White-nosed and Ray-Banned, the summertime soldiers stalk across the beach, resplendent in their neon orange swim trunks and gleaming neck whistles. They eye each other, keeping track, keeping score. One of them is kind, but not so kind that he can be bullied. From him, I’ll learn to stay adrift.

Carolyn R. Russell is the author of “In the Fullness of Time,” a dystopian thriller published by Vine Leaves Press in 2020. Her humorous YA mystery, “Same As It Never Was,” was released in 2018 by Big Table. “The Films of Joel and Ethan Coen,” her volume of film criticism, was published by McFarland & Company in 2001. Her poetry, essays and short stories have been featured or are forthcoming in numerous publications, including The Boston Globe, 3rd Wednesday, Litro Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine, Club Plum Literary Journal, The Ekphrastic Review, Orca: a Literary Journal, and Dime Show Review. Carolyn lives on and writes from Boston’s North Shore.