threat made Jeramy stop. He kept a firm grip on the furry leg, but ceased pulling.
"She's asleep."
"I'll wake her."
"Nu-uh!"
"Yu-hu!" Mama was asleep in her tent, she didn't like being woken up.
"Fine, keep the stupid bear." Jeramy turned and started to sulk away into the forest of trees that grew thickly right by the water. No-one liked Mama when she was mad. She loved them, she said, but sometimes they went too far. She was the one who brought them here. To make a new home. Mama gave paddlings, NUCH worse than losing the bear. Jeramy slumped down on a root, tears of frustration came to his eyes. Why did Will have to get everything?
Suddenly, Jeramy heard a shriek, it was Will, back on the shore.
"Stupid," thought Jeramy, "He'll wake Mama and I'll get in trouble." Jeramy ran back through the trees, almost knockng over the big sack of food that Mama had put together right before she went into her tent to sleep. It was almost empty now, even though it used to come up all the way to Jeramy's nose. He heard Will let another cry loose and sped up, weaving through trees and brush until he burst out from the forest onto the open sand. A rock jabbed his foot. "Ow!" cried Jeramy, "See! You made me hurt!" He glared at Will, It didn't matter if Mama woke up now, Will was the bad one. But Will wasn't listening, he was gaping and pointing out at the sea, where a white motorboat was leaping from wave to wave. It headed toward the beach.1

Sheryl was out on her boat. The sun was shining high, the water (despite being freezing) glistened, and the wind whipped her gleaming hair strait back out of her face. Sheryl loved boating, it was in her blood. Her father had been a fisherman, his father a sailor, and his mother (Sheryl's great-grandmother) a pirate bar-wench. Sheryl loved the feel of water beneath her, the constant, slow, delightful rocking. It was almost like a cradle. She couldn't understand how anyone could posibly get seasick. "Oh, what the hell," she thought, glancing longingly at her paper-bagged lunch she had brought and thinking of her long-ago breakfast, "I'll eat it early." She turned sharply to starboard, her eyes fixed intently on the beach. Majestic yet threatening pinetrees rose above the beach, making everything seem smaller. As the boat came nearer, Sheryl squinted. She thought she could make out two small scroungy figures by one of the giant trunks, rapidly growing bigger. Squirrels? Shrubs? Holy crap, they're kids. She slowed the motor as she approched them. The two children (she could now see them for no more than eight years old, even less for the second one) didn't move. They stared at her, blankly. Strange, they should be out here on their own, so far from port. And Sheryl couldn't see any kind of parent nearby...2

The strange lady got ot of her boat, the water coming up to her knees. She winced from the cold bite of the water, but, Jeramy saw, not much. She took a good 5 minutes pulling her small boat in. It was like Mama's except there was a metal thing on the back instead of two wooden thingys on the sides. After she'd finally pulled it all he way up past the waves, she spoke.3

"Hello" Sheryl said, climbing uphill to them through the sand, in her best honeyed voice (not as good as her old 2nd grade teacher, but it would do). "What's your name?" Damn, on closer inspection these kids were shabby. THey peered at her above runny noses and their dirty fingernailes scratched their legs absent-mindedly, showing through their ripped jeans.4

"Why's she here?" Will whispered into Jeramy's ear, "What's she want?"5

They're whispering. Great. Sheryl answered the 5-year-olds unknowingly loud question, "Is your Mommy or Daddy here?" She might have landed on private property, whoops.6

Jeramy shrank back, Mama was sleeping. WOuld she be angry if they woke her up? But this lady might be OK, "Mama's asleep."7

"Oh-well, then..." OK, mom's here.8

"But you can see her," Jeramy eagerly added.9

Er-well..." Seryl didn't want to be rude, she felt kind of awdward already, "That's-" but before she could finish, each child had grasped a grubby hand around her two wrists and were leading her into the pines.10

Finally! Will was going to see Mama! He'd missed Mama, but she's been asleep and had said not to wake her up, so he nor Jeramy had. They led the lady to Mama's tent.11

Sheryl saw the tent, hidden between two trees, set up in the make-shift way (a blanket draped over a tight rope). Suddenly, the children stopped. They were about 12 feet away. "What's wrong?" They looked frightened, yet excited at the same time. Their itiful, wide eyes stared blatently at the tent. "Whatever." Sheryl thought. She went up to it. "Hello?" she said to the material. No response. "Hello? she called a little louder. "Mama she tried even louder, half-heartedly. Looking back at the two small, eager faces she went around the side, ducking in.
A woman lay there. Older. Graying at the temples. Sheryl reached out to tap her, wake her up. The woman's leg was cold. Cold. Panic ssiezed Sheryl, she snatched for the womans wrist, feeling for any sign of a pulse. Nothing. Just cold, like the water.
Mama was asleep.12