“Come look at this, Hazel. It’s a sea monster,” Raymundo taunts. Hazel sticks out her chin.
“I know that’s not a sea monster. That’s a mamenomy,” she stumbles over the word. It waves its fingers at her, and in return she pokes its stomach to make it flinch away from her.
“Gotcha!” she grins. Ray grumbles and looks for something else to torment his sister with.
“Your cousins are pretty cute,“ Ezrah comments. Rosmond nods slowly and silently, but she does not speak. Ezrah surveys the boardwalk for an interesting conversation topic, but the small town of Brightview is a sleepy little thing, and he quickly grows restless.
“Why don’t we go play with them?” he asks, knowing Rosmond will not ignore a direct question.
“I shouldn’t get involved,” she says. Hazel and Ray move down the beach and Rosmond gets up to follow. Ezrah notices that she does not mention him in her response. She does not say that Ezrah should not leave her to play with her cousins, but he knows better than to leave her alone on the beach.
Nihilistic Porcupine 