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can see the ships from here.”
    “They form a convoy way out,” she said, and pointed. “But some of them come from Brooklyn. The destroyers, the carriers, sometimes the tankers. You can see them at night if you watch long enough.”
    “Going to Europe,” Albert said.
    She nodded. “Going to win the war for us, going to blast the Nazis right out of the water.”
    “And your father is going . . .”
    Later, when she thought about it, she couldn’t imagine saying what she had, it was just that she had been thinking of
Portia Faces Life
, and Poppy crossing out there almost in front of her, and Albert saying, “I thought you were such a good swimmer.”
    “I’m going too,” was what she said. “At night. I’m going to row right out, and swim the last bit. I’ll have a rubber bag with dry clothes.” It sounded wonderful, and she could see he was listening. He wasn’t thinking of her as a silly kid, wearing Gertz lipstick, spying around. “I’m going to take a ship to my father, no one will stop to take me back to Brooklyn, there’s a war on, you know . . .” Talking and talking, making up lies as she went along, and Albert, leaning forward . . .
    “You could do that?” he asked.
    “Of course.” She stared at the cutter angling its way west toward Brooklyn until all she could see was a curl of smoke on the horizon. And then, just for a moment, it almost seemed possible. She could see herself reaching the troop ship, climbing aboard, and sailing to Europe to find Poppy.
    “And you can see those ships at night?” He took a breath. “Would you take me out to see them? Would you take me out tonight?”
    She put the empty bottle back in her bag and started to roll up her towel. “All right,” she said, not quite looking him.
    He stood up. “I am going to the house. I will feed my cat. You will come to my porch at eleven?”
    He started across the sand, not waiting for an answer.
    She sat there a minute longer, her heart pounding, thinking that this was truly the worst lie she had ever told.

Chapter 12
    T hey couldn’t watch for ships that night after all. Mr. Colgan had borrowed Gram’s rowboat for night crabbing, and Mr. Orban was caulking the bottom of his.
    “Want to go to the movie instead?” Lily asked Albert when she caught up with him on the Orbans’ porch.
    “Well . . .”
    “We won’t stay for the whole thing,” she told him. “We’ll just sneak in and watch until eight-thirty, a little
Eyes and Ears of the World News
, and . . .” She tried to remember the newest movie at the Cross Bay. She had seen two minutes of it the other day before the matron had caught her and marched her outside, blinking, into the sunshine.
    “How much does it cost?” he asked.
    “Not a cent. I told you, we’re sneaking in.” She could see he looked worried. “Unless you’re afraid.”
    “I am not afraid of anything.”
    “Well, then.”
Action in the North Atlantic
was the name of the movie. It was about the troop ships crossing the ocean, and German submarines following along . . .
    She shivered a little, thinking about those ships. Mrs. Sherman had just pinned up another poster over a pile of raisin rings. SOMEONE TALKED , it said in big red letters on top, and underneath was a ship sinking so you saw only the bow, and sailors trying to swim away in waves that were high as mountains.
    Lily tried not to think about it. Instead, she walked down the street in front of Albert. They turned in at the alley on one side of the Cross Bay Theatre. The alley was filled with itchy weeds that smelled. She could see Albert lifting his skinny legs as high as he could, but she just rushed right through the weeds and around to the back.
    “It’s hot as a poker in the balcony,” she told him. “They always leave the door open up there.”
    Albert stopped when he saw the fire escape stairs they’d have to climb.
    “Don’t be silly,” she said, knowing what he was thinking. “Don’t look