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one to turn the key in the ignition. That had been George. The car exploded while it stood in the driveway of their home, and their parents were killed instantly while Collin had been safe in their home.
    Over the next year, Collin took up drinking, not wanting to do much of anything. His guilt over knowing that he should have been the one that was killed, not his parents, took over his soul.
    As his penance, Collin was given a huge responsibility: taking care of Joey. Although Joey was a year out of high school, he still needed looking after, and Collin wasn’t doing a very good job at it.
     
    *  *  *
     
    Morgan
     
    It had been nearly a year since George and Betty died. Yet Morgan continued to visit Collin and Joey every day. On her days off work she did some shopping for them and helped Joey clean the house. Every evening Morgan either cooked dinner or ordered take-out. Then she and Joey ate on the back patio. Sometimes they talked for hours.
    “ I still can’t believe they’re gone,” Joey said one night. “That it’s been almost an entire year. It feels like another lifetime.”
    They were eating pizza and listening to the shushing of the ocean. It was comforting to know that at least that one thing would never change.
    “ Me, either,” Morgan said.
    “ Is Collin going to eat tonight?”
    Morgan shook her head and stared out over the ocean. “No. He said he wasn’t hungry,” she replied vaguely. That wasn’t a surprise. Collin rarely ate anymore. He had lost so much weight during the past year that his clothes hung loose and looked oversized.
    “ What’s on your mind, Morgan?” Joey asked gently.
    She looked at him for moment, hesitating as if she weren’t sure how much to share. She wasn’t used to burdening him because she’d known him as a kid before. But now he was a man. He’d been forced to become one all on his own. He tried to encourage her with a nod.
    “ It’s just that … ” she said, then hesitated before going on. When she did, her words came slowly and her eyes drifted towards Collin’s boat. “It’s hard to talk to him now.”
    “ Yeah, I know,” Joey said, trying to inject a little humor into the mood. “He hardly talks to me, but then again I love to aggravate him. I’m pretty loud in the mornings, and I do it on purpose. If he’s still on his boat when I’m ready to leave, I do my best to wake him up, banging and yelling until he can’t help but hear me. It usually pisses him off enough to at least yell a few choice words at me. I know it’s not much, but at least he’s saying something. It’s better than nothing, I suppose.”
    “ I’ve tried talking to him, Joey,” Morgan said, bringing her attention back to the table. “I understand he doesn’t want to talk about what happened. If I bring it up, he only gets angry. Yesterday he told me to mind my own business and ignored me until I left, and I hadn’t even asked him about that in particular. I mean, he doesn’t even want to hear about my day or the news or our friends, or talk about anything.”
    “ I’m sorry Morgan,” Joey said. “He’s the same with me.”
    Morgan gazed back at Collin’s boat. “I miss our talks. We used to be so close. We’d talk all the time, about anything and everything, sometimes staying up all night just talking. We had big plans. The happy Collin I once knew no longer exists, and I really miss him. I want to hold him, reassure him, but he hasn’t touched me since the accident. No kisses, no hugs, no nothing. We would’ve been married by now, you know? I bet you didn’t know we were saving to buy a house.”
    Joey didn’t say anything. He felt sorry for Morgan because she was obviously trying so hard. And for what?
    “ Deep down I know it’s not going to happen anymore. That part of my life will never happen,” Morgan said, then quickly wiped a stray tear from her cheek. “It breaks my heart to see Collin like this. I keep hoping that he’ll snap out of it, but