Read Online What Washes Up by Dawn Lee McKenna - Free Book Online

comforting scents of gardenia, cotton and coconut oil, then Georgia pulled out a chair.
    “Sit down honey, and I’ll get you some coffee,” Georgia said. “Are you hungry?”
    “No, thanks, Mom.” Maggie sat down heavily in the yellow-flowered chair that she’d occupied for nearly every meal of her youth.
    “We heard what happened on the radio,” Gray said. “What’s going on down there?”
    Maggie sighed. “We found a little boy. Alive. He’s the only one.”
    “Oh, bless his heart,” Georgia said, setting Maggie’s cup down in front of her.
    “Yeah. I wanted to ask Kyle if it was okay for me to take him some of his old clothes, maybe a toy or something.”
    “He’s just in the bathroom,” Georgia said. “What’s going to happen to the boy?”
    Maggie shrugged and shook her head. “I have no idea. Homeland Security is in charge of everything. I would imagine they’ll get him home, sooner or later.”
    “What about his family?” Gray asked. “Were they out there, too?”
    “He lost his parents and his little sister.”
    They sat in silence for a moment, while Maggie stirred milk and sugar into her coffee.
    “Hey, Mom.”
    Maggie looked up and smiled as Kyle walked in. He was ten years old, but looked much younger. He had David’s slight build, glossy black hair, and long, thick lashes. When she looked at him these days, her heart couldn’t decide whether to wither or bloom.
    “Hey, baby,” she said, as he gave her neck a quick hug. “I hear you and Granddad are going fishing.”
    “Yeah, we’re gonna catch something for lunch,” Kyle said, as he grabbed some toast and bacon from a plate on the counter. “Granddad says I have to do one thing outside before I can play Minecraft.”
    “We figured you’d been up all night, Maggie,” Georgia said. “So we thought we’d just keep them here for the day, let you get some rest.”
    Maggie nodded and watched Kyle, her safe, privileged child, sit down at the other end of the table.
    “That’s really sad about those people,” he said. “Did they have an accident?”
    “We don’t know yet,” Maggie answered. “There was a little boy who survived. He’s a little younger than you. He doesn’t have anything, nothing at all. Do you mind if I give him some things of yours, maybe some things you don’t want anymore?”
    Kyle thought a moment, staring into the air. “You think he likes Marvel comics?”
    “I don’t know. He can’t read English.”
    Kyle shrugged. “He can look at the pictures. Take him some.”
    “Okay. I’m going to take him some of your old clothes that I keep meaning to take to the church,” she said.
    Kyle munched on a piece of bacon. “You should take him some Transformers. Take him Bumblebee, he’s everybody’s favorite.”
    “I thought you were keeping them as a collection,” Maggie said.
    Kyle shrugged. “They’re just sitting there. Take him Starscream, too, so he has a bad guy.”
    “Which one is Starscream?”
    “Geez, Mom,” Kyle said. He softened his eye roll with a grin. “Just take him some big silver guys.”
    Maggie tried to smile back, but she felt like someone had scraped her soul with sandpaper. She took a drink of her coffee and tried not to look as bad as she felt.
    Kyle wrapped his bacon up in his toast and stood. “Ready, Granddad?”
    “Keep your shirt on, I’m coming,” Gray answered as he stood and stretched. He kissed the top of Maggie’s head. “Go get some sleep, Sunshine.”
    “I will, Daddy.”
    Gray and Kyle went out the sliding door onto the back deck, and Maggie watched them grab poles, the tackle box, and a bucket, and head through the back yard to the bay.
    “Honey, you want to just stay here and lie down in the guest room?” Georgia asked, frowning.
    Maggie looked at her mother and sighed. “I can’t. I need to take care of Coco and the chickens. And take this little boy some stuff.”
    “Do you promise you’ll go home and go to bed afterwards?”
    “Yeah,